Break-away adapter bracket
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for protecting high voltage components in electric vehicles, such as the electric air conditioning compressor, from damage in vehicle impacts are either costly or incompatible with manufacturing processes, and do not effectively ensure component integrity and battery shutdown.
Innovation Solution
A break-away adapter bracket with a triangular body and strategically located apertures that fail under sufficient force, allowing the high voltage component to detach from the vehicle structure, thereby protecting it from impact damage, and featuring elongated ribs for structural integrity and heat dissipation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If material of the bracket body is changed to increase yield and percentage elongation for better energy absorption, then component protection is improved, but manufacturing compatibility deteriorates and manufacturing time is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameters of the bracket body by selecting a polymeric material with specific mechanical properties (yield strength and percentage elongation) that enable energy absorption during impact while maintaining compatibility with existing manufacturing processes. This resolves the contradiction by finding optimal material parameters that satisfy both protection and manufacturing requirements.
2Reliability
If a physical blocking member or repackaging is added to protect the high voltage component, then component protection is improved, but design cost increases and feasibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the protection function into the bracket body itself, which is designed with specific material properties to absorb impact energy. This eliminates the need for separate physical blocking members or repackaging, thereby reducing design complexity while maintaining protection effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The bracket body is designed as a sacrificial protective element that may fail or deform during impact to protect the expensive high voltage component. This disposable approach to protection is more cost-effective than adding permanent blocking members or repackaging the component.
3Reliability
If the bracket material is designed to fail under sufficient force to enable detachment, then component integrity during impact is improved, but structural strength under normal conditions must be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The patent carefully selects polymeric material parameters (yield strength, elongation) that create a threshold behavior: the bracket maintains structural strength under normal operating conditions but fails in a controlled manner when impact force exceeds a specific threshold, enabling component detachment and protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The bracket's mechanical properties are designed to respond dynamically to applied forces: remaining rigid and strong under normal loads, but becoming compliant and failing at predetermined locations when subjected to excessive impact forces, thus providing conditional protection.
Data Source
AI summary
A bracket configured to mount a high voltage component to a structure of a vehicle. The bracket includes a body, a plurality of first apertures formed in the body that are each respectively configured for receipt of a fastener that secures the body to the high voltage component, and a plurality of second apertures formed in the body that are respectively configured for receipt of a fastener that secures the body to the structure of the vehicle. Upon application of a sufficient force to the vehicle, a material of the body that forms at least one of the first apertures and the second apertures is configured to fail to permit either the body and the high voltage component to disengage from structure of the vehicle or the high voltage component to disengage from the body.