HEV Battery Lockout Plug with Rotating Jaw and Padlock
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional safety plugs used in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) lack a secure locking mechanism, making it difficult to comply with lockout tagout standards during servicing, as they cannot be locked with a keyed padlock or similar device, posing safety risks due to the inability to ensure the vehicle is completely disconnected from the battery.
Innovation Solution
A lockout plug assembly with a rotatable jaw and a locking mechanism that accepts a padlock, allowing the plug to be securely locked to the battery, preventing removal and ensuring the vehicle is disconnected from the battery, thereby meeting lockout tagout standards by engaging a lip on the battery housing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional safety plug is used to disconnect the battery, then the battery can be disconnected from the vehicle system, but the plug cannot be securely locked to prevent removal
Solution Approach 1:
The safety plug is divided into two separate members: a battery port connector member that interfaces with the battery power port, and a locking jaw member that engages with the battery housing. This segmentation allows each member to perform its specific function independently while working together to achieve secure locking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the disconnect function and the locking function into a single integrated assembly. The locking jaw member accepts a padlock that physically prevents removal of the entire lockout plug assembly from the battery, merging the safety disconnect capability with secure locking in one device.
2Ease of operation
If a locking mechanism is added to the safety plug, then the plug can be locked to prevent removal, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A padlock serves as an intermediary locking mechanism that interfaces with the locking jaw member. Rather than building a complex integrated lock into the safety plug itself, the design uses a simple padlock acceptance feature that leverages a common, simple external locking device to achieve secure locking.
Solution Approach 2:
The complex locking mechanism is extracted from the safety plug body and replaced with a simple padlock acceptance feature. The actual locking function is performed by the externally applied padlock, which is a simple, well-understood mechanism rather than a complex integrated system.
3Ease of operation
If the safety plug is designed to be removable for servicing, then access to the battery is easy, but safety is compromised during servicing
Solution Approach 1:
The locking mechanism is engaged after the safety plug is installed in the battery power port, before any servicing begins. The padlock is applied to the locking jaw member to preemptively prevent any removal attempts, ensuring safety is established before work commences.
Solution Approach 2:
The padlock creates a preliminary counter-action force that physically prevents removal of the safety plug assembly. This anti-action is applied in advance and maintains continuous prevention of unintended startup or re-energization throughout the servicing process.
Data Source
AI summary
A battery lockout device is provided. The battery lockout device may include a safety plug body adapted to engage a power port of the battery. The battery lockout device may further include a rotating member operatively connected to the safety plug body, the rotating member engaging a battery lip or battery lip housing. The rotating member, in a first rotated position, can be locked in the first rotated position preventing access to the power port of the battery and preventing removal of the safety body plug from the battery. To effectuate locking the rotating member in the first rotated position, a keyed lock can be used to maintain the first rotated position of the rotating member relative to the safety plug body and the battery/battery housing lip. In this way, no energy from the battery may be discharged until removal/disengagement of the battery lockout device.