Battery unit having cell stack, bus bars, cooler, waterproof plate, and heat transfer member

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12015134-B2
Application number	US-202117525506-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 12, 2021
Priority date	Jan 12, 2021
Publication date	Jun 18, 2024
Grant date	Jun 18, 2024

Abstract

A battery unit disclosed herein includes a cell stack, bus bars, a cooler, and a heat transfer member. The cell stack includes a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The cooler includes a cooling surface that faces the second surface of the cell stack to cool the cell stack. The heat transfer member is arranged between the second surface of the cell stack and the cooling surface of the cooler to transfer heat of the cell stack to the cooler. The cooling surface of the cooler has a flat shape. The heat transfer member includes a plurality of bands extending along a stacking direction. The bands are located away from each other. At least one of the bands at least partially overlaps each of electrodes of a plurality of battery cells when viewed in a direction orthogonal to the cooling surface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A battery unit comprising:
a cell stack including a plurality of battery cells stacked along a stacking direction, each of the plurality of battery cells includes a pair of electrodes, the cell stack including a first surface where the pair of electrodes of each of the plurality of battery cells are disposed, and a second surface opposite to the first surface;
a plurality of bus bars each connected to at least one of the pair of electrodes of each of the plurality of battery cells to electrically connect the plurality of battery cells;
a cooler including a cooling surface that faces the second surface of the cell stack to cool the cell stack, the cooler includes a channel where a coolant for cooling the cell stack circulates, the channel extending along the stacking direction while facing the plurality of battery cells; and
a waterproof plate arranged between the second surface of the cell stack and the cooling surface of the cooler to cover the cooling surface;
a heat transfer member arranged between the second surface of the cell stack and the cooling surface of the cooler to transfer heat of the cell stack to the cooler, wherein:
the cooling surface of the cooler has a flat shape;
the heat transfer member includes a plurality of bands extending along the stacking direction while facing the plurality of battery cells;
the plurality of bands are located away from each other in a direction perpendicular to the stacking direction;
at least one of the plurality of bands at least partially overlaps each of the pair of electrodes of each of the plurality of battery cells when viewed in a direction orthogonal to the cooling surface; and
the heat transfer member is located at one of a position between the cell stack and the waterproof plate and a position between the waterproof plate and the cooling surface.

2. The battery unit according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of bands include:
at least one set of band-shaped portions spaced from each other in a width direction by a first distance; and
at least one other set of band-shaped portions spaced from each other in the width direction by a second distance.

3. The battery unit according to claim 1 , wherein the heat transfer member is in a form of gel.

4. The battery unit according to claim 1 , wherein the heat transfer member also functions as an adhesive for fixing the cooling surface to the second surface.

5. The battery unit according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of battery cells is a rectangular cell having a flat rectangular shape in the stacking direction.

6. The battery unit according to claim 1 , further comprising
a second heat transfer member located at another of the position between the cell stack and the waterproof plate and the position between the waterproof plate and the cooling surface, wherein
the second heat transfer member is symmetrical to the heat transfer member across a symmetry plane that is the waterproof plate.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd
• Subaru Corp

Inventors

• Sugiyama Hisashi
• Kubo Wataru
• Aoki Ryota
• Hiyoshi Masatoshi
• Tsuruta Haruka

Classifications

• H01M50/20

  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

• H01M10/625

  Vehicles · CPC title

• H01M2220/20

  Batteries in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane · CPC title

• H01M10/613 Primary

  Cooling or keeping cold · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title