Electric work vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10038176-B2
Application number	US-201615356771-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 21, 2016
Priority date	Mar 11, 2016
Publication date	Jul 31, 2018
Grant date	Jul 31, 2018

Abstract

An electric work vehicle includes a plurality of battery mounting portions, a plurality of battery packs that can be detachably mounted to the battery mounting portions, a main body contact provided for each one of the battery mounting portions and electrically connected with the battery back mounted to the battery mounting portion, a power feeding circuit to which the main body contact is parallel connected, a battery switch configured to block flow of electric power from the battery pack to the power feeding circuit, a switch operating portion for operating the battery switch, a charged amount estimating portion for estimating a charged power of the battery pack mounted to the battery mounting portion, an electric motor driven by power fed from at least one battery pack via the power feeding circuit, and a driving wheel receiving power transmitted from the electric motor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electric work vehicle comprising:
a plurality of battery mounting portions with each of the battery mounting portions comprising a main body contact such that the electric work vehicle comprises a plurality of main body contacts;
a plurality of battery packs each comprising a battery contact and detachably mounted to the battery mounting portions such that each of the battery contacts is electrically connected to one of the plurality of main body contacts;
a power feeding circuit to which each of the plurality of main body contacts is electrically connected in parallel;
a battery switch associated with each of the plurality of battery packs such that the electrical work vehicle comprises a plurality of battery switches, each of the plurality of battery switches having a first position that blocks flow of electric power from one of the plurality of battery packs to the power feeding circuit;
a switch operating portion for operating the plurality of battery switches;
a charged amount estimating portion for estimating a charged power of each of the plurality of battery packs mounted to each of the plurality of battery mounting portions;
an electric motor driven by power fed from at least one battery pack via the power feeding circuit; and
a driving wheel receiving power transmitted from the electric motor.

2. The electric work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the switch operating portion is configured to be capable of automatic operation for switching a battery pack having a charged capacity below the reference value to a battery pack having a charged capacity higher than the reference value.

3. The electric work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein there is provided a reporting device for reporting a battery pack whose charged capacity is below the reference value, and the switch operating portion is configured to be manually operable.

4. The electric work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of battery switches is incorporated in the power feeding circuit.

5. The electric work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of battery switches is incorporated in the battery pack.

6. The electric work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of battery mounting portions includes a slide mechanism to which the battery pack is to be slidably inserted directly from the outside of the vehicle body.

Assignees

• Kubota Kk

Inventors

• Ito Hirokazu
• Manji Yasuhiro

Classifications

• H01M10/425 Primary

  Structural combination with electronic components, e.g. electronic circuits integrated to the outside of the casing (printed circuits H05K1/00) · CPC title

• B60L2250/00

  Driver interactions · CPC title

• B60Y2400/112

  Batteries · CPC title

• Y10S903/907

  Electricity storage, e.g. battery, capacitor · CPC title

• B60L50/66

  Arrangements of batteries · CPC title