Patent Publication Number: US-2009233162-A1

Title: Battery assembly component

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a battery assembly component, particularly to a battery assembly component, which can flexibly cascades or parallels different numbers of battery cells, whereby battery cells can be conveniently configured and easily assembled to satisfy various applications. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Lithium batteries have been proved to have superior electric performance and have been widely used in portable consumer electronics, such as mobile phones, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), handheld tools, notebook computers, etc. The battery module of assembled lithium battery cells also has been improved in safety to such an extent that it can satisfy general requirements of electric vehicles. Generally, mobile phones, notebook computers, or handheld tools, adopt a simpler power supply module-usually a combination of four or six battery cells. However, electric vehicles, such as electric bikes, electric motorcycles, golf carts, hybrid cars, etc., use various power supply modules of different rated voltages and power outputs. Therefore, a single power supply module is unlikely to satisfy requirements of various electric vehicles. 
     A battery module of assembled lithium battery cells needs assembly brackets or casings, which increases the cost of molds. Besides, the battery module should be able to overcome impact or vibration, which may cause the collision or drop of cells. Further, the battery module should be able to overcome the electrical/thermal insulation of cells. 
     How to economically assemble battery modules with different numbers of lithium battery cells to satisfy various requirements has been an important topic for the manufactures desirous to expand the market of lithium batteries. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One objective of the present invention is to provide a battery assembly component, which can simplify and convenience battery assembly, reduce assembly manpower, and promote assembly efficiency, and which can also decrease the number of molds, lower the fabrication cost and increase the economic benefits. 
     Another objective of the present invention is to provide a battery assembly component, which achieves an unlimited expandability via flexibly assembling identical-structure sleeve sets to accommodate different numbers of battery cells. 
     Further objective of the present invention is to provide a battery assembly component, which prevents battery cells from collision and drop and thermally insulates battery cells, whereby the security and reliability of a battery module is enhanced. 
     To achieve the abovementioned objectives, the present invention proposes a battery assembly component, which comprises a sleeve set having a first sleeve element and a second sleeve element. The two sleeve elements respectively have accommodation spaces accommodating battery cells. The two sleeve elements are joined at a point on neighboring edges of the two sleeve elements. The inner rim of the first sleeve element and the outer rim of the second sleeve element are on the same plane, and the accommodation spaces of the two sleeve elements are parallel. In assembling the battery assembly components, the second sleeve element of one sleeve set is arranged to coincide with the first sleeve element of another sleeve set so that the accommodation space of the second sleeve element of the former sleeve set interconnects with the accommodation space of the first sleeve element of the latter sleeve set. Next, a battery cell is placed into the interconnecting accommodation spaces. Next, other sleeve sets and battery cells are added into the assemblage in the same way until the assemblage has a desired quantity of battery cells. Thereby, the present invention can assemble battery cells securely to obtain different battery modules providing different voltages and power outputs. 
     Below, the embodiments of the present invention are described in detail in cooperation with the drawings to make easily understood the objectives, technical characteristics and accomplishments of the present invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view schematically showing a battery assembly component according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded view schematically showing a packing process according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded view schematically showing an assembling process of battery assembly components according to a first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view schematically showing an assembling process of battery assembly components according to the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view schematically showing an assemblage of battery assembly components according to the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  is an exploded view schematically showing an assembling process of battery assembly components according to a second embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 7  is a perspective view schematically showing an assembling process of battery assembly components according to the second embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 8  is another exploded view schematically showing an assembling process of battery assembly components according to the second embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 9  is another perspective view schematically showing an assembling process of battery assembly components according to the second embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 10  is a perspective view schematically showing an assemblage of battery assembly components according to the second embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 11  is an exploded view schematically showing a packaging process of battery assembly components according to the present invention; 
       and 
         FIG. 12  is a perspective view schematically showing a package of battery assembly components according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Refer to  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  for a battery assembly component according to the present invention, wherein a battery assembly component for a standard cylindrical battery cell, such as a 18650 Li-polymer cell, is used to exemplify the present invention. The battery assembly component  10  of the present invention comprises: a sleeve set  12  having a first sleeve element  14 , a second sleeve element  16  and a third sleeve element  18 , which are made of an insulating material, such as ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), PVC (Polyvinylchloride), ABS+PVC, or nylon. The first sleeve element  14 , second sleeve element  16  and third sleeve element  18  respectively have accommodation spaces  20  used to accommodate cylindrical battery cells. The three sleeve elements are joined at the edges thereof, wherein the outer rim of the second sleeve element  16  and the inner rims of the first sleeve element  14  and third sleeve element  18  are on the same plane, and wherein the accommodation space  20  of the second sleeve element  16  is parallel to the accommodation spaces  20  of the first sleeve element  14  and third sleeve element  18 . The sleeve elements may have a polygonal cross section, whereby the sleeve elements can contact each other closely. The three sleeve elements of the sleeve set  12  can be fabricated into a one-piece part via an injection molding process. The packing of one battery assembly component  10  is realized via inserting a battery cell  11  into the accommodation spaces  20  of the first and third sleeve elements  14  and  18 . 
     Refer to  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4  for a two-dimensional assemblage of the battery assembly components  10  according a first embodiment of the present invention. Firstly, the second sleeve element  16  of one sleeve set  12  is pushed into between the first and second sleeve elements  14  and  18  of another sleeve set  12  to make the surface of the second sleeve element  16  of the former sleeve set  12  contact the surface of the second sleeve element  16  of the latter sleeve set  12 , so that the inner rim of the accommodation space  20  of the second sleeve element  16  of the former sleeve set  12  completely coincides with the inner rims of the accommodation spaces  20  of the first and third sleeve elements of the latter sleeve set  12 . Thus, the accommodation space  20  of the second sleeve element  16  of the former sleeve set  12  completely interconnects the accommodation spaces  20  of the first and third sleeve elements of the latter sleeve set  12 . Next, a battery cell  11  is placed into the interconnecting accommodation spaces  20  of the former and latter sleeve sets  12 . Thus is completed the assemblage of the battery assembly components  10 . The three sleeve elements can enhance the electrical insulation and thermal insulation of battery cells  11 . Refer to  FIG. 5 . Similarly, more sleeve sets  12  may be sequentially assembled together until the assemblage has a given quantity of sleeve sets  12 . 
     Refer to  FIG. 6  for a three-dimensional assemblage of the battery assembly components  10  according a second embodiment of the present invention. The first embodiment is a two-dimensional assemblage of the battery assembly components  10 , but the second embodiment is a three-dimensional assemblage of the battery assembly components  10 . In the second embodiment, the second sleeve element  16  of one sleeve set  12  is faced upward firstly. Similarly to the first embodiment, more sleeve sets  12  are moved horizontally from left to right and sequentially assembled together to form the first row of battery assembly components  10  having a given quantity of sleeve sets  12 . Refer to  FIG. 7 . Next, with the upward-faced second sleeve element  16  of the rightmost sleeve set  12  being the beginning, more sleeve sets  12  are moved horizontally from left to right and sequentially assembled together to form the second row of battery assembly components  10  having the given quantity of sleeve sets  12 , wherein the second sleeve element  16  of the last (leftmost) sleeve set  12  is faced upward, as shown in  FIG. 8 . Refer to  FIG. 9 . Next, with the upward-faced second sleeve element  16  of the leftmost sleeve set  12  being the beginning, more sleeve sets  12  are moved horizontally from right to left and sequentially assembled together to form the third row of battery assembly components  10  having the given quantity of sleeve sets  12 , as shown in  FIG. 10 . The fourth row of battery assembly components  10  can be obtained with the same steps if necessary. Thereby, the battery assembly components  10  of the present invention can flexibly assemble different numbers of battery cells  11  to achieve an unlimited expandability. 
     Refer to  FIG. 11 . After the assemblage of the battery assembly components  10  is completed, metallic conduction plates  21  and  22 , such as nickel plates, are respectively installed on the top face and bottom face of the sleeve sets  12  to contact the positive and negative electrodes of the battery cells  11 . The metallic conduction plates  21  and  22  may be fixed via spot welding. Thereby, the battery cells  11  are connected in series. Thus is completed a package of the battery assembly components  10 , which can implement a power module providing required voltage and power output. 
     Via only a single type of sleeve sets, the present invention can achieve the configuration flexibility and assembly simplification of battery cells, improve the assembly efficiency, reduce the assembly cost, and promote the economic benefits. 
     From the above description, it is proved that the present can really simplify the assembly procedures of batteries, and that the present invention is indeed a superior innovation. Thus, the Inventor files the application for a patent. 
     Herein, it should be particularly pointed out that the preferred embodiments described above are only to exemplify the present invention but not to limit the scope of the present invention, and that any equivalent modification or variation according to the spirit of the present invention is to be also included within the scope of the present invention.