Electrical connectors – With indicating or identifying provision – Distinct indicia bearing member
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-10
2001-08-28
Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With indicating or identifying provision
Distinct indicia bearing member
Reexamination Certificate
active
06280238
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a designation plate for use with panel systems for communication jacks, also known as jackfields. A jack, as the term is used hereafter, is an individual female contact, for mechanical and electric cooperation with a corresponding male jack plug.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A jack-field is an array of jacks used to cross-patch audio, video or digital signals. The jackfield also serves as a test or monitoring point for these same signals. Jackfields are used anywhere considerable quantities of audio, digital or video signals need to be interconnected in varying configurations. The primary industries are telecommunications, broadcast, cable, duplicating and recording.
The jackfield usually has a generally flat face plate with a plurality of holes, one hole for each jack. The signals coming to and exiting the jackfield are interfaced at the rear of the jackfield. The communication jacks accept standard jack plug patch cords, to effect the desired interconnection, or patch, between two jacks at the front of the panel system. The jackfields are usually rack-mounted. Other names used to describe jackfields are patch-field, patch-bay, bay, audio bay or video bay.
The jacks are available in different types such as video, digital video, longframe audio and bantam audio. Longframe and bantam (TT) audio jacks are the most traditional of the types of jacks used in jackfields. They are used mainly for audio, digital audio and RS422 signal patching.
Typical installation of these jacks from inception to present day sees these jacks mounted into panels, the panels mounted into equipment racks. To provide the user with a possibility to label each jack connection on the panel, strip holders have been mounted above and below the rows of jacks. Each strip holder would accommodate a strip of paper or similar material, on which the user could write any preferred designations relating to the particular jack. Due to the fact that the jacks will have to be mounted onto the panel in some way, and the preferred method of doing this has traditionally been to screw the individual jack to the panel from the front of the panel, there has been a need to provide an unobstructed access to the mounting hole of the screw and the screw head. The access has either been a direct access to a free screw hole, or an access hole in the strip holder, if the strip holder was made wide enough to cover the jack mounting screw. However, the width of the patch cord jack plug handle has made it necessary to provide enough clearance between the jack plug handle and the strip holder, to ensure that the jack plug could be fully seated into the corresponding jack. This has effectively limited the width of the strip holder.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a designation plate for use with panel system for communication jacks, which provides a wider strip holder than provided by traditional strip holders. Further features of the designation plate will be described below.
In the invention, a communication jackfield has a face plate, a plurality of jacks and a designation plate. The designation plate is of a generally elongate flat shape, and has a plurality of jack barrel access holes, for allowing a front end of each of the jack barrels to protrude into respective jack barrel access hole, when jacks are mounted onto the face plate. The designation plate further has a first strip holder and a second strip holder, each strip holder having a longitudinal lower flange and a longitudinal upper flange arranged to securely hold a strip of information marking material. The designation plate covers substantially all of a front side of the face plate, and further has jack screw access holes arranged in conjunction with each jack barrel access hole. The designation plate front portion is generally in a same plane as an outer edge of the longitudinal upper and lower flanges, thereby allowing the strip holders to extend from an edge of the designation plate to the jack barrel access holes, to provide holding for extra wide strips.
Thus, in one embodiment of the invention, a communication jackfield comprises
a face plate, having a plurality of jack mounting holes, and jack screw holes adjacent the jack mounting holes;
a plurality of jacks, having jack barrels arranged at a forward end of the jacks, each jack barrel being substantially cylindrical and arranged to receive the plug of a jack plug, the jacks are mountable in the jack mounting holes, so that a front end of each jack barrel protrudes from an outer surface of the face plate, and the jacks are fastenable to the face plate with jack screws arranged in the jack screw holes, so that each jack screw head rests on the face plate in a countersunk portion of the screw holes and each jack screw is accessible from a front of the face plate;
a designation plate of a generally elongate flat shape, the designation plate having a front portion, a back portion, a first end, a second end, a top edge, a bottom edge and a plurality of jack barrel access holes, for allowing the front end of each jack barrel to protrude into respective jack barrel access hole, when jacks are mounted onto the face plate of the communication jackfield, the designation plate further having a first strip holder and a second strip holder, each strip holder having a longitudinal lower flange and a longitudinal upper flange arranged to securely hold a strip of information marking material,
where the designation plate covers substantially all of a front side of the face plate, and the designation plate further comprises jack screw access holes arranged in conjunction with each jack barrel access hole, and where the designation plate front portion is generally in a same plane as an outer edge of the longitudinal upper flanges and an outer edge of the longitudinal lower flanges, thereby allowing the strip holders to extend from an edge of the designation plate to the jack barrel access holes, to provide holding for extra wide strips.
In a further preferred embodiment, a communication jackfield comprises:
a face plate, having a plurality of upper jack mounting holes, lower jack mounting holes, upper jack screw holes adjacent the upper jack mounting holes and lower jack screw holes adjacent the lower jack mounting holes;
a plurality of lower jacks and upper jacks, the lower jacks having lower jack barrels arranged at a forward end of the lower jacks, and the upper jacks having upper jack barrels arranged at a forward end of the upper jacks, each upper and lower jack barrel being substantially cylindrical and arranged to receive the plug of a jack plug, the lower and upper jacks being mountable in the upper and lower jack mounting holes, respectively, so that a front end of each jack barrel protrudes from an outer surface of the face plate, and fastenable to the face plate with jack screws arranged in the upper and lower jack screw holes, respectively, so that each jack screw head rests on the face plate in a countersunk portion of the upper and lower jack screw holes and each jack screw is accessible from a front of the face plate;
a designation plate of a generally elongate flat shape, the designation plate having a front portion, a back portion, a first end, a second end, a top edge and a bottom edge, the designation plate further having upper jack barrel access holes and lower jack barrel access holes, for allowing the front end of each jack barrel to protrude into respective upper and lower jack barrel access holes, when jacks are mounted onto the face plate of the communication jackfield, the designation plate further having an upper strip holder and a lower strip holder, the upper strip holder having a first longitudinal lower flange and a first longitudinal upper flange arranged to securely hold a strip of information marking material, and the lower strip holder having a second longitudinal lower flange and a second longitudinal upper flange arranged to securely hold a strip of information marking material,
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Baker Daniel L.
Grant John E.
Armstrong R. Craig
AVP Mfg. & Supply Inc.
Nasri Javad
Sircus Brian
LandOfFree
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