Electric construction machine

Abstract

An electric excavator (10) comprises: a battery (12); a cooling fan (14) that, during charging of the battery (12), cools the battery (12) by being driven by electric power from the battery (12); and a control device (16) that controls the drive state of the cooling fan (14) by a control input accompanied by user recognition information.

Description

Electric Construction Machinery

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an electric construction machinery.

[0002] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2021-188407 discloses an electric construction machinery including a cooling fan control unit that causes the rotation speed of a cooling fan during battery charging to correspond to an operation mode set by an operation mode selection unit.

[0003] However, in the prior art described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2021-188407, anyone can operate the operation mode selection unit, so there is a problem from the perspective of security.

[0004] In consideration of the above facts, an object of the present disclosure is to obtain an electric construction machinery capable of restricting operators that can operate the cooling fan.

[0005] The electric construction machinery according to the first aspect includes a battery, a cooling fan driven by electric power from the battery during charging of the battery to cool the battery, and a fan control unit that controls a driving state of the cooling fan by a control input accompanied by user recognition information.

[0006] According to the electric construction machinery of the present disclosure, operators that can operate the cooling fan can be restricted.

[0007] It is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electric construction machinery according to the present embodiment. It is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of a fan control unit included in the electric construction machinery according to the present embodiment. It is a flowchart showing a processing flow by a fan control unit included in the electric construction machinery according to the present embodiment. It is a side view showing a state during battery charging of the electric construction machinery according to the present embodiment.

[0008] Hereinafter, an example of a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

[0009] As shown in FIG. 1, an electric excavator 10 serving as the electric construction machinery according to the present embodiment includes a battery 12, a cooling fan 14, and a control device 16 serving as a fan control unit.

[0010] The battery 12 is capable of supplying power to a main motor (not shown) and the like via an inverter (not shown) that converts DC power into AC power of any frequency and outputs it. The main motor is then driven by the AC power output from this inverter.

[0011] The cooling fan 14 is powered by electricity from the battery 12 when the battery 12 is being charged by the desk lamp S shown in Figure 4, and is capable of cooling the battery 12, the main motor, the inverter, and a heat exchanger (not shown) that cools the hydraulic fluid flowing through various hydraulic equipment.

[0012] The control unit 16 is composed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 16A, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 16B, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 16C, storage 16D, a communication interface (Interface) 16E, and an input / output interface 16F. The CPU 16A, ROM 16B, RAM 16C, storage 16D, communication interface 16E, and input / output interface 16F are interconnected via a bus 16G so that they can communicate with each other.

[0013] The CPU 16A is a central processing unit and is capable of executing various programs and controlling various devices. Specifically, the CPU 16A reads programs from the ROM 16B and executes them using the RAM 16C as a working area. When the executable program stored in the ROM 16B is read by the CPU 16A and executed, the control device 16 is able to perform various functions as described later.

[0014] More specifically, ROM16B stores various programs and data. On the other hand, RAM16C can temporarily store programs or data as a working area.

[0015] The storage 16D is configured to include an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or an SSD (Solid State Drive), and stores various programs including the operating system, as well as various data including the user ID information of the electric excavator 10 as owner information. Furthermore, as will be described later, the storage 16D is also capable of storing various information necessary for controlling the cooling fan 14.

[0016] The communication interface 16E is an interface used to connect the control device 16 to the network, and is capable of communicating with a remote key 18 (described later) and a server (not shown). This interface can utilize communication standards such as Ethernet®, FDDI, or Wi-Fi®. The communication interface 16E may also include a wireless device.

[0017] Furthermore, the communication interface 16E is capable of sending and receiving various types of information with the server via the network. Specifically, the communication interface 6E is capable of obtaining daytime and nighttime noise standard values ​​for each region from the server, based on environmental noise standard information. This environmental information is stored in storage 16D.

[0018] The input / output interface 16F serves as an interface for the control device 16 to communicate with each device mounted on the electric excavator 10. The control device 16 is connected to each of the devices described later via the input / output interface 16F so that they can communicate with each other. These devices may also be directly connected to the bus 16G.

[0019] Devices connected to the control device 16 include a GPS (Global Positioning System) device 20, a sensor microphone 22, a temperature sensor 24, and a monitor 26 as an input unit.

[0020] The GPS device 20 is equipped with an antenna (not shown) that receives signals from artificial satellites (GPS satellites) (not shown), and is capable of measuring the current position of the electric excavator 10. The position information of the electric excavator 10 measured by the GPS device 20 is input to the storage 16D and is also temporarily stored in the storage 16D.

[0021] The sensor microphone 22 is mounted on the electric excavator 10 and collects noise around the cooling fan 14, and outputs an acoustic signal based on the collected noise to the control device 16. The noise volume data measured by the sensor microphone 22 is input to the storage 16D and is temporarily stored in the storage 16D.

[0022] The temperature sensor 24 is a group of sensors including a hydraulic oil thermometer for measuring the hydraulic oil temperature, a main motor thermometer for measuring the main motor temperature, an inverter thermometer for measuring the inverter temperature, and a battery thermometer for measuring the battery temperature. The data acquired by the temperature sensor 24 is stored in the storage 16D.

[0023] The monitor 26 is an LCD monitor for displaying various information related to the electric excavator 10, specifically displaying the operation screen for the cooling fan 14, etc. The monitor 26 may be operated by the operator via an operation unit (not shown), or the monitor 26 may be a touch panel that the operator can operate directly.

[0024] Next, the functional configuration of the control device 16 will be explained using Figure 2. The control device 16 functions as a collection of the communication unit 28, user ID verification unit 30, noise level setting unit 32, and rotation speed control unit 34 by having the CPU 16A read the execution program stored in the ROM 16B and execute it.

[0025] When the remote key 18 is inserted into a key cylinder located inside the cab (not shown) of the electric excavator 10, or when remote operation input is received from the remote key 18, the communication unit 28 communicates with the user ID storage unit 18A, which serves as the storage unit for the remote key 18, and obtains a user ID as user recognition information from the user ID storage unit 18A. The communication unit 28 also obtains various information by communicating with a server.

[0026] The user ID matching unit 30 compares the user ID information of the electric excavator 10 stored in the storage 16D with the user ID obtained from the remote key 18. When they match, it activates the monitor 26 and displays the operation screen for the cooling fan 14 on the monitor 26, enabling operator input for the cooling fan 14.

[0027] The noise level setting unit 32 sets a noise limit based on the current position of the electric excavator 10, the daytime noise standard value and nighttime noise standard value at this position, and the current time, all of which are stored in the storage 16D. It also compares the volume of sound emitted by the cooling fan 14, acquired by the sensor microphone 22, with the noise limit to determine whether the volume of sound emitted by the cooling fan 14 is below the noise limit.

[0028] The rotation speed control unit 34 drives the cooling fan 14 when the battery 12 is charging, and controls the drive of the cooling fan 14 so that the rotation speed of the cooling fan 14 follows at least the change in battery temperature among the changes in hydraulic oil temperature, main motor temperature, inverter temperature, and battery temperature at predetermined intervals. For example, if the change in battery temperature over one minute is a rise of 1°C, the rotation speed control unit 34 increases the rotation speed of the cooling fan 14 by 100 rpm. Alternatively, step control may be performed so that the waveform of the rotation speed of the cooling fan 14 changes in a step shape according to the temperature of the battery 12. In the following, this control will be referred to as the first control.

[0029] Furthermore, the rotation speed control unit 34 controls the operation state of the cooling fan 14 so that if the volume of sound emitted by the cooling fan 14 is greater than the noise limit, the rotation speed of the cooling fan 14 will be reduced until the volume of sound emitted by the cooling fan 14 falls below the noise limit. In the following, this control will be referred to as the second control. In this embodiment, the second control takes precedence over the first control. The first and second controls may take precedence over control of the cooling fan 14 by the operator via the control unit.

[0030] <Effects> Next, the effects of this embodiment will be described.

[0031] The following describes an example of a control flow by a program executed by the CPU 16 of the control device 16, primarily using the flowchart shown in Figure 3. This control flow starts when the battery 12 begins charging.

[0032] When this control flow is initiated, in step S100, the CPU 16A functions as a rotation speed control unit 34, drives the cooling fan 14, and proceeds to step S101.

[0033] In step S101, the CPU 16A functions as a user ID matching unit 30 and compares the user ID information of the electric excavator 10 stored in the storage 16D with the user ID obtained from the remote key 18. If these user ID information matches (step S101: YES), the CPU 16A activates the monitor 26 and displays the operation screen of the cooling fan 14 on the monitor 26, then proceeds to step S102. If these user ID information does not match (step S101: NO), the CPU 16A proceeds to step S103.

[0034] In step S102, the CPU 16A controls the operating state of the cooling fan 14 based on the operator's input for the cooling fan 14, and terminates the control flow described above.

[0035] In step S103, the CPU 16A functions as a rotation speed control unit 34 and drives the cooling fan 14 so that its rotation speed follows at least the change in battery temperature among the changes in hydraulic oil temperature, main motor temperature, inverter temperature, and battery temperature at predetermined intervals, and then proceeds to step S104.

[0036] In step S104, the CPU 16A functions as a noise level setting unit 32 and determines whether the volume of the sound emitted by the cooling fan 14 is below the noise limit. If the volume of the sound emitted by the cooling fan 14 is below the noise limit (step S104: YES), the CPU 16A terminates the control flow. If the volume of the sound emitted by the cooling fan 14 is greater than the noise limit (step S104: NO), the process proceeds to step S105.

[0037] In step S105, the CPU 16A functions as a rotation speed control unit 34 and controls the operating state of the cooling fan 14 so that the rotation speed of the cooling fan 14 is reduced until the volume of the sound emitted by the cooling fan 14 falls below the noise limit, and then terminates the control flow.

[0038] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the monitor 26 can be activated by remote control input using the remote key 18.

[0039] As described above, in the electric excavator 10 according to this embodiment, it is possible to limit the operators who can operate the cooling fan 14.

[0040] In the embodiment described above, a remote key 18 was used, but it is also possible to use a key that does not have a remote control function instead of the remote key 18.

[0041] Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the operation of the cooling fan 14 was controlled according to the volume of sound emitted by the cooling fan 14, the hydraulic oil temperature, the main motor temperature, the inverter temperature, and the battery temperature. However, the control of the cooling fan 14 may also be performed based solely on the operator's input to operate the cooling fan 14.

[0042] Furthermore, although the sensor microphone 22 was mounted on the electric excavator 10 in the embodiment described above, the sensor microphone 22 may also be installed around the electric excavator 10 using a stand or the like.

[0043] The following are additional notes relating to this disclosure. (Note 1) An electric construction machine comprising: a battery; a cooling fan that is driven by power from the battery to cool the battery when the battery is being charged; and a fan control unit that controls the operating state of the cooling fan by a control input accompanied by user recognition information. (Note 2) The electric construction machine according to Note 1, further comprising: a key having a storage unit that stores the user recognition information; and an input unit for operating the cooling fan, wherein the fan control unit compares the user recognition information obtained by communicating with the storage unit with owner information stored in the fan control unit, and activates the input unit when the user recognition information and the owner information match. (Note 3) The electric construction machine according to Note 2, wherein the input unit is a monitor capable of displaying an operation input screen. (Note 4) The electric construction machine according to Note 2 or Note 3, wherein the key is a remote key capable of remote communication with the fan control unit. (Note 5) The electric construction machine as described in any of Notes 1 to 4, wherein the fan control unit controls the driving state of the cooling fan so that the rotation speed of the cooling fan follows a change in at least one of the hydraulic oil temperature, main motor temperature, inverter temperature, and battery temperature.

[0044] The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2025-054465, filed on 27 March 2025, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Claims

1. An electric construction machine comprising: a battery; a cooling fan that is powered by electricity from the battery to cool the battery when the battery is being charged; and a fan control unit that controls the operating state of the cooling fan by a control input accompanied by user recognition information.

2. The electric construction machine according to claim 1, further comprising: a key having a storage unit in which the user recognition information is stored; and an input unit for operating a cooling fan, wherein the fan control unit compares the user recognition information obtained by communicating with the storage unit with owner information stored in the fan control unit, and activates the input unit when the user recognition information and the owner information match.

3. The electric construction machine according to claim 2, wherein the input unit is a monitor capable of displaying an operation input screen.

4. The electric construction machine according to claim 2, wherein the key is a remote key capable of remote communication with the fan control unit.

5. The electric construction machine according to claim 1, wherein the fan control unit controls the driving state of the cooling fan so that the rotation speed of the cooling fan follows a change in at least one of the hydraulic oil temperature, main motor temperature, inverter temperature, and battery temperature.

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