Detecting a bad contact of a charging cable
AssigneeABB E-mobility B.V.
InventorsWiebe Zoon, Matteo Bortolato
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for detecting a bad contact of a charging cable comprises: measuring a cooling fluid temperature of a cooling fluid flowing through the charging cable; measuring a connector base temperature of a connector base of the charging cable, which connector base carries an electrical contact element of the charging cable; estimating a contact temperature of the electrical contact element by determining the contact temperature from a difference of the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature; and deciding presence of a bad contact, when the estimated contact temperature is higher than a threshold temperature.
Claims20
A method for detecting a bad contact of a charging cable, the method comprising:
- measuring a cooling fluid temperature of a cooling fluid flowing through the charging cable;
- measuring a connector base temperature of a connector base of the charging cable, which connector base carries an electrical contact element of the charging cable;
- estimating a contact temperature of the electrical contact element from the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature, wherein the estimated contact temperature increases, when the difference of the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature increases;
- and
- deciding presence of a bad contact, when the estimated contact temperature is higher than a threshold temperature.
A method for charging an electrical device, the method comprising:
- charging the electrical device via a charging cable by generating a current in the charging cable;
- detecting a bad contact of the charging cable with at least the following steps:
- measuring a cooling fluid temperature of a cooling fluid flowing through the charging cable;
- measuring a connector base temperature of a connector base of the charging cable, which connector base carries an electrical contact element of the charging cable;
- estimating a contact temperature of the electrical contact element from the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature, wherein the estimated contact temperature increases, when the difference of the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature increases;
- deciding presence of a bad contact, when the estimated contact temperature is higher than a threshold temperature;
- and
- interrupting the current, when a bad contact has been detected.
A controller for a charging station comprising:
- a memory structured to store a set of instructions;
- and
- a processor structured to execute the set of instructions stored by the memory effective to:
- receive a cooling fluid temperature of a cooling fluid flowing through the charging cable,
- receive a connector base temperature of a connector base of the charging cable, which connector base carries an electrical contact element of the charging cable,
- estimate a contact temperature of the electrical contact element from the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature, wherein the estimated contact temperature increases, when the difference of the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature increases, and
- decide presence of a bad contact, when the estimated contact temperature is higher than a threshold temperature.
A charging station comprising:
- a charging cable with a plug comprising electrical contact elements;
- a cooling system for cooling the charging cable by generating a flow of cooling fluid through the charging cable and the plug;
- a first temperature sensor for measuring a cooling fluid temperature of the cooling fluid;
- a second temperature sensor for measuring a connector base temperature of a connector base arranged in the plug;
- and
- a controller comprising:
- a memory structured to store a set of instructions;
- and
- a processor structured to execute the set of instructions stored by the memory effective to:
- receive the cooling fluid temperature of the cooling fluid flowing through the charging cable,
- receive the connector base temperature of the connector base of the charging cable, which connector base carries an electrical contact element of the charging cable,
- estimate a contact temperature of the electrical contact element from the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature, wherein the estimated contact temperature increases, when the difference of the connector base temperature and the cooling fluid temperature increases, and
- decide presence of a bad contact, when the estimated contact temperature is higher than a threshold temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.