Vehicular Battery Retainer and Shield

This invention relates to motor vehicles and more particularly to vehicles having an electric storage battery mounted in the engine compartment thereof.

Motor vehicles utilizing internal combustion engines typically have an engine compartment defined by vehicle body members such as wheel-well sheet metal, chassis/frame members, fire walls, etc. It is likewise common to provide an electric storage battery in the engine compartment for providing starting, lighting and ignition functions to the vehicle. The lives of such batteries are shortened when the battery is subjected to excessive heat and/or high amplitude/low-frequency vibrations/oscillations. It has been proposed to shield the battery from engine compartment heat by placing it in an appropriate enclosure and the battery is preferably securely mounted in a tray which itself is substantially rigidly anchored to the body member defining the engine compartment such that the battery is subjected to substantially only those vibrations/oscillations which are experienced by the body member itself.

In some vehicle designs, the configuration of, and available space within, the engine compartment precludes the battery tray from being perfectly rigidly secured to the body member, as discussed above, and has necessitated the use of battery trays which are anchored at one end to the body member and which are cantilevered out from the body member so as to leave a substantially unsupported distal end projecting into the engine compartment. The distal end of such cantilevering trays is susceptible to vibration modes and oscillations which are different from that experienced by the end of the tray which is mounted to the body member. Attempts to rigidify the cantilevering tray and reduce the amplitude of the oscillations of the distal end thereof by means of underlying braces or buttresses have met with only limited success in that the distal ends of the trays often still experience untoward oscillations detrimental to the life of the batteries they carry.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a cantilevering battery tray and overlying damper and retaining means associated therewith for both retaining the battery in the tray and reducing the amplitude of the oscillations of the tray's distal end to thereby prolong the useful life of the battery. It is a further object of the present invention, to provide such a brace and retaining means integral with an enclosure surrounding the battery and shielding it from heat within the engine compartment. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description thereof which follows and which is given hereafter in conjunction with the several drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vehicular engine compartment and battery retainer therein in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectioned view taken in the direction 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectioned view taken in the direction 4--4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectioned view taken in the direction 5--5 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a sectioned view taken in the direction 6--6 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 7 is a view taken in the direction 7--7 of FIG. 4.

The present invention comprehends a motor vehicle including a body member which in part defines a compartment containing an engine and a starting, lighting and ignition battery for the vehicle wherein the battery is supported on a tray cantilevered from the body member and held thereon by an overlying bracket which also serves to reduced the amplitude of the oscillations (i.e., dampen the vibration) experienced by the distal end of the tray under driving conditions. More specifically, the battery is supported on a tray which has one end secured to the body member and cantilevers therefrom such that the other (i.e., unsecured) end is susceptible to vertical oscillations when the vehicle is in motion, which are different from the oscillations of the body member itself. A combined damper and retention bracket overlies the battery and comprises a rigid strap-like bracket having (1) a first end secured to the distal end of the tray, (2) a second end secured to the body member at a site above the site where the tray attaches to the body member, and (3) a retainer section intermediate the two ends of the strap which contiguously overlies the battery and holds the battery securely in the tray. Retainer means (e.g., bolts) are provided for securing the bracket to the tray in such a manner that the retainer section thereof presses and holds the battery firmly in the tray. The bracket will preferably include longitudinal rib(s) and/or flange(s) to rigidify or stiffen the strap against bending and will be secured to the body member at a site below the top of the battery but above where the tray attaches to the body member. In accordance with a most preferred embodiment of the present invention, the aforesaid damper and retaining strap is integral with an enclosure which covers and shields the battery from engine compartment heat and thereby facilitates removal and replacement of the strap and enclosure while, at the same time, precluding the possibility that only one or the other might be replaced after the vehicle/battery has been serviced. The shielding enclosure will preferably have walls which comprise two panels separated one from the other by an air gap which further serves to insulate the battery from engine compartment heat.

The invention will better be understood when considered in the light of the following detailed description of certain specific embodiments thereof.

FIG. 1 shows a body member 2 comprising a body rail 4 and sheet metal 6 (e.g., wheel-well) which in part defines a vehicle engine compartment. A battery tray 8, molded from glass-filled AZDEL.sup..about. plastic, has a mounting end 10 and a distal end 12 opposite the mounting end 10 and cantilevering out from the body member 2. An integral flange 14 depends from the underside of the tray 8 near the mounting end 10 for bracing the tray 8 and facilitating the mounting of the tray to the body rail portion 4 of the body member 2. Bolts 16 and 16' are used to anchor the tray 8 both vertically and horizontally to the rail 4. The tray 8 includes shallow walls 18 upstanding from a floor 20 to keep the battery 22 (shown in phantom) from shifting about in the tray. The upstanding walls 18 include horizontal flanges 24 which serve to add rigidity to the tray as well as provide an anchoring flange portion 26 for receiving bolt 28 for securing one end 30 of the damper-retention bracket 32 to the distal end of the tray 8.

The damper/retention bracket 32 is designed to be very rigid and resistant to bending in order to function as an adequate damper for the distal end of the tray, and to this end, will preferably include a longitudinal strengthening rib 34 formed therein. The bracket 32 has its distal end 30 secured to the tray 8 by bolt 28 and the other end 38 secured to the body member 2 by bolt 40. The bracket 32 includes a retainer portion 42 which overlies and presses down on the top of the battery 22 to hold the battery 22 in the tray 8. The bracket 32 also includes an arm portion 44 which extends from the inboard end (i.e., nearest the body member 2) of the retainer portion 42 to the body portion 2 so as to bridge the gap therebetween. The arm portion 44 includes flanges 46 depending normal to the principle plane of the arm (i.e., the rib-bearing portion) for rigidifying the arm 44 against bending especially at the elbow 48 where the bracket is bolted to the body member 2. A bolt 50 extends through the bracket 32 adjacent the inboard end 52 of the battery 22 and engages a flange 54 on the mounting end 10 of the tray 8 for pulling the retainer section 34 of the bracket 32 down tightly against the top of the battery 22 and thereby holding the battery firmly in the tray 8. Coupling the end 30 of the rigid bracket 32 to the distal end 12 of the tray 8 and the other end 38 to the body member 2 serves to substantially reduce the amplitude of the oscillations that the distal end 32 of the tray 8 would otherwise experience in service and thereby reduce the potentially damaging oscillations experienced by the battery. Tests have shown that the frequency of the oscillations of the distal end 12 of the tray 8 can be increased from about 19 Hertz to about 32 Hertz with a corresponding dampening effect corresponding to a significant reduction in the amplitude of the oscillations experienced by the distal end 12 of the tray 8.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention and as best shown in FIGS. 3, 4, 6 and 7, the rigid bracket 32 will be integral with an enclosure 60 which shields the battery 22 from engine compartment heat. The enclosure 60 will preferably comprise walls formed from a pair of opposed glass-filled polypropylene panels 62-62', which are spaced apart sufficiently to provide insulative air gap 62a therebetween. The air gap 62a serve to decrease the thermal conductivity of the enclosure's walls and thereby insulate the battery 22 from the engine compartment heat. The bracket 32 is conveniently made integral with the upper wall 64-64' by attaching the wing-like extensions 68 (see FIG. 2) on the retainer section 34 of strap 32 to the upper wall 64-64' by any convenient means, e.g., adhesives, rivets, etc.. Preferably, however, a channel 70 is provided in the inner panel of upper wall 64-64' (see FIG. 4) for receiving the retention section 34 of bracket 32. The channel 70 includes a plurality of inwardly projecting tabs 71 molded into the channel which engage the extensions 68 and wedge it in the channel 70. More specifically, the extensions 68 are provided with notches 73 for permitting the tabs 71 to pass therethrough during assembly. After the tabs 71 have passed through the notches 73 the retainer section 42 is slid in the direction shown by the arrow in FIG. 7 to secure the bracket 32 to the enclosure 60. As shown in FIG. 6, the depending leg 33 of the bracket 32 mates loosely (i.e., is not attached to) with a channel 67 on the inside of the wall 62' of the enclosure wall adjacent the distal end 12 of the tray 8.

While the invention has been disclosed primarily in terms of specific embodiments thereof it is not intended to be limited thereto but rather only to the extent set forth hereafter in the claims which follows.