Assembled battery reusing system, and apparatus for assembled battery reusing system

• US 10,158,150 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2014
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kurimoto, Yasuhide, Tojima, Kazuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Stagg, Miriam
• Assistant Examiner(s): LYNCH, VICTORIA HOM
• Application Number:
  US15/027,372
• Publication Number:
  US 20160248130A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,546 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4207 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/54 Reclaiming serviceable parts of waste accumulators
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2220/20 Batteries in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 30/84 Recycling of batteries or fuel cells

Abstract

An assembled battery reusing system for reusing an assembled battery including a plurality of single cells is provided. The rebuild candidate determining unit (430) determines based on the information about the assembled battery whether a retrieved assembled battery is a rebuild candidate, and the information is acquired by the assembled battery information acquisition unit (i.e. communication unit) (420). The single cell amount determining unit (440) determines an amount of rebuilding-usable single cells included in the rebuild-candidate assembled battery determined by the rebuild candidate determining unit (430). The assembled battery demand information acquisition unit (460) acquires an amount of rebuilding-required single cells required to rebuild a required new assembled battery. The determination unit (470) determines based on the determined amount of rebuilding-usable single cells and the acquired amount of rebuilding-required single cells whether to send the rebuild-candidate assembled battery to a rebuilding process.

Claims

1. An assembled battery reusing system for reusing an assembled battery including a plurality of single cells, the assembled battery reusing system comprising:

a sorting apparatus configured to determine whether to send a retrieved assembled battery to a rebuilding process; and

a controller that is provided in the sorting apparatus, the controller programmed to;

(a) acquire information about the assembled battery;

(b) determine whether a retrieved assembled battery is a rebuild candidate based on the acquired information about the assembled battery;

(c) determine an amount of rebuilding-usable single cells included in the determined rebuild-candidate assembled battery;

(d) acquire an amount of rebuilding-required single cells required to rebuild a required new assembled battery; and

(e) determine after determining the amount of rebuilding-usable single cells and acquiring the amount of rebuilding-required single cells, based on the amount of rebuilding-usable single cells and the amount of rebuilding-required single cells, whether to send the rebuild candidate assembled battery to a rebuilding process.

2. The assembled battery reusing system according to claim 1, wherein

the information about the assembled battery is collectable in advance before the assembled battery is retrieved, and

the rebuilding process includes an inspection process for obtaining information that is not included in the information about the assembled battery.

3. The assembled battery reusing system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit configured to store the amount of rebuilding-usable single cells included in each individual rebuild-candidate assembled battery of a plurality of the rebuild-candidate assembled batteries, wherein

the controller is programmed to determine based on the amount of rebuilding-usable single cells of a corresponding one of the rebuild-candidate assembled batteries and the amount of rebuilding-required single cells whether to send each individual rebuild-candidate assembled battery of a plurality of the rebuild-candidate assembled batteries to the rebuilding process, and the amount of rebuilding-usable single cells of the corresponding one of the rebuild-candidate assembled batteries is stored in the storage unit.

4. The assembled battery reusing system according to claim 3, wherein

the controller is programmed to determine to preferentially send the assembled battery to the rebuilding process in descending order of the amount of rebuilding-usable single cells among the plurality of the rebuild-candidate assembled batteries.

6. The assembled battery reusing system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined criterion includes a time period during which the assembled battery is placed in a temperature overload state or the number of times the assembled battery has experienced a temperature overload is larger than or equal to a predetermined value.

7. The assembled battery reusing system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined criterion includes a travel distance in which a vehicle the assembled battery is installed is longer than or equal to a predetermined value.

5. An apparatus that is used in an assembled battery reusing system for reusing an assembled battery including a plurality of single cells, the apparatus comprising:

a sorting apparatus configured to determine whether to send a retrieved assembled battery to a rebuilding process; and

a controller that is provided in the sorting apparatus, the controller programmed to;

(a) acquire information about the assembled battery;

(b) determine whether a retrieved assembled battery is a rebuild candidate based on the acquired information about the assembled battery;

(c) determine an amount of rebuilding-usable single cells included in the determined rebuild-candidate assembled battery;

(d) acquire an amount of rebuilding-required single cells required to rebuild a required new assembled battery; and

(e) determine after determining the amount of rebuilding-usable single cells and acquiring the amount of rebuilding-required single cells, based on the amount of rebuilding-usable single cells and the amount of rebuilding-required single cells, whether to send the rebuild candidate assembled battery to a rebuilding process.