GB2108443A

GB2108443A - Vehicle chassis

Info

Publication number: GB2108443A
Application number: GB08131800A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Michael Appleyard
Original assignee: Chloride Group Ltd
Current assignee: Chloride Group Ltd
Priority date: 1981-10-21
Filing date: 1981-10-21
Publication date: 1983-05-18
Also published as: GB2108443B

Abstract

This invention is a chassis for a bus to be driven by batteries in battery cassettes (11) and (12) positioned in compartments between front and rear chassis part assemblies (22) and (23) and below a battery support frame (13) which carries a floor for the passenger compartment of the bus. The floor has a central gangway (27) between raised left and right seat supporting platforms (28) and (29). The battery cassettes are supported immediately below the level of the gangway, but means for lifting and lowering the cassettes (25) and means for locating them and retaining them in position (24) are positioned below the respective platforms on either side of the gangway and above the level of the gangway. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Vehicle chassis This invention relates to vehicle chassis for a vehicle to be driven by batteries assembled in one or more traction battery cassettes adapted for easy removal for re-charging and replacement by cassettes or re-charged batteries.

According to the present invention a vehicle chassis having a floor with a gangway and a platform (for example for passenger seats) above the level of the gangway, includes means arranged in space below the platform and above the level of the gangway for supporting a traction battery cassette immediately below the gangway.

A battery cassette handler is the subject of British Patent Specification (Application No. 8033026) Serial No. 2085822 filed the 13th October, 1980, and such a cassette handler can be used in the present invention.

A particular problem arises with a vehicle chassis having a gangway and a platform, for example an omnibus if the best use is to be made of the space below the floor.

A battery cassette will probably be of substantial horizontal dimensions because of the number of batteries that have to be carried, and because of the restricted height below the floor and above the road, but means for lifting and lowering a battery cassette during replacement and for locating and supporting a cassette immediately below the gangway, and very conveniently be mounted in the space below the platform and above the level of the gangway.

The floor may be on a battery support frame which is connected at front and rear to wheeled chassis part-assemblies, and then if the floor is above the level of a substantial part of each part-assembly there can be room for one or more battery cassettes between the front and rear part assemblies and below the floor.

The invention may be carried into practice in various ways, and one embodiment will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an elevation of the chassis for a bus arranged for traction by batteries supported by a support arranged in accordance with the invention, Figure2 is a plan view of the chassis of Figure 1, Figure 3 is an end elevation in cross section of the part of the chassis of Figures 1 and 2 where the battery cassettes are mounted; and Figure 4 is a detail of Figure 2 to an increased scale showing the arangements for lifting and securing a battery cassette in position.

Two battery cassettes 11 and 12, each consisting of a horizontal array of individual batteries are suspended below a battery frame 13 which constitutes the central section of the bus chassis.

The frame 13 has two main side rails, 14 and 15 secured at their ends above front and rear cross rails 16 and 17. There is a central cross fail 18 secured below and between the side rails 14 and 15 and separating the space below the side rails 14 and 15 into front and rear cassette compartments Left and right longitudinal central spars 19 and 21 extend for the full length of the frame 13 between the side rails 14 and 15, being secured on top of the cross rails, 16, 17 and 18.

At the front of the frame, the front cross rail 16 is connected to the rear of a conventional sprung wheel mounting 22 and at the rear, the rear cross rail 17 is secured to the front of a conventional rear sprung wheel and traction assembly 23 so that the assembly of the components 22 and 23 and the frame 13 constitutes the complete bus chassis.

Each of the battery cassettes 11 and 12 is supported in its compartment by a battery lifting and supporting arrangement as described and claimed in British Patent Specification (Application No.

8033026) Serial No. 2085822.

The four battery cassette locating fixtures 22 in that specification can be seen at 24 in Figures 1,3 and 4 and the battery lifting and lowering arrangement 25 is shown in detail in Figure 4 and can also be seen in elevation in Figure 3. A full description of those elements and their method of operation is included in the above patent specification.

Figure 3 shows the floor of the bus compartment which can be seen to have a central gangway 27 between the spars 19 and 21 and level with the bottoms of the spars, and to have left and right platforms 28 and 29 for carrying the passenger seats, which platforms are level with the top of the spars 19 and 21.

Figure 3 also shows how the left and right spaces immediately below the platforms 28 and 29 are used for accommodating the fixture and lifting arrangements 24 and 25 which do not therefore occupy space where the gangway 27 is to be.

The side rails 14 and 15 are outside the platforms 28 and 29 and extend to a height a little above the platforms as clearly seen in Figure 3.

The level of the gangway is just above the level of the upper surfaces of the three cross rails 16,17 and 18, and diagonal braces indicated generally at 31 are welded between the upper surfaces of those cross rails and the insides of the side rails.

The arrangement makes very economical use of the space in a bus in which there is to be a central gangway lower than the platform for the seats, because the spaces between the two platforms and above the level of the gangway are used to accommodate the components for lifting and securing the battery cassettes in position, and as can be seen fairly clearly in Figure 3, the top of the battery cassettes is immediately below the gangway, so that no space is lost there.

Specification No. 2085822 reads as follows; [The two sheets of drawings of Specification No.

2085822 are added to the drawings in this application on sheets 5 and 6.] Battery cassette handler This invention relates to a battery cassette handler, for example for mounting on an electric motor driven vehicle, to simplify the replacement of a set of exhausted batteries by a recharged set, where the large number of batteries necessary are assembled in a single module of "cassette" for mounting at one position on the vehicle chassis. A battery cassette could weigh about two and a quarter tonnes which is too much for a light-weight pallet lifting truck to be able to handle.

According to the present invention, a battery cassette handler comprises lifting cables and an actuatorforthe cables, brackets, and pins or other engagement means for supporting the cassette from the brackets when lifted into position. Preferably the cables are in flexible sleeves, the ends of which are fixed while one end of all the cables is connected to a common actuator, and at the other end the cables are connected to cassette engagement means.

The actuator can be a pneumatic, or preferably a hydraulic, actuator using pressure established by a pump on the vehicle or other equipment carrying the battery cassette handler, and that pump can conveniently be driven by an electric motor energised from the batteries in the cassette through a flexible lead before the cassette has been lifted into position.

The handler is conveniently used in combination with a battery cassette which has readily detachable wheels or castors on which the cassette can be manhandled to a position underneath the vehicle.

Then after the cassette has been lifted into position and the pins are engaged in the brackets, the castors can be released and stored in the vehicle.

The cassette will usually comprise a frame having fixings capable of ready engagement with the brackets by the engagement means, and also having fittings for simple engagement with and disengagement from the cassette engagement means on the ends of the cables.

Thus, the cassette engagement means are engaged with the fittings, and then the actuator is operated to lift the cassette; then the pins are engaged between the handler brackets and the cassette fixtures; then the actuator is released and finally the cassette engagement means are disengaged from the fittings.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, each of the cassette fixtures includes a stop which can act to define the limiting lifting position of the battery cassette, and by virtue of a conical lead-in portion can guide the cassette into the correct position in the handler, and by virtue of the spring loading can then provide some transverse load on the engagement pins to keep the cassette securely engaged even when the vehicle is moving over rough ground.

In that preferred embodiment each cassette fixture includes a lever pivotally connected respectively to the cassette engagement means, to the cassette frame, and to the spring loaded stop to enable there to be both a lifting action, and a spring loading action for the purposes described above.

Engagement pins can be normally housed in tubes or other guides on the cassette frame, and simply slid into engagement with the brackets when the battery cassettehas been lifted.

The invention may be carried into practice in various ways, and one embodiment will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which; Figure 1 is a perspective view of a battery cassette, and of certain components of the cassette handler; and Figure 2 is a detailed elevation to an increased scale of one of the four cassette fixtures.

The vehicle itself is not shown, and it is sufficient to say that at two points along each side of the chassis are fixed depending brackets 11 and adjacent each bracket is the fixed end 12 of a sleeve 13 in which a cable 14 can slide, the other ends 15 of the four sleeves being secured side by side to a fitting secured to the vehicle chassis. The end of each cable 14 carries a cassette engagement boss 16. At the other ends, the cables are connected through to a trunnion compensator 17, which is mounted on a lever 18 arranged to be rocked by a hydraulic 19 so as to pull all the cables 14 up through their sleves 13 or to return them to the projected position shown in Figure 1. The actuator 19 is powered by hydraulic fluid pressurised by an electric motor driven pump (not shown) for providing power steering and other services to the vehicle.The motor for driving the pump is energised from the batteries.

The batteries are contained in a large flat case or cassette2l,which has to be readily removable from the vehicle when the batteries are discharged and readily replaced by another cassette containing charged batteries.

The cassette frame includes two fixtures 22 along each side, the positions of the fixtures corresponding with those of the cable sleeve ends 12. One fixture is shown in more detail in Figure 2. Each fixture has a pair of upstanding arms 22 arranged to be on either side of the depending chassis bracket 11 as shown in Figure 2 in which position the fixture can be supported from the bracket by means of a steel pin 23 which extends through corresponding holes in the arms 22 and the brackets 11.

Pivotally mounted on the fixture at 24 is a lever 25 of which is also pivotally mounted at its respective ends to an engagement socket 26 (not shown in Figure 2) and to a guide and stop pin 27, which carries at its upper end a frusto-conical probe 28 which engages a hole in the underside of the bracket 11 to provide correct lateral positioning of the fixture, and thereafter acts as a stop when the upper end 29 strikes the underside of the bracket 11, or the chassis on which is is mounted. The probe 28 normally rests on the top of a conical elastomeric bush 31 seated in a frusto-conical ring 32 fixed to the fixture.

When a cassette or recharged batteries is to be fitted to the vehicle, it is wheeled approximately into the correct position under the vehicle on a set of four legs and castors 33 each of which is readily releaseable from the lower end of one of the fixtures 22 by a quick release pin 34.

The sockets 26 are engaged with the bosses 16 on the respective cable ends and an electrical connection from the battery assembly is plugged into a complementary connection on the vehicle, so that the pump can operate to pressurised the vehicle's hydraulic supply, and the actuator 19 can be operated to pull the cables 14 upward along their sleeves 13.

The first movement of the cables causes the lever 25 to pivot in a clockwise direction, as shown in Figure 2, about the fulcrum 24, so that the probe 28 starts to compress the elastomeric bush 31, and then when the compressive force in the bush equals the force in the cable, further movement of the cable along its sleeve lifts the complete fixture with the battery cassette 21 so that the probe 28 enters the co-operating hole in the corresponding bracket 11 and is correctly laterally located. Lifting continues until the probe is stopped at 29, and in that position the pin 23 can be slid from its tube 35 into all four holes, two on the arms 22, and two on the brackets 11.The pin has an eighth of an inch radial clearance with each hole, so that when the actuator is returned to its original position, the arms 22 drop by a quarter of an inch as the two clearances, each of one eighth of an inch, are taken up. The original compression of the bush 31 was due to a half inch movement of the probe 28, so that even when the clearance has been taken up, there is still some compression in the cone which applies a transvere load to the probe and to the chassis which results in a downward transverse force on the pin providing loading in addition to the weight of the battery cassette, and this effectively clamps the pins firmly between the holes and reduces the likelihood of the battery cassette lifting off its mountings during travel over rough roads.

Finally the castors 33 are removed, and stored in the back of the vehicle leaving the battery cassette securely located and electrically connected.

Although the sleeved cables 14 are used for lifting the cassette into position because this is a simple light and fairly cheap arrangement without imposing excessive loads on the vehicle floor, the load on the sleeved cables is severe and the sleeves may well be splinted overthe straight runs to prevent partial collapse. However once the battery cassette has been lifted into position, it is held on the pins, and the sleeves and cables are no longer loaded.

When discharged batteries are to be removed in their cassettes, the operation is the reverse of the operation just described.

The arrangement for engaging the pins 34 in their tubes 35 is quite a simple one. There is a long rod 36 which can turn and slide longitudinally in bearings in the arms 22 of both fixtures, and that can rotate in a sleeve at the lower end of each of a pair of cranks, one at the end of each pin 34 so that as the rod 36 is move longitudinally, it can move two pins longitudinally into and out of engagement with the holes in the brackets 11, and the fixtures 22. There is a slot in the underneath side of each tube 35 to permit the crank to slide. The rod 36 can be secured in either of its extreme positions by means of a pair of stops (not shown) capable of engaging one on one side, and one on the other side of a block 38 mounted on the frame. The rod 36 has to be turned by a 'T' handle 39 to release it from the block, and then it can be slid longitudinally, and twisted to re-engage it on the other side of the block.

Replacement of a battery cassette can be effected easily by one man without needing any additional equipment.

Claims

1. Abatterycassette holder comprising lifting cables and an actuator for the cables, brackets, and pins or other engagement means for supporting the cassette from the brackets when lifted into position.

2. A holder as claimed in Claim 1 in which the cables can slide in flexible sleeves whose ends are fixed.

3. A holder as claimed in Claim 2 or Claim 2 in which the cables are connected at one end to a common actuator.

4. A cassette holder as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the cables are connected at one end to cassette engagement means.

5. A cassette holder as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the actuator is arranged to be powered, directly or indirectly, from a battery in a cassette lifted into position by the handler.

6. Avehicle chassis constructed and arranged substantially as herein specifically described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. A cassette handler as claimed in any of the preceding claims in combination with a battery cassette having fittings each of which is capable of engagement with a bracket, and engagement with a cassette engagement means.

7. A combination as claimed in Claim 6 in which each fixture includes a probe arranged to co-operate with the bracket to locate the cassette correctly as it is lifted into position.

8. A combination as claimed in Claim 7 in which the probe is spring loaded to apply a transvere thrust to the engagement pins when the cassette is supported in the brackets.

9. A combination as claimed in ay of Claims 6-8 in which each fixture includes a lever pivotally mounted respectively to the cassette frame, to the probe, and to the fitting for the cassette engagement means whereby as the cassette is lifted, the probe is first spring loaded, and then the cassette is lifted into position, and after the engagement pins have been inserted, they can be transversely loaded by the spring.

10. A combination as claimed in any of Claims 6-9 including for each bracket and fitting a pin normally housed in a guide when not engaged with the brackets.

11. A combination as claimed in any of Claims 6-10 in which the battery cassette has readily detachable wheels 12. A combination of a battery cassette and cassette handler contructed and arranged substantially as herein specifically described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

END OF SPECIFICATION NO.2085822 CLAIMS

1. A vehicle chassis having a floor with a gangway and a platform (for example for passenger seats) above the level of the gangway, and including means arranged in the space below the platform and above the level of the gangway for supporting a traction battery cassette immediately below the gangway.

2. A chassis as claimed in Claim 1 in which the gangway is a central gangway and there are left and right platforms one on each side of the gangway.

3. A chassis as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 in which the floor is on a battery support frame which is connected at front and rear to wheeled chassis part-assemblies.

4. A chassis as claimed in Claim 3 in which the floor is above the level of a substantial part of each of the chassis part-assemblies to define a battery cassette compartment between the front and rear chassis part-assemblies and below the floor.

5. A chassis as claimed in any of the preceding claims in which the battery cassette supporting means comprise both means for lifting and lowering a battery cassette and means for locating a lifted cassette laterally, and then supporting it independently of the lifting means.