Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – With interior conductor or cable supports
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-22
2001-10-30
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
With interior conductor or cable supports
C174S068200, C174S07000A
Reexamination Certificate
active
06310293
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stacked assembly having a bus bar and, more particularly, to an arrangement wherein a top insulating plate is securely held to the lower substrate without the need for welding.
2. Art Relating to the Invention
Conventionally, electrical connection boxes are used as connection junction points for wire harnesses and the like while also housing various electronic circuits, electronic components, and the like for automobiles.
Electrical connection boxes often house a stacked assembly as shown in FIG.
5
. In
FIG. 5
, stacked assembly
51
includes bus bar stacked substrate
52
, insulative plate
53
, and plurality of solid-core wires
54
. Bus bar stacked substrate
52
forms one portion of an internal circuit and includes a plurality of stacked insulative substrates
56
,
57
,
58
. Bus bars
61
are fixed above the insulative substrate
56
, between insulative substrates
56
,
67
,
58
, and below insulative substrate
58
. Bus bars
61
include plate-shaped bus bar tabs
62
, which are bent perpendicular to both the direction in which bus bars
61
are laid, and supporting bus bar tabs
63
. Bus bar tabs
63
have sections
63
a
which form a pincer shape for connecting to solid core wires
54
.
Insulative plate
53
is mounted on top of a portion of bus bar stacked substrate
52
. Insulative plate
53
is formed in a plate shape that covers a portion of insulative substrate
56
that portion being the part that has bus bar tabs
63
. Tab holders
66
are formed in insulative plate
53
and align with bus bar tabs
63
. Tab holders
66
are formed with tab insertion openings
69
, which have widths that are slightly greater than the widths of bus bar tabs
63
. When insulative plate
53
is mounted on bus bar stacked substrate
52
, bus bar tabs
63
are inserted through tab insertion openings
69
. When this is done, the ends of supporting sections
63
a
are projected from the upper end of tab holder
66
.
Solid-core wires
54
are connected to bus bar tabs
63
. In this process of assembly, the insulative covering on solid-core wire
54
is cut away by supporting section
63
a
, thus forming an electrical connection between solid-core wire
54
and bus bar tab
63
.
With the above operation, bus bar
61
and solid-core wire
54
are electrically connected, and an electrical circuit is formed on the upper surface of insulative plate
53
, thus forming the internal circuit in stacked assembly
51
.
Stacked assembly
51
is interposed and loosely fixed between an upper case and a lower case (not shown in the figure) and is housed inside the electrical connection box.
One of the problems associated with stacked assembly
51
is that insulative plate
53
can disengage from bus bar stacked substrate
52
thereby also disengaging solid-core wires
54
. This can result in time-consuming operation of re-wiring solid-core wires
54
.
Also, stacked assembly
51
, housed in the electrical connection box, is only loosely held by the upper case and the lower case. Thus, bus bar stacked substrate
52
and insulative plate
53
can become misaligned due to the leeway provided by the clearance and the vibrations that are inherent in an automobile when it is being operated. This can lead to bad connections between bus bars
61
and solid-core wires
54
. This also requires re-wiring solid-core wires
54
.
One measure that has been taken to prevent these types of bad connections is to weld bus bar substrate
52
to insulative plate
53
. However, this requires special equipment to perform welding and also requires a larger number of production steps for the welding operation, leading to increased production costs. Furthermore, extra space is required to provide for welding spots, leading to larger dimensions for stacked assembly
51
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a stacked assembly that can prevent interruptions and delays of production operations, that can reduce production costs, and that can provide a more compact design.
In order to achieve the objects, the present invention provides a stacked assembly comprising a bus bar substrate including a bus bar fixed to an insulative substrate; and an insulative plate having an upper surface on which an electrical circuit is formed, a plurality (two or more) of projections are formed from the bus bar and extend upwardly above the insulative substrate, projection entry sections are formed on the insulative plate and correspond in location and number to the projections on the insulative substrate, such that the insulative plate is fixed onto the bus bar substrate by having the projections mate with the projection entry sections.
Preferably, the stacked assembly has two projections and those two projections are positioned on the bus bar substrate at points which correspond to the opposite corners of the insulative plate.
More preferably, there are four projections, one corresponding to each corner of the insulative plate.
It is also preferred that the projection entry sections on the insulate plate fully enclose and insulate the projections to prevent contact with the wire cores which are mounted on the insulative plate.
According to the present invention, the insulative plate is pressed against the bus bar substrate so that the projections are pushed into the projection entry section, thus reliably fixing the plate onto the bus bar substrate. As a result, interruptions and delays in assembly resulting from the bus bar substrate disengaging from the insulative plate are avoided.
Also, the need for dedicated equipment required for fixing the insulative plate onto the bus bar substrate through welding is eliminated, thus reducing the number of production steps. As a result, production costs can be reduced.
Furthermore, the need for extra space on the stacked assembly for weld spots is eliminated. This allows the stacked assembly and the electrical connection box to be made more compact.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the projections are formed from the bus bar. This provides a cost savings to the manufacture in that the bus bar is already present in the substrate assembly and no additional elements need be added.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3751578 (1973-08-01), Hoffmann
patent: 4199655 (1980-04-01), Shariff et al.
patent: 4825336 (1989-04-01), Iio et al.
patent: 5337211 (1994-08-01), Reiner et al.
patent: 2318226 (1995-03-01), None
patent: 2293052 (1995-03-01), None
patent: 2103723 (1990-08-01), None
Bierman, Muserlian and Lucas
Estrada Angel R.
Reichard Dean A.
Sumitomo Wiring Systems Ltd.
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