Patent Publication Number: US-2023145017-A1

Title: Battery module

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     Technical Field 
     The technical field relates to a battery module, and more particularly relates to a battery module with the features of uneasily twisted or deformed lugs, good conductive efficiency, and convenient change of battery packs. 
     Description of Related Art 
     Lithium-iron battery with the features of high energy conversion efficiency, long service life and high stability has gradually been widely used in various electronic products. In order to avoid producing abnormal pressure inside the lithium-iron battery during the use of a lightweight lithium-iron battery, most manufacturers use a flexible soft bag for the outer packaging of the lithium-iron battery, and this kind of battery is called a soft pack battery (such as a laminate polymer battery or a polymer battery) which can be connected with other soft pack batteries in series or parallel according to the different power supply requirement so as to form a battery module used for the power supply of an electronic device. 
     In general, when the soft pack battery is connected in series or parallel, a lug of each soft pack battery is connected to an electrode column by welding. However, the lug of each soft pack battery may be twisted or deformed easily when the lug is connected to the electrode column, especially for the lug of the soft pack battery far away from the electrode column. As a result, the impedance at the twisted or deformed position of the lug may increase greatly, so that the temperature at the twisted or deformed position of the lug may increase, and the lug may be broken or cracked by the shear stress, leading to poor conductive efficiency, short service life, and difficult replacement and maintenance of the soft pack battery. 
     In view of the aforementioned drawbacks, the inventor proposes this disclosure based on his expert knowledge and elaborate researches to overcome the drawbacks of the related art. 
     SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     Therefore, it is a primary object of this disclosure to provide a battery module with the features of uneasily twisted or deformed lugs, good conductive efficiency, and convenient replacement or maintenance of a battery pack. 
     In order to achieve the object mentioned above, this disclosure provides a battery module which includes an insulating base, a pair of electrodes and a plurality of battery packs, and each electrode is installed on the insulating base and has a bridge portion and a wire connecting part exposed from the insulating base, and each battery pack has a pair of lugs smoothly extended from the battery pack, and an end of at least a part of the lugs is attached to each bridge portion correspondingly. 
     This disclosure has the following effects: A stud extended perpendicularly from the wire connecting part in a direction away from the bridge portion may facilitate a wire connection for users. With the series electrodes, the positive lug and the negative lug of different battery packs are connected to achieve a series connection of two battery packs. An insulating tape attached on a side of each battery pack and an outer side of the lug may initially fix each battery pack and the lug. A detection column disposed protrusively on a turning section of the series electrode and passing through a base plate is provided for facilitating measurement of the voltage and current to know whether the circuit is normal without removing the power supply module. A shell mounted on the exterior of the battery pack is provided for protecting the battery pack and preventing the battery pack from being deformed or damaged. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The features of the disclosure believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The disclosure itself, however, may be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of the disclosure, which describes a number of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG.  1    is an exploded view of an insulating base and a shell of this disclosure; 
         FIG.  2    is an exploded view of a battery module of this disclosure; 
         FIG.  3    is a perspective view of a battery module of this disclosure; 
         FIG.  4    is a cross-sectional view of a battery module of this disclosure; and 
         FIG.  5    is another cross-sectional view of a battery module of this disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The technical contents of this disclosure will become apparent with the detailed description of embodiments accompanied with the illustration of related drawings as follows. It is intended that the embodiments and drawings disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive. 
     With reference to  FIGS.  1  to  5    for a battery module of this disclosure, the battery module includes an insulating base  10 , a pair of electrodes  20  and a plurality of battery packs  30 . 
     The insulating base  10  is in the shape of a long strip, and may be made of plastics or any other insulating material with desirable properties, and this disclosure is not limited to such arrangement. Specifically, the insulating base  10  includes a base plate  11  and a partition  12  installed on the center of the bottom of the base plate  11 . 
     The pair of electrodes  20  include a positive electrode  21  and a negative electrode  22 , and each electrode  20  may be a copper plate, but this disclosure is not limited to such arrangement, and any metal plate with desirable conductivity may be used instead. Each electrode  20  is erected from the insulating base  10  and has a bridge portion  23  and a wire connecting part  24  exposed from the insulating base  10 . Specifically, each bridge portion  23  is embedded in the insulating base  10 , and each wire connecting part  24  is protruded and exposed from the top of the base plate  11 . In this embodiment, each wire connecting part  24  is bent perpendicularly from the corresponding bridge portion  23 , so that each wire connecting part  24  is horizontally attached on the outer surface of the base plate  11  of the insulating base  10 , but this disclosure is not limited to such arrangement, for example, each wire connecting part  24  and the corresponding bridge portion  23  may be non-bended plates disposed on the same plane and collectively perpendicular to the base plate  11 . In some embodiments, each wire connecting part  24  further has a stud  241  extended perpendicularly in a direction away from each bridge portion  23 , so as to facilitate the wire connection for users. In this embodiment, the bridge portions  23  are disposed on the left and right sides of the partition  12  separately, but this disclosure is not limited to such arrangement, for example, the bridge portions  23  may be disposed inside the partition  12 , or the bridge portions  23  may be disposed on the same side of the partition  12 , and the structure may be adjusted according to design requirements. 
     Each battery pack  30  has a pair of lugs  31  extended smoothly from the top of the battery pack  30 , at least a part of the lugs  31  having an end attached and electrically coupled to each corresponding bridge portion  23 . The pair of lugs  31  of each battery pack  30  include a positive lug  311  and a negative lug  312 , and at least a part of the positive lug  311  is attached to the bridge portion  23  of the positive electrode  21 , and at least a part of the negative lug  312  is attached to the bridge portion  23  of the negative electrode  22 . In this embodiment, each lug  31  and each bridge portion  23  are connected by welding (such as surface mount technology (SMT) or laser welding), but this disclosure is not limited to such arrangement, as long as each lug  31  and each bridge portion  23  are able to be fixed to each other and maintain the electrical connection. Therefore, each lug  31  is smoothly attached and is not being bent easily, so that the lug  31  may maintain a desirable conductive efficiency. Further, the impedance is low to prevent over-heating or generating shear stress that leads to a crack or break, so as to extend the service life of each battery pack  30 , and provide a quick and convenient way for maintenance personnel to remove a weld for replacing, maintaining, or repairing the battery packs  30 . In some embodiments, the battery module of this disclosure may further include a plurality of insulating tapes  40 . Each insulating tape  40  is attached to an edge of each battery pack  30  and the outer side of the lug  31   to initially fix each battery pack  30  and the lug  31  and effectively achieve the insulating effect to avoid other matters from affecting the conductive efficiency of each battery pack  30 . In this embodiment, the insulating tape  40  may be a PI (KAPTON) tape with high temperature resistance and flame retardant rating above UL-V0, but this disclosure is not limited to such arrangement. 
     The way of connecting a different quantity of battery packs  30  into the battery module is elaborated below. 
     If the quantity of battery packs  30  is equal to two, and the two battery packs  30  are connected in parallel, the positive lug  311  of one of the battery packs  30  is attached and connected to the bridge portion  23  of the corresponding positive electrode  21 , and the negative lug  312  is attached to the bridge portion  23  of the negative electrode  22 , and the two bridge portions  23  of the positive electrode  21  and negative electrode  22  are disposed on the same side of the partition  12  or inside the partition  12  to maintain the battery pack  30  in a vertical configuration. The positive lug  311  of the other battery pack  30  is attached to the outer side of the positive lug  311  of the aforementioned battery pack  30  and the negative lug  312  is attached to the outer side of the negative lug  312  of the aforementioned battery pack  30 . Therefore, each positive lug  311  is electrically coupled to the positive electrode  21  and each negative lug  312  is electrically coupled to the negative electrode  22 , so that the two battery packs  30  are connected in parallel. 
     When the quantity of battery packs  30  is equal to two, and the two battery packs  30  are connected in series, the battery module of this disclosure may further include a series electrode  50 . The series electrode  50  may be a metal plate with desirable conductivity, which is installed to the partition  12  of the insulating base  10 . Specifically, the serially connected electrode  50  is in a thunderlight shape and has two welding sections disposed on the left and right sides of the partition  12  respectively and a turning section  52  buried in the partition  12 . The positive lug  311  of one of the battery packs  30  and the negative lug  312  of the other battery pack  30  are attached to the two welding sections  51  respectively, and the rest of the other negative lugs  312  and the other positive lugs  311  are attached to the bridge portion  23  of the negative electrode  22  and the bridge portion  23  of the positive electrode  21 , so that the two battery packs  30  are connected in series by the series electrode  50 . In this embodiment, the series electrode  50  is a plate made of a composite material, which is produced by mixing zinc, copper, silver, lead, or tin, or other metals, and the proportion of the metals may be adjusted according to the current threshold value of different requirements, and thus this disclosure does not limit to any particular proportion. If the current exceeds a specific threshold value, a fusion mechanism may be produced to avoid any overcurrent that affects other battery packs  30  and the whole circuit, and disconnect the serially connected battery packs  30 , so as to prevent other battery packs  30  from the chain reaction of being damaged. 
     When the quantity of battery packs  30  is equal to four, each two battery packs  30  are paired into one group and connected in parallel, and the two groups are connected in series, which is similar to the series connection of two battery packs  30 . The difference is that the additional two battery packs  30  are disposed on left and right sides respectively, and the positive lug  311  and negative lug  312  of the additional two battery packs  30  are attached to the outer sides of the positive lugs  311  and negative lug  312  of the adjacent battery pack  30  respectively. Therefore, the additional two battery packs  30  may be connected in parallel with the two original serially connected battery packs  30 , so as to achieve the series connection effect of the two parallelly connected battery packs  30 . 
     Further, a detection column  521  is disposed protrusively on the turning section  52  of the series electrode  50  and passes through the base plate  11  of the insulating base  10  to facilitate measurement of the voltage and current for users for knowing whether the current between the battery packs  30  is normal without the need of removing the power supply module, but this disclosure does not specifically limit the position of the detection column  521 . In addition, the battery module of this disclosure may further include a shell  60  which is a hollow shell and has an opening  61 . The base plate  11  of the insulating base  10  seals the opening  61 , and the outer surface of the base plate  11  away from the partition  12  is exposed from the shell  60 , so that the battery pack  30  may be accommodated and protected in the shell  60  to avoid the battery pack  30  from being deformed or damaged. In the meantime, each bridge portion  23  may also be accommodated in the shell  60 , and only the wire connecting part  24  is exposed outside for users to connect an electric wire. In some embodiments, the battery module may further include a plurality of bolts A. A locking hole  121  is respectively formed on front and back sides of the partition  12  of the insulating base  10 , and the shell  60  has a through hole  62  corresponding to each locking hole  121 , and each bolt A passes through each corresponding through hole  62  and is locked to each locking hole  121  to fix the shell  60  and the insulating base  10 , and maintenance personnel may remove the battery pack quickly for maintenance or replacement. 
     While this disclosure has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure set forth in the claims.