Ceiling-Mounted EV Charging Layout to Eliminate Floor Cable Hazards
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional electric vehicle charging systems pose trip hazards and incur significant costs due to ground-level or underground electrical utilities, especially in large facilities like warehouses and parking structures.
Innovation Solution
An overhead-mounted electric vehicle charging system using cable trays for electrical power distribution and integrated EV charger mounting, eliminating floor-level cables and chargers, and allowing for easy expansion by adding modular cable tray sections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If ground-level or wall-mounted electrical utilities are used for EV charging, then the system is easier to implement, but it creates trip hazards and damage risks to cables and charging handles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions the EV charging system from ground-level (2D floor plane) to ceiling-mounted (3D vertical space), utilizing the overhead dimension to eliminate trip hazards and cable damage risks while maintaining ease of implementation through standardized ceiling mounting procedures
2Reliability
If underground trenching and floor-installed utilities are used, then electrical power distribution is established, but installation costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the electrical utilities from the floor/ground level and relocates them to the ceiling, eliminating the need for expensive underground trenching and floor installation while maintaining reliable electrical power distribution through overhead cable routing
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the conventional approach of installing electrical utilities from the ground up, the patent inverts the installation approach by mounting utilities from the ceiling down, thereby avoiding costly floor penetration and trenching operations
3Productivity
If a fixed number of cable trays are installed, then the initial charging system is complete, but future expansion becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the cable tray system into modular, segmented sections that can be independently added or removed, allowing the charging infrastructure to expand incrementally as needed without requiring complete system redesign or disruption of existing operations
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of an electric vehicle (EV) charging system for implementation in structures that house electric vehicles, such as warehouses or parking structures, are disclosed. The EV charging system can be overhead mounted from a building's ceiling, using cable tray for electrical power distribution and an integrated EV charger mounting system, thus eliminating the risk of EV cables and charging handles being dropped on floor areas. The disclosed ceiling mountable system is especially advantageous for electric vehicle fleet charging applications and multi-level parking lot applications, as the disclosed system enables simplification and lowest-total-installed-cost in comparison to traditional ground-mounted EV charging systems and related electrical infrastructure. Another advantage is the use of open cable tray for electrical power cable routing and support, which is easily expandable to accommodate additional EV chargers by adding modular cable tray or cable runs to load center/drop-out sections for EV chargers and cable management.