Protective vehicle battery cage and method of making a battery cage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10276848-B2
Application number	US-201514958993-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2015
Priority date	Nov 27, 2012
Publication date	Apr 30, 2019
Grant date	Apr 30, 2019

Abstract

A cage assembly is provided to protect a battery pack in a vehicle. The cage assembly includes a top sub-assembly and a bottom sub-assembly that are secured together to protect the battery pack. U-shaped frames and base frames are connected together by tubular members. A method of making a cage for a battery pack of a vehicle is provided. The method may include assembling a first plurality of spaced tubes and a plurality of spaced inverted U-shaped frames to from a first sub-assembly. The method may also include assembling a second plurality of spaced tubes and a plurality of spaced frames to form a second sub-assembly. The first sub-assembly and the second sub-assembly may be assembled together to enclose the battery pack.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A battery cage assembly method comprising:
assembling a first plurality of longitudinal and transverse spaced tubes and a plurality of spaced inverted U-shaped frames having a frame height corresponding to a battery height to form a first sub-assembly;
welding each of the first plurality of longitudinal and transverse spaced tubes to one of the plurality of spaced inverted U-shaped frames;
assembling a second plurality of spaced tubes and a plurality of spaced frames to form a second sub-assembly; and
assembling the plurality of spaced frames to the spaced inverted U-shaped frames to enclose a battery pack.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
welding each of the second plurality of spaced tubes to one of the plurality of spaced frames.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising extruding the first plurality of longitudinal and transverse spaced tubes and the second plurality of spaced tubes.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
extruding each of the plurality of spaced inverted U-shaped frames; and
extruding each of the plurality of spaced frames.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
casting each of the plurality of spaced inverted U-shaped frames; and
casting each of the plurality of spaced frames.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising bolting the first sub-assembly to the second sub-assembly.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising inserting and securing a damper between the battery pack and the second sub-assembly.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Sundararajan Srinivasan
• Wu Fubang
• Faruque Mohammed Omar
• Azzouz Michael M
• Van Dyk Sino Johan

Classifications

• B60R16/04 Primary

  Arrangement of batteries · CPC title

• H01M50/262

  with fastening means, e.g. locks · CPC title

• Y02T10/705

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H01M2/1083 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01M2/1077

  Electricity · mapped topic