Sealing arrangement for sealing a flow-carrying connection, electric drive with sealing arrangement and motor vehicle with sealing arrangement

Abstract

The invention relates to a sealing arrangement (10) for sealing a flow-conducting connection between a first component (12) and a second component (14), wherein the sealing arrangement (10) comprises the first component and the second component (14). The sealing arrangement (10) has a sealing element (18) with a sealing region (20), wherein the sealing element (18) is fastened to a tubular end region (16) of the first component (12) and extends from there along an insertion direction (X), in which the sealing element (18) is inserted at least with the sealing region (20) into a recess (21) in the second component (14), such that the sealing region (20) protrudes relative to the end region (16) in the insertion direction (X). The sealing area (20) is elastically deformed and, due to restoring forces resulting from the elastic deformation, lies sealingly against the second flow-guiding component (14).A connecting region (22) of the sealing element (18), which is spaced apart from the sealing region (20) counter to the insertion direction (X), is connected to the end region (16) by means of a materially bonded connection (24), so that tolerance compensation for compensating positional tolerances with regard to the relative position of the end region (16) and the recess (21) is made possible by deformation of the sealing element (18) between the connecting region (22) and the sealing region (20).

Description

The invention relates to a sealing arrangement for sealing a flow-conducting connection between a first component and a second component, to an electric drive having such a sealing arrangement, and to a motor vehicle having such a sealing arrangement, in particular as a component of an electric drive of the motor vehicle.Sealing arrangements of the type in question serve for sealing a flow-conducting connection between a first component and a second component. Such sealing arrangements are needed to prevent a medium flowing through the components and their connection from leaking between the components. Sealing arrangements of the type in question can be used in particular in electric drives and / or motor vehicles.In connection with electric drives, there is often the need, in particular, to provide liquid cooling for a pulse inverter of the electric drive. In this context, sealing arrangements optimized for sealing liquid cooling systems of pulse inverters have already been described in the past, for example in DE 10 2018 206 860 A1.In practice, sealing arrangements for sealing a flow-conducting connection between a first component and a second component are also known, in which a tubular end region of the first component is inserted along an insertion direction into a recess in the second component. The sealing arrangement has a sealing element with a sealing region, wherein the sealing region is elastically deformed and sealingly abuts the second flow-conducting component due to restoring forces resulting from the elastic deformation. The sealing element can be, for example, an O-ring.The advantage of such sealing arrangements is that an easy assembly can be made possible by inserting the end region of the first component with the sealing element into the second component. In practice, however, it is the case that in the known sealing elements the position tolerances with respect to the relative position of end region and recess with respect to one another are comparatively narrow. In particular when the situation arises in which a connection between two components or assemblies is to be created by means of a plurality of sealing arrangements of the type in question, for example in order to realize a forward flow and a return flow for a cooling liquid, a simple connectivity is theoretically possible if the insertion directions of the sealing arrangements are aligned parallel to one another. The two assemblies could then be pushed into one another with their respective first and second components in order to produce the flow-conducting connections between the respective components. In practice, however, manufacturing tolerances of both assemblies lead to sealing problems occurring in practice on account of the position tolerances.Especially where high requirements regarding tightness prevail, differently designed connections are therefore used. For example, in the connection of cooling systems for pulse inverters using cooling fluid technology, the procedure of operating by means of special plug connectors is known from practice. However, these plug connectors represent additional individual parts which increase the complexity of the construction and thus ultimately increase the costs in particular, but also take up axial installation space in the direction of the insertion direction.It is therefore the object of the present invention to show a sealing arrangement, an electric drive and a motor vehicle with such a sealing arrangement, wherein the sealing arrangement enables tolerance compensation and in particular enables a saving in costs and installation space.The object is achieved by a sealing arrangement and an electric drive having the features of the independent claims. The features of the dependent claims relate to advantageous embodiments.The sealing arrangement serves for illuminating a flow-conducting connection between a first component and a second component. The sealing arrangement comprises the first component and the second component.The sealing arrangement further comprises a sealing element with a sealing region. The sealing element is inserted along an insertion direction at least with the sealing region into a recess in the second component. The sealing element is fastened to a tubular end region of the 1st component and extends therefrom along the insertion direction, so that the sealing region protrudes in the insertion direction relative to the end region.The recess can be, for example, a bore. The insertion direction corresponds in particular to the direction of the bore. The tubular end region of the first component has, in particular, a configuration in the form of a tube which is aligned coaxially with respect to the insertion direction. In this connection, the tubular end region can have a circular cross section.The sealing region is elastically deformed and, due to restoring forces resulting from the elastic deformation, the sealing region sealingly abuts the second flow-conducting component.The object is achieved in particular in that the sealing element is connected to the end region in a materially integral manner by a connecting region spaced apart from the sealing region counter to the insertion direction, so that tolerance compensation for compensating position tolerances with respect to the relative position of the end region and the recess, and thus of the first component and the second component, is made possible by a deformation of the sealing element between the connecting region and the sealing region.In conjunction with the sealing region projecting in the insertion direction relative to the end region, the adhesive bond makes it possible to configure the sealing element such that a deformable region of the sealing element is produced between the connecting region and the sealing region of the sealing element, which region can be used to compensate for position tolerances.In the solutions known from the prior art, in which, for example, an O-ring surrounds a tubular end region or sealing solutions with sealing rings which abut on the end face on a tubular end region, the relative position of the end region to the surfaces which sealingly abut on one another can impair the sealing effect.In contrast, in a sealing element in which the sealing region sealing on the second component is spaced apart from the connecting region with which the sealing element is fastened to the first component in a materially integral manner in the insertion direction, a change in position between the sealing region and the use region is made possible in which the part of the sealing element located between the sealing region and the use region is elastically deformed. The material-to-material connection ensures that a tight connection always exists between the sealing element and the first component despite this deformation. At the same time, the arrangement comprising the first component with the sealing element connected to the end region in a materially integral manner can be easily handled during the assembly of the sealing arrangement. This means in particular that the connection between sealing element and first component cannot be impaired by the fact that, due to the position tolerances during assembly, the sealing region of the sealing element moves relative to the first component and in particular relative to the end region in directions at right angles to the insertion direction. Rather, such a movement is made possible in a targeted manner by a deformation of the region of the sealing element between the sealing region and the connecting region and is explicitly wanted for compensating the position tolerances.The sealing region can be a thickening of the sealing element. As a result of such a thickening, the sealing region is given an increased degree of dimensional stability compared to the surrounding material of the sealing element, which, with regard to the tolerance compensation, is accordingly more easily subjected to a deformation than the sealing region. This remains comparatively dimensionally stable, as a result of which deformation of the sealing region prevents the sealing contact thereof on the second component and thus the sealing effect from being lost. Furthermore, the accumulation of material formed by the thickening represents an advantage in the production of the sealing effect, since a larger amount of material is thus present for an elastic deformation and thus the production of the restoring forces necessary for the sealing effect.The thickening can be directed radially outwards in particular relative to the insertion direction. Such a radially outwardly directed thickening enables in particular a radially outwardly acting seal which is particularly well suited, for example, if a tubular end region is to be sealingly inserted into a bore in the second component.The thickening of the sealing element can be in particular a thickening in the manner of an integrally formed O-ring. O-rings have proven their geometry when used as sealing elements, both in the axial and in the radial direction. A corresponding configuration of the sealing region and in particular of the part of the surface of the sealing region which sealingly abuts the second component therefore enables a correspondingly reliable seal.The cohesive connection can be an adhesive bond. By means of an adhesive bond, in particular a permanent and sealing connection can be created between the sealing element and the end region, which connection on the one hand offers high durability, imposes low requirements on a special geometric design of the end region and the sealing region and can moreover also be realized by manufacturing techniques if the first component is complicated to handle, for example on account of its dimensions. In this case, the adhesion can be produced using an adhesion promoter, a so-called primer, applied to the end region and / or the sealing element. Adhesion promoters of this type influence the surface properties of the end region and / or of the sealing element in such a way that they promote the production of an adhesion. In this way, the production of an adhesive bond can be made possible or favored by an adhesion promoter even when using materials of little "high adhesion" quality.Alternatively and / or additionally, the cohesive connection can be produced by an injection molding method. The production of the materially bonded connection by an injection molding method takes place in particular in that the first component is inserted, at least partially, into an injection mold. During the injection molding process, the melted material of the sealing element can connect to the surface of the end region in such a way that a cohesive connection is produced. In other words, the sealing element can be injection-molded onto the end region. Such a production can be automated well and is cost-effective, in particular in the case of large numbers.The sealing arrangement can provide, in particular, that a surface of the connecting region facing counter to the insertion direction is fastened to a surface of the end region facing in the insertion direction by means of a cohesive connection. Alternatively and / or additionally, the sealing arrangement can provide that a surface of the end region facing radially outwards relative to the insertion direction is fastened to a surface of the connection region facing radially inwards relative to the insertion direction. Such a geometric orientation of the surfaces connected to one another in a materially integral manner enables a simple and practical configuration of the region of the materially integral connection between end region and sealing element.The sealing element can have a stiffening region for stiffening the sealing element. Such a stiffening region is preferably made of a material which has a higher stiffness than the sealing region. Accordingly, in particular the material of the stiffening region has a higher modulus of elasticity than the material of the sealing region.The sealing element with the stiffening region can be produced, for example, by means of a multicomponent injection molding process. Alternatively and / or additionally, the stiffening region or the sealing region can also be produced first, in particular by means of an injection molding process, and the respective other region can then be injection molded onto the already existing region. Alternatively, it is also possible to produce both regions separately from one another and to connect them to one another in a materially integral manner, for example by means of adhesive bonding.The stiffening region is surrounded in particular by the sealing region. This makes it possible, in particular in the case of a seal acting in the radial direction, to prevent leakage from occurring or to prevent failure of the seal due to too low a contact pressure of the sealing region against the second component surrounding the sealing region.The stiffening region or a part of the stiffening region can be part of the connecting region or form the connecting region. This can be advantageous in particular when the material of the stiffening region is better suited for forming the materially bonded connection to the end region of the first component than, for example, the material of the sealing region.The stiffening region can have zones with different stiffness along the insertion direction. In this way, the deformation behavior of the sealing region can be optimized to the effect that, on the one hand, the desired tolerance compensation function is made possible and, on the other hand, a good sealing effect can be realized by a sufficient contact pressure of the sealing region on the second component. In particular, the sealing region can surround a zone of the stiffening region which has a higher stiffness than another zone of the stiffening region. This results in particularly good support of the sealing region. The other zone of the stiffening region can be arranged in particular between the connecting region and the zone of the stiffening region with the higher stiffness. Such an arrangement is well suited, in particular with regard to the tolerance range, in order to compensate for an axial offset in a direction at right angles to the insertion direction.The different stiffnesses of the zones can be brought about by different material thicknesses of the stiffening region. For example, the stiffening region can have a greater material thickness in a zone surrounded by the sealing region than in a zone arranged between the connecting region and the zone having the greater material thickness. Alternatively and / or additionally, the different stiffnesses of the zones can be brought about by a material weakening provided in a zone of the stiffening region. The weakening of the material can be, for example, a perforation. Thus, for example, a zone with lower rigidity arranged between the connecting region and the zone of the stiffening region with the higher rigidity can have a perforation.The sealing arrangement described above can be part of an electric drive in particular. In this case, the drive has in particular two sealing arrangements of the type described above, wherein the insertion directions of the two sealing arrangements are preferably arranged parallel to one another. In this way, the two sealing arrangements can be produced jointly in one mounting process. The first component of both sealing arrangements is the same component or components of a common assembly. The second component of both sealing arrangements is the same component or components of a common assembly. The sealing arrangements can then be used in particular to seal a media run-forward and a media return. The media can be, in particular, cooling media, such as, for example, cooling water or another cooling liquid.Furthermore, the drive can have a pulse inverter. Such pulse inverters are distinguished by significant generation of heat. For this reason, liquid cooling is often provided for cooling the pulse inverter. Accordingly, the first component can be the pulse inverter and / or a component of the pulse inverter.Accordingly, in particular the cooling liquid feed line and / or the cooling liquid return line of the pulse inverter can be sealed with a sealing arrangement of the type described above.The drive can furthermore have a drive housing. The pulse inverter can be arranged within the drive housing. The second component is in particular a component of the drive housing and / or the drive housing. This enables a particularly advantageous connection, which is simple to produce and yet reliably sealing, between the pulse inverter and the drive housing. The pulse inverter can be inserted with the sealing elements in front into corresponding recesses of the drive housing, through which the cooling liquid can pass. In this way, the pulse inverter takes up only a minimal installation space in the direction parallel to the insertion direction. In other words, the pulse inverter can be inserted close to the inner side of the housing by inserting the tubular end regions, which with the sealing elements fastened thereto and protruding from the pulse inverter, into corresponding recesses of the drive housing, which can be bores in particular.Such an electric drive can be part of a motor vehicle in particular. Motor vehicles can have a travel drive for effecting the travel movement of the motor vehicle. Such travel drives must have a corresponding capacity in order to be able to move the motor vehicle. Therefore, the travel drive of the motor vehicle can be, in particular, an electric drive of the type described above. The sealing arrangements make possible a compact, reliable sealing connection which is simple to produce within the scope of series production and by means of which the liquid cooling of a pulse inverter can be supplied with cooling liquid. In this way, correspondingly large electrical powers are made possible.Alternatively and / or additionally, a sealing arrangement of the type described above can also be otherwise a component of a motor vehicle. In this context, the sealing arrangement can be in particular a component of a liquid circuit, in particular of a cooling liquid circuit, of the motor vehicle. In this case, in particular an element arranged in the liquid circuit, for example a filter, can be incorporated into the liquid circuit by means of two sealing arrangements of the type described above.Further practical embodiments of the invention are described below in conjunction with the drawings. The following are shown: FIG. 1 shows two exemplary sealing arrangements, which seal a flow-conducting connection between a first and a second component, in a perspective sectional illustration, FIGS. 2 to 7 are schematic sectional views of exemplary sealing elements connected to tubular end regions of defective sealing arrangements in different embodiments, FIG. 8 shows a schematic illustration of the tolerance compensation by means of a sealing arrangement for compensating an axial offset between the first and second component.In FIG. 1, example seal assemblies 10 are shown. The sealing arrangements 10 serve for sealing a flow-conducting connection between a first component 12 and a second component 14. The first component 12 can advantageously be a pulse inverter or a liquid cooler of a pulse inverter. The second component 14 can advantageously be a housing of an electric drive, for example made of a metallic material such as die-cast aluminum.As in the example shown, two sealing assemblies 10 may each include a common first component 12 and a common second component 14. The sealing arrangements 10 illustrated by way of example each have a tubular end region 16. Furthermore, the sealing arrangements 10 each have a sealing element 18 with a sealing region 20. The sealing elements 18 are fastened to the respective tubular end region 16 of the first component 12. From this, the respective sealing elements 18 extend along an insertion direction X. As in the example shown, the insertion directions X of two sealing arrangements 10 can advantageously be oriented parallel to one another. As a result, the respective sealing region 20 protrudes in the insertion direction X with respect to the corresponding end region 16. The sealing elements 18 are each inserted in their respective insertion direction X into a recess 21 in the second component.The sealing regions 20 of the respective example sealing assemblies 10 are elastically deformed. This results in restoring forces, by which the sealing regions 20 bear against the second component 14. As in the example shown, the sealing regions 20 can abut the second component 14 in the radial direction, i.e. in the direction perpendicular with respect to the insertion direction X. As arranged in the example shown in the sectional illustration, the elastic deformation can be produced in that the sealing regions 20 have a corresponding oversize with respect to the recesses 21.The sealing elements 18 are connected by a connecting region 22 to the respective end region 16 in a materially integral manner. The connecting region 22 is spaced apart from the sealing region 20 counter to the insertion direction X. In this way, tolerance compensation for compensating position tolerances with respect to the relative position of end region 16 and recess 22 is made possible by a deformation of the respective sealing element 18 between connecting region 22 and sealing region 20.In the case of the sealing elements 18 schematically represented in FIGS. 2 to 8, only half of them are represented in the schematic sectional representations in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7. The sealing elements 18 each have a sealing region 20 and a connecting region 22, spaced apart from the sealing region 20 counter to the insertion direction X, which is connected in a materially integral manner to an end region 16 of a first component 12. In the examples shown, the connection takes place by means of an adhesive bond 24. this is shown in the representations, not to scale, in FIGS. 2 to 8 in a significantly exaggerated thickness.In the case of the sealing arrangements illustrated by way of example in the figures, the sealing elements 18 there have sealing regions 22, which are a thickening of the respective sealing element 18. As in the examples shown, the sealing regions can be thickened portions in the manner of an integrally formed O-ring.As shown by way of example in the case of FIGS. 3, 5 and 6, a surface of the connecting region 22 pointing counter to the insertion direction X can be fastened to a surface of the end region 16 pointing in the insertion direction X by means of the materially bonded connection 24.As shown by way of example in FIGS. 5 and 6, a radially outwardly facing surface of the end region 16 can additionally be fastened to a surface of the connecting region 22 facing radially inward relative to the insertion direction X. Alternatively, as is illustrated by way of example in FIGS. 4, 7 and 8, a radially outwardly facing surface of the end region 18 can be connected to a radially inwardly facing surface of the connecting region 22. Alternatively, as illustrated by way of example in FIG. 4, a radially inwardly facing surface of the end region 16 can be connected to a radially outwardly facing surface of the connecting region 22.The connecting elements illustrated by way of example in FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 are configured by way of example to sealingly abut the second component 14 with its sealing region 20 in a direction pointing radially outwards relative to the insertion direction X. Alternatively and / or additionally, the sealing element 18, as shown by way of example in FIG. 5, can be designed to lie sealingly with the sealing region 22 on the second component 14 in the insertion direction X.As illustrated by way of example in FIGS. 7 and 8, the sealing element 18 can have a stiffening region 26. The stiffening region 26 can be surrounded in particular by the sealing region 22, as illustrated by way of example in FIGS. 7 and 8. As indicated in FIGS. 7 and 8, the stiffening region 26 can have zones 28 and 30 with different stiffness. The different stiffnesses can be brought about by a material weakening indicated abstractly in the graphical representation, for example in the form of a perforation provided in the zone 28 with lower stiffness. The zone 28 with lower stiffness is arranged in particular, as illustrated by way of example, between the connecting region 22 and the zone 30 of the stiffening region 26 with the higher stiffness. The zone 30 with higher rigidity is surrounded in particular by the sealing region 22, as illustrated by way of example.FIG. 8 shows, by way of example, how a tolerance compensation can be carried out by a deformation of the sealing element 18 between its connecting region 22 and its sealing region 20, for example, as indicated in FIG. 8, by an axial offset parallel to the insertion direction X between the end region 16 and the recess 21. In this case, in particular as in the example shown, the zone 28 of the stiffening region 26 with lower stiffness can advantageously deform, while the zone 30 of the stiffening region 26 with higher stiffness remains dimensionally stable and can thus ensure the elastic deformation of the sealing region 20, which leads to the production of the sealing effect.The features of the invention disclosed in the present description, in the drawings and in the claims can be essential, both individually and in any combinations, for the realisation of the invention in its various embodiments. The invention can be varied within the scope of the claims and taking into account the knowledge of the responsible person skilled in the art.List of reference characters10 Sealing arrangement 12 First component 14 Second component 16 Tubular end region 18 Sealing element 20 Sealing region 21 Recess 22 Connecting region 24 Adhesive bond 26 Stiffening region 28 Zone with lower stiffness 30 Zone with higher stiffness X Insertion directionReferences included in the specificationThis list of documents cited by the applicant has been produced in an automated manner and is only included for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent application or utility model application. The DPMA does not take any adhesion for any faults or omissions.Patent Literature citedDE 10 2018 206 860 A1

[0003]

Claims

Sealing arrangement (10) for sealing a flow-conducting connection between a first component (12) and a second component (14), wherein the sealing arrangement (10) comprises the first component and the second component (14), wherein the sealing arrangement (10) has a sealing element (18) with a sealing region (20), wherein the sealing element (18) is fastened to a tubular end region (16) of the first component (12) and extends therefrom along an insertion direction (X) in which the sealing element (18) is inserted at least with the sealing region (20) into a recess (21) in the second component (14), such that the sealing region (20) protrudes with respect to the end region (16) in the insertion direction (X), wherein the sealing region (20) is elastically deformed and, due to restoring forces resulting from the elastic deformation, sealingly abuts (14) on the second flow-conducting component, wherein a connecting region (22) of the sealing element (18), which is spaced apart from the sealing region (20) counter to the insertion direction (X), is connected to the end region (16) by means of a materially bonded connection (24), so that tolerance compensation for compensating positional tolerances with respect to the relative position of the end region (16) and the recess (21) is made possible by a deformation of the sealing element (18) between the connecting region (22) and the sealing region (20).Sealing arrangement (10) according to Claim 1, characterized in that the sealing region (20) is a thickening of the sealing element (18), in particular in the manner of an integrally formed O-ring, which thickening is directed radially outwards in particular relative to the insertion direction (X).Sealing arrangement (10) according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the cohesive connection (24) is produced by an adhesive bond and / or by an injection moulding method.Sealing arrangement (10) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a surface of the connecting region (22) pointing counter to the insertion direction (X) is fastened to a surface of the end region (16) pointing in the insertion direction (X) and / or a surface of the end region (16) pointing radially outwards relative to the insertion direction (X) is fastened to a surface of the connecting region (22) pointing radially inwards relative to the insertion direction (X) by means of a cohesive connection (24).Sealing arrangement (10) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the sealing element (18) has a stiffening region (26) for stiffening the sealing element, wherein the stiffening region is surrounded in particular by the sealing region.Sealing arrangement (10) according to Claim 5, characterized in that the stiffening region (26) has zones (28, 30) with different rigidity along the insertion direction (X), in particular wherein the sealing region (20) surrounds a zone (30) of the stiffening region (26) which has a higher rigidity than another zone (28) of the stiffening region (26) which is arranged in particular between the connection region (22) and the zone (30) of the stiffening region (26) with the higher rigidity.Sealing arrangement (10) according to Claim 6, characterized in that the different rigidities of the zones (28, 30) are brought about by different material thicknesses of the stiffening region (26) in the different zones (28, 30) and / or by a material weakening provided in a zone (28) of the stiffening region (26), for example in the form of a perforation.Electric drive, characterized in that the drive has a sealing arrangement (10) according to one of the preceding claims, in particular two sealing arrangements (10) according to in each case one of the preceding claims.Drive according to Claim 8, characterized in that the drive has a pulse inverter and a drive housing, wherein the pulse inverter is arranged within the drive housing, wherein the first component of the pulse inverter, the second component is a component of the drive housing and the sealing arrangement is a component of a liquid cooling system for the pulse inverter.Motor vehicle, characterized in that the motor vehicle has a sealing arrangement (10) according to one of Claims 1 to 7, in particular two sealing arrangements (10) according to in each case one of Claims 1 to 7, and / or an electric drive according to one of Claims 8 or 9, in particular as a travel drive for effecting the travel movement of the motor vehicle.

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