BATTERY HOUSING FOR BATTERY MODULE OF A TRACTION BATTERY OF A MOTOR VEHICLE

Abstract

A battery housing for a battery module of a traction battery of a motor vehicle has (i) a housing for enclosing at least one battery cell of the battery module, (ii) at least one cooling groove which is formed in at least one housing wall of the housing after which is open away from the battery cell and which serves for conducting a cooling fluid, and (iii) a cover which is configured as a planar plate and which is connected to the housing wall and which serves for closing the at least one cooling groove. Owing to the cooling groove formed in the housing wall, the cover can be configured as an inexpensive planar plate, such that cooling of a battery module is made possible with little outlay in terms of production.

Claims

1. A battery housing for a battery module of a traction battery of a motor vehicle, said battery housing comprising: a housing for enclosing at least one battery cell of the battery module; at least one cooling groove formed in at least one housing wall of the housing, which at least one cooling groove serves for conducting a cooling fluid, and which at least one cooling groove is open in a direction facing away from the battery cell; and a cover in the form of a planar plate that is connected to the housing wall and which serves for closing the at least one cooling groove.

2. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover comprises (i) an inlet opening that communicates with the cooling groove and serves for the feed of the cooling fluid, and/or (ii) an outlet opening that communicates with the cooling groove and serves for the discharge of the cooling fluid.

3. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, further comprising (i) an inlet opening which serves for the feed of the cooling fluid and is disposed at an edge of the housing wall, and which is delimited by the cooling groove and by the cover, and/or (ii) an outlet opening which serves for the discharge of the cooling fluid and that is delimited by the cooling groove and by the cover.

4. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing is configured as an extruded rectangular tube, and wherein the at least one cooling groove is formed by compression forming and/or cutting.

5. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one housing wall is configured for dissipating mechanical loads, wherein a material, which delimits the at least one cooling groove of the housing wall, contributes to stiffening of the housing wall.

6. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cooling groove has a shape configuration which deviates from a straight profile, and wherein the cooling groove runs in an angled and/or zigzag-shaped and/or meandering manner.

7. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover has a centering opening that is configured to be mounted onto a centering body of the housing wall.

8. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing has at least two housing walls that are each equipped with at least one cooling groove.

9. A battery module for a traction battery of a motor vehicle, having at least one battery cell and having said battery housing as claimed in claim 1 for enclosing the at least one battery cell, wherein the battery cell lies directly, or exclusively only via a heat-conducting layer, against the housing wall equipped with the at least one cooling groove.

10. The battery module as claimed in claim 9, wherein the only active temperature control of the at least one battery cell is provided exclusively by way of the exchange of heat of the at least one battery cell with the cooling fluid that can be caused to flow in the at least one cooling groove.

11. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing has at least four housing walls each equipped with more than one cooling groove.

12. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover comprises (i) an inlet opening that communicates with the cooling groove and serves for the feed of the cooling fluid, and (ii) an outlet opening that communicates with the cooling groove and serves for the discharge of the cooling fluid.

13. The battery housing as claimed in claim 1, further comprising (i) an inlet opening which serves for the feed of the cooling fluid and is disposed at an edge of the housing wall, and which is delimited by the cooling groove and by the cover, and (ii) an outlet opening which serves for the discharge of the cooling fluid and that is delimited by the cooling groove and by the cover.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] The invention is explained below by way of example with reference to the appended drawings on the basis of preferred exemplary embodiments, wherein the features presented below may in each case individually or in combination represent an aspect of the invention, in which:

[0019] FIG. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of a battery housing prior to the assembly process,

[0020] FIG. 2 shows a schematic perspective view of the battery housing from FIG. 1 after the assembly process,

[0021] FIG. 3 shows a schematic sectional view of the battery housing from FIG. 2, and

[0022] FIG. 4 shows a schematic frontal view of an alternative embodiment of the battery housing from FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0023] The battery housing 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 can be used for accommodating battery cells in order to form a battery module for a traction battery for the electric drive of a motor vehicle.

[0024] The battery housing 10 has an extruded housing 12 which is produced from plastics material and which is configured as a rectangular profile and in which, for example, there is inserted a partition 14, which partition corresponds to the extrusion direction and runs in the longitudinal direction of the housing 12 and serves for dividing the housing 12 into multiple sub-chambers. For example, in an upper housing wall 16 of the housing 12, there are formed multiple cooling grooves 18 which run in particular in meandering form and through which a cooling fluid can flow in order to control the temperature of, in particular in order to cool and/or pre-warm, the housing 12 and the battery cells that are accommodated in the housing 12. By means of a cover 20 which is configured as a planar plate, the cooling grooves 18 can be closed, such that a cooling channel is formed which is delimited by the cooling groove 18 of the housing wall 16 and an underside of the cover 20. In addition or alternatively, at least one cooling groove which is closed by another cover may also be provided in the other walls of the housing 12 in order to correspondingly increase the cooling power for the cooling of the battery cells, as illustrated in FIG. 3.

[0025] As is illustrated in FIG. 2, the cover 20 may have a centering opening 22 which can be mounted onto a centering body 24 formed in the housing wall 16 in order to specify a defined relative position of the cover 22 with respect to the housing wall 16, without the cover 20 requiring elevations which protrude out of the material plane of the cover 20. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, the cover 20 has in each case one inlet opening 26 and one outlet opening 28 for the various cooling channels, via which inlet opening and outlet opening the cooling fluid can enter and exit orthogonally with respect to the extrusion direction of the housing 12. Via the inlet opening 26 and the outlet opening 28, the respective cooling channel can be connected to a cooling circuit which, in particular, has an external heat exchanger, in particular a front-end radiator, which is air-cooled by relative wind, of the motor vehicle, in order to preferably passively cool the warmed cooling fluid to a desired operating temperature again.

[0026] As illustrated in FIG. 4, at least one of the inlet openings 26 and/or one of the outlet openings 28 may additionally or alternatively be provided on the end side of the housing 12. For this purpose, the associated cooling groove 18 may be designed to be open to the end side of the housing 12, such that the inlet opening 26 or the outlet opening 28 respectively is formed on the end side of the housing between the cooling groove 18 and the cover 20.