Parallel Linkage Charging Contact Unit for Inclined Vehicles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing contact units for electrically driven vehicles, such as buses, face challenges in maintaining a consistent contact force across varying vehicle inclinations and uneven road surfaces, leading to unreliable electrical connections and potential safety issues during charging.
Innovation Solution
A contact unit with a parallel linkage system featuring connecting rods and support rods connected via hinges, allowing for adjustable charging contact supports that can distribute contact force evenly across multiple contacts, ensuring secure connections even when the vehicle is inclined or the road is uneven.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a contact unit is designed for a defined contact height, then the charging contacts can be positioned accurately, but the contact force cannot be maintained when the vehicle is inclined or the road is uneven
Solution Approach 1:
The contact unit employs a parallel linkage mechanism with connecting rods and support rods that allows dynamic adjustment of the charging contacts' position and orientation. This dynamic structure enables the contacts to adapt to vehicle inclinations and road unevenness while maintaining accurate contact height positioning and consistent contact force, thereby resolving the contradiction between manufacturing precision and reliability.
2Ease of manufacture
If the contact unit structure is simplified to reduce cost, then manufacturing becomes easier, but the ability to maintain consistent contact force across varying inclinations is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The contact unit is divided into modular components including charging contacts, support rods, connecting rods, and hinges. This segmentation allows for easier manufacturing of individual parts while the assembled parallel linkage mechanism provides the necessary adaptability to vehicle inclinations. Each component can be manufactured separately with standard tolerances, yet the overall structure achieves complex adaptive functionality.
3Force
If the charging contacts are made more robust to ensure reliable connection, then contact force is improved, but the device complexity and maintenance requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The parallel linkage mechanism ensures that the contact force is distributed evenly across all charging contacts through its geometrically equivalent structure. The support rods and connecting rods are arranged in parallel configurations that create equipotential force distribution, allowing robust reliable connections without requiring overly complex individual contact components. The system achieves force optimization through structural symmetry rather than component complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A contact unit for a charging station of an electrically driven vehicle and a related method. The contact unit includes at least two charging contact supports having at least two charging contacts thereon and connected by a parallel linkage having connecting and support rods disposed in parallel, each support rod being connected to the connecting rods in one of two parallel movement planes via connecting hinges forming a parallelogram with the connecting rods, the connecting rods connected to a base support by support hinges spaced apart in a support plane extending in parallel and centrically to the movement planes, each charging contact support being connected to the support rod via a rotary hinge, the rotary hinges being orthogonally disposed with respect to the connecting hinges, each charging contact support mounting the charging contacts coaxially with respect to the axis of rotation.