Marukawa, Shuhei; Watanabe, Ko; Eto, Toyohiko; Yoneda, Shogo; Kiya, Nobuaki;

Restraining bands for battery pack

The battery pack is constituted by arranging a plurality of prismatic battery modules adjacently in a condition with coolant passages formed between battery modules and with their side faces of large area being arranged in superimposed manner, and are integrated by tying end plates, arranged at both ends in the direction of arrangement of battery modules tightly together by restraining straps. A plurality of restraining straps are arranged at suitable intervals on the long side face of a battery pack and the restraining straps are constituted of at least one strip of rectangular cross-sectional shape or by round rods or pipe members of circular cross-sectional shape whose dimension in the direction perpendicular to the long side face of battery pack is larger than the dimension in the parallel direction.

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What is claimed is:

1. A battery pack comprising:

a plurality of prismatic battery modules, each prismatic battery module of said plurality of prismatic battery modules having six side faces with opposing side faces having substantially equal side face surface area, two of the side faces having surface areas equal to or greater than the remaining four side faces surface areas;

said plurality of prismatic battery modules arranged so that said two side faces of each prismatic battery module of said plurality of prismatic battery modules are adjacent a respective one side face of said two side faces of adjacent prismatic battery modules of said plurality of prismatic battery modules except at a first end and a second end in a direction of arrangement of said plurality of prismatic battery modules with coolant passages between the plurality of prismatic battery modules;

end plates arranged at the first end and the second end of the plurality of prismatic battery modules; and

restraining straps tying the plurality of prismatic battery modules together arranged at predetermined intervals on a side face of the remaining four side faces of the plurality of prismatic battery modules, said restraining straps each having a height, a width and a length, wherein the length is perpendicular to the surface areas of said two of the side faces having surface areas equal to or greater than the remaining four side faces surfaces areas and said height is greater than said width.

2. The battery pack of claim 1, wherein the length of the restraining strap is greater than the height of the restraining strap.

3. The battery pack of claim 2, further comprising a mounting portion having a surface wherein the mounting portion is provided at a first end and a second end of the restraining straps, and said mounting portion includes surfaces parallel to a plurality of respective mounting faces of the end plates.

4. The battery pack of claim 3, wherein the restraining straps have members of circular cross-section.

5. The battery pack of claim 1, wherein the coolant passages are formed between the end plates and the first end and the second end of the plurality of prismatic battery modules, respectively.

6. The battery pack of claim 1, wherein the end plates are made of material that is molded by drawing.

7. A battery pack comprising:

a plurality of prismatic battery modules, each prismatic battery module of said plurality of prismatic battery modules having six side faces with opposing side faces having substantially equal side face surface area, two of the side faces having surface areas equal to or greater than the remaining four side faces surface areas;

said plurality of prismatic battery modules arranged so that said two side faces of each prismatic battery module of said plurality of prismatic battery modules are adjacent a respective one side face of said two side faces of adjacent prismatic battery modules of said plurality of prismatic battery modules except at a first end and a second end in a direction of arrangement of said plurality of prismatic battery modules;

end plates arranged at the first end and the second end of the plurality of prismatic battery modules, each having a mounting portion;

restraining straps for tying the plurality of battery modules together;

a screw mechanism arranged along a longitudinal direction of the restraining straps such that an effective length of the restraining straps can be extended or diminished, and said screw mechanism being provided at at least one end of the restraining straps and at a mounting portion of one end plate; and

said screw mechanism bearing as an axial load pressure produced by expansion and/or rise in internal pressure resulting from the charging/discharging of said plurality of prismatic battery modules.

8. The battery pack of claim 7, further comprising:

at least one end plate of the end plates having an aperture; and

the screw mechanism having:

a tightening bolt; and

a nut,

wherein a head of the tightening bolt is fixedly engaged with one end of a restraining strap of the restraining straps, the tightening bolt passes through the aperture, and the nut threaded onto the tightening bolt is engaged with a side of the at least one end plate of the end plates opposite to the side that adjoins the prismatic battery modules.

9. The battery pack of claim 1, wherein the coolant passages are defined by the plurality of prismatic battery modules.

10. The battery pack of claim 7, wherein, the side face in which the restraining straps are arranged is one of the remaining four side faces of the plurality of prismatic battery modules.

11. A battery pack comprising:

a battery module assembly having a plurality of prismatic battery modules, each prismatic battery module of said plurality of prismatic battery modules having six side faces with opposing side faces having substantially equal side face surface area, two of the side faces having surface areas equal to or greater than the remaining four side faces surface areas;

said plurality of prismatic battery modules arranged so that said two side faces of each prismatic battery module of said plurality of prismatic battery modules are adjacent a respective one side face of said two side faces of adjacent prismatic battery modules of said plurality of prismatic battery modules except at a first end and a second end in a direction of arrangement of said plurality of prismatic battery modules will coolant passages defined between the plurality of prismatic battery modules; and

restraining straps tying the prismatic battery modules together arranged on a side face of the remaining four side faces, said restraining straps each have a height, a width and a length, wherein the length is perpendicular to the surface areas of said two of the side faces having surface areas equal to or greater than the remaining four side faces surface areas and said height is greater than said width.

12. The battery pack of claim 11, wherein the length of the restraining straps is greater than the height of the restraining steps.

13. The battery pack of claim 12, further comprising a mounting portion having a surface wherein the mounting portion is provided at a first end and a second end of the restraining straps.

14. The battery pack of claim 3, wherein the restraining straps have members of circular cross-section.

15. The battery pack of claim 11, wherein the coolant passages are formed between end plates and the first end and the second end of the plurality of prismatic battery modules.

16. The battery pack comprising:

a battery module assembly having a plurality of prismatic battery modules, each prismatic battery module of said plurality of prismatic battery modules having six side faces with opposing side faces having substantially equal side face surface area, two of the side faces having surface areas equal to or greater than the remaining four side faces surface areas;

said plurality of prismatic battery modules arranged so that said two side faces of each prismatic battery module of said plurality of prismatic battery modules are adjacent a respective one side face of said two side faces of adjacent prismatic battery modules of said plurality of prismatic battery modules except at a first end and a second end in a direction of arrangement of said plurality of prismatic battery modules;

an end plate arranged at the first end of the battery module assembly having a mounting portion;

a restraining strap component tying the prismatic battery modules together;

a screw mechanism arranged along a longitudinal direction of the restraining strap such that an effective length of the restraining strap can be extended or diminished, and said screw mechanism being provided at at least one end of the restraining strap and at the mounting portion of one end plate.

said screw mechanism bearing as an axial load pressure produced by expansion and/or rise in internal pressure resulting from the charging/discharging of said plurality of prismatic battery modules.

17. The battery pack according to claim 16, further comprising:

said restraining strap component including two restraining straps; and

another end plate.

18. The battery pack of claim 1, further comprising each restrainig strap of said restraining straps having a mounting strip.

19. The battery pack of claim 1, further comprising each restraining strap of said restraining straps having a mounting portion.

20. The battery pack of claim 19, further comprising each restraining strap of said restraining straps having a mounting strip.

21. The battery pack of claim 7, further comprising each restraining strap of said restraining straps having a mounting strip.

22. The battery pack of claim 7, further comprising each restraining strap of said restraining straps having a mounting portion.

23. The battery pack of claim 22, further comprising each restraining strap of said restraining straps having a mounting strip.

24. The battery pack of claim 11, further comprising each restraining strap of said restraining straps having a mounting strip.

25. The battery pack of claim 11, further comprising each restraining strap of said restraining straps having a mounting portion.

26. The battery pack of claim 25, further comprising each restraining strap of said restraining straps having a mounting strip.

27. The battery pack of claim 16, further comprising said restraining strap component having a mounting strip.

28. The battery pack of claim 16, further comprising said restraining strap component having a mounting portion.

29. The battery pack of claim 28, further comprising said restraining strap component having a mounting strip.