Electric Heater Control Unit With Press-Fit Interfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional control units for electric heating devices in motor vehicles require different designs and configurations for varying high-voltage and low-voltage specifications, making them costly and difficult to maintain due to embedded control electronics.
Innovation Solution
A control unit with two housing parts that house the control electronics, where high-voltage and low-voltage interfaces are on one part, and the electronics are connected via press fit elements, allowing for adaptable interface configurations and improved accessibility for maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If control electronics are embedded within the housing interior using a casting compound, then the control unit achieves structural integrity and protection, but accessibility of control electronics for maintenance purposes becomes substantially more difficult or even impossible
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is divided into a housing body and a separate cover element that can be removed. The control electronics are mounted on a circuit board that is accessible when the cover element is removed, allowing maintenance while maintaining structural integrity when assembled.
Solution Approach 2:
The control electronics are extracted from the embedded casting compound configuration and mounted on a circuit board that can be accessed by removing the cover element, enabling maintenance while preserving the protective housing structure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If control units are designed with different configurations for different high-voltage power source specifications, then the control unit can be adapted to various specifications, but the control units become altogether differently designed and produced increasing complexity and cost
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit employs a standardized housing body and control electronics platform that can accommodate different high-voltage power source specifications through interface adapters or configuration changes, reducing the need for completely different designs while maintaining adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The control unit is segmented into standardized components (housing body, control electronics) and variable components (interfaces for different power sources), allowing the standardized parts to remain unchanged while only the interface elements need adaptation for different specifications.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5
AI summary
The invention relates to a control unit (1) for an electric heating device, having a first and at least a second housing part (3, 2, 4), each of which jointly bound a housing interior (5) on the inside and which separate the housing interior (5) from an external environment (6) of the control unit (1), the control unit (1) having a low-voltage and high-voltage interface (7, 8) each arranged on the first housing part (3) on the outside, and having control electronics (9), which are received in the housing interior (5) and which, by means of an electrical low-voltage line (10), are electrically connected to the low-voltage interface (7), and by means of an electrical high-voltage line (11) are electrically connected to the high-voltage interface (8), wherein the low-voltage and/or the high-voltage line (10, 11), at their line end (12) arranged in the housing interior (5), comprise/comprises at least one first press fit element (13) which, electrically connecting the control electronics (9) to the relevant interface (7, 8), forms a press fit with a second press fit element that is present on the control electronics (9).