A solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for electric bicycles

Abstract

The present invention relates to a solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle, comprising a main valve body, a first knob for manually controlling the valve switch on the side of the main valve body, a valve opening and closing transmission device is also provided on the side of the main valve body, the valve opening and closing transmission device comprises a bracket, a guide rail assembly is provided at one end of the bracket, a transmission bar is provided in the guide rail assembly, the upper part of the transmission bar extends out of the guide rail assembly, an elastic telescopic device is provided at the lower part of the guide rail assembly, the elastic telescopic device is arranged below the transmission bar and abuts against the lower end of the transmission bar, and the transmission bar contacts the outer edge of the first knob; when the transmission bar is not subjected to pressure, the valve is automatically in a closed state; when the solid-state hydrogen storage tank is charged with hydrogen or activated by automated equipment, due to the setting of the valve opening and closing transmission device, the automated equipment can achieve the connection of the quick-connect plug and the opening of the valve by a simple downward pressing action; after the connecting head of the automated equipment is lifted, the valve can be conveniently closed.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of new energy, and in particular relates to a solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle. Background Art

[0002] As one of the most promising renewable clean energy sources, hydrogen energy has the advantages of high energy density and zero pollution. However, there are still many problems in transportation, storage, and fuel cell cost control. This is also an important reason restricting its widespread application. In particular, the safety of hydrogen fuel storage is difficult for general miniaturized equipment to bear.

[0003] At present, hydrogen fuel cells have made great progress in the application of medium and large commercial vehicles, but the application in small civilian cars and even electric bicycles is the ultimate goal of hydrogen fuel cell application. The absorption of hydrogen by solid hydrogen storage materials to achieve hydrogen storage is a solution to miniaturize hydrogen storage containers and ensure safety.

[0004] In recent years, small solid-state hydrogen storage tanks containing solid-state hydrogen storage materials have been successfully used on electric bicycles. Currently, a 2L solid-state hydrogen storage tank can successfully drive a national standard electric bicycle for 50 kilometers. Such small solid-state hydrogen storage tanks can be replaced quickly and do not require long waits for charging, which is very attractive to industries such as food delivery.

[0005] The biggest safety hazard of this small solid-state hydrogen storage tank is hydrogen leakage. In addition to the quick-connect plug with self-closing function, its valve should generally be equipped with a knob or button for manually opening and closing the valve to provide an additional safety guarantee against leakage. However, this requires the user to open the valve according to their needs when using it in order to establish a passage and drive the electric bicycle, which causes certain troubles to the user. In addition, when filling or activating hydrogen, this type of solid-state hydrogen storage tank with a manual switch valve must rely on manual connection of the pipeline to the solid-state hydrogen storage tank. Workers must also strictly follow the operating procedures when operating to avoid safety problems. The efficiency is low, which is not conducive to large-scale and efficient hydrogen filling operations of automatic hydrogen filling equipment.

[0006] In view of this, it is necessary to propose a solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve that is convenient for automatic hydrogen filling or activation, does not require manual connection, and does not require the user to manually open and close the valve during use. Summary of the invention

[0007] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve which is convenient for electric bicycle users to automatically close when not in use and is convenient for automatic activation and hydrogen filling operations.

[0008] In order to solve the above technical problems, the invention discloses a solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle, the valve is used to be installed on the top of the solid-state hydrogen storage tank, including a main valve body, the upper part of the main valve body is provided with a quick-connect plug, the side of the main valve body is provided with a knob for manually controlling the valve switch, the knob includes a shaft and a first knob and a second knob arranged on the shaft, the first knob is arranged between the second knob and the main valve body; the side of the main valve body is also provided with a valve opening and closing transmission device, the valve opening and closing transmission device includes a bracket connected to the main valve body at one end, a guide rail assembly is provided at the other end of the bracket, a transmission bar sliding up and down along the guide rail assembly is provided in the guide rail assembly, the upper part of the transmission bar extends out of the guide rail assembly, and the lower part of the guide rail assembly is provided with an elastic telescopic device, the elastic telescopic device is arranged below the transmission bar and abuts against the lower end of the transmission bar, and the transmission bar contacts the outer edge of the first knob;

[0009] The highest position of the transmission bar moving upward is the valve closing position, and the lowest position of the transmission bar moving downward is the valve opening position. The valve opening position and the valve closing position correspond to the fully open position and the fully closed position of the knob respectively. When the transmission bar is not under pressure, it is in the valve closing position, so that the valve is in a fully closed state.

[0010] When the elastic telescopic device is in the maximum extension state, the transmission bar is pushed upward to the valve closing position. When the transmission bar is subjected to downward pressure, during the process of the transmission bar moving downward to the valve opening position, the transmission bar drives the first knob to rotate to open the valve, and the elastic telescopic device is compressed at this time; when the downward pressure on the transmission bar disappears, the elastic telescopic device extends, and during the process of pushing the transmission bar to move upward to the valve opening position, the first knob is driven to rotate to close the valve.

[0011] Preferably, the transmission bar is a rack, the first knob is a gear matched with the rack, and the first knob is meshed with the transmission bar.

[0012] Preferably, the quick-connect plug and the transmission bar are both arranged vertically to facilitate the use of automated equipment to charge or activate the solid hydrogen storage tank. When the connector of the automated equipment moves downward, it is sealedly connected with the quick-connect plug and presses the transmission bar to open the valve.

[0013] Preferably, when the transmission bar is in the valve closing position, the upper end of the transmission bar is lower than the quick-connect plug.

[0014] Preferably, the guide rail assembly or the transmission bar is provided with a limiting protrusion for preventing the transmission bar from falling out.

[0015] Preferably, the second knob has a diameter greater than that of the first knob.

[0016] Preferably, in an emergency situation when the valve needs to be closed or the pressure opening device is damaged, the second knob is manually turned to close the valve.

[0017] Preferably, the elastic telescopic device is a spring, a spring sheet or an elastic telescopic rod.

[0018] Preferably, the elastic telescopic device adopts an elastic telescopic rod with damping.

[0019] Preferably, the upper portion of the transmission bar is provided with a foldable section hinged to the lower portion of the transmission bar. When the transmission bar is in the valve closing position, the foldable section just extends completely out of the guide rail assembly or the transmission bar is manually pulled up so that the foldable section just extends completely out of the guide rail assembly. At this time, the foldable section is flipped downward, and the transmission bar no longer has space to move downward, so as to prevent the transmission bar from being accidentally touched during storage or transportation, causing the valve to be opened.

[0020] The solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle of the present invention has at least the following advantages:

[0021] (1) The valve opening and closing transmission device ensures that the valve is automatically in the closed state when the transmission bar is not under pressure.

[0022] (2) When using automated equipment to charge or activate solid-state hydrogen storage tanks, due to the setting of the valve opening and closing transmission device, the automated equipment can achieve the connection of the quick-connect plug and the opening of the valve through a simple downward pressure action; after the connection head of the automated equipment is lifted, the valve can be easily closed, saving labor, reducing the safety hazards caused by human operation, and improving efficiency and safety. This also provides a solution for multi-channel efficient activation and charging of large quantities of solid-state hydrogen storage tanks.

[0023] (3) The valve opening and closing transmission device can be linked with the seat of the electric bicycle, etc. The driver opens the valve after sitting on the seat, avoiding the trouble of manually opening the valve; and, an elastic telescopic device with damping is used to make the lifting of the transmission bar and the closing of the valve have a hysteresis, which is conducive to filtering the bumps during driving, so as to ensure stable output of hydrogen. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] Figure 1 The figure is a schematic diagram of the structure of a solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle.

[0025] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the second solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for electric bicycles.

[0026] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the third solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for electric bicycles (the arrow in the figure shows a schematic diagram of manually pulling up the transmission bar so that the foldable section just extends completely out of the guide rail assembly).

[0027] The numbers in the figure are: 1-main valve body, 2-quick-connect plug, 3-shaft rod, 4-first knob, 5-second knob, 6-transmission bar, 7-guide rail assembly, 8-bracket, 9-elastic telescopic device, 10-limiting protrusion, 11-foldable section, 12-lower end of the foldable section. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] The present invention is further described in detail below through examples so that those skilled in the art can implement the invention with reference to the description.

[0029] It should be understood that the terms such as “having”, “including” and “comprising” used herein do not exclude the existence or addition of one or more other elements or combinations thereof.

[0030] like Figure 1 As shown, a solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle is used to be installed on the top of the solid-state hydrogen storage tank, including a main valve body 1, the upper part of the main valve body 1 is provided with a quick-connect plug 2, the side of the main valve body 1 is provided with a knob for manually controlling the valve switch, the knob includes a shaft 3 and a first knob 4 and a second knob 5 arranged on the shaft, the first knob 4 is arranged between the second knob 5 and the main valve body 1; the side of the main valve body 1 is also provided with a valve opening and closing transmission device, the valve opening and closing transmission device includes a bracket 8 connected to the main valve body 1 at one end, and the other end of the bracket 8 is provided with A guide rail assembly 7, wherein a transmission bar 6 is provided inside the guide rail assembly 7 and slides up and down along the guide rail assembly 7, wherein the upper portion of the transmission bar 6 extends out of the guide rail assembly 7, and an elastic telescopic device 9 is provided at the lower portion of the guide rail assembly 7, wherein the elastic telescopic device 9 is provided below the transmission bar 6 and abuts against the lower end of the transmission bar 6, and the transmission bar 6 contacts the outer edge of the first knob 4 so that the transmission bar 6 drives the first knob 4 to rotate, and the first knob 4 can be processed into a rough surface or a gear shape; in this embodiment, the transmission bar 6 is a rack, and the first knob 4 adopts a gear matched with the rack, and the first knob 4 is meshed with the transmission bar 6.

[0031] The highest position of the transmission bar 6 when it moves upward is the valve closing position, and the lowest position of the transmission bar 6 when it moves downward is the valve opening position. The valve opening position and the valve closing position correspond to the fully open position and the fully closed position of the knob respectively. When the transmission bar 6 is not under pressure, it is in the valve closing position, so that the valve is in a fully closed state.

[0032] When the elastic telescopic device 9 is in the maximum extension state, the transmission bar 6 is pushed upward to the valve closing position. When the transmission bar 6 is subjected to downward pressure, the transmission bar 6 moves downward to the valve opening position, and the transmission bar 6 drives the first knob 4 to rotate to open the valve. At this time, the elastic telescopic device 9 is compressed; when the downward pressure on the transmission bar 6 disappears, the elastic telescopic device 9 stretches, and pushes the transmission bar 6 to move upward to the valve opening position, and drives the first knob 4 to rotate to close the valve; the stroke of the transmission bar 6 or the elastic telescopic device 9 matches the diameter of the first knob 4. Generally speaking, it takes 6-8 turns to manually turn the valve from fully closed to fully open. The transmission bar 6 needs to be able to push the first knob 4 to rotate 3-4 turns at least, so that the valve can be at least half-opened while ensuring that the valve can be fully closed. If necessary, the first knob 4 can be processed on the shaft 3 in the form of an annular groove, so that the diameter of the first knob 4 is smaller than the diameter of the shaft 3, so that the first knob 4 can rotate a larger number of turns.

[0033] The quick-connect plug 2 and the transmission bar 6 are both arranged vertically, so that when the solid hydrogen storage tank is charged or activated by automated equipment, the connector of the automated equipment moves downward to be sealed and connected with the quick-connect plug 2, and the transmission bar 6 is pressed to open the valve. The connector of the automated equipment may have an inflatable connector for connecting with the quick-connect plug 2 and a pressure head for pressing the transmission bar 6 downward, and the connection of the quick-connect plug 2 and the opening of the valve can be achieved by a simple downward pressing action; multiple connectors may be provided, and multiple connectors move downward synchronously, so that the connection of the quick-connect plug 2 and the opening of the valve can be achieved at the same time, and multiple solid hydrogen storage tanks can be charged or activated at one time, thereby facilitating large-scale automatic charging or activation operations.

[0034] When the transmission bar 6 is in the valve closing position, the upper end of the transmission bar 6 is lower than the quick-connect plug 2 to prevent the transmission bar 6 from being compressed and causing hydrogen leakage during manual handling and transportation of the solid-state hydrogen storage tank.

[0035] The transmission bar 6 is provided with a limiting protrusion 10 for preventing the transmission bar 6 from falling out.

[0036] The diameter of the second knob 5 is larger than that of the first knob 4, so as to facilitate manual rotation of the second knob 5. When the valve needs to be closed in an emergency or the pressure opening device is damaged, the second knob 5 is manually rotated to close the valve.

[0037] The elastic telescopic device 9 adopts an elastic telescopic rod with damping. In this embodiment, the elastic telescopic device 9 is a spring telescopic rod with damping; the elastic telescopic rod with damping can better prevent the elastic telescopic device 9 from frequently driving the rack to move due to bumps during the driving of the electric bicycle, resulting in frequent changes in the valve opening and closing state or opening and closing degree, thereby filtering the up and down bumps of the electric bicycle during driving and avoiding the valve opening and closing transmission device from responding too quickly.

[0038] Further, such as Figure 2 As shown, as another embodiment of the present invention, the upper portion of the transmission bar 6 is provided with a foldable section 11 hinged to the lower portion of the transmission bar 6. When the transmission bar 6 is in the valve closing position, the foldable section 11 just extends completely out of the guide rail assembly 7. At this time, the foldable section 11 is flipped downward, and the transmission bar 6 no longer has space to move downward, so as to prevent the transmission bar 6 from being accidentally touched during storage or transportation, causing the valve to be opened.

[0039] Furthermore, if Figure 3 As shown, as another embodiment of the present invention, when the transmission bar 6 is in the valve closing position, the lower part of the transmission bar 6 is disengaged from the first knob 4, so that the transmission bar 6 can be pulled upward; at this time, the lower end 12 of the foldable section is still in the guide rail assembly 7, and the foldable section 11 cannot be folded. The transmission bar 6 is manually pulled up so that the foldable section 11 just extends out of the guide rail assembly 7, and then the foldable section 11 is flipped downward, and the transmission bar 6 no longer has space to move downward; when the valve is to be opened, the foldable section 11 is manually flipped upward to open it, and the transmission bar 6 is moved downward so that the lower end 12 of the foldable section is in the guide rail assembly 7, and the transmission bar 6 is re-engaged with the first knob 4, and then the next step of operation can be performed. This is a preferred setting. When the transmission bar 6 is in the valve closing position, the lower end 12 of the foldable section is still in the guide rail assembly 7 and cannot be folded. This ensures that when the transmission bar 6 uses automated equipment to charge or activate the solid hydrogen storage tank, the foldable section 11 will not suddenly flip downward, causing the operation to fail.

[0040] In addition, the valve opening and closing transmission device can also be linked to the seat of the electric bicycle through a hydraulic device or a multi-link structure (one end of the hydraulic device or the multi-link structure is placed on the seat, and the other end is connected to the transmission bar 6). When the driver sits on the electric bicycle, the seat sinks or moves down due to pressure, forcing the hydraulic device or the multi-link structure to drive the transmission bar 6 to move down. After the driver gets off the vehicle, the transmission bar 6 is reset, thereby achieving the purpose of opening the valve when the driver sits on the electric bicycle and closing the valve after the driver gets off the vehicle.

[0041] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed as above, they are not limited to the applications listed in the specification and the implementation modes. They can be fully applied to various fields suitable for the present invention. For those familiar with the art, additional modifications can be easily implemented. Therefore, without departing from the general concept defined by the claims and the scope of equivalents, the present invention is not limited to the specific details and the embodiments shown and described herein.

Claims

1. A solid hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle, characterized in that: The valve is used to be installed on the top of the solid-state hydrogen storage tank, including a main valve body, the upper part of the main valve body is provided with a quick-connect plug, the side of the main valve body is provided with a knob for manually controlling the valve switch, the knob includes a shaft and a first knob and a second knob arranged on the shaft, the first knob is arranged between the second knob and the main valve body; the side of the main valve body is also provided with a valve opening and closing transmission device, the valve opening and closing transmission device includes a bracket connected to the main valve body at one end, a guide rail assembly is provided at the other end of the bracket, a transmission bar sliding up and down along the guide rail assembly is provided in the guide rail assembly, the upper part of the transmission bar extends out of the guide rail assembly, and the lower part of the guide rail assembly is provided with an elastic telescopic device, the elastic telescopic device is arranged below the transmission bar and abuts against the lower end of the transmission bar, and the transmission bar contacts the outer edge of the first knob; The highest position of the transmission bar moving upward is the valve closing position, and the lowest position of the transmission bar moving downward is the valve opening position. The valve opening position and the valve closing position correspond to the fully open position and the fully closed position of the knob respectively. When the transmission bar is not under pressure, it is in the valve closing position, so that the valve is in a fully closed state. When the elastic telescopic device is in the maximum extension state, the transmission bar is pushed upward to the valve closing position. When the transmission bar is subjected to downward pressure, the transmission bar drives the first knob to rotate to open the valve during the process of moving downward to the valve opening position. At this time, the elastic telescopic device is compressed. When the downward pressure on the transmission bar disappears, the elastic telescopic device stretches, and in the process of pushing the transmission bar to move upward to the valve opening position, the first knob is driven to rotate to close the valve. The quick-connect plug and the transmission bar are both arranged vertically, so that when the solid hydrogen storage tank is charged or activated by automated equipment, the connector of the automated equipment moves downward to seal the quick-connect plug and press the transmission bar to open the valve. When the transmission bar is in the valve closing position, the upper end of the transmission bar is lower than the quick-connect plug; The upper part of the transmission bar is provided with a foldable section hinged to the lower part of the transmission bar. When the transmission bar is in the valve closing position, the foldable section just extends completely out of the guide rail assembly or the transmission bar is manually pulled up to make the foldable section just extend completely out of the guide rail assembly. At this time, the foldable section is flipped downward, and the transmission bar no longer has space to move downward, so as to prevent the transmission bar from being accidentally touched during storage or transportation, causing the valve to be opened.

2. The solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The transmission bar is a rack, the first knob is a gear matched with the rack, and the first knob is meshed with the transmission bar.

3. The solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The guide rail assembly or the transmission bar is provided with a limiting protrusion for preventing the transmission bar from falling out.

4. The solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The second knob has a diameter greater than that of the first knob.

5. The solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle according to claim 4, characterized in that: In case of emergency, when the valve needs to be closed or the pressure opening device is damaged, manually turn the second knob to close the valve.

6. The solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The elastic telescopic device is a spring, a spring sheet or an elastic telescopic rod.

7. The solid-state hydrogen storage tank valve for an electric bicycle according to claim 6, characterized in that: The elastic telescopic device adopts an elastic telescopic rod with damping.

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