Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – Single duct conduits
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-24
2001-05-29
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
Single duct conduits
C174S050000, C174S050610, C174S050620, C174S151000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06239370
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of electrical connections between two mutually sealed environments. In particular, the invention relates to a sealed electrical line penetration through a housing wall made of plastic and to a method of producing a sealed electrical line penetration.
Motor vehicles increasingly require control electronics to be integrated in the engine or transmission. For this purpose, the control electronics that are mounted on a circuit carrier must be shielded from the oils used in engines and transmissions, because the oils contain chemically extremely aggressive additives. At the same time, however, electrical lines must be led through the shielding to allow components of an engine or a transmission to be electronically controlled.
Electrical line penetration assemblies of the type described herein may also be referred to as penetrators or conductor lead-throughs.
2. Description of the Related Art
A connector system that is suitable for use in the adverse automotive conditions is known from European patent EP 0 513 263 B1. There, a flexible film with electrical traces is led through between a closure part and a housing and establishes an electrical connection between a component in the interior of the housing and a component outside the housing. To accomplish sealing between the flexible film and the closure part or the housing, the flexible film must be surrounded by a seal. The sealing of the closure part with respect to the housing and the flexible film is relatively complex. In addition, the closure part and the housing must be fastened to each other in a defined way in order to bring about reliable sealing.
German published patent application DE 195 17 455 A1 discloses a gastight penetration for a conductor through a fastening part made of plastic, in which a shrink-fit tube is adhesively attached onto the conductor. The shrink-fit tube enters into a bond with the plastic of the fastening part. If a multiplicity of conductors are to be led through the fastening part, a multiplicity of conductors must be provided with shrink-fit tubes and fixed so they can be encapsulated in plastic. On account of being encapsulated in plastic, producing very high temperatures, the conductor has no insulation directly outside the housing. On account of the soft and elastic properties of a shrink-fit tube, a liquid-tight insulation cannot be accomplished.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,300 describes a penetrator housing through which flexible circuits (flat cable conductors) connect to a liquid-cooled supercomputer. The penetrator housing is fitted into the housing of the supercomputer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a line penetration through a housing wall, which overcomes the disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices and methods of this general type and which provides for a simple, yet particularly reliable, sealed electrical line penetration through a housing wall.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a sealed electrical line penetration through a housing wall made of plastic, comprising:
a flexible circuit penetrating the housing wall, the flexible circuit having a plurality of electrical traces embedded therein and electrical contact points on either side of the housing wall;
the flexible circuit being encapsulated by the housing wall, and the electrical traces of the flexible circuit being led to different levels in the housing wall.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the flexible circuit is a flexible film with a top film and a base film, the electrical traces being embedded between the top film and the base film.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the top film and the base film are physically and/or chemically bonded to the housing wall.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the flexible circuit is one of a plurality of flexible circuits molded into the housing wall and split up in the housing wall to different levels. With the above and other objects in view there is also provided, in accordance with the invention, a sealed electrical line penetration, comprising:
a housing with a housing wall made of plastic;
a flexible circuit penetrating the housing wall, the flexible circuit having a plurality of electrical traces embedded therein and electrical contact points on either side of the housing wall;
the flexible circuit being encapsulated by the housing wall, and the flexible circuit being molded into the housing substantially around a periphery thereof.
There is also provided, in accordance with the invention, a method of producing a sealed electrical line penetration through a housing wall of a plastic housing. The method comprises the following steps:
providing a flexible film with an electrical trace;
placing the flexible film between two halves of an injection mold and fixing the flexible film relative to the mold on an inner side and an outer side respectively of a housing wall to be injection-molded in the injection mold; and
injection-molding a plastic housing with the housing wall.
In accordance with yet another feature of the invention, the flexible film has a given melting point temperature, and the injection-molding step comprises injection-molding the plastic housing at a temperature above the melting point temperature of the flexible film.
In accordance with a concomitant feature of the invention, prior to the injection-molding step, the flexible film is encapsulated in plastic in a region lying within the housing wall after the injection-molding step.
In other words, the production of the electrical line penetration through the housing wall is already integrated into the process of producing the plastic housing wall. Apart from the injection-molding of the housing wall, no additional production steps are necessary in order to bring about an electrical connection through the housing wall and accomplish the seal between a conductor and the housing wall or between two halves of the housing wall. According to the invention, a seal-tightness with respect to liquids used in engines and transmissions, such as oil and gasoline, can be achieved particularly reliably. This is significant if the electrical line penetration connects control electronics integrated into an automatic transmission and encapsulated with respect to the transmission oil to components lying outside the encapsulation, such as connectors, sensors or actuators. If a leak were to develop in the connection over a period of time, the control electronics would be destroyed by penetration of the oil. The transmission would have to be removed to renew the control electronics, thus causing considerable costs.
It is particularly advantageous that the electrical traces to be led through the housing wall can be split up in the housing wall. For this purpose, the electrical traces merely have to be fixed with respect to the inner side and the outer side respectively of the housing wall to be injection-molded. The path followed by the traces or the flexible films within the housing wall to be injection-molded is of no significance.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in an electrical line penetration through a housing wall, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 769646 (1904-09-01), Case
patent: 3260786 (1966-07-01), Katzschner
patent: 4842551 (1989-06-0
Franzen Frank
Loibl Josef
Scheuerer Ulf
Estrada Angel R.
Greenberg Laurence A.
Lerner Herbert L.
Reichard Dean A.
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
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