GB2095485A

GB2095485A - Printed circuit board connector

Info

Publication number: GB2095485A
Application number: GB8207600A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Deutsche ITT Industries GmbH; ITT Industries Inc
Current assignee: TDK Micronas GmbH; ITT Inc
Priority date: 1981-03-20
Filing date: 1982-03-16
Publication date: 1982-09-29
Also published as: FR2502407B1; DE8207123U1; FR2502407A1

Abstract

A printed circuit board connector, such as mounted on the edge of a board, has right-angled pins (21, 21') between the connector and the contact pads on the board. To ensure that these pins are correctly held in place a holding device (7) of the connector has a part (8) with grooves (11, 12) whose positioning and size is such as to retain the pins in the connector and align them. The device also has two flank parts (9, 10), with holes (17) for securing the member to the end face (6) of the connector, and holes (19) for securing the member to the board. Such a member locates the pins accurately and protects them from excessive stresses, such as may occur on plug in. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Printed circuit connector This invention relates to a guiding and hold- ing device for connector right-angle pins, and more particularly to a device making it possible to hold the contacts within their housings in the connector and to place their connecting tips in a correct position for their positioning on a printed circuit board supporting the connector.

Printed circuit board connectors are usually very small and so are their pins, which are used both as contact elements and for securing the connector to the board. Among the problems met during the assembly of such a connector, there is that of pin holding so that the contacts remain in their connector housings, especially when they are submitted to high stresses, as when plugging in. Moreover, as the pin tips must be simultaneously inserted into openings of the circuit board close to one another, they must be put in a line and correctly positioned with respect to these openings to obtain an easy insertion.

To solve such problems, two intermediate pieces have been used in some connectors, on acting as a rear insulator to hold the contacts in their housings, the other to stabilise the pin tips and give them the required alignment and spacing. However, to position these intermediate pieces, they have to be mounted manually on the pins from the free ends thereof, which is relatively long and delicate to achieve.

An object of the invention is to provide a simplfied guiding and holding device for a printed circuit board connector which does not have the disadvantages of the known devices.

According to the invention there is provided a guiding and holding device for connector right angle pins for mounting on a circuit board, which includes on single piece with means for securing it to the case of the connector and means which co-operate with the pins for both holding the contacts in the respective housings of the connector case and correctly positioning the tips of the pins intended for the connection to the circuits of the board.

Thus the device can be mounted on the pins without having to be strung from the free end of the tips, during a mounting process which may be atomatised due to its great simplicity.

Thus a right angle pin guiding and holding device for connectors for mounting on a printed circuit board which is one single piece ensuring at the same time contact holding, tip guiding and the connector fixing to the board is provided. It includes a central part having grooves whose width corresponds to that of the pins; the spacing betwen these grooves is determined by the distance between the open-.

ings which receive the tips on the board whereas their depth is such that the pins abut the groove bottom after the device has been associated with the connector case. Ths central part is integral with two flanks which include apertures for the passage of appropriate fasteners, fixing, on the one hand, the connector to both flanks and, on the other hand, fixing the latter to the board used as support. Such a device is particularly easy to position since it does not have to be strung on the pins: it suffices to bring it close to the pins, to position the latter in their grooves and to continue the initial motion until both flanks contact the connector case. The simplicity of such an assembly enables the easy automatisation of its achievement.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a cross-section of a well-known printed circuit board connector with two intermediate pieces, Figure 2 is a cross-section view of a connector such as that of Fig. 1, but in which a pin guiding and holding device, according to the invention, is used; and Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of the parts of Fig. 2.

We refer first to Fig. 1, which shows a printed circuit board connector with known means for aligning the connector pins to facilitate the insertion of their tips in the corresponding board openings. In this device the pins 1,1' and, in particular, their ends 21,21' constituting the connecting tips-are held by two intermediate pieces 2 and 3.

These pieces are positioned one after the other by stringing them on the tips 21, 21' and by making them successively slide on the pins 1,1' in the direction of the arrow 4.

Thus, the piece 2 is used as the rear insulator for the connector, and it ensures the holding of the contacts 5 in their housings in the case 6, whereas th piece 3 is used as a stablising plate for the tips 21, 21' to hold them in the position they must occupy with respect to one another to aliow an easy insertion of the tips in the corresponding openings of a board.

This is not easy due to the small dimensions of the concerned elements and to the fact that it has to be done manually.

To avoid the drawbacks of the solution of Fig. 1, the invention replaces both insulating pieces 2 and 3 by only one single piece 7, Figs. 2 and 3. This piece 7 is a monoblock angle piece made of a central comb 8 and two flanks 9 and 1 0. The comb 8 has two series of grooves, grooves 11 and grooves 1 2. All grooves have the same width related to that of the pins 1,1' to ensure their housing without permitting them any significant lateral motion in the directions indicated by the double arrow 1 3 (Fig. 3). The depth of the grooves 11 is different from that of the grooves 12: the difference corresponds to the distance 14 which exists between the series of pins 1 and the series of pins 1'.Indeed, when the angle piece 7 is positioned as in Fig. 2, the pins abut the bottom of their grooves, which ensures the holding of the contacts 5 in correct position in the case 6 and inhibits any motion of the contacts in the direction of the arrow 1 5 (Fig. 2). Thus, the angle piece 7 absorbs the stresses upon the pins 1,1', in particular those occurring on plugging-in. The angle piece 7 is secured to the case 6 by appropriate fasteners--screws and nuts, selftapping screws-using the openings 1 6 of the case flange and the openings 1 7 of the flanks 9 and 10.Obviously, when the constitution of the material ailows it, other means may be used such as ultrasonic soldering, to secure the faces 1 8 of the flanks with the corresponding part of the rear part of this flange. Note that the openings 1 9 enable the passage of the fasteners or the rivets for fixing the connector on the board used as support.

Note that if the angle piece 7 replaces two intermediate pieces 2 and 3 whose positioning was not easy, it also permits the automatisation of its assembly process: indeed, it suffices to move one single piece the monoblock angle piece 7-in the direction of the arrow 20 until the faces 18 abut the flange of the case 6 since then the pins 1,1' abut the bottom of their respective grooves 11 and 12, which corresponds to the correct position of the contacts 5 and of the connecting tips 21, 21'.

It is obvious that the preceding description has only been given as an unrestrictive example and that numerous alternatives may be considered without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A guiding and holding device for connector right angle pins for mounting on a circuit board, which includes one single piece with means for securing it to the case of the connector and means which co-operate with the pins for both holding the contacts in the respective housings of the connector case and correctly positioning the tips of the pins intended for the connection to the circuits of the board.

2. A device according to Claim 1, in which said piece includes a part with grooves whose width corresponds to that of the pins in which the pitch of the grooves is determined by that of the connecting areas of the pins on the circuit boards, and in which the depth of the grooves is such that the corresponding pins abut their bottom when the device is positioned on the connector case.

3. A device according to Claim 1 or 2, and in which the part with grooves is integral with two flanks enabling it to be fixed on the one hand, to the connector case and, on the other hand, to the circuit board used as support for the connector.

4. A guiding and holding device for connector right angle pins for mounting on a printed circuit board, substantially as described with reference to Figs. 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.