Case system for electric cells with horizontally-oriented lead sheets, and battery and battery rack using the same

Abstract

A case system for lead batteries is provided. The case system has an essentially six sided cuboid shape with two pairs of parallel sidewalls perpendicular to each other. Each pair of sidewalls defines two opposite surfaces of the essentially cuboid shape and further defines an interior volume inside the case system. The case system includes a further pair of parallel sidewalls, each of them perpendicular to the sidewalls above and each with a surface area larger than that of any one of the surface areas of the above sidewalls. One of the sidewalls is arranged as a separate cover wall for sealing the case system. At least one division plane is further included in the case system. The division plane divides the interior volume, such as to form a plurality of compartments, each for storing an electrical cell. All division planes are perpendicular to the cover wall. Further, an electrical cell, a lead battery and a lead battery layout including the above are shown.

Claims

1. A battery rack, comprising a plurality of lead batteries, each lead battery comprising: a case system having an essentially six-sided cuboid shape, comprising: a first pair of parallel, vertical sidewalls and a second pair of parallel, horizontal sidewalls perpendicular to the first pair of parallel sidewalls, and each of the first pair of sidewalls and the second pair of sidewalls defining two opposite surfaces of the essentially cuboid shape and further defining an interior volume inside the case system; a third pair of parallel sidewalls, each of the third pair of parallel sidewalls being perpendicular to the first pair of parallel sidewalls and the second pair of parallel sidewalls, each of the third pair of sidewalls having a surface area larger than any one of the surface areas of the first pair of parallel sidewalls and the second pair of parallel sidewalls, one of the third pair of sidewalls being arranged as a separate cover wall for sealing the case system; three division planes, dividing said interior volume such as to form six compartments, an electrical cell being storable in each of the compartments, all of the division planes being perpendicular to the cover wall, each of the compartments being configured so that the electrical cell with lead sheets is holdable such that the lead sheets are arranged in a horizontal orientation parallel to the second pair of parallel sidewalls; and at least one electrical cell in each compartment, the at least one electrical cell comprising: a plurality of lead sheets arranged parallel to each other; a plurality of absorbent glass fiber mats saturated with an electrolyte, each glass fiber mat being interposed between two adjacent ones of the lead sheets; the electrical cell is arranged in a compartment of the case system such that the lead sheets are arranged in the horizontal orientation; wherein the lead batteries are arranged on a 482.6 mm or 584.2 mm wide and 400 mm or 600 mm deep battery tray; wherein each of the batteries comprises terminals and all the terminals face the same side and are connected by battery connectors; wherein the terminals are arranged along a vertical line substantially at a center in a horizontal direction of one of the sidewalls of the first pair of parallel, vertical sidewalls; and wherein the terminals are connected by single length battery connectors.

2. The battery rack according to claim 1, further comprising at least one fluid channel opening having a gas vent with a valve.

3. The battery rack according to claim 1, wherein the case system is a single-piece element, apart from the cover wall which is a separate, prefabricated element.

4. The battery rack according to claim 1, wherein the cover wall further comprises conductor openings or terminal feedthroughs.

5. The battery rack according to claim 1, wherein one of the surface areas of the first pair of parallel sidewalls and the second pair of parallel sidewalls has one of: an edge width of approximately 105 mm and an edge length of approximately 395 mm, an edge width of approximately 125 mm and an edge length of approximately 600 mm, or an edge width of approximately 105 mm and an edge length of approximately 600 mm.

6. The battery rack according to claim 1, wherein the compartments are oriented so that the electrical cell is held such that the lead sheets are arranged in the horizontal orientation when the case system rests on a surface with a surface area of approximately one of: 414 cm.sup.2; 630 cm.sup.2; or 750 cm.sup.2.

7. The battery rack according to claim 1, wherein the compartments are oriented so that the electrical cell is held such that the lead sheets are arranged in parallel to a surface with a surface area of approximately one of: 414 cm.sup.2; 630 cm.sup.2; or 750 cm.sup.2.

8. The battery rack according to claim 1, wherein one of the surface areas of the first pair of parallel sidewalls and the second pair of parallel sidewalls has a surface area of approximately one of: 414 cm.sup.2; 630 cm.sup.2; or 750 cm.sup.2.

9. The battery rack according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of lead batteries includes four batteries.

10. The battery rack according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of lead sheets includes more than ten and up to eighty lead sheets arranged in parallel to each other.

11. The battery rack according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of lead sheets includes 45 to 57 lead sheets.

Description

(1) In a preferred embodiment, the lead battery layout makes use or single length battery connectors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(2) FIG. 1a is a schematic drawing of a compartmentation as in the state of the art.

(3) FIG. 1b is a schematic drawing of a compartmentation according to the present invention.

(4) FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing of a battery according to the present invention with a partially removed cover wall.

(5) FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing of an electrical cell adapted for use with the present dimension.

(6) FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing of a battery according to the present invention with an exploded cover wall view.

(7) FIG. 5 is a schematic drawing of a lead battery rack consisting of 4 batteries connected according to the present invention and filling a 482.6 mm (19) or 584.2 mm (23) battery tray.

(8) FIG. 6a is a schematic drawing of a lead battery rack wherefore two time two lead batteries according to the present invention are connected in parallel.

(9) FIG. 6b is a schematic drawing wherefore two times two lead batteries are connected in parallel according to the state of the art.

(10) FIG. 7a shows a schematic drawing of a two-level rack of batteries according to the present invention.

(11) FIG. 7b shows a two-level rack of lead batteries that are connected as in the state of the art.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(12) FIG. 1a shows a compartmentation as used in the state of the art batteries.

(13) The case 100 has six cell compartments in a two times three configuration, meaning that two rows of three compartments are placed in parallel to each other and divided by division planes 103. Each cell compartment 104 has a dimension X, Y and Z. In a typical state of the art battery the dimension Y is 260 mm to 290 mm and the dimension X is 127 to 183 mm.

(14) For ensuring an adequate compression of the absorbent glass mat in the element, during operation, the walls need to be very strong and stable.

(15) FIG. 1b is a compartmentation according to the present invention. The case 100 has two pairs of parallel sidewalls. The sidewalls 110 and 110 are parallel to each other as well the sidewalls 111 and 111. The sidewalls 110, 110, 111, 111 define an interior volume inside an essentially cuboid shape. Said interior volume is further subdivided into six compartments 104 by division planes 103.

(16) For ensuring an adequate compression of the absorbent glass mat in the element during operation, only the much smaller exterior wall surfaces, with XZ dimension, need to be very strong and stable.

(17) FIG. 2 shows a battery 120 according to the present invention. The battery is shown with a cut off window for representation purposes. It has an interior volume divided by 3 division planes 103 such as to form six compartments into which an electrical cell or element 105 can be placed. The case 100 is sealed off by a cover wall part 106 with electrical conductor openings or terminal feedthroughs 107 and a fluid, respectively gas nipple 108 for the gas release. The case 100 and the cover wall part 106 can be manufactured of suitable plastic such as SAN, ABS, PC, PP or mixtures thereof, for example.

(18) FIG. 3 shows an electrical cell 105 as employed in the battery described in FIG. 2.

(19) The electrical cell 105 consists of a plurality of stacked lead sheets 140 separated with absorbent glass fiber mat 142 saturated with electrolyte, whereby the electrolyte in the present electrical cell 105 is sulfuric acid of a concentration of 32% in weight, for example. The number of lead sheets is in this example 35. The cell has a positive termination 122 and a respective negative termination 121.

(20) FIG. 4 shows a lead battery according to the present invention with the cover wall part 106 exploded. The cover wall part 106 has electrical conductor openings or terminal feedthroughs 107 through which adequate electrical contact can be made to the positive cell termination 122, or the negative terminations 121 respectively.

(21) The cover wall part 106 further has six gas pressure regulation valves and at least one central gas collection duct (not shown) on the back side (the part facing the electrical cells when mounted) terminating with at least one nipple 108 on the scene side the terminal feedtroughs 107 are located on the cover wall part 106.

(22) FIG. 5 shows a battery rack 130 consisting of four lead batteries 120 of a valve regulated lead absorbent class mat type, configured according to the present invention. The setup of the front access terminals enables connecting the four batteries 120 by means of an easy to use low cost, low profile, rigid, and insulated battery connector 134 made from copper.

(23) FIG. 6a shows how a series of four batteries 120 according to the present invention can be connected in parallel. Four 12V batteries according to the present invention can be linked in parallel with a simple flexible cable connectors 131.

(24) By means of comparison, an equally parallel linked rack 130 of four batteries 132 of the state of the art is shown in FIG. 6b. The batteries cannot be linked without having to use special shaped solid and rigid connectors.

(25) By this means, a safer, cheaper and easier way of connecting four 12V batteries to a 224V chain in parallel is provided.

(26) FIG. 7a shows two racks 130 equipped each with 7 lead batteries 120 according to the present invention.

(27) The figure shows how easy it is to connect the batteries 120 by means of the battery connectors 134 and 135 with the front terminal layout according to the present invention.

(28) For comparison, FIG. 7b shows a configuration of two racks with each 7 batteries connected as required in the state of the art. The intertier connection of the state of the art batteries requires a long cable and is associated with danger of short circuits due to the proximity of the intercell connector position with the metallic rack.