Battery pack

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9722238-B2
Application number	US-201514805832-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 22, 2015
Priority date	Oct 30, 2014
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

Provided is battery pack, including a plurality of battery cells that and a case covering the plurality of battery cells, wherein at least one drainage hole is formed on a bottom of the lower case, that includes a first region and a second region, the first region being a region from an inner surface to a predetermined depth in a thickness direction of the bottom of the lower case and the second region being a region from where the first region ends to an outer surface from the thickness direction of the bottom of the lower case, wherein the first region includes a first tiling portion formed tilted such that the drainage hole becomes smaller, grooves formed at regular intervals along a circumference of the drainage hole from where the first tilting portion ends to the outer surface of the bottom of the lower case and a foreign substance blocking portion formed on a same plane as the outer surface of the lower case.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A battery pack, comprising:
a plurality of battery cells that are electrically coupled to one another; and
a case covering the plurality of battery cells and including an upper case and a lower case,
wherein at least one drainage hole is formed on a bottom of the lower case,
wherein the drainage hole includes a first region and a second region, the first region being a region from an inner surface to a predetermined depth in a thickness direction of the bottom of the lower case and the second region being a region from where the first region ends to an outer surface from the thickness direction of the bottom of the lower case,
wherein the first region includes a first tilting portion formed tilted such that the drainage hole becomes increasingly smaller, and wherein grooves are formed at regular intervals along a circumference of the drainage hole from where the first tilting portion ends to the outer surface of the bottom of the lower case and a foreign substance blocking portion formed on a same plane as the outer surface of the bottom of the lower case.

2. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the drainage holes provided in the second region are formed of a consistent size.

3. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the foreign substance blocking portion is formed of a same size as the drainage holes provided in the second region.

4. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the foreign substance blocking portion has a thickness that is smaller than a depth of the grooves.

5. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the drainage holes are formed adjacent to corners of the bottom of the lower case.

6. The battery pack as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the bottom of the lower case includes a second tilting portion that is formed tilted increasingly lower towards the drainage holes from a center region between the drainage holes provided in symmetrical positions.

7. The battery pack as claimed in claim 6 , wherein an inner surface of the bottom of the lower case is formed tilted and an outer surface of the bottom of the lower case is formed flat such that a thickness of the bottom of the lower case varies.

8. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the drainage holes are manufactured using a mold.

9. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a receiving portion is formed at one region of the upper case and a projecting portion is formed at the lower case corresponding to the receiving portion such that the receiving portion and the projecting portion are interlocked.

10. A battery pack comprising:
a plurality of battery cells;
a case that receives the plurality of battery cells and has a first wall having an inner and outer side;
wherein at least one drainage hole is formed in the first wall, the drainage hole having a first region and a second region, wherein the first region extends from the inner side into the first wall to the second region and wherein the second region extends from the first region to the outer side of the first wall, wherein the first region defines a first surface that is contoured to induce liquid to flow from the inner side of the first wall to the second region and wherein the second region includes a blocking portion that is positioned within the drainage hole and wherein at least one groove is formed in the first wall so as to extend from the first region of the drainage hole to the outer side of the first wall.

11. The battery pack of claim 10 , wherein the first wall comprises a bottom wall of the case.

12. The battery pack of claim 10 , wherein the drainage hole has a first area at the inner side and a second area, less than the first area at the interface of the first and the second region.

13. The battery pack of claim 12 , wherein the drainage hole comprises a substantially circular hole that has a first diameter at the inner surface and a second diameter, less than the first diameter at the interface between the first and second regions.

14. The battery pack of claim 10 , wherein the blocking portion has a thickness that is less than the depth of the at least one groove.

15. The battery pack of claim 14 , wherein the blocking portion includes an inner and outer surface and wherein the outer surface of the blocking portion is co-planar with the outer side of the first wall.

16. The battery pack of claim 15 , wherein the inner surface of the blocking portion is contoured so that liquid on the inner surface of the blocking portion flows towards the at least one groove.

17. The battery pack of claim 16 , wherein the at least one groove comprises a plurality of grooves and wherein the blocking portion surface has a raised portion and a plurality of lowered portions adjacent the openings to the plurality of grooves.

18. The battery pack of claim 10 , wherein the at least one groove has a horizontal portion that extends in a direction substantially parallel to the inner side of the first wall and a vertical portion that extends in a direction between the inner and outer sides of the first wall.

19. The battery pack of claim 18 , wherein the horizontal portion of the at least one groove is located at the interface between the first and second region and the vertical portion is located adjacent the blocking portion of the drainage hole.

20. The battery pack of claim 10 , wherein the inner side of the first wall is contoured so that liquid flows from the first wall towards the at least one drainage hole.

Assignees

• Samsung Sdi Co Ltd

Inventors

• Cho Su-Sang
• Gu Eun-Gyeong

Classifications

• B60K1/04

  of the electric storage means for propulsion · CPC title

• H01M10/643

  Cylindrical cells · CPC title

• H01M10/623

  Portable devices, e.g. mobile telephones, cameras or pacemakers · CPC title

• H01M50/60 Primary

  Arrangements or processes for filling or topping-up with liquids; Arrangements or processes for draining liquids from casings · CPC title

• H01M50/213

  adapted for cells having curved cross-section, e.g. round or elliptic (H01M50/209, H01M50/216 take precedence) · CPC title