BATTERY TEMPERATURE UNEVENNESS SUPPRESSING POWER SUPPLY

• US 20110104547A1
• Filed: 10/28/2010
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: WAKABAYASHI, Akinobu, NAKAMURA, Shinsuke, SAITO, Masao
• Granted Patent: US 8,507,121 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 429/120
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/613 Cooling or keeping cold
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/617 for achieving uniformity or desired distribution of temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/625 Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/647 Prismatic or flat cells, e.g. pouch cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/6557 arranged between the cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/6563 with forced flow, e.g. by blowers
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/658 by thermal insulation or shielding
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 50/209 adapted for prismatic or rectangular cells H01M50/216 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 50/224 Metals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

A power supply device is provided that includes a battery module 3 and a cooling mechanism. The battery module is composed of a plurality of batteries 20 arranged side by side. The cooling mechanism cools the batteries 20. A thermally-insulating member 70 is arranged on a part of a battery module surface, and thermally insulates heat generated from the batteries 3. This power supply device can reduce the temperature unevenness ΔT.

Claims

1. A power supply device comprising:

a battery module that is composed of a plurality of batteries arranged side by side;

a cooling mechanism that cools said batteries; and

a thermally-insulating member that is arranged on or above a part of a surface of said battery module and thermally insulates heat generated from at least one of said plurality of batteries.

2. The power supply device according to claim 1, wherein said thermally-insulating member is in contact with the at least one of said plurality of batteries.

3. The power supply device according to claim 1 further comprising an accommodation case that accommodates said battery module and has inlet and outlet ports, wherein coolant moved by operation of said cooling mechanism flows through the inlet and outlet ports, wherein the at least one of said plurality of batteries on or above which said thermally-insulating member is arranged is located in proximity to said inlet port.

4. The power supply device according to claim 3 further comprising separators that are arranged between said batteries, and end plates that are arranged on the both ends of said battery module, wherein said separators and said end plates have cooling paths through which the coolant flows from said inlet port, wherein said thermally-insulating member closes some of said cooling paths.

5. The power supply device according to claim 3, wherein said thermally-insulating member extends over two or more batteries as the at least one of said plurality of batteries so that the contact areas between said two or more batteries and said thermally-insulating member decrease or get closer to constant with distance from said inlet port.

6. The power supply device according to claim 4 further comprising coupling members that hold said end plates and said battery module, wherein said end plates and said battery module are interposed between the ends of each of the coupling members, wherein said thermally-insulating member is attached to said end plate.

7. The power supply device according to claim 6, wherein said thermally-insulating member is attached to said end plate by a fit-in structure.

8. The power supply device according to claim 4 further comprising coupling members that hold said end plates and said battery module, wherein said end plates and said battery module are interposed between the ends of each of the coupling members, wherein said thermally-insulating member is attached to said coupling member.

9. The power supply device according to claim 8, wherein said thermally-insulating member is attached to said coupling member by a fit-in structure.

10. The power supply device according to claim 9, wherein the thermally-insulating member includes an L-shaped hook portion that is hooked on the coupling member so that the thermally-insulating member is secured.

11. The power supply device according to claim 4 further comprising coupling members that hold said end plates and said battery module, wherein said end plates and said battery module are interposed between the ends of each of the coupling members, wherein said thermally-insulating member is attached to said end plate and said coupling member.

12. The power supply device according to claim 11, wherein said thermally-insulating member is attached to said end plate and said coupling member by a fit-in structure.

13. The power supply device according to claim 7, wherein said end plate has a receiving portion that securely receives the thermally-insulating member, wherein said thermally-insulating member includes an insertion portion that can be inserted into the receiving portion of the end plate, wherein the insertion portion is fitted into the receiving portion of the end plate so that said thermally-insulating member is secured to the end plate.

14. The power supply device according to claim 13, wherein said receiving portion has a recessed shape, and the side walls of the recessed shape are tapered so that the width of the recessed shape increases with distance from the side surface of the end plate side surface so that the receiving portion composes the fit-in structure.

15. The power supply device according to claim 13, wherein the insertion portions have an integral external shape with the thermally-insulating member.

16. The power supply device according to claim 1, wherein said thermally-insulating member has a cut-out portion that is formed by cutting out a part of the thermally-insulating member, wherein the opening of the cut-out portion is reduced to increase the contact area with a rectangular battery among said plurality of batteries that is likely to be cooled much, and the opening of the cut-out portion is increased to reduce the contact area with a rectangular battery among said plurality of batteries that is likely to be inefficiently cooled.

17. The power supply device according to claim 16, wherein the thermally-insulating member includes a supporting portion that divides the cut-out portion.

18. The power supply device according to claim 17, wherein the supporting portion divides the cut-out portion into a first cut-out portion and a second cut-out portion that are formed on the both sides of the supporting portion, wherein the first cut-out portion has a triangular shape that has a vertex on a boundary between the end plate and a battery adjacent to the end plate.

19. The power supply device according to claim 1, wherein said thermally-insulating member is formed of a resin material.

20. The power supply device according to claim 19, wherein said thermally-insulating member is formed of ABS resin.