CN109786885B

CN109786885B - Battery module

Info

Publication number: CN109786885B
Application number: CN201711132909.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 游志毅; 秦峰; 马林; 王晓帆; 肖信福; 章华
Original assignee: Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-11-15
Filing date: 2017-11-15
Publication date: 2020-12-04
Anticipated expiration: 2037-11-15
Also published as: CN109786885A

Abstract

The present invention provides a battery module, including: a battery assembly including a plurality of batteries arranged in a longitudinal direction; a heat-conductive upper cover plate positioned above the battery assembly; and the cooling plate is fixedly arranged above the heat-conducting upper cover plate. In the battery module according to the present invention, since the heat-conductive upper cover plate has heat conductivity and the cooling plate is fixedly disposed above the heat-conductive upper cover plate, the heat-conductive upper cover plate can directly and rapidly transfer heat of the tops of the respective batteries of the battery assembly into the cooling plate when the battery module is operated, thereby achieving cooling of the respective batteries in the battery assembly via the cooling plate. This compares with the bottom that prior art's cooling system set up box under, and this kind of arrangement mode of cooling plate has improved the radiating efficiency of battery module, is favorable to prolonging the life of each battery.

Description

Battery module

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of batteries, in particular to a battery module.

Background

Since the battery module generates a large amount of heat during operation, a cooling system (e.g., a cooling plate) is generally provided in the battery module to dissipate the heat of the battery. The lower box of traditional battery module adopts the metal material to make usually, and the upper cover plate adopts the plastic material to make, because the coefficient of heat conductivity of plastic material is less than the coefficient of heat conductivity of metal material, therefore generally with cooling system setting bottom half under. However, when the battery module is operated, the surface temperature of the electrode terminals on the top of each battery and the surface temperature of the top cover sheet near the electrode terminals are the highest, and a certain time is required for transferring the heat to the cooling system on the bottom, so that the heat dissipation efficiency of the cooling system is low, and the service life of the battery is affected.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the problems in the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a battery module, in which a cooling plate is disposed above a heat-conductive upper cover plate, so as to improve heat dissipation efficiency and prolong the service life of a battery.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a battery module including: a battery assembly including a plurality of batteries arranged in a longitudinal direction; a heat-conductive upper cover plate positioned above the battery assembly; and the cooling plate is fixedly arranged above the heat-conducting upper cover plate.

The invention has the following beneficial effects:

in the battery module according to the present invention, since the heat-conductive upper cover plate has heat conductivity and the cooling plate is fixedly disposed above the heat-conductive upper cover plate, the heat-conductive upper cover plate can directly and rapidly transfer heat of the tops of the respective batteries of the battery assembly into the cooling plate when the battery module is operated, thereby achieving cooling of the respective batteries in the battery assembly via the cooling plate. This compares with the bottom that prior art's cooling system set up box under, and this kind of arrangement mode of cooling plate has improved the radiating efficiency of battery module, is favorable to prolonging the life of each battery.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an overall assembly view of a battery module according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the battery module of fig. 1 with a lower case removed.

Fig. 3 is an exploded view of fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the thermally conductive upper cover plate of fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the cooling plate of fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a front view of fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along line a-a of fig. 6.

Wherein the reference numerals are as follows:

1 Battery assembly 6 lower case

11 battery 7 heat conductor

2 main body part of heat-conducting upper cover plate 71

21 through hole 72 intermediate wall

3 end plate of cooling plate 8

31 cooling pipe L length direction

311 width direction of port W

4 height direction of output electrode terminal H

5 output pole connecting sheet

Detailed Description

The battery module according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1 to 7, a battery module according to the present invention includes: a battery assembly 1 including a plurality of batteries 11 arranged in parallel in a longitudinal direction L; a heat-conductive upper cover plate 2 located above the battery assembly 1; and a cooling plate 3 fixedly disposed above the heat conductive upper cover plate 2.

In the battery module according to the present invention, since the heat-conductive upper cover plate 2 has heat conductivity and the cooling plate 3 is fixedly disposed above the heat-conductive upper cover plate 2, the heat-conductive upper cover plate 2 can directly and rapidly transfer heat of the tops of the respective batteries 11 of the battery assembly 1 into the cooling plate 3 when the battery module is operated, thereby achieving cooling of the respective batteries 11 in the battery assembly 1 via the cooling plate 3. Compared with the cooling system arranged at the bottom of the lower box body in the prior art, the arrangement mode of the cooling plate 3 improves the heat dissipation efficiency of the battery module, and is beneficial to prolonging the service life of each battery 11.

Since the metal material has a higher thermal conductivity than the plastic material, the heat-conductive upper cover 2 may be made of a metal material, but is not limited thereto.

Referring to fig. 5 to 7, a cooling pipe 31 through which a cooling medium flows is provided inside the cooling plate 3. The cooling duct 31 has: two ports 311 are used for the inflow and outflow of the cooling medium, respectively, and the heat transferred from the heat-conducting upper cover plate 2 to the cooling plate 3 is taken away in the inflow and outflow processes of the cooling medium, so that the temperature of each battery 11 in use can be effectively reduced.

With further reference to fig. 7, the cooling ducts 31 may be arranged in an "S" shaped path in the cooling plate 3, but are not limited to this arrangement. Here, the cooling plate 3 may be formed by sandwiching the cooling pipe 31 between upper and lower flat plates and then fixedly connecting the two flat plates by welding.

Referring to fig. 4, the heat conductive upper cover plate 2 may be provided with two through holes 21. Referring to fig. 1 to 3, the battery module may further include: and two output electrode terminals 4, each output electrode terminal 4 being electrically connected to a corresponding one of the through holes 21 of the battery assembly 1 and penetrating and extending out of the heat conductive upper cover 2. The cooling plate 3 is fixedly disposed above a portion of the heat-conductive upper cover plate 2 between the two output electrode terminals 4.

Wherein, in order not to additionally increase the volume of battery module, promote the volume energy density of battery module, cooling plate 3 can share the height that output pole terminal 4 stretches out heat conduction upper cover plate 2 and occupy, and the thickness of cooling plate 3 can be not more than the height that output pole terminal 4 stretches out heat conduction upper cover plate 2 promptly.

Referring to fig. 1 to 3, the battery module may further include: two output electrode connecting pieces 5 for electrically connecting an external device (e.g., a power supply device for charging the battery module or an electric device for consuming the electric power of the battery module), each output electrode connecting piece 5 being electrically connected to one output electrode terminal 4 above the corresponding output electrode terminal 4. The thickness of the cooling plate 3 can be not more than the sum of the height of each output electrode terminal 4 extending out of the heat-conducting upper cover plate 2 and the thickness of the corresponding output electrode connecting piece 5. Thus, the cooling plate 3 does not cause an increase in the overall volume of the battery module, thereby improving the volumetric energy density of the battery module.

Referring to fig. 1 to 3, the battery module may further include: and a lower case 6 hermetically fitted to the heat-conductive upper cover 2 and housing the battery assembly 1 together with the heat-conductive upper cover 2.

The heat-conducting upper cover plate 2 can be made of a metal material, the lower box body 6 can also be made of a metal material, and the heat-conducting upper cover plate 2 is connected to the lower box body 6 in a welding and sealing mode, so that the heat-conducting upper cover plate 2 and the lower box body 6 form a sealed metal shell for accommodating the battery assembly 1 together, the overall rigidity of the battery module is effectively improved, the deformation resistance of the battery module under the action of impact and/or vibration is improved, and the battery assembly 1 is well protected.

Referring to fig. 2 and 3, the battery module may further include: and a heat conductor 7 provided in the lower case 6 for transferring heat of each battery 11 of the battery assembly 1 to the lower case 6, and then transferring the heat absorbed by the lower case 6 to the heat-conductive upper cover 2 and the cooling plate 3 in sequence and finally taking away the heat via a cooling medium in the cooling duct 31. Because heat conductor 7 has higher heat conductivity, the radiating efficiency of whole battery module has been improved greatly.

With further reference to fig. 3, the thermal conductor 7 may have: a body portion 71 located between the outer peripheral surface of the battery assembly 1 and the inner wall surface of the lower case 6; and a plurality of intermediate walls 72 formed at intervals in the body portion 71 and respectively located between the large surfaces of two adjacent batteries 11 of the battery assembly 1. The outer peripheral surface of the battery assembly 1 referred to herein is a "surface composed of large surfaces of two batteries 11 at both ends in the longitudinal direction L, side surfaces of all the batteries 11 at both ends in the width direction W, and bottom surfaces of all the batteries 11". The main body 71 and the intermediate walls 72 of the heat conductor 7 transmit heat from each part of the battery assembly 1 to the lower case 6 in a targeted manner, and the heat dissipation efficiency of the entire battery module is greatly improved.

Since the heat conductive potting compound has a high heat conductivity coefficient and good fluidity before being cured, the main body portion 71 and the intermediate walls 72 of the heat conductor 7 can be integrally formed by the heat conductive potting compound. Specifically, in the actual assembly process of the battery module, a certain amount of heat-conducting potting adhesive may be injected into the lower case 6 in advance, then the battery assembly 1 is assembled, the heat-conducting potting adhesive is pressed by the battery assembly 1, a portion of the heat-conducting potting adhesive is located between the outer circumferential surface of the battery assembly 1 and the inner wall surface of the lower case 6 to form the main body portion 71 of the heat conductor 7, a portion of the heat-conducting potting adhesive flows into the space between the large surfaces of two adjacent batteries 11 of the battery assembly 1 to form the intermediate wall 72 of the heat conductor 7, and finally the heat-conducting potting adhesive is cured to form the heat conductor 7, so that the main body portion 71 of the heat conductor 7 adhesively fixes the battery assembly 1 in the lower case 6, and each intermediate wall 72 effectively adhesively fixes two adjacent batteries 11, thereby improving the connection. Further, the requirement of the battery module for flatness of the surface of each battery 11 and the requirement of adaptability between the battery assembly 1 and the lower case 6 can be reduced by providing the heat conductor 7.

In order to further secure the overall rigidity of the battery module 1 and improve the deformation resistance of the battery module 1 when the battery module 1 is subjected to impact and/or vibration, referring to fig. 1 to 3, the battery module may further include: two end plates 8 are fixed (e.g., welded) to both ends of the lower case 6 in the length direction L.

Claims

1. A battery module, comprising:

a battery assembly (1) including a plurality of batteries (11) arranged in parallel in a longitudinal direction (L);

its characterized in that, battery module still includes:

a heat-conductive upper cover plate (2) located above the battery assembly (1); and

the cooling plate (3) is fixedly arranged above the heat-conducting upper cover plate (2);

the heat-conducting upper cover plate (2) is provided with two through holes (21);

the battery module still includes: two output electrode terminals (4), wherein each output electrode terminal (4) is electrically connected with the battery assembly (1) and penetrates through and extends out of a corresponding through hole (21) of the heat-conducting upper cover plate (2);

the cooling plate (3) is fixedly arranged above the part, between the two output electrode terminals (4), of the heat-conducting upper cover plate (2);

the thickness of the cooling plate (3) is not more than the height of the output electrode terminal (4) extending out of the heat-conducting upper cover plate (2).

2. The battery module according to claim 1,

a cooling pipeline (31) for flowing of a cooling medium is arranged in the cooling plate (3);

the cooling duct (31) has: two ports (311) for inflow and outflow of the cooling medium, respectively.

3. The battery module according to claim 2, wherein the cooling duct (31) is arranged in an "S" -shaped path in the cooling plate (3).

4. The battery module according to claim 1,

the battery module still includes: and two output electrode connecting pieces (5) for electrically connecting an external device, wherein each output electrode connecting piece (5) is electrically connected to the output electrode terminal (4) above the corresponding output electrode terminal (4).

5. A battery module according to claim 4, characterized in that the thickness of the cooling plate (3) is not greater than the sum of the height of each output electrode terminal (4) protruding out of the thermally conductive upper cover plate (2) and the thickness of the corresponding output electrode connecting piece (5).

6. The battery module according to claim 1, wherein the battery module further comprises: and a lower case (6) hermetically fitted to the heat-conductive upper cover plate (2) and accommodating the battery assembly (1) together with the heat-conductive upper cover plate (2).

7. The battery module according to claim 6, wherein the battery module further comprises: and a heat conductor (7) which is provided in the lower case (6) and which transmits the heat of each battery (11) of the battery assembly (1) to the lower case (6).

8. The battery module according to claim 7, wherein the heat conductor (7) has:

a main body part (71) located between the outer peripheral surface of the battery assembly (1) and the inner wall surface of the lower case (6); and

and a plurality of intermediate walls (72) that are formed at intervals in the main body and that are respectively located between the large surfaces of two adjacent batteries (11) of the battery assembly (1).