ELECTRICAL HEATING DEVICE WITH PTC ELEMENT AND ELECTRICAL SUPPLY LINES AS HEAT CONDUCTOR AND OPERATING FLUID TANK WITH SUCH A HEATING DEVICE

Abstract

An electrical heating device (14) for an operating fluid tank (10) of a motor vehicle, in particular for a tank (10) for storing aqueous urea solution, having at least one PTC element (34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44), that is disposed connecting two electrical conductors (24, 26, 28, 29), characterized in that the electrical heating device (14) comprises a multitude of PTC elements (34, 36, 28, 40, 42, 44), of which each is connectively arranged to two electrical conductors (24, 26, 28, 29), wherein at least one of the electrical conductors (24, 26, 28, 29) is configured as a laminar conductor component and forms a heat conductor for transferring the heat produced in the PTC element (34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44) to a volume portion of the outside environment (18) of the electrical heating device (14), which is adjacent to the electrical heating device (14).

Claims

1. An electrical heating device for an operating fluid tank of a motor vehicle, comprising: a plurality of PTC elements, each of which is connectively arranged to two electrical conductors; wherein at least one of the electrical conductors is configured as a laminar conductor component and forms a heat conductor for transferring heat produced in the PTC element to a volume portion of the outside environment of the electrical heating device, which is adjacent to the electrical heating device.

2. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein both electrical conductors that contact one PTC element are configured as laminar conductor components, each forming one heat conductor.

3. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein the PTC elements are made from PTC ceramic and/or PTC plastic.

4. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of PTC elements are arranged in parallel between the same two electrical conductors.

5. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of PTC elements are arranged in series between respectively different electrical conductor pairs.

6. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein two electrical conductors have a different shape.

7. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein the PTC elements are thicker than the electrical conductors, which they connect.

8. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein at least one PTC element is connected to an electrical conductor by adhering with an electrically conducting adhesive and/or by soldering, and/or by using fasteners.

9. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein it is covered with a foil or over molded with plastic at least on one side or/and is covered with a foil or over molded with plastic on both sides and/or is accommodated with one side on a substrate.

10. A motor vehicle operating fluid tank, having an electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein the electrical heating device is preferably arranged in such a way in the tank interior while forming a gap space between it and a tank interior wall surface that a heat transfer surface of the heating device is located at a distance from the tank inner wall surface.

11. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein at least one PTC element is connected to an electrical conductor by hard soldering.

12. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein at least one PTC element is connected to an electrical conductor by using rivets and/or screws.

13. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein at least one PTC element is connected to an electrical conductor by using plastic fasteners.

14. The electrical heating device according to claim 1, wherein said electrical heating device is covered with a foil or over molded with plastic at least on one side or/and is covered with a foil or over molded with plastic on both sides and/or is accommodated with one side on a rigid substrate.

15. The motor vehicle operating fluid tank according to claim 10, wherein said tank is for storing aqueous urea solution.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

[0040] The present invention will be described in more detail in the following with the aid of the accompanying drawings.

[0041] FIG. 1 shows a roughly schematic longitudinal sectional view through a lower case of a motor vehicle operating fluid tank according to the invention having a first embodiment of an electrical heating device according to the invention accommodated therein; and

[0042] FIG. 2 shows a roughly schematic transversal sectional view through a second embodiment of an electrical heating device according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0043] In the single FIG. 1, a motor vehicle operating fluid tank is identified overall with reference numeral 10. The tank 10 is shown in longitudinal section in a section plane parallel to the bottom. In the finalized operationally ready state arranged in the motor vehicle, the direction of effect of the force of gravity g runs orthogonally to the section plane and orthogonally to the drawing plane of FIG. 1. The section plane passes through a lower case of the tank 10. The observer of FIG. 1 looks thus in the direction of a tank bottom 12, beyond which, that is, in the direction of the observer of FIG. 1, an electrical heating device according to the invention identified overall with reference numeral 14 is arranged.

[0044] The lateral wall 16, which is intersected by the section plane and extends fundamentally orthogonally to the drawing plane, is represented shaded in FIG. 1.

[0045] It is expressly pointed out that FIG. 1 merely shows a roughly schematic representation of a motor vehicle operating fluid tank 10 according to the invention and the heating device 14 accommodated therein.

[0046] In the interior 18 of the tank 10 is stored an operating fluid for selected extraction therefrom. An aqueous urea solution is preferably conceived thereby as reducing agent in a selective catalytic reduction of the exhaust gas of the motor vehicle. The operating fluid stored in the tank interior 18 can be extracted through an extraction opening 20 in the bottom 12 of the tank by a feed pump, if required supported by a valve for dosing, and fed, for example, to an injection nozzle in the exhaust gas system.

[0047] The heating device 14 is provided in the tank interior 18 in order to prevent the operating fluid from freezing or in order to keep it fluid in said tank interior.

[0048] The heating device 14 has a substrate 22, which is arranged at a distance from the tank bottom 12 and approximately parallel thereto. In the present case, the substrate 22 is formed by a flat rigid plastic plate, whose main plane of extension runs parallel to the drawing plane of FIG. 1. The substrate 22 has an opening above the extraction opening 20 to ensure the unimpeded flow of operating fluid from the tank interior 18 through the extraction opening 20.

[0049] Electrical conductors 24, 26, 28 and 29 are provided on the fundamentally flat substrate 22 on the side facing away from the tank bottom 12. The number of electrical connectors can be more or less than the mentioned four conductors. The electrical conductors 24, 26, 28 and 29 are arranged side by side in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1. They extend in the same main extension surface.

[0050] The ends of the electrical conductors 24 and 26 are guided through the tank wall 16 as contacts 30 and 32 in order to be available on the outside of the tank 10 for contact with an electric current supply.

[0051] The electrical conductors 24 and 26 consequently comprise the main power supply of the electrical heating device 14, since the latter can be directly connected to an electric current source via its contacts 30 and 32. Three—but there also can be more or less—PTC elements 34, 36 and 38, which are provided in the parallel connection between the electrical conductors 24 and 26, are arranged between the electrical conductors 24 and 26 in the example shown.

[0052] The electrical conductors 24 and 26 are shaped as a laminar structure in order to conduct, as heat conductors, the heat produced as a result of the current flow in the PTC elements 34, 36 and 38 into the surface of the heating device 14 and transfer it from there over a large surface to the tank interior 18 and the reducing agent contained therein.

[0053] Further PTC elements 40, 42 and 44 are overall connected in parallel to the first-mentioned PTC elements 34, 36 and 38, but are electrically connected in series to each other, wherein the electrical conductor 29 is arranged between the PTC elements 40 and 42, and the electrical conductor 29 is arranged between the PTC elements 42 and 44. Both electrical conductors 28 and 29 are configured in turn as laminar conductors, that is, their material thickness is considerably smaller than their measurement in the direction of the length and/or width, wherein the largest occurring width of an electrical conductor is at least 30 times greater than the thickness of the electrical conductor in the shown embodiment. The direction of the thickness of the flat electrical conductors 24, 26, 28 and 29 runs orthogonally to the drawing plane of FIG. 1. The thickness of the electrical conductors 24, 26, 28 and 29 is fundamentally spatially constant. The PTC elements 34, 36, 38, 40, 42 and 44 are preferably adhesively connected by an electrically conducting adhesive to their respectively contacted electrical conductors.

[0054] The PTC elements of the heating device 14 can be identical, but do not have to be. The PTC elements, which are electrically connected in series to each other, differ from the PTC elements that are connected in parallel to each other. However, the PTC elements that are connected in parallel to each other also do not have to be identical.

[0055] The PTC elements 34, 36, 38, 40, 42 and 44 are the selectively hottest spots of the heating device 14 when the contacts 30 and 32 are fed with current in the heating device 14 represented in FIG. 1, wherein the heat produced therein is dissipated via the laminar electrical conductors 24, 26, 28 and 29 and is delivered over the greatest possible surface into the operating fluid held in the tank interior 18.

[0056] The heating device 14 can be covered to the observer with a foil or can be overmolded with plastic, so that the electrical conductors and the PTC elements cannot be chemically attacked by the operating fluid.

[0057] In FIG. 2 is represented roughly schematically in section in a second embodiment of the invention, a heating device 114 according to the invention. Components and component portions that are identical and have the same function are identified with the same reference numerals as in the first embodiment, but increased by the number 100. The second embodiment will be described in the following only with regard to its differences with respect to the first embodiment of FIG. 1, to whose description reference is expressly made, and also to describe the second embodiment shown in FIG. 2.

[0058] The electrical conductors 124 and 126 are not arranged side by side, as in the first embodiment, but one on top of the other, in the second embodiment of FIG. 2, so that the electrical conductors 124 and 126 preferably extend in preferably mutually parallel but mutually spaced main extension surfaces.

[0059] The electrical conductors 124 and 126 are connected to each other by a PTC element 134, whose extension surface is considerably smaller than that of the electrical conductors 124 and 126. Spacers 150 and 152 of insulating material, for example, of electrically insulating plastic, are consequently arranged to prevent an undesirable short circuit of the electrical conductors 124 and 126 at those locations of the spacing gap 153 between the electrical conductors 124 and 126 that are at such a distance to the side of the PTC element 134 that a short circuit is to be feared or basically cannot be ruled out as a result of a deformation of the electrical conductors 124 and 126 with respect to each other. The spacers 150 and 152 are preferably configured with the same thickness as the PTC element 134.

[0060] The assembly of electrical conductors 124 and 126 with the intermediately arranged components: PTC element 134 and spacers 150 and 152, is accommodated between two plastic foils 154 and 156, which protect the assembly from environmental influences, for example, from a chemical attack of an aqueous urea solution surrounding the heating device 114.

[0061] The electrical conductors 124 and 126 arranged one on top of the other can be individually adjacent to further electrical conductors in side by side arrangement or can be adjacent to another assembly of electrical conductors arranged one on top of the other with PTC elements arranged between them in side by side arrangement.