CHARGING STATION FOR CHARGING AN ELECTRICAL ENERGY ACCUMULATOR OF A ROAD VEHICLE

Abstract

A charging station charges an electrical energy accumulator of a road vehicle. For energy supply from a two-pole overhead line system, the road vehicle has a pantograph with at least one wearing strip, which can be raised and lowered, for each contact pole. For each contact pole, the charging station contains at least two charging contacts which are arranged above a charging position for the road vehicle and are arranged next to each other so that for each contact pole at least two contact points can be established between the wearing strip and the charging contacts. This makes it possible to transmit higher charging currents, which shortens the charging time for the energy accumulator.

Claims

1-10. (canceled)

11. A charging station for charging an electrical accumulator of a road vehicle having a pantograph with contact poles, and for each of the contact poles, at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip for collecting energy from a two-pole overhead line system, the charging station comprising: at least two charging contacts for each of the contact poles, said at least two charging contacts are disposed above a charging position for the road vehicle and adjacent to one another in such that at least two contact points can be established between the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip and said at least two charging contacts for each of the contact poles.

12. The charging station according to claim 11, further comprising a charging frame; and wherein at least some of said charging contacts are configured as contact rails which are suspended in said charging frame in a spring-mounted manner parallel to one another and are aligned at right angles to the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip of the pantograph of the road vehicle in a charging position.

13. The charging station according to claim 11, further comprising a charging frame; and wherein, for each of the contact poles, one of said charging contacts is constituted by a contact wire of the two-pole overhead line system and another of said charging contacts is implemented as contact rails which are suspended in said charging frame in a spring-mounted manner parallel to the contact wire and are aligned at right angles to the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strips of the pantograph of the road vehicle in the charging position.

14. The charging station according to claim 12, wherein said charging frame has limiting means for a lifting movement of the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip which defines a contact position of the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip in which said charging contacts being spring-mounted charging contacts press against the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip with equal spring force.

15. The charging station according to claim 12, wherein a length of said contact rails is at least as great as a distance between two raisable and lowerable wearing strips of a contact pole disposed one behind the other in a longitudinal direction of the road vehicle.

16. The charging station according to claim 15, wherein the length of the contact rails is at least twice as great as the distance between the two raisable and lowerable wearing strips, for the contact pole, disposed one behind the other in the longitudinal direction of the road vehicle.

17. The charging station according to claim 15, wherein the length of said contact rails is at least as great as a length of the road vehicle.

18. The charging station according to claim 11, wherein for each of the contact poles, said charging contacts are spaced apart from each other such that said contact points of said charging contacts are located in lateral end sections of the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip.

19. The charging station according to claim 12, wherein said charging frame is configured to be movable downward against a lifting force of the pantograph when the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip is in contact.

20. The charging station according to claim 11, further comprising: a sensor unit for detecting a temperature of the at least one raisable and lowerable wearing strip; and a control unit for temperature-dependent charging current control.

Description

[0016] Further features and advantages of the invention will emerge from the following description of a specific exemplary embodiment with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings in which

[0017] FIG. 1 shows a front view of a road vehicle positioned in a charging station,

[0018] FIG. 2 shows a front view of wearing strips and charging contacts of a contact pole from FIG. 1,

[0019] FIG. 3 shows a side view of wearing strips and charging contacts of the contact pole from FIG. 2 in a longitudinal section along the line III-III,

[0020] FIG. 4 shows a front view of wearing strips and charging contacts of the contact pole from FIG. 1 in the closed state, and

[0021] FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of wearing strips and charging contacts of a contact pole from FIG. 4.

[0022] As shown in FIG. 1, an electric or hybrid road vehicle 1, e.g. a heavy-duty commercial vehicle, is positioned in a charging station 4 installed on a roadway 3 for charging its electrical energy accumulator 2. The road vehicle 1 is equipped with a pantograph 5 for supplying energy, while the vehicle is traveling, from a two-pole overhead line system of which, for simplicity's sake, only the contact wires 6 formed as forward and return conductors are shown above a lane of the roadway 3 adjacent to the charging position. The pantograph 5 has a framework 7 which is mounted on the vehicle roof and can be deployed and folded down by means of a lifting device (not shown). The framework 7 supports two bows 8—one for each contact pole 9—disposed side by side as viewed in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, each of which is equipped with a pair of wearing strips 10 disposed one behind the other as viewed in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. If the road vehicle 1 uses an electrified lane, the wearing strips 10 can be brought into sliding contact with the respective contact wire 6 by deploying the framework 7 in order to supply energy from the overhead line system to the road vehicle 1.

[0023] However, in the exemplary embodiment shown, the charging station 4 is disposed away from an electrified lane and comprises, for each contact pole 9, two or more, e.g. four, charging contacts 11 which are disposed above the charging position for the road vehicle 1. For this purpose, the charging contacts 11 can be connected to a cantilever arm 12 of the charging station 4, said arm projecting above the charging position from a charging mast 13 installed at the side of the roadway 3. The charging voltage is supplied to the charging contacts 11 of the respective contact poles 9 via electrical cables (not shown) running in the charging mast 13 and cantilever arm 12.

[0024] As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, four charging contacts 11 designed as contact rails are spring-mounted in a charging frame 14 for each contact pole 9. The elongated contact rails are aligned parallel to one another and are each connected to the charging frame 14 via e.g. two spring elements 15. Here, the length L of the contact rails is selected significantly greater than the distance D between the wearing strips 10 of a bow 8, which are located one behind the other, so that a tolerance range is available for positioning the road vehicle 1 in the direction of travel. Further extending the contact rails makes it possible to start the charging process even before the vehicle has come to a standstill. By raising the bows 8, the wearing strips 10 push the charging contacts 11 upwards against the restoring force of the spring elements 15 until the wearing strips 10 abut limiting means 16 as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. The limiting means 16 can be constituted e.g. by side legs of the u-shaped charging frame 14. For each contact pole 9, electrical contact is closed via eight contact points via which a high charging current can flow to shorten the charging time of the energy accumulator 2. In this state, the deflected spring elements 15 ensure that the pressure force between wearing strips 10 and charging contacts 11 is evenly distributed over the contact points. To increase the pressure force, the charging frame 14 can be attached to the arm 12 in a lowerable manner, wherein the charging contacts 11 press down against the lifting force of the pantograph 5.

[0025] The large number of contact points ensure that a high charging power can be transmitted because the Joule heat generated per contact point decreases the larger the number of contact points and can dissipate better because of the spacing of the contact points.

[0026] The charging contacts 11 shown here are distributed approximately uniformly along the wearing strip 11. Alternatively, the charging contacts 11 can be disposed such that they contact only a lateral end region of the wearing strip 10 when the contact is closed, which region then—in contrast to the central region made of graphite—consists of metal, in particular aluminum or copper. This allows the charging currents to be increased still further.

[0027] The charging station 1 can also comprise a sensor unit (not shown here) for detecting a temperature of the wearing strip 10 and a control unit for temperature-dependent charging current control. This enables the charging current to be controlled such that overheating of the wearing strips 10 and damage caused thereby are avoided.