JP-7856069-B2 - Battery modules and battery packs

Inventors

• 召田 智也
• 藤嶋 正剛
• 大林 叔朗
• 鈴木 康介
• 原 尊
• 盛山 智
• 宮原 謙太

Assignees

• トヨタ自動車株式会社

Dates

Publication Date

20260511

Application Date

20230825

Claims (4)

1. Multiple battery cells are housed in an arrangement inside the casing, A buffer member is disposed between the battery cells and the inner wall of the housing, with the arrangement direction of the battery cells being the thickness direction , and is formed such that the reaction force acting on the battery cells is smaller in the central part than at the peripheral edges. A central thick-walled buffer member is positioned in the central part of the housing in the direction of arrangement of the battery cells, and its thickness is gradually increased from the peripheral edge to the central part. A battery module having
2. The battery module according to claim 1, wherein the buffer member is formed with a thinner thickness in the central part than in the peripheral part.
3. The battery module according to claim 1, wherein the buffer member is formed with a lower density in the central part than in the peripheral parts.
4. A battery pack comprising a plurality of battery modules according to any one of claims 1 to 3 .

Description

This invention relates to a battery module and a battery pack. Patent Document 1 discloses a battery pack in which a heat insulating buffer member is placed between each stacked battery cell. In the battery pack described in Patent Document 1, by placing the heat insulating buffer member between the battery cells, direct friction between the battery cells during product transportation can be suppressed, and thermal insulation can be achieved between the battery cells. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2009-163932 This is a schematic plan view showing the main parts of a vehicle to which the battery pack according to the first embodiment is applied.This is a schematic perspective view of the battery module.This is a plan view of the battery module with the top cover removed.This is a schematic diagram showing a battery cell housed in a battery module, viewed from the thickness direction.This is a schematic perspective view showing the main parts of the battery module in the first embodiment.This is a schematic diagram of the cushioning member in the first embodiment as viewed from the thickness direction.This is a schematic plan view of the battery cell and buffer member in the first embodiment.This figure schematically shows the state in which the battery cell has undergone thermal expansion from the state shown in Figure 7.This is a schematic plan view of the battery cell and buffer member in the second embodiment.This figure schematically shows the state in which the battery cell has undergone thermal expansion from the state shown in Figure 9. <First Embodiment> The battery pack 10 and battery module 11 according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. (Overall configuration of vehicle 100) Figure 1 is a schematic plan view showing the main parts of a vehicle 100 to which the battery pack 10 according to the embodiment is applied. As shown in Figure 1, the vehicle 100 is a battery electric vehicle (BEV) with the battery pack 10 mounted under the floor. In each figure, the arrows UP, FR, and LH indicate the upper side in the vertical direction of the vehicle, the front side in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and the left side in the width direction of the vehicle, respectively. When describing using the directions of front, rear, left, right, up, and down, unless otherwise specified, they refer to the front and rear in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the left and right in the width direction of the vehicle, and the up and down in the vertical direction of the vehicle. In this embodiment, the vehicle 100, as an example, has a DC/DC converter 102, an electric compressor 104, and a PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) heater 106 positioned in front of the battery pack 10. The motor 108, gearbox 110, inverter 112, and charger 114 are positioned behind the battery pack 10. The DC current output from the battery pack 10 is voltage-adjusted by the DC/DC converter 102 before being supplied to the electric compressor 104, PTC heater 106, inverter 112, etc. Power is also supplied to the motor 108 via the inverter 112, causing the rear wheels to rotate and the vehicle 100 to move. A charging port 116 is provided on the right side of the rear of the vehicle 100. By connecting a charging plug from an external charging device (not shown) to the charging port 116, power can be stored in the battery pack 10 via the on-board charger 114. The arrangement and structure of the components constituting the vehicle 100 are not limited to the configuration described above. For example, it may be applied to a hybrid vehicle (HV) or a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) equipped with an engine. Furthermore, although this embodiment uses a rear-wheel-drive vehicle with the motor 108 mounted at the rear, it is not limited to this; it may also be a front-wheel-drive vehicle with the motor 108 mounted at the front, or a pair of motors 108 may be mounted at the front and rear of the vehicle. Moreover, it may be a vehicle equipped with in-wheel motors for each wheel. Here, the battery pack 10 is composed of multiple battery modules 11. In this embodiment, as an example, 10 battery modules 11 are provided. Specifically, five battery modules 11 are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle on the right side of the vehicle 100, and five battery modules 11 are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle on the left side of the vehicle 100. Furthermore, each battery module 11 is electrically connected. Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of the battery module 11. As shown in Figure 2, the battery module 11 is formed in a roughly rectangular parallelepiped shape with the vehicle width direction as its longitudinal direction. The outer shell of the battery module 11 is made of aluminum alloy. For example, the outer shell of the battery module 11 is formed by joining aluminum die-cast parts to both ends of an aluminum alloy extruded material using laser weldin