Electricity: measuring and testing – Measuring – testing – or sensing electricity – per se – With rotor
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-28
2003-03-04
Cuneo, Kamand (Department: 2829)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Measuring, testing, or sensing electricity, per se
With rotor
C324S142000, C361S659000, C029S831000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06528986
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally concerns improved structure and resulting assembly of circuit boards and casing structures employed in electric utility meters, and more particularly, concerns an integrated meter casing assembly with unique means for positioning and protecting printed circuit boards within an electric utility meter casing combination. The subject invention concerns both apparatuses and corresponding processes for assembly in such areas, including a focus on both the combinatory process of pertinent mechanical and electrical metering components as well as the manufacturing design of selected composite assemblies.
There are a wide variety of utilized designs that offer means for housing and protecting the electronic component boards utilized in an electric utility meter. Specific designs focus on the orientation of the circuit boards within an electric utility meter. Other designs emphasize ways to effectively retain these circuit boards and other components within the overall meter assembly. The ease of assembling a respective design is also an imperative feature in today's competitive manufacturing atmosphere. Any number of such design focuses may be employed depending on specific applications of such a meter, including the commercial environment in which a meter is applied.
It is typically ideal to construct a meter casing that is easily assembled as well as disassembled to ensure ready access to internal components of an electric meter, especially to printed circuit boards. Potential accessibility of a meter once it has an established location in the field is aided by several design characteristics.
It is desired to utilize a minimum number of parts needed to accomplish full functionality of an electric utility meter casing. It may also be ideal to exclude component parts in a meter casing assembly such as screws or clips, since such parts may be difficult to remove and could easily be misplaced. A simple and convenient removal process would ensure that casing components and electronic boards are not damaged and also that loose mechanical parts are not lost in the field.
Another inherent goal of an electric utility meter casing is to provide adequate protection of its internal components. Such protection is achieved through design and utilization of various meter casing components, and the stability of such casing components is essential to ensuring proper protection. A utility meter may endure significant mechanical loads from impact with foreign is objects, shock loads from transportation and installation, or additional stress from diverse environmental conditions. It is thus ideal to provide a fully stabilized meter casing that ensures safeguarded protection of a meter's components.
Additional concerns include not only protecting the utility meter, but protecting those exposed to such meters. Functionality should provide both the meterman who potentially services a meter as well as the customer who potentially uses a meter with adequate protection from electrical shock. Designs should provide ease of component manufacturing and assembly. Finally, it is desired that all design goals are achieved in a safe, reliable and cost-effective manner.
There are known meter design which incorporate a predefined arrangement of internal meter components. Exemplary designs include two printed circuit boards that are positioned and secured within an electric utility meter with the use of cardholders, rods and snaps. Screws are also used in the assembly process, which may pose the risk of misplacing loose parts. The two printed circuit boards are positioned on top of one another in a circuit board cover. This entire assemblage is then housed by an additional outer cover. Thus, another drawback of the design is difficult accessibility of the lower circuit board. In order to reach this lower board, the outer cover and circuit board cover must each be removed, each of multiple cardholder snaps must be compressed together and released, and the top circuit board must also be removed. This makes for a troublesome and often time-consuming process that field technicians or metermen may be involved in.
Present meter designs are also known that include pancake-like casing components that house the electronic circuit boards of an electric utility meter. Each “pancake” houses a single electronic circuit board and stacks upon the pancake below it. In each pancake, there is one circuit board that is fastened in with screws. Additionally, each pancake is held in place by a rotating latch, which is operated by another screw. Thus, in order to access any of the lower circuit boards (or pancakes), each pancake would need to be unlatched and removed. This characteristic makes for a difficult disassembly process and also incorporates undesired connective parts.
Other utility meter applications use snaps to connect a meter's circular inner modules together. Printed circuit boards are positioned inside the inner modules and are nearly the same diameter as the inner modules of some present commercial or industrial meters. The boards are typically positioned and held in the inner modules with a plurality of stepped posts and snaps along the perimeter of the board. In some instances, snap-in standoffs are used to maintain board spacing. Screws are often further used to secure a circuit board to an inner cover.
Another known meter casing design utilizes a lower inner cover and an Upper inner cover. Circuit boards are either fastened to the uppermost inner cover with screws or sandwiched between the upper and lower covers that are in turn fastened together with screws.
While various aspects and alternative inner component assemblies are known in the electric utility meter field, no one design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the above-referenced ideal electric utility meter characteristics and corresponding assembly procedure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the discussed drawbacks and shortcomings encountered in the prior art, an improved inner component assembly for an electric utility meter has been developed. Thus, broadly speaking, a general object of the invention is improved structure and corresponding assembly of electronic circuit boards within an electric utility meter casing.
It is another general object of certain embodiments of the present invention to provide an electric utility meter inner component assembly that is easily put together and consequently readily disassembled in the event that a meter casing need to be removed for access to or repair of specific electronic components of a meter.
It is yet another general object that various embodiments of the present invention may provide an electric meter inner component assembly that incorporates a minimum number of parts to accomplish fall functionality.
It is a further general object that selected embodiments of the present invention provide an electric utility meter assembly that does not involve loose parts that are easily lost or misplaced, such as screws, clips or stand-offs, thereby providing field technicians with easier access to a meter.
It is a principle object of the present invention to provide an inner component assembly for an electric utility meter that can effectively position and retain at least two printed circuit boards within its assembly.
It is another principal object of various embodiments of the present invention to provide an electric utility meter casing including inner covers that are used to house and protect various electronic components of an electric utility meter and an outer cover to enclose and stabilize the inner covers.
A further principal object of the present invention is to incorporate projections that extend from selected inner covers of an electric utility meter to position and secure printed circuit boards within an inner component assembly. Selected embodiments of the invention may incorporate specific projections, including locator pins, snaps or keys that selectively interconnect with openings and slots located on the circuit boar
Dority & Manning
Kobert Russell M.
Pojunas, Jr. Esq. Leonard W.
Schlumberger Resource Management Services, Inc.
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