Inverted Hat Bracket for Vehicle Battery Mounting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery unit mounting structures for vehicles fail to efficiently reduce cost, weight, and space while effectively reinforcing the floor panel, especially when integrating a drive battery unit and air conditioning duct.
Innovation Solution
A battery unit mounting structure featuring an inverted hat-shaped bracket with a three-layer configuration of the floor panel, side member, and attachment portion, which supports the battery unit and allows for reduced dimensions, enabling cost, weight, and space savings, while also reinforcing the floor panel and accommodating an air conditioning duct.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a conventional hat-shaped bracket is used to support the battery unit, then the bracket can provide sufficient support strength, but the bracket occupies large space and increases vehicle weight
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional hat-shaped bracket configuration to create an inverted hat-shaped bracket. Instead of the brim extending outward from the center, the vertical wall portions extend upward from the ends of the attachment portion, with the support portions extending outward from the upper ends. This inversion reduces the bracket's footprint on the floor panel while maintaining support capability through the three-layer joined structure with the floor panel and side member.
2Weight of stationary object
If the floor panel is made thin to reduce weight, then vehicle weight is reduced, but the floor panel becomes vulnerable to damage and cracking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the bracket attachment portion, floor panel, and side member into a three-layer joined structure. The attachment portion is joined to both the floor panel and the side member, creating a composite structure that distributes loads and reinforces the floor panel area where the battery unit is mounted, preventing damage while keeping the floor panel itself thin.
3Area of stationary object
If the bracket dimensions are reduced to save space, then vehicle space utilization improves, but the bracket may lack sufficient support capability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional flat bracket design to a three-dimensional inverted hat-shaped structure by adding vertical wall portions that extend upward from the attachment portion. This dimensional change allows the bracket to achieve sufficient support capability through the vertical joined structure with the floor panel and side member while maintaining a compact footprint on the floor panel surface.
Data Source
AI summary
A battery unit mounting structure for a vehicle of the present invention includes a floor panel, a side member attached to a lower surface of the floor panel, and extending in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and a bracket mounted on an upper surface of the floor panel above the side member. The bracket includes an attachment portion which is attached to the side member in a three-layer structure, two vertical wall portions extending upward from respective corresponding end portions in a transverse direction of the vehicle of the attachment portion, and two support portions configured to support the battery unit, and each extending from an upper end of the corresponding one of the two vertical wall portions in a direction away from a center of the bracket.