Battery Busbar Clamp Contact for Tolerance-Stable High Current Joints
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing contact systems for high current power applications, particularly in battery units for electrical vehicle motors, face challenges in maintaining reliable and low resistance electrical connections amidst mechanical and geometric tolerances, misalignments, and variations due to wear, vibrations, and temperature changes.
Innovation Solution
A contact system utilizing a clamp with elastically movable legs and convex protrusions on the contact surfaces to accommodate geometric tolerances and movements, ensuring stable electrical contact through elastic deformation and articulation, allowing for tilting, shifting, and rotational movements without disrupting the current flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a rigid clamp structure is used to maintain stable electrical contact, then the contact force is sufficient, but the system cannot accommodate geometric tolerances and misalignments
Solution Approach 1:
The clamp is designed with elastically movable legs that can dynamically adjust their position to accommodate geometric tolerances and misalignments while maintaining sufficient contact force. The legs are made of elastic material or have elastic elements that allow them to bend and adapt to variations in the positions of the first and second objects, ensuring reliable electrical contact despite manufacturing tolerances.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastic properties of the clamp legs are utilized to change the contact parameters adaptively. The legs can elastically deform to adjust contact pressure and position, allowing the system to maintain optimal electrical contact conditions while tolerating variations in object positioning and geometry.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the clamp legs are made elastically movable to accommodate tolerances, then the adaptability improves, but the contact force stability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic legs are pre-configured with appropriate stiffness and pre-load characteristics to cushion against position variations before contact is made. This beforehand cushioning allows the legs to absorb positional mismatches while automatically maintaining stable contact force through their elastic recovery, preventing both excessive force and insufficient contact.
3Adaptability or versatility
If convex protrusions are added to contact surfaces to accommodate movements, then the tolerance to misalignment improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Convex protrusions with curved surfaces are provided on the clamp legs at the contact regions. These curved surfaces enable articulation and rolling contact with corresponding concave regions on the objects being clamped, allowing the system to accommodate tilting, shifting, and rotational movements. The curvature provides mechanical advantage for self-alignment while maintaining simple overall clamp structure.
4Reliability
If the clamp design incorporates elastic deformation capability, then the tolerance to vibrations and temperature changes improves, but the manufacturing precision requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The clamp legs are designed with controlled elastic properties through material selection and cross-sectional geometry. This allows the legs to undergo elastic deformation in response to vibrations and temperature changes, automatically compensating for environmental variations. The elastic design tolerates broader manufacturing precision ranges compared to rigid structures, as the elastic deformation absorbs dimensional variations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The contact system maintains reliable and low resistance electrical connections by tolerating mechanical and geometric variations, ensuring stable power distribution in high current applications, such as battery packs and electrical vehicle motors, through its elastic and articulating design.
Implementation Method 1
At least one of the clamp legs is elastically moveable by means of an elastic deformation of the leg itself
Data Source
AI summary
A contact system for electrically connecting a high current power supply system, in particular a battery unit, is provided. The contact system comprises a busbar, an electrode and a clamp. The clamp has at least two clamp legs, and at least one clamp leg is elastically moveable so as to vary an interspace between the clamp legs, the busbar, and the electrode. At least one of the clamp legs has a respective contact surface contacting a further one of the contact surfaces.At least one of the clamp leg contact surface, the busbar contact surface, and the electrode contact surface has a protrusion. The protrusion contacts one of the respective other contact surfaces. The protrusion is convex in two mutually vertical sectional planes.