Electrified vehicle battery pack to vehicle body attachment and sealing strategies

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11005137-B2
Application number	US-201916539451-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 13, 2019
Priority date	Aug 13, 2019
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

This disclosure details electrified vehicles that are equipped with one or more attachment and sealing assemblies for securing a battery pack to the vehicle. An exemplary attachment and sealing assembly may establish a mid-span attachment point of the battery pack and may include a pass-through component, a fastener, and a seal. The fastener may be positioned relative to the pass-through component using either a bottom-up or top-down approach. The seal may radially seal between a portion of a battery pack enclosure assembly and the pass-through component.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A battery pack, comprising:
an enclosure assembly;
a battery array housed inside the enclosure assembly;
a battery internal structure adjacent to the battery array; and
an attachment and sealing assembly including:
a pass-through component extending at least partially through the battery internal structure and through an opening formed through a portion of the enclosure assembly;
a fastener received by the pass-through component; and
a seal arranged between the pass-through component and the portion of the enclosure assembly.

2. The battery pack as recited in claim 1 , wherein the attachment and sealing assembly establishes a mid-span attachment point of the battery pack, and further comprising an attachment assembly that establishes a peripheral attachment point of the battery pack.

3. A battery pack, comprising:
an enclosure assembly;
a battery array housed inside the enclosure assembly;
a battery internal structure adjacent to the battery array; and
an attachment and sealing assembly including:
a pass-through component extending at least partially through the battery internal structure and through a portion of the enclosure assembly;
a fastener received by the pass-through component; and
a seal arranged between the pass-through component and the portion of the enclosure assembly,
wherein the pass-through component extends through a bottom surface of a tray of the enclosure assembly, then through the battery internal structure, and then through a cover of the enclosure assembly.

4. The battery pack as recited in claim 3 , wherein a flange of the pass-through component abuts against the bottom surface of the tray and an end of a tube of the pass-through component abuts against an undersurface of the cover.

5. The battery pack as recited in claim 4 , wherein the fastener is received through a hollow passage of the tube such that a head of the fastener abuts against the flange of the pass-through component and a stud of the fastener extends through a vehicle body component.

6. The battery pack as recited in claim 5 , comprising a nut secured to an end of the stud.

7. The battery pack as recited in claim 1 , wherein a thread of the fastener is received by a threaded portion of the pass-through component.

8. The battery pack as recited in claim 7 , wherein a head of the fastener is received against a vehicle body component.

9. The battery pack as recited in claim 1 , wherein the pass-through component includes a tube that extends through a cover of the enclosure assembly and a threaded stanchion that extends into the battery internal structure.

10. The battery pack as recited in claim 9 , wherein a thread of the fastener engages a threaded portion of the tube.

11. The battery pack as recited in claim 1 , wherein the seal includes a passage and an inner diameter wall that circumscribes the passage, wherein at least one lip or wiper protrudes inwardly from the inner diameter wall and radially seals to the pass-through component.

12. An electrified vehicle, comprising:
a vehicle body component;
a battery pack mounted to the vehicle body component; and
an attachment and sealing assembly that establishes a mid-span connection point for connecting the battery pack to the vehicle body component,
wherein the attachment and sealing assembly includes a pass-through component that extends through an opening formed through a portion of an enclosure assembly of the battery pack and at least partially into a battery internal structure of the battery pack.

13. The electrified vehicle as recited in claim 12 , comprising an attachment assembly for establishing a peripheral connection point of the battery pack.

14. The electrified vehicle as recited in claim 12 , wherein the pass-through component is a sleeve that includes a tube and a flange.

15. The electrified vehicle as recited in claim 12 , wherein the pass-through component includes a tube and a threaded stanchion that is attached to the battery internal structure.

16. The electrified vehicle as recited in claim 12 , wherein the vehicle body component is a floor pan or a rail of a vehicle frame.

17. The electrified vehicle as recited in claim 12 , wherein the pass-through component extends through a cover of the battery pack.

18. The electrified vehicle as recited in claim 17 , comprising a seal that radially seals to a tube of the pass-through component.

19. The electrified vehicle as recited in claim 12 , comprising a fastener that extends at least partially through the pass-through component.

20. The electrified vehicle as recited in claim 12 , wherein the battery internal structure is a cross member arranged between a first battery array and a second battery array at a location inside the battery pack.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Dunlap Brock
• Montgomery Kevin A
• Addanki Hari Krishna
• Reibling Michael E
• Tomlinson Sam Jeffrey

Classifications

• H01M50/20 Primary

  Mountings; Secondary casings or frames; Racks, modules or packs; Suspension devices; Shock absorbers; Transport or carrying devices; Holders (structural combination of accumulators with charging apparatus H01M10/46) · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• B60L50/66

  Arrangements of batteries · CPC title

• B60L50/64 Primary

  Constructional details of batteries specially adapted for electric vehicles · CPC title

• B62D25/2036

  the subunits being side panels, sills or pillars (B62D21/157 takes precedence) · CPC title