JP2010045110A - Reactor assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

A reactor assembly that is small in size, has a small number of parts, and is excellent in assembling workability is provided.
A reactor assembly 1A includes a plurality of reactors 10, 20, 30 including coils 12, 22, 32 and magnetic cores 11, 21, 31 on which the coils 12, 22, 32 are arranged. Yeah. These reactors 10, 20, and 30 are accommodated in one case 2A. By using one case 2A in common for multiple reactors 10, 20, and 30, various assembly such as reduction of the number of parts, resin filling work, stay placement and fixing work, and fixing work to the cooling base Reduce work processes.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a reactor assembly suitable for a component part of a power conversion device such as an in-vehicle DC-DC converter mounted on a vehicle such as a hybrid vehicle. In particular, the present invention relates to a reactor assembly that is small, has a small number of parts, and is excellent in assembly workability.

  As a vehicle-mounted component such as a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle that uses a motor as a drive source or a power generation source during regeneration, there is a power conversion device that performs a step-up operation or a step-down operation between the motor and the power source. Generally, a power converter includes a converter that changes the magnitude of DC power and an inverter that converts DC power and AC power to each other.

  A converter usually includes a reactor that smoothes an alternating current generated by an ON / OFF switching operation. As shown in FIG. 5A, the reactor L typically includes an annular magnetic core 100 and a coil 110 formed by winding a winding 111 and disposed on the outer periphery of the core 100. The combination of the magnetic core 100 and the coil 110 is housed in the case 120 and fixed by the potting resin 130 filled in the case 120 (FIG. 5B, Patent Document 1). In the magnetic core 100, the stay 140 is disposed on the end core 100e where the coil 110 is not disposed, and the stay 140 is fixed to the case 120 with the bolt 141, so that the stay 140 is pressed against the bottom surface side of the case 120, and the case 140 It is firmly fixed to 120. The case 120 is used by being fixed to a cooling base (not shown). For example, when the power converter is used in three-phase parallel, the above three smoothing reactors are provided.

JP 2008-028290 A

  Conventionally, when multiple reactors are required, operations such as housing in the case, fixing the magnetic core to the case, filling the resin, fixing the case are performed for each reactor, so the assembly workability is poor and the parts There are many points. In addition, the reactor tends to be large by providing individual cases.

  Further, in recent years, power supplies provided in hybrid vehicles and the like have been studied to reduce the size of components by increasing the frequency. Since the switching operation increases in switching loss when the frequency is increased, soft switching with less switching loss is desired. In order to perform soft switching, for example, it is conceivable to provide a resonant circuit in the converter. The resonance circuit includes a resonance reactor connected in parallel to the smoothing reactor. For this reason, when the resonance circuit is provided, the number of reactors is further increased. Therefore, it is desired to reduce the size, improve the assembly workability, and reduce the number of parts.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a reactor assembly that has a plurality of reactors, is small, has a small number of parts, and is excellent in assembly workability.

  The present invention achieves the above object by storing a plurality of reactors in a single case. Specifically, the reactor assembly of the present invention includes a plurality of reactors including a coil, a magnetic core on which the coil is disposed, and a case that houses the plurality of reactors.

  The reactor assembly of the present invention has a configuration in which a plurality of reactors share one case. With this configuration, the number of cases can be reduced with respect to the number of reactors, and a plurality of reactors can be molded at a time when the case is filled with resin. Further, by fixing one case to the cooling base, a plurality of reactors can be simultaneously fixed to the cooling base. Therefore, according to the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the number of parts and improve the assembly workability while providing a plurality of reactors.

  In addition, according to the configuration of the present invention, (1) the total installation area of the case can be reduced as compared with the conventional configuration including a case for each reactor, so that the installation space can be reduced. 2) Compared to the conventional configuration with a case for each reactor, the total amount of the case material can be reduced, so the weight can be reduced. (3) Because multiple reactors can be handled as a single unit, Various effects such as excellent handling properties, (4) the case can protect the core and the coil from the external environment, and (5) use of the case as a heat dissipation path can improve heat dissipation.

  As an application of each reactor constituting the reactor assembly of the present invention, in addition to the above-described smoothing, there is a resonance purpose for performing soft switching. The reactor assembly of the present invention may have a configuration including reactors having different uses, for example, a configuration including both a smoothing reactor and a resonance reactor, or a configuration including the same usage reactor, for example, for smoothing. It is good also as a structure which provides only a reactor or only a reactor for resonance. Usually, reactors having the same application have substantially the same shape. If reactors having different shapes are combined to form a deformed case according to the outer shape of these combinations, a large installation space may be required, or a dead space may occur near the installation location. Alternatively, if a rectangular parallelepiped (box) case having a size that can sufficiently accommodate reactors having different shapes, a dead space may be generated in the case or the case may be enlarged. On the other hand, in a configuration in which reactors having the same shape are combined, a case with a simple shape such as a rectangular parallelepiped (box shape) is easily used, and an extra space is hardly generated in the case, and a small case is used. be able to.

  The reactor assembly of the present invention includes two or more reactors. For example, when three-phase parallel is used in the power converter, the reactor assembly of the present invention has a configuration including a total of three smoothing reactors, a configuration including a total of three resonance reactors, or a total of three smoothing reactors. And a configuration including a combination of a total of three resonance reactors (a configuration including a total of six reactors). In particular, in a configuration including both a smoothing reactor and a resonance reactor, soft switching can be performed in addition to the step-up operation and the step-down operation by one reactor assembly.

  The reactor assembly of the present invention can be configured to include a resin that is filled in the case and integrally fixes the plurality of reactors to the case.

  According to the said structure, each reactor is fixed to a case with resin by integrally molding a some reactor with resin. Therefore, a stay (fixing member) for fixing the position of each reactor with respect to the case can be omitted, the number of parts can be reduced, and the fixing operation of the reactor to the case using the fixing member can be omitted. Further, according to this configuration, since the resin is filled once for the plurality of reactors, the number of filling operations can be reduced. In addition, this configuration (1) can reinforce the core with resin, protect the core and coil from the external environment, (2) can suppress noise caused by vibration, (3) use insulation resin, It is possible to achieve various effects such as ensuring insulation with the member, and (4) improving the heat dissipation by using a resin excellent in heat dissipation. As the resin to be used, various insulating resins can be suitably used. For example, a resin used as a potting resin such as an epoxy resin, a urethane resin, or a silicone resin can be used.

  The reactor assembly of the present invention can be configured to include a stay that is commonly arranged in the plurality of reactors in order to fix the plurality of reactors to the case.

  According to the above configuration, since a plurality of reactors can be fixed to the case by one stay, the number of stays and the stay attaching work can be reduced. Moreover, according to this structure, each reactor can be fixed to a case with a stay even if it does not have the above-mentioned resin. In addition to the stay, if it is configured to include the resin, it is easy to securely fix each reactor to the case.

  The reactor assembly of the present invention is small, has a small number of parts, and is excellent in assembling workability.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
<Embodiment 1>
1A is a schematic perspective view of the reactor assembly of the present invention, FIG. 1B is a schematic top view of the reactor assembly, and FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the reactor assembly. Hereinafter, the same reference numerals in the drawings indicate the same names.

  The reactor assembly 1A includes three smoothing reactors 10, 20, and 30. These reactors 10, 20, and 30 smooth, for example, each phase of a three-phase alternating current generated by a switching operation of a switching element included in the converter. A feature of the reactor assembly 1A is that these three reactors 10, 20, and 30 are integrally stored in one case 2A. Hereinafter, each configuration will be described in more detail.

[Reactor]
Reactors 10, 20, and 30 are the same structure composed of the same members, and are arranged in annular magnetic cores 11, 21, and 31 and coil winding portions of magnetic cores 11, 21, and 31. With 12,22,32. Hereinafter, the reactor 10 will be described as an example.

  The magnetic core 11 has a pair of rectangular parallelepiped coil winding portions 11c (FIG. 2) and a pair of end cores 11e where the coil 12 is not disposed, and sandwiches the coil winding portions 11c disposed separately from each other. Thus, the end core 11e is arranged to form a closed loop (annular). The magnetic core 11 includes a magnetic body portion 11m made of a soft magnetic material containing iron such as iron or steel and a gap material (not shown) made of a nonmagnetic material such as alumina. The magnetic body portion 11m is configured by combining a plurality of core pieces. In particular, the coil winding portion 11c is configured by alternately stacking core pieces and gap materials. Each core piece can be a soft magnetic powder compact or a laminate of a plurality of electromagnetic steel plates. A gap material is a member arrange | positioned in the clearance gap provided between core pieces for adjustment of an inductance. The core piece and the gap material are joined with an adhesive or the like. The number of divisions of the core pieces and the number of gap members can be appropriately selected so that the reactors 10, 20, and 30 each have a desired inductance.

  The coil 12 is formed by winding one continuous winding and includes a pair of coil elements arranged in parallel. Both coil elements are formed by edgewise winding a coated winding having an enamel coating on the surface of a copper flat wire, and are connected by a winding portion 12r. In addition to the above-described rectangular wire, the winding may have various shapes such as a circular cross section and a polygonal cross section.

  A terminal member (not shown) made of a conductive material to which an external device (not shown) such as a power source for supplying power to the coil 12 is connected is joined to both ends of the winding forming the coil 12. For joining, welding such as TIG welding can be used.

  If an insulator (not shown) is provided in the combination of the magnetic core 11 and the coil 12, the insulation between the magnetic core 11 and the coil 12 can be enhanced. The insulator includes a configuration including a cylindrical portion that covers the outer periphery of the coil winding portion, and a frame-like portion that is in contact with an end surface of the coil 12 (a surface in which the coil turns appear to be annular). As the constituent material of the insulator, insulating materials such as polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) resin, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin, and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) can be used.

[Case]
Total of the combination of the magnetic core 11 and the coil 12 constituting the reactor 10, the combination of the magnetic core 21 and the coil 22 constituting the reactor 20, and the combination of the magnetic core 31 and the coil 32 constituting the reactor 30 The three combinations are accommodated in, for example, an aluminum case 2A. In the first embodiment, the three combinations are arranged in the case 2A so that the axial directions of the coils 12, 22, and 32 of the reactors 10, 20, and 30 are aligned on the same straight line (coaxially). .

[Stay]
The case 2A has a bolt hole 2h (FIG. 2) into which the bolt 4A is screwed. The reactor assembly 1A is a stay 3A ₁ that is disposed in common on the end core 11e of the magnetic core 11 and on one end core 21e of the magnetic core 21 adjacent to the end core 11e, on the other end cores 21e of the magnetic core 21, and comprises a stay 3A ₂ which is arranged on a common on one of the end cores 31e of the magnetic core 31 adjacent to the end core 21e.

The stay 3A ₁ has, for example, a portion formed by bending an intermediate portion of a stainless steel strip into a shape, and has bolt holes 3h (FIG. 2) through which bolts 4A are inserted. The two end cores 11e and 21e can be pressed by this] -shaped portion. The stay 3A ₂ has the same configuration as the stay 3A ₁ and can hold the two end cores 21e and 31e. The materials of stays 3A ₁ and 3A ₂ are not particularly limited. However, as described above, materials having excellent strength such as stainless steel, especially JIS G 3311 (polished special steel strip), JIS G 4313 (stainless steel strip for spring), JIS G A material made of spring steel or the like specified in 4802 (cold rolled steel strip for spring) or the like is preferable because the magnetic core is firmly pressed against the case.

Reactor assembly 1A further includes a stay 5a disposed on one end core 11e of magnetic core 11 and a stay 5b disposed on the other end core 31e of magnetic core 31. . The basic structures and materials of the stays 5a and 5b are the same as those of the stays 3A ₁ and 3A _2, and only the widths are different. Incidentally, the stay 3A _1, 3A _2, since it can be fixed with three reactors 10, 20, 30 in case 2A, the stay 5a, may be omitted 5b. In this case, the number of parts can be further reduced. Alternatively, the three reactors 10, 20, and 30 may be fixed by a combination of the stays 3A ₁ and 5b and the stays 5a and 3A ₂ .

The bolts 4A are screwed into the bolt holes 3h (Fig. 2) provided in the stays 3A ₁ and 3A ₂ and the bolt holes 2h of the case 2A, so that the reactors located on both sides of the reactor 20 as well as the combination of the reactors 20 Ten combinations and a combination of reactors 30 are fixed to case 2A. In addition, the bolts 6 are screwed into the bolt holes 5h (Fig. 2) provided in the stays 5a and 5b and the bolt holes 25h (Fig. 2) of the case 2A, so that the combination of the reactors 10 and 30 is securely attached to the case 2A. Fixed. In this way, in the reactor assembly 1A, one stay 3A ₁ is shared by the reactor 10 and the reactor 20, and one stay 3A ₂ is shared by the reactor 20 and the reactor 30.

[Filling resin]
The case 2A is filled with an insulating potting resin (not shown), and the three combinations are covered with the resin except for both ends of the winding. In addition, although the material of a case is not ask | required in particular, if it is a case which consists of a material excellent in heat dissipation, such as aluminum as mentioned above, heat dissipation is improved.

[Assembly of reactor assembly]
A reactor assembly having the above configuration can be formed as follows.

  First, a combination of the magnetic core 11 and the coil 12, a combination of the magnetic core 21 and the coil 22, and a combination of the magnetic core 31 and the coil 32 are formed. A core piece and a gap material are fixed with an adhesive or the like to form a coil winding portion, an insulator (cylindrical portion) is disposed on the outer periphery, and coils 12, 22, and 32 are disposed on the outer periphery. The coils 12, 22, and 32 are separately manufactured by winding a winding. Arrange the frame-like portion and end cores 11e, 21e, 31e on the coils 12, 22, 32 so that the end faces of the coils 12, 22, 32 are sandwiched between the frame-like portion and the end core of the insulator, and adhesive The end cores 11e, 21e, 31e and the coil winding part are joined together to form the above three combinations.

  Next, the three formed assemblies are respectively stored in the case 2A.

Next, the stay 5a is placed on one end core 11e of the magnetic core 11, the stay 3A ₁ is placed on the other end core 11e of the magnetic core 11, and the one end core 21e of the magnetic core 21. The stay 3A ₂ is disposed on the other end core 21e and the one end core 31e of the magnetic core 31, and the stay 5b is disposed on the other end core 31e of the magnetic core 31. Then, the stays 3A ₁ , 3A ₂ , 5a, 5b are fixed to the case 2A by the bolts 4A, 6, and the end cores 11e, 21e, 31e are fixed to be pressed against the bottom surface side of the case 2A.

Next, a potting resin is filled in the case 2A containing the above three combinations, and the resin is cured. Both ends of the windings forming each coil 12, 22, 32 are exposed from the potting resin. Since the three combinations are pressed against the bottom side of the case 2A by the stays 3A ₁ , 3A ₂ , 5a, 5b, when filling the potting resin, these combinations are contained in the resin during deaeration. Can be prevented from floating. The reactor assembly 1A is assembled by the above process.

[effect]
In the reactor assembly 1A having the above configuration, the number of cases can be reduced by storing the three reactors 10, 20, and 30 in one case 2A in common. Further, by using the stays 3A ₁ and 3A ₂ in common for the two reactors, the number of stays and the number of bolts can be reduced. Therefore, reactor assembly 1A can reduce the number of parts and can be downsized. In addition, the reactor assembly 1A can be molded with resin filling once for three reactors. Reactor aggregate 1A can fix two reactors to case 2A by attaching stay 3A ₁ (3A ₂ ). Furthermore, the reactor assembly 1A can install three reactors on the cooling base at the same time by fixing the case 2A to the cooling base (not shown). Therefore, the reactor assembly 1A can reduce the resin filling operation, the fixing operation to the case, and the fixing operation to the cooling base, and is excellent in assembling workability.

  In addition, the reactor assembly 1A is excellent in handling property because a combination of the three reactors 10, 20, and 30 is accommodated in one case 2A so that a plurality of reactors can be handled integrally. Further, compared to the case where each reactor has a case, the reactor assembly 1A is light in weight and has a small installation space because the constituent material of the case can be reduced. Furthermore, the reactor assembly 1A is sealed with potting resin to reinforce the core, protect the assembly from the external environment, improve insulation between the coil and surrounding members, reduce noise due to vibration, There are various effects such as improvement of heat dissipation.

<Embodiment 2>
FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of another reactor assembly of the present invention, (B) is a top view of the reactor assembly, and FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the reactor assembly. The reactor assembly 1B shown in the second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in the arrangement form of the three reactors 10, 20, and 30, and the other points are the same. Hereinafter, the difference will be mainly described.

As shown in FIG. 3, the three reactors 10, 20, 30 included in the reactor assembly 1B are arranged in the case 2B so that the axial directions of the coils 12, 22, 32 of the reactors 10, 20, 30 are parallel to each other. Has been placed. With this configuration, the end cores 11e, 21e, 31e of the three reactors 10, 20, 30 are arranged side by side, so that one end core 11e, 21e, 31e can be pressed by one stay 3B _1. Is possible. In the second embodiment, another stay 3B ₂ is also arranged on the other end cores 11e, 21e, 31e to increase the fixing strength of the three reactors 10, 20, 30 to the case 2B.

The stay 3B ₁ is made of, for example, a stainless steel belt-like material, and has an uneven shape formed by bending an intermediate portion into three places]. When the stay 3B ₁ is attached to the case 2B, the positions of the] -shaped portions are adjusted so that the end cores 11e, 21e, 31e can be pressed by the respective] -shaped portions. A bolt hole 3h (FIG. 4) through which the bolt 4B is inserted is provided between both ends of the stay 3B ₁ and between the portions. The stay 3B ₂ has the same configuration as the stay 3B ₁ . Note that only one end core may be fixed, and in this case, _{one of} the stays 3B ₁ and 3B ₂ can be omitted.

Such a reactor assembly 1B is assembled as follows. The procedure up to the production of the combination of the three magnetic cores and the coil and the storage in the case 2B is performed in the same manner as the procedure of the first embodiment described above. After being housed in the case 2B, the stay 3B ₁ is arranged on one end core 11e, 21e, 31e of the three reactors 10, 20, 30 and the stay on the other end core 11e, 21e, 31e. Place 3B ₂ . Then, the stays 3B ₁ and 3B ₂ are fixed to the case 2B by the bolt 4B. Finally, as in the first embodiment, the reactor assembly 1B is assembled by filling the case 2B with a potting resin and curing the resin.

The reactor assembly 1A of the first embodiment described above is configured to fix the three reactors 10, 20, and 30 to the case 2A with at least two stays (for example, 3A ₁ and 3A ₂ ). On the other hand, the reactor assembly 1B of the second embodiment is configured to fix the three reactors 10, 20, and 30 to the case 2B with at least one stay (stay 3B ₁ or stay 3B ₂ ). Therefore, the reactor assembly 1B of the second embodiment can reduce the number of stays compared to the first embodiment. Further, the number of stays can be reduced, so that the stay placement process can be reduced. Therefore, the reactor assembly 1B not only has the same effect as the reactor assembly 1A of the first embodiment, but can further reduce the number of parts and is further excellent in assembling workability.

<Embodiment 3>
In the first and second embodiments, the reactor assembly in which all the reactors are for smoothing has been described. However, all reactors can be a reactor assembly for resonance. As the resonance reactor (not shown), a configuration including an EE type magnetic core or an EI type magnetic core and a coil disposed in a coil winding portion of the magnetic core can be used.

  The magnetic core is particularly preferably made of ferrite (a sintered body of a complex oxide containing ferric oxide). Since ferrite has excellent magnetic properties at high frequencies, it has low core loss in a high frequency band such as 10 kHz or more and further 100 kHz or more. Moreover, ferrite is relatively inexpensive and excellent in economic efficiency.

  In addition, the magnetic core can be formed by combining an E-type or I-type core piece made of the above magnetic material and formed into an EE type or an EI type, and a gap (air gap or gap material) is formed between the combined core pieces. A configuration in which is arranged is representative. The core piece and the gap material may be joined together with an adhesive or the like. The number of core pieces divided and the number of gap members can be appropriately selected so that the resonance reactor has a desired inductance. A coil obtained by winding a single continuous winding into a hollow cylindrical shape can be used. When this coil is placed in the coil winding part of a magnetic core and a pair of E-shaped cores are combined, or an E-shaped core and an I-shaped core are combined, there is also a core on the outer periphery of the coil A resonant reactor is obtained. Insulation can be enhanced by providing an insulator between the magnetic core and the coil.

  A plurality of such resonance reactors (for example, three) are prepared, housed in a single case and fixed with a stay as appropriate, or filled with resin, whereby a reactor assembly including a plurality of resonance reactors is obtained. can get.

<Embodiment 4>
In Embodiments 1 to 3, a reactor assembly including reactors having the same application has been described. However, a configuration including a plurality of reactors having different applications can be employed. For example, it can be set as the structure which accommodated the reactor for smoothing, and the reactor for resonance in one case.

  The above-described embodiment can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist of the present invention, and is not limited to the above-described configuration.

  The reactor assembly of the present invention can be suitably used for a component part of a power conversion device such as a converter mounted on a vehicle such as a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a reactor assembly shown in Embodiment 1, in which (A) is a perspective view and (B) is a top view. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view for explaining an assembly procedure of the reactor assembly shown in the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a reactor assembly shown in Embodiment 2, in which (A) is a perspective view and (B) is a top view. FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view illustrating an assembly procedure of the reactor assembly shown in the second embodiment. It is a schematic perspective view of the conventional reactor for smoothing, (A) shows the combination of a core and a coil, and (B) shows the state which stored this combination in the case.

Explanation of symbols

1A, 1B Reactor assembly 2A, 2B Case 2h, 25h Bolt hole
3A ₁ , 3A ₂ , 3B ₁ , 3B ₂ stays 3h, 5h Bolt holes 4A, 4B, 6 bolts
5a, 5b stay
10,20,30 Reactor 11,21,31 Magnetic core 11c Coil winding part
11m Magnetic part 11e, 21e, 31e End core 12, 22, 32 Coil 12r Rewinding part
100 Magnetic core 100e End core 110 Coil 111 Winding 120 Case
130 Potting resin 140 Stay 141 Bolt L Reactor

Claims (3)

A plurality of reactors including a coil and a magnetic core on which the coil is disposed;
A reactor assembly comprising a case for housing the plurality of reactors.   2. The reactor assembly according to claim 1, further comprising a resin filled in the case for fixing the plurality of reactors integrally to the case.   3. The reactor assembly according to claim 1, further comprising a stay that is arranged in common with the plurality of reactors in order to fix the plurality of reactors to the case.

Images