Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Hisato Kawahara

Hiroaki Yuasa

Hidetoshi Kusumi

Kyoko Inayoshi

The evaluation jig includes a pair of female terminals connectable to a pair of male terminals of a charging connector and an electric wire that connects the paired female terminals to each other. The electric wire has a cross-sectional area of 70 mmor more and 95 mmor less. The electric wire has a length of 2 m or more.

Reference jig

An evaluation jig comprises a pair of female terminals connectable to a pair of male terminals of a charging connector, and an adjustment member that can adjust contact resistance of the female terminal and the male terminal. The female terminal is reducible in diameter. The adjustment member can apply an external force to the female terminal to reduce the female terminal in diameter.

Evaluation jig and evaluation method

An evaluation jig comprises a female terminal connectable to a male terminal of a charging connector. The female terminal includes a plurality of contact pieces and a support portion. Each contact piece has a flexible piece, and a contact portion protruding toward the center axis from an inner surface of the flexible piece. The flexible piece forms a portion of a cylinder having the center axis. The flexible piece has a length equal to or larger than twice an outer diameter of the cylinder in a direction parallel to the center axis. The flexible piece is elastically deformable so that the flexible piece has a distal end portion to be displaceable in a radial direction of the cylinder relative to a proximal end portion of the flexible piece. The contact portion has a shape curved so as to protrude inward in the radial direction.

Jig for connector current evaluation

A vehicle includes a power interface configured to perform at least one of power transmission to and power reception from an external apparatus, a power accumulation device, a power line that constitutes at least a part of a current path between the power interface and the power accumulation device, and a control device configured to control charging and discharging of the power accumulation device using a plurality of profiles for protecting the power line. The profiles are determined such that the degrees of reduction of the magnitude of a current that flows through the power line and the energization time become larger as the ambient temperature of the power line becomes higher. The profiles include a first profile and a second profile that has a larger degree of reduction than that of the first profile.

Vehicle and vehicle control method including controlling charging and discharging for protecting a power line

Evaluation jig

The evaluation jig comprises a pair of female terminals connectable to a pair of male terminals of a charging connector and an adjustment member capable of adjusting contact resistance of the female terminal and the male terminal. The female terminal is reducible in diameter. The adjustment member includes an annular band attached to an outer peripheral surface of the female terminal and formed in an annulus surrounding the female terminal, a metal band attached to an outer peripheral surface of the annular band and capable of applying external force to the female terminal to reduce the female terminal in diameter, and an adjustment unit capable of adjusting the external force applied by the metal band to the female terminal. The annular band is made of an electrically and thermally insulating material.

An evaluation method is for evaluating a charging connector in coolability by connecting an evaluation jig to the charging connector, the charging connector including a pair of male terminals and a bottom wall, the evaluation jig including a pair of female terminals, the pair of female terminals being connected to the pair of male terminals in evaluating the charging connector in coolability. The method comprises: connecting the pair of female terminals to the pair of male terminals; and adjusting a connection state of the terminals so that contact resistance between the terminals falls within a prescribed range. In the step of adjusting, a resistance between a point of 4.5 mm of the male terminal from a surface of the bottom wall and a point of 43 mm of the female terminal from the surface of the bottom wall is measured as the contact resistance.

Evaluation method

An evaluation method is a method for evaluating a charging connector in coolability by connecting an evaluation jig to the charging connector, the charging connector including a pair of male terminals coolable with a coolant, the evaluation jig including a pair of female terminals, the pair of female terminals being connected to the pair of male terminals in evaluating the charging connector in coolability. The method comprises: connecting the pair of female terminals to the pair of male terminals; adjusting a connection state between the male terminal and the female terminal such that contact resistance between the terminals is 0.06 m&#x3a9; or more and 0.15 m&#x3a9; or less; and after the adjusting, evaluating the coolability depending on whether the male and female terminals have a temperature of 90&#xb0; C. or lower when a charging current of 400 A is supplied to the terminals for 30 minutes.

Growing community of inventors

Toyota, Japan

Hisato Kawahara