Patent ID: 7879485

Claim:
A housing member for a battery module, which is mounted to at least one side of the battery module such that a flow channel of refrigerant is defined in the battery module having unit cells stacked therein, wherein the housing member includes a rectangular housing member body and first and second electrically connecting members integrally formed on first and second ends, respectively, of the rectangular housing member body, the first and second electrically connecting members configured to electrically connect electrode terminals of the unit cells with each other and/or to electrically connect an external device to the electrode terminals; the battery module is constructed of stacked cartridges, each of which has two or more unit cells mounted therein, one on another, the unit cells are arranged in several rows depending upon a number of the unit cells mounted in each cartridge; the rectangular housing member body has wedge-shaped compartments extending therein that are divided by partitions extending vertically on the housing member body, each wedge-shaped compartment being disposed proximate to a corresponding unit cell group, and the wedge-shaped compartments are inclined in the flow direction of the refrigerant such that the refrigerant moves upward along an inside surface of the compartments and then the refrigerant is introduced between the cartridges.