Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Insulating body having plural mutually insulated terminals...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-22
2002-08-13
Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Insulating body having plural mutually insulated terminals...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06431920
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
A sectional connector such as a pinstrip, and method are disclosed for mounting an active or passive component on a printed circuit board.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Brief Description of the Prior Art
Requirements for the miniaturization and function integration of components keep growing in connection with the production of electrical and electronic structural members—for example, printed circuit boards for applications in telecommunications and data communication. The plug connectors of the structural members or printed circuit boards are also subject to these requirements. In many practical applications, one uses plug connectors or pin strips with a number of pins ranging between 2 and 24. But in the meantime, there are also requirements for pin strips that have pin numbers of 400 to 800 contacts per 100 mm of card length or printed circuit board length. According to the state of the art, even such high-pole pin strips are mounted on a printed circuit board after their production as a whole. In order to limit the wide variety of models (logistics), it has been proposed to assemble high-numbered pole pin strips from multi-pole strips. Here, of course, one encounters a problematical effect: When the individual plug pin or pins are not exactly aligned in a row, it is very difficult, if entirely impossible to accomplish assembly on the printed circuit board and to connect a plug socket to the plug connector. This is because the plug pins do not exactly engage the corresponding openings of the plug socket. Furthermore, pin strips with pins that are not exactly aligned straight impart the optical impression of deficient quality even when the functionality is still guaranteed.
Against this background of the above-described problems, the present invention was developed to provide a process for the assembly of electrical structural members on a printed circuit board by means of which one can, in a simple and uncomplicated, fashion ensure a most extensively exact alignment of the structural member in a straight row. The invention is furthermore intended to create a corresponding structural member.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a sectional connector and method for connecting a active or passive component to a printed circuit board, characterized in that the connector includes a plurality of sections that are connected end-to-end in an aligned manner and are mounted on a rectangular printed circuit board.
According to another object of the invention, a process is provided for the assembly of electrical structural members on a printed circuit board, where a superordinate, common structural member is assembled from the structural member sections or segments directly upon the printed circuit board, whereupon a following structural member section is aligned on the printed circuit board along a structural member section that has beforehand been stuck on the printed circuit board. The invention thus involves the creation of an overlapping structural member that is not outside the printed circuit board and that does not place said structural member as a whole on the printed circuit board. Instead, it assembles an overlapping structural member only on the printed circuit board. Advantageously, the structural member sections are positioned on the printed circuit board by means of a centering device and are aligned in a row on the printed circuit board. The most varied elements might be conceived as a centering device: for instance, centering elements on the structural member but also centering elements on the assembly insertion head, on the printed circuit board, etc., can be provided.
Particularly preferred components are a printed circuit board clamp segment, socket strip segments or pin strip segments. The structural members include multi-pole printed circuit board clamps, socket strips or pin strips.
According to the method of the invention, the particular structural members are assembled on the printed circuit board by using the interlocking segments themselves. This variant of the invention offers a special advantage: With the help of the segments and the process of the present invention, one can fashion elements, in particular, pin strips of any desired length without any need for any stockpiling or supply of various supply roles on the automatic placement machine. A single placement insertion roll instead facilitates the formation of structural members of any desired length and any desired width (assuming there is a corresponding geometric layout with lateral centering elements). Here, one can always ensure a particularly exact alignment of the plug pins in a row and the uncomplicated action of placing the structural member segments upon the printed circuit board.
According to another object of the invention, the segments or sections have centering elements that are fashioned upon the segments as centering device; with the help of these centering elements, the segments can be aligned in a row as they are lined up next to each other on the printed circuit board. For this purpose, one may use, for instance, mutually corresponding dovetail recesses and projections and/or mutually corresponding T-shaped and/or V-shaped and/or circular and/or conical, mutually engaging recesses and projections and/or cooperating grooves and springs and/or other puzzle-like recesses and projections. In this embodiment of the invention, the pin strip segment is thus fashioned in a special form.
According to another object of the invention, the centering elements for the structural member segments comprise frames or combs or pick-and-place pads that can be joined to the structural member segments, in particular, the pin strip segments, and that can be separated from the latter. This simplifies the design of the individual pin strip segments because they do not have to have any additional centering elements of their own. The pick-and-place pad is often needed as fitting during assembly so that the insertion or pick-and-place head can engage the corresponding structural member.
In another modification of the invention, the centering elements and/or centering recesses are made as boreholes, as clearances or recesses and mutually corresponding projections on the structural members and/or the printed circuit boards.
According to a further object of the invention, the centering device is made on the pick-and-place head of a pick-and-place insertion tool and is used for grasping a structural member segment that is already mounted on the printed circuit board upon the depositing of another structural member segment on the printed circuit board, and thus to align the additional structural member segment to be stuck on the printed circuit board by means of self-alignment of the pick-and-place head upon grasping the already mounted structural member segment. The invention thus also creates an advantageous innovation in the field of pick-and-place heads for pick-and-place machines with respect to printed circuit boards. Advantageously, the lug with the projection has a conical or tapered area that secures the assembly procedure by way of a preliminary centering action. Also possible in the end is a design for the placement and/or joining of laterally closed structural member segments, in particular, of pin strip segments, as well as contour fashioning or shaping, which will be adapted to the contour of a structural member that is to be received.
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patent: 5066236 (1991-11-01), Broeksteeg
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patent: 5613882 (1997-03-01), Hnatuck et al.
patent: 5951306 (1999-09-01), Millhimes
patent: 6010373 (2000-01-01), Donahue
Endres Klaus
Kowollik Rudolf
Lange Manfred
Radde Werner
Sturm Michael
Laubscher, Sr. Lawrence E.
Le Thanh-Tam
Sircus Brian
Weidmüller Interface GmbH
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