Threaded Coolant Draining Tool for ESS Valve Connectors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy cooling system drainage tools for heavy-duty vehicles, such as battery electric vehicles, often fail to fit modern connectors, making it difficult to drain coolant efficiently during maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A coolant draining tool with an elongated shape, internal tubular channel, and externally threaded portion that matches ISO metric screw threads, featuring a valve engagement member with a cross-hair or mesh design to engage spring-loaded valves, allowing for efficient drainage without matching the outside dimensions of the connector, and optionally including a flow meter and hose connection for precise coolant management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If legacy cooling system drainage tools are used on modern heavy-duty vehicles, then the tools cannot fit modern connectors, but modifying the tools to fit modern connectors increases device complexity
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of trying to make the drainage tool adapt to the connector's external dimensions, the invention inverts the approach by having the tool engage with the internal thread of the connector. The externally threaded portion of the tool mates with the internally threaded modern connector, allowing the tool to interface with the connector's internal geometry rather than matching its external shape.
Solution Approach 2:
The drainage tool is designed with a universal interface that can work with modern connectors through the internal thread engagement. The valve engagement member with cross-hair or mesh design can engage different types of spring-loaded valves, making the tool versatile for various modern connector configurations without requiring multiple specialized tools.
2Device complexity
If a simple tubular channel is used for coolant drainage, then the tool structure is simple, but the valve engagement mechanism lacks mechanical integrity
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the valve engagement member with the tubular channel structure. The cross-hair or mesh design of the valve engagement member is integrated into the tubular channel, providing both coolant flow guidance and robust valve engagement in a single unified structure rather than separate components.
Solution Approach 2:
The valve engagement member is designed with a cross-hair or mesh configuration that distributes mechanical loads across multiple engagement points with the spring-loaded valve. This composite structural approach enhances mechanical integrity while maintaining the simplicity of the overall tool design.
Data Source
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AI summary
A coolant draining tool (300) for draining a coolant from an electrical storage system, ESS, of a heavy-duty vehicle, wherein the coolant draining tool (300) is of elongated shape and comprises an internal tubular channel (340) for guiding a flow of coolant in a discharge direction (D), the coolant draining tool (300) comprising an externally threaded portion (330) which encloses the tubular channel (340) at a distal first end of the coolant draining tool (300), wherein a valve engagement member (310) is arranged centered in the tubular channel at the first end of the coolant draining tool, the valve engagement member (310) being arranged to engage a spring-loaded valve of an ESS connector to bias the valve into an open position.