US-20260124898-A1 - LOCKING MECHANISM, BATTERY BRACKET, ELECTRIC VEHICLE, AND METHOD FOR LOCKING AND UN-LOCKING BATTERY PACK

US20260124898A1US 20260124898 A1US20260124898 A1US 20260124898A1US-20260124898-A1

Abstract

Disclosed are a locking mechanism, a battery bracket, an electric vehicle, and a method for locking and unlocking a battery pack. The locking mechanism comprises a lock base and a lock tongue; the lock tongue is rotatably mounted on the lock base around a rotary shaft; the lock base is provided with an accommodating cavity; the lock tongue is rotated so that a lock shaft located within the accommodating cavity is in a locked state and an unlocked state. When the lock shaft moves in the accommodating cavity, the lock tongue may be driven to rotate downward, preventing the lock tongue from rotating upward and causing the lock shaft to convert into the unlocked state, and improving the reliability of fixing a battery pack.

Inventors

Jianping Zhang
Chunhua Huang

Assignees

Aulton New Energy Co. Ltd.
SHANGHAI DIANBA NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251231
Priority Date: 20200810

Claims (19)

1 . A locking mechanism comprising a lock base and a lock tongue rotatably mounted on the lock base around a rotary shaft, the lock base being provided with an accommodating cavity for locking and fixing a lock shaft of a battery pack, the lock tongue being rotated so that the lock shaft located within the accommodating cavity is in a locked state and an unlocked state, characterized in that when the lock shaft is in the locked state, a shaft center of the rotary shaft of the lock tongue is higher than a shaft center of the lock shaft.
2 . The locking mechanism according to claim 1 , characterized in that one end of the accommodating cavity is a locking position of the lock shaft, and the other end is a connection position of the rotary shaft of the lock tongue, and the lock tongue comprises a fixed end rotatably connected to the rotary shaft, a contact end extending toward the locking position of the lock shaft and adapted to abut the lock shaft, and a rotation end extending toward the outside of the lock base and adapted to rotate about the rotary shaft under an external force.
3 . The locking mechanism according to claim 2 , characterized in that when the lock shaft is in the locked state, the lock shaft exerts a first acting force on the lock tongue, and the rotary shaft exerts a second acting force on the lock tongue, and the first acting force is opposite to the second acting force.
4 . The locking mechanism according to claim 2 , characterized in that the rotation end abuts downwardly against the top of the lock base when the lock shaft is in the locked state.
5 . The locking mechanism according to claim 2 , characterized in that the lock shaft generates a first acting force on the lock tongue, the first acting force forms a first moment with respect to the rotary shaft, and the lock base generates a third acting force on the rotation end, the third acting force forms a second moment with respect to the rotary shaft, and the first moment is opposite to the second moment.
6 . The locking mechanism according to claim 1 , characterized in that the lock tongue comprises a contact end that abuts against the lock shaft when the lock shaft is in the locked state, and a position on the lock shaft that contacts the contact end includes an outer wall of the lock shaft below the shaft center of the lock shaft.
7 . The locking mechanism according to claim 1 , characterized in that the lock tongue comprises a contact end, and the contact between the contact end and an outer circumferential surface of the lock shaft is a surface contact.
8 . The locking mechanism according to claim 7 , characterized in that the contact end is provided with a tangent angle extending towards the shaft center of the lock shaft, and the tangent angle contacts an outer wall of the lock shaft below the shaft center of the lock shaft when the lock shaft is in the locked state.
9 . The locking mechanism according to claim 2 , characterized in that a shaft center line of the lock shaft and a shaft center line of the rotary shaft are provided to be located on a same reference plane, and an angle exists between a movement direction of the lock shaft in the accommodating cavity and the reference plane.
10 . The locking mechanism according to claim 2 , characterized in that the locking mechanism comprises an elastic member that acts on the lock shaft such that the lock shaft in the locked state is press-fixed to the locked position in the accommodating cavity by the elastic member and the lock tongue.
11 . The locking mechanism according to claim 1 , characterized in that the locking mechanism comprises at least two sets of the lock bases and the lock tongues.
12 . The locking mechanism according to claim 11 , characterized in that the locking mechanism comprises a connecting rod to which a rotation end of each of the lock tongues is connected to achieve simultaneous locking and unlocking of a plurality of the lock tongues.
13 . The locking mechanism according to claim 1 , characterized in that the lock base has an opening for the lock shaft to enter the accommodating cavity, and the opening has a guide portion.
14 . The locking mechanism according to claim 13 , characterized in that the opening is provided downward, and the guide portion constitutes a flared mouth that flares downward.
15 . The locking mechanism according to claim 1 , characterized in that the lock tongue comprises a fixedly connected lock tongue body and a lock tongue extension, the lock tongue extension located outside the lock base, and the lock tongue body can prevent the lock shaft from leaving the accommodating cavity from the opening of the accommodating cavity when the lock tongue is in the locked state; the locking mechanism further comprises a return member provided to the lock base and acting on the lock tongue, and the return member is elastically deformable for rotating the lock tongue in a locking direction to return from the unlocked state to the locked state.
16 . A battery bracket, characterized by comprising the locking mechanism according to claim 1 .
17 . An electric vehicle, characterized by comprising the battery bracket according to claim 16 .
18 . A method for locking a battery pack, characterized in that the method for locking the battery pack uses the locking mechanism according to claim 1 , and the method for locking the battery pack comprises the following steps of: placing the lock shaft of the battery pack in the accommodating cavity; and rotating the lock tongue so that the lock shaft is in the locked state.
19 . A method for unlocking a battery pack, characterized in that the method for unlocking the battery pack uses the locking mechanism according to claim 1 , and the method for unlocking the battery pack comprises the following steps of: rotating the lock tongue so that the lock shaft is in the unlocked state; and removing the lock shaft of the battery pack from the accommodating cavity.

Description

The present application is a Continuation Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/619,232 filed on Mar. 28, 2024, which is a Continuation Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/020,445 filed on Feb. 9, 2023, which is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/CN2021/111418, filed on Aug. 9, 2021, which claims the priority of Chinese patent application 2020107946486 filed on Aug. 10, 2020. The present application cites the above-mentioned Chinese patent application in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a locking mechanism, a battery bracket, an electric vehicle, and a method for locking and unlocking a battery pack. BACKGROUND The existing methods of mounting battery packs for electric vehicles are generally mounting a fixed type battery pack and a replaceable type battery pack, wherein the fixed type battery pack is generally fixed on a vehicle, and the vehicle is directly used as a charging object during charging. In addition, the replaceable battery pack is generally fixed to a bracket of a vehicle by means of a movable mounting, the battery pack can be removed for separate replacement or charging operation, and mounted on the vehicle after the replaced battery pack has been charged. In the prior art, the method for replacing a battery pack comprises manual and automatic methods, etc., no matter which method is used, when a battery is mounted on a bracket of a vehicle, the bracket needs to lock the battery on the bracket, due to the large volume and heavy weight of the battery, a multi-point locking method is usually used to achieve the method. Regarding a locking mechanism, how to quickly and conveniently lock or unlock the battery on the bracket of the vehicle is a core of research by a person skilled in the art. CONTENT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION The technical problem to be solved in the present invention is for overcoming the defect of the weak connection between the battery pack and the battery bracket in the prior art, and providing a locking mechanism, a battery bracket, an electric vehicle, and a method for locking and unlocking a battery pack. The present invention solves the above-mentioned technical problem through the following technical solutions: a locking mechanism comprising a lock base and a lock tongue rotatably mounted on the lock base around a rotary shaft, the lock base being provided with an accommodating cavity for locking and fixing a lock shaft of a battery pack, the lock tongue being rotated so that the lock shaft located within the accommodating cavity is in a locked state and an unlocked state, which is characterized in that when the lock shaft is in the locked state, a shaft center of the rotary shaft of the lock tongue is higher than the shaft center of the lock shaft. In the present case, the lock shaft can be placed in the accommodating cavity, and when the lock shaft is in the locked state, the lock shaft is locked in the accommodating cavity by the lock tongue, so that the battery pack is fixed with the lock base. When the lock tongue rotates upward, the lock shaft is converted into an unlocked state and can be removed from the accommodating cavity, thereby effectively reducing the complication and complexity of the process for mounting and dismounting the battery pack. In addition, in the locked state, even if the electric vehicle is violently shaken during driving to cause the lock shaft to move relative to the lock base, thereby causing the lock shaft to exert an acting force on the lock tongue, since a shaft center of the rotary shaft of the lock tongue is higher than the shaft center of the lock shaft, the acting force will cause a downward rotation tendency of the lock tongue, i.e. a rotation tendency in the locking direction, thereby improving the locking stability of the lock shaft in the lock base, preventing the lock shaft from converting to the unlocked state due to the upward rotation of the lock tongue, and even in a turbulence state, the locking mechanism is not easy to automatically unlock, improving the reliability of battery pack fixing. Preferably, one end of the accommodating cavity is a locking position of the lock shaft, and the other end is a connection position of a rotary shaft of the lock tongue, and the lock tongue comprises a fixed end rotatably connected to the rotary shaft, a contact end extending toward the locking position of the lock shaft and adapted to abut the lock shaft, and a rotation end extending toward the outside of the lock base and adapted to rotate about the rotary shaft under an external force. In this case, the fixed end of the lock tongue is rotatably connected to one end of the accommodating cavity, and the contact end of the lock tongue can then bear the lock shaft against the other end of the accommodating cavity, so that the lock shaft is restrained in the locking position. An external force may be applied to the rotation end to rotate the lock tongue about the rotational shaf