Connector for combined DC/data bus

Details Connector for combined DC/data bus Connector for combined DC/data bus

2000-06-01

2001-11-13

Bradley, Paula (Department: 2833)

Electrical connectors

Bus duct

C439S060000, C439S924100, C361S604000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06315589

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to connectors for plugging an electrical equipment chassis into a bus, and more specifically to a connector for connecting equipment to a combined DC power and data bus.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Power supplies for providing DC power to large electronic installations such as mainframe computers conventionally consist of a number of individual power converters that are stacked one above the other on separate chassis in racks that may be enclosed in equipment cabinets. It is desirable for these racks to contain AC power lines and data and DC buses to which a converter or other electrical equipment may be connected merely by pushing its chassis into the rack. Because the converters used in a given installation would normally have the same shape and size horizontally but could be of varying heights, it is necessary for a bus system built into the rack to allow a converter to be plugged into it at substantially any vertical level. Prior art power system equipment bays have required that the location of each piece of plug-in equipment be predefined usually at the time of initial configuration of the system. Each piece of equipment must also be interconnected and traditionally this is done with a “power shelf” for the converter equipment, in which each power shelf supports three or four converters and a series of cables are used to interconnect multiple power shelves to a common distribution panel. Individual equipment not supported by power shelves must be interconnected using discrete cable assemblies.
Because of space and cost considerations, it is desirable to integrate the data bus with the DC bus, yet assure a reliable contact between the converter and the buses while preventing any possibility of short-circuiting the electronic circuitry during insertion or removal of an individual converter. A combined DC/data bus structure fulfilling these requirements is described in copending application Ser. No. 09/585,657 filed Jun. 1, 2000 and entitled Combined DC/Data Bus For Power Converter Racks. The connector that enables the power converter chassis to be plugged into this bus structure merely by pushing it into operating position in the rack is, however, not described and claimed in detail in the above-identified application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The connector of this invention is designed to establish a DC power and data connection anywhere along a pair of parallel, vertically extending DC bus bars that define between them a vertically extending slot. Along the sides of the slot, insulating strips are inserted into the DC bus bars. These strips carry data bus bars on their outer faces. The inventive connector provides an elongated data connector which fits into the slot and carries the data contacts, and a pair of shorter male DC power connectors which plug into vertical female contact grooves in the front face of the DC bus bars. The data contacts are encased in an insulating shroud that guides the connector into alignment with the bus assembly and prevents the data contacts from coming into contact with the DC bus bars during insertion or removal. Also, the mutual spacing of the data contacts and data bus bars is such that the data contacts cannot accidentally bridge two adjacent data bus bars. All the contacts are resiliently biased to make secure contact with tile bus assembly, and the data contacts are mounted on a printed circuit card that provides an interface between the inventive connector assembly and an internal data connector associated with the equipment.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4758172 (1988-07-01), Richards et al.
patent: 4872212 (1989-10-01), Roos et al.
patent: 4934941 (1990-06-01), Okada
patent: 5017146 (1991-05-01), Uechara et al.
patent: 5297015 (1994-03-01), Miyazaki et al.
patent: 5365424 (1994-11-01), Deam et al.
patent: 5394296 (1995-02-01), Erickson, Jr. et al.
patent: 5421751 (1995-06-01), Bennett et al.
patent: 5422440 (1995-06-01), Palma
patent: 5740020 (1998-04-01), Palatov
patent: 5745338 (1998-04-01), Bartolo et al.
patent: 5764502 (1998-06-01), Morgan et al.
patent: 5901057 (1999-05-01), Brand et al.
patent: 5933343 (1999-08-01), Lu et al.
patent: 5969938 (1999-10-01), Byrne et al.
patent: 5969965 (1999-10-01), Byrne et al.
patent: 6016252 (2000-01-01), Pignolet et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Connector for combined DC/data bus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Connector for combined DC/data bus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Connector for combined DC/data bus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2584002