Electrical connectors – With coupling separator – Nonconducting pusher
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-22
2001-04-03
Nguyen, Khiem (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With coupling separator
Nonconducting pusher
Reexamination Certificate
active
06210187
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector, and particularly to a card ejecting mechanism of a card connector.
2. The Prior Art
Following the development of computer technology, a variety of cards, such as PCMCIA cards and memory cards, have been developed to meet different requirements, and a variety of card connectors have been developed to connect the cards to respective mother boards. Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 84210016, 85208532 and U.S. Pat No. 5,456,610 disclose such connectors. Each connector is equipped with an ejector mechanism having a card ejecting plate with at least a card engaging tab for engaging with an inserted card. When the ejector mechanism is activated to eject the inserted card, the card engaging tab exerts a push force on the card.
The card engaging tabs disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 84210016 and 85208532 extend in a direction parallel to an engaged side of the inserted card whereby a uniform ejecting force can be exerted on the card. However, due to the requirement of miniaturization of the card connector, the card ejecting plate becomes thinner and thinner. A card engaging tab arranged in this manner is not rigid enough to sustain the ejecting force and will deform excessively during ejection of the inserted card. When this happens, the card engaging tab can no longer properly perform its intended function.
U.S. Pat No. 5,456,610 discloses a card engaging tab extending in a direction perpendicular to an engaged side of the inserted card, whereby the engaging tab has an increased rigidity. However, in this arrangement, the contact area between the engaging tab and the card is relatively small causing a large amount of stress to be exerted on the card when the card is rejected. Thus, the card cannot be smoothly ejected out of the connector.
Furthermore, none of the prior art card connectors has a card ejecting mechanism which can be positively guided during operation to have a stable and reliable movement to eject the inserted card.
Hence, an improved connector is needed to eliminate the above mentioned defects of current card connectors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an objective of the present invention is to provide a card connector having a card ejecting mechanism with an improved card ejecting plate which can smoothly eject an inserted card while card engaging tabs thereof will not be excessively deformed.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a card connector having guiding means which can guide the card ejecting mechanism to have a stable and reliable movement to eject an electronic card inserted into the connector.
To fulfill the above mentioned objectives, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a card connector consists of a header connector with pins each having a contact portion at a front side thereof for engaging with an inserted card and a tail portion at a rear side thereof for being soldered to a printed circuit board. A metallic shielding has a head portion fixedly attached to the header connector and a pair of card guiding rails extending in front of the header connector. A card ejecting mechanism is drivably mounted on the shielding. The card ejecting mechanism includes a push rod reciprocably mounted on a rail of the shielding. A lever is pivotably mounted on the head portion of the shielding and has a first end engaging with the push rod and an opposed second end slidably engaging with an arced section formed by the head portion of the shielding. An elongate card ejecting plate is linearly and movably mounted on the shielding, and has a middle tab engaging with the lever near the second end thereof and two card engaging tabs at two lateral ends thereof for exerting an ejecting force on an inserted card. Each card engaging tab extends parallel to a longitudinal direction of the card ejecting plate to evenly exert an ejecting force on the card for smooth ejection. The card ejecting plate further forms two supporting tabs located immediately behind the card engaging tabs, respectively, which supportively abut the corresponding card engaging tabs when the card is ejected, thereby preventing an excessive deformation of the card engaging tabs due to the ejecting force.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5451168 (1995-09-01), Shuey
patent: 5707259 (1998-01-01), Ishizuka et al.
patent: 5730610 (1998-03-01), Hsia et al.
patent: 5836775 (1998-11-01), Hiyama et al.
Hon Hai - Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.
Nguyen Khiem
Nguyen Son Y.
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