MXPA97006602A - Assembly of electric receptacle and spring contact for me - Google Patents

Abstract

An electrical receptacle connector assembly (4) is described, for application to a printed circuit board, consisting of an insulating housing (6) and spring contacts (8) received in cavities (9) of the housing. The cavities are T-shaped, have a portion that is of constant cross section, substantially rectangular, from a face (12) of the housing (6), which receives the contact, to a position close to a coupling face (10) of the housing and a groove (15) for retaining the contact along one side thereof. Each spring contact (8) consists of a front leaf contact spring (32), an intermediate retaining portion (33) with retaining lugs (48) and a rear contact tail (34), for welding to a conductor that is on the circuit board. In each cavity (9) the retaining portion (33) and a flat end portion of the leaf spring (32) lie flat against one face (24) of the cavity (9), the leaf spring is arched towards the opposite face (26) of the cavity, the retaining lugs (48) bite the surfaces of the grooves (15) and the contact glue (34) projects from the face (12) of the receiving housing (6). The housing and spring contacts are simple and inexpensive to manufacture and the spring contacts are easy to load into the cavities. The contact tails can be configured for various assembly modes of the assembly on the circuit board

Description

ASSEMBLY OF ELECTRICAL RECEPTACLE AND SPRING CONTACT FOR THE SAME Description of the invention This invention relates to a receptacle assembly for the application to a printed circuit board and a spring contact therefor and more particularly to a mounting which it is "universal" in the sense that it can be produced as a vertical, horizontal, through-hole or upright receptacle assembly. With the increased interest in miniaturization and also with the interest of effective manufacturing in the cost of electrical assemblies, it is desirable that the assembly consist of an insulating housing which is simple to mold using only direct-acting contact needles and spring contacts which are of uncomplicated structure. Preferably the spring contacts can be easily stamped and formed from a sheet metal material, without bending operations that have to be carried out on the material and can be very simply loaded into the housing. In order to achieve the characteristic of universality, the contact springs of the spring contacts must be identical, regardless of the mode in which the assembly is to be mounted on the printed circuit board, only the contact tails of the contacts Doors need to be modified according to the way in which the assembly is going to be used. Also, the assembly must be engageable with needles or terminals of a conventional needle manifold, without the needle manifold housing being specially configured to engage the receptacle assembly.

REF: 25395 Many receptacle assemblies for application to printed circuit boards are known, but none has had all or many of the advantages outlined above. U.S. Patent No. 4,778,396 describes a receptacle assembly for application to a printed circuit board in which the spring contacts are relatively simple contact springs, but in which the spring contacts are secured in their seats by means of ears which are bent out of the plane of a retention portion of the spring contact and are of material thickness much greater than the contact spring. The housing is specially configured to cooperate with the retaining lugs, in such a way that the spring contact is contained in its cavity in the housing. WO 86/01040 discloses an electrical receptacle assembly for application to a printed circuit board, the assembly includes an insulating housing defining two rows of cavities receiving contact, each opening to first and second opposite external faces of the housing. Each cavity includes a contact having a flexing portion having a section that engages the contact, an intermediate retention portion and a rear contact tail projecting outwardly from the first outer face of the housing. The flexing portion consists of a tongue or spring arm extending from a first surface of a cavity to a free end which is biased against an opposite flat surface of the cavity. According to one aspect of the present invention, an electrical receptacle assembly for application to a printed circuit board comprises an insulating housing having a rectangular cross section which defines at least one row of cavities receiving the contact, each from which it opens to the first and second external opposite faces of the housing, each cavity is defined by first, second, third and fourth orthogonally arranged flat elongated surfaces, extending substantially from the first opposite external face of the housing to a proximal position to the second opposite external face of the housing and a contact in each cavity, each contact includes a flexionable portion having a section engageable with the contact, an intermediate retaining portion and a rear contact tail extending from the retaining portion and projecting from the first outer face of the housing, each cavity having a contact receiving part, of constant cross section, throughout of the flexionable contact portion. The assembly is characterized in that: The flexibly contacting portion is an arched leaf contact spring, which extends forwardly from the retaining portion to the section which engages the contact and terminates at a free end, the free end urges against the first flat surface, the section engaging with the contact is intermediate to the retaining section and the free and spaced end of the first and fourth flat surfaces. The retaining portion is flat and has opposingly projecting retaining lugs, which extend in contact retention grooves along the second and third flat surfaces, the retaining portion and the retaining lugs are secured against the first flat surface, whereby the contact spring can be pressed towards the first flat surface during coupling by a needle contact after insertion.

By virtue of the configuration of the cavities, the housing can be molded very simply with the use of direct-acting central needles, the spring contacts are easily manufactured by means of a stamping operation and progressive die forming from the sheet metal without any folding operation that needs to be carried out in order to form the contact springs. The spring contacts can easily be loaded into their cavities since all that is needed is to insert the spring contact into its cavity with the contact spring that leads to the front end portion of the contact spring that slides along of a surface defining the cavity, until the ears of the retaining portion engage and bite their respective slot portions in the cavity. The portions of the contact tails which project from the face of the receiving housing can be bent during manufacture, for example to provide a vertical or surface assembly of the assembly to a printed circuit board or by virtue of the rectangular cross-sectional shape of the housing, the housing can be mounted horizontally on the printed circuit board, in which case the protruding parts of the contact tails are folded down for insertion into the respective holes in the circuit board. By virtue of the simple structure of the housing and the spring contacts and the ease with which they can be loaded into the housing, the assembly or assembly is compatible with the overall manufacture. Preferably, a flange or retaining surface is provided in each cavity, near the engaging face of the housing, to contact the free end of the contact spring of the spring contact in the cavity, such that the needle inserted causes the contact spring to be stressed between the flange and the retaining portion of the spring contact. The contact tails can thus be arranged in such a way that the needles can be inserted into the cavities by means of the face of the housing receiving the contact. A spring contact formed and shaped according to the invention consists of a leaf contact front spring, an intermediate retention portion and a rear contact tail. The contact spring extends from the retention portion in the direction opposite the contact tail and the contact spring has a front end portion which is coplanar with the retention portion, a rectilinear forward section extending obliquely toward back from the front end portion of the contact spring and a rectilinear rear section extending obliquely forwardly from the retention portion. The front and rear sections of the contact spring cooperate to define an inlet having a vertex for coupling with an electric pole. The apex is displaced from a common plane of the rectilinear portion and the forward end portion of the contact spring, at right angles to the common plane. The contact tails can be fabricated of any length and configuration that is appropriate to allow the connector assembly to be mounted to a printed circuit board in any desired mode. The configuration of the contact cavities and the structure of the flexionable contact portion further allow the connector to be coupled either from any of the opposite external faces.

Now embodiments of the present invention will be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of the mating face of a multi-contact electrical receptacle assembly for application to a printed circuit board. Figure 2 is a plan view of the contact receiving face of the multi-contact electrical receptacle assembly of Figure 1. Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on lines 3-3 of Figures 1 and 2. Figure 4 is a plan view of the assembly spring contact. Figure 5 is a side view of the contact shown in Figure 4. Figure 6 is an enlarged view taken on lines 6-6 of Figures 1 and 2. Figure 7 is an enlarged view similar to that of Figure 3 shows, in dashed lines, the needles of square cross section coupled with the receptacle assembly. Fig. 8 is a plan view showing part of a spring contact strip for receptacle assembly, the carrier strips contact the contacts and the optional contact lengths are shown in broken lines. Figure 9 is a side view of a spring contact of the assembly, showing a contact tail thereof, bent for the application of the assembly to a printed circuit board in a first mode.

Figures 10 and 11 are views similar to that of Figure 3 but showing the bent contact tails for the application of the assembly to a printed circuit board in seconds and third modes, respectively. Figure 12 is a side view of a mounting spring contact, as shown in Figure 10. Figure 13 is a plan view of a modified version of the spring contact for use in the assemblies, as shown in FIGS. Figures 10 and 1 1. Figure 14 is a cross-sectional view of a receptacle assembly mounted in a fourth mode on a printed circuit board and showing a needle manifold about to be coupled with the receptacle assembly. Fig. 15 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the receptacle assembly, having a single row of spring contacts and mountable horizontally on a printed circuit board, the needle manifolds shown being positioned for engagement with the receptacle assembly of opposite sides thereof. Figure 16 is a fragmentary cross-sectional schematic view of a further alternative embodiment of the receptacle assembly. Figures 17 and 18 are a side view and a plan view, respectively, of another modified version of the spring contact. Reference will now be made to Figures 1 to 9. A multi-contact electrical receptacle assembly 4 for application to a printed circuit board comprises an insulating housing 6 and two rows of spring contacts 8.

The housing 6 which is preferably elongated, of rectangular cross-section, is made of a completely material which is preferably rectifiable, for example Valox material, in such a way that it is completely recyclable at the end of its useful life. The housing 6 defines two rows of pass-through cavities 9 receiving the contact, evenly spaced, each opening at one end to a coupling face 10 of the housing 6 and at its opposite end to a face 12 of the housing 6 receiving the contact . Each cavity 9 is laterally limited by a respective side wall 14 of the housing 6, centrally by a central wall 16 of the housing and in the longitudinal direction of the housing 6 by respective dividing walls 18. The cavities 9 are all of identical size and configuration. As best seen in Figure 2, each cavity 9 receiving the contact has an essentially "T" shape. Each cavity 9 has a rectangular portion 11 receiving contact and a slot portion 15 or transverse bar extending outwardly from the portion 11 receiving contact in opposite directions along the side wall 14. Each cavity 9 has a mouth 20 guiding the needle, which opens to the coupling face 10. Next to the mouth 20 each side wall 14 has a splice flange or contact retention surface 22, which normally extends through the cavity 9. respective and defining the end of the contact retention groove 15. The side wall 14 has in each cavity 9 a flat elongated internal surface 24, which is parallel to an external, flat, opposite, elongated surface 26 of the central wall 16. Each partition 18 has in each cavity 9 an elongated surface, internal, planar 28, which is adjacent to the surfaces 24 and 26. Thus, as will be appreciated from figures 6 and 7, each portion 11 of the cavity 9 receiving the contact is defined by four flat surfaces arranged orthogonally, i.e. the opposing surfaces 24 and 26 and the opposing partition surfaces 28, between the flange 22 and the face 12 receiving the contact. These surfaces define a hollow rectangle as seen in cross section. The face 12 receiving the terminal is formed with spacers 30 (only one of which is shown) spaced apart longitudinally from the housing 6. By virtue of the simple configuration of the cavities 9, the housing 6 is molded quickly and economically by means of simple tooling, direct-acting central needles are used. Each contact spring 8 which has been stamped and formed from a single piece of brass material consists, as best seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, of a front contact blade spring 32, a holding portion 33 intermediate and a subsequent contact queue 34. The retaining portion 33 and the contact tail 34 are uniplanar. The contact tail 34 can be bent from its own plane, according to the mode of use of the receptacle 4, as explained in detail below. The contact spring 32 consists of a first flat portion 36 adjacent to the retaining portion 33, an arcuate contact portion 38 of the plane of the remainder of the spring contact 8 and a second flat portion 40 at the forward end of the contact portion. arched 38. The flat portion 40 is coplanar with the flat portion 36, the retaining portion 33 and the contact tail 34, as will be evident from the dashed line XX which is the longitudinal central axis of the spring contact 8. The arcuate contact portion 38 has a rounded apex 42, which is spaced from the plane of the remainder of the spring contact 8 by approximately the material thickness of the contact 8. From the apex 42 the rectilinear front and rear sections 44 and 46 extend; respectively and define between them an obtuse angle. The section 44 extends obliquely rearwardly from the flat portion 40, the section 46 extends obliquely forwardly of the flat portion 36. The retaining position 33 has laterally projecting, opposing, tapering ears 48 tapering forward, each one of which has a rounded front corner 50, a rear flange 52 and a rectilinear side edge 54 that connects the corner 50 to the flange 52. The contact tail 34 has a rear end portion 55 tapering rearwardly for insertion through a hole in a printed circuit board. Figures 6 and 7 show the position of the spring contact 8 in the housing. Fig. 9 is taken along lines 6-6 of Figs. 1 and 2 and illustrates the portions of the contact 8 which are arranged in the retaining slot 15 of the cavity 9. Fig. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken through two of the cavities 9. Each contact spring 8 is inserted into its respective cavity 9 by means of the face 12 receiving the contact, the flat portion 40 of the contact spring leads and slides against the surface 24 of the respective outer wall 14, until the retaining lugs 48 bite the surfaces of the grooves 15, aided by the rounded corners 50, by means of which the extraction of the spring contact 8 from its cavity 9 is prevented (FIG. 6). In its fully inserted position of the spring contact 8, the front end 56 of the contact spring 32 lies next to the edge 22 of the side wall 14, as shown in figures 6 and 7, with the flat portions 36 and 40, the retaining portion 33 and the adjacent portion of the contact tail 34, which lie level against the surface 24, as shown in Figure 7. Most of the contact tail 34 projects rearwardly from the face 12 that receives the contact. The contact tail 34 may extend rectilinearly of the face 12 or be bent in various configurations, as shown in figures 3, 9 and 11 for example. The end user, having been provided with the receptacle assembly 4, inserts each contact tail 34 through a respective plate-through hole H, into a PCB board 1 of printed circuit boards, aided by the tapered end portion 55 of the tail 34 and folds the glue along the bottom surface of PCB 1. Then the end user solders by wave-welding the tapered end 55 to the printed conductors 60 on the PCB board 1. The spacers 30 raise the housing 6 by on top of printed circuit board, such that the housing 6 is protected from the heat of the weld and to allow cleaning and inspection of the welded area, as is known in the art. The receptacle assembly 4 is now ready to be coupled with a needle manifold PH, shown in dashed lines in Figure 7. In this example, the needles P are inserted from the coupling face 10. Alternatively, it will be understood that the needles can also be inserted into the through holes H from the lower surface of the printed circuit board 1 and into the respective cavities 9. The needle collector has a needle P of square cross-section for reception in each cavity 9 Each needle P has an end EP portion of tapered forward engagement. As the needle is inserted into its cavity 9 through the mouth 20, with its front end EP, one side S1 of each needle P slides along the respective surface 26 of the central wall 16 of the housing 6, until the body B of the needle collector PH sits on the coupling face 10. During the insertion of each needle P, its tapered end portion EP comes into contact with the apex 42 of the contact spring 32 in the respective recess 9 and thus presses the spring 42 resiliently towards the surface 24 of the side wall 14. until the end 56 of the spring 32 stops against the rim 22, the opposite side S2 of the needle P slides together with the contact spring 32, as shown in dashed lines in the right cavity 9 of figure 7. Normal contact force of 200 grams for example is exerted against the needle, when the end 56 of the contact spring 32 stops against the splice shoulder 22, whereby the spring 42 is tensioned between the rim 22 and the portion 33 of retention which is fixed to the partitions 18 as described above. The needles P are electrically connected by this to the respective printed conductors on the PCB board 1. The extent of the bending of the contact spring 32, ie the extent to which the apex 42 is depressed, is indicated in Figure 7 by the distance between the side S2 of the needle P and an imaginary dashed line CL. The extent of such bending is slightly less than the thickness of the material of the spring contact 8. As will be evident from Figure 8, the spring contacts 8 can be easily fabricated in the form of a side strip by means of a progressive stamping and die forming operation, to leave a carrier strip 60, shown in dashed lines, attached by the projections 62 to the contact tails 34 of the spring contacts 8. The contact tails 34 can be manufactured in a variety of lengths such as those indicated by dashed lines 64. The contact strip 8 can be supplied to a contact seaming machine (not shown) to disconnect the turns 62 and join the contacts to their respective cavities 9. Alternatively the contacts 8 can be "loaded in bulk", that is to insert into their respective cavities 9 as long as they are attached to the carrier strip 60, the carrier strip is cut either before or after the Contact tails have been formed to the desired configuration. The contact tails 34 can be bent into an "external" through hole configuration as shown in Figure 3, either before or after the insertion of the spring contact 8 into its cavity 9. As shown in the figure 9, the contact tails 34 can be bent to extend outwardly from the side walls 14 of the housing and parallel with the surfaces of the spacers 30 that come into contact with the board, for welding to the conductors (not shown) on the top surface of a printed circuit board. As shown in Figure 11, the contact tails 34 can be bent outwardly from the side walls 14 for welding to the printed conductors on opposite sides of an orifice 58 in a PCB board 2 of printed circuit boards. In this mode of use of assembly 4, the coupling needles can be inserted into the cavities 9 either by means of the coupling face 10 or the face 12 receiving the contact, to which the mouths 65 guiding the needles open. Figure 13 shows a modified spring contact 8 ', in which the contact tail 34' has a portion 55 'of the blunt rear end, the modes of Figures 10 and 11, ie for flat welding against the conductors in a printed circuit board. Figure 14 shows the housing 6 applied to a printed circuit board PCB 3 in a horizontal mode for coupling with a needle manifold that is advanced with its needles P parallel to the PCB board 3. The contacts in the housing 6 are identical with the spring contacts 8, except that the spring contacts in the cavities of the upper row of the housing 6 have contact tails 34"which are longer than the contact tails 34 and which have been bent downwards in right angles in positions remote from the face 12 of the receiving housing 6. Similarly, the spring contacts in the lower row of the cavities in the housing 6 have contact tails 34 '"which are shorter than the tails of contact 34"and have been folded down at right angles close to the face 12 receiving the contact As shown in Fig. 14 the vertical portions of the contact tails 34" and 34 '"have been inserted through holes in the board PCB 3 of printed circuits for welding to the respective conductors on it. The spacers 30 are not used in this example, since the housing 6 is displaced laterally from the welding sites. Figure 15 shows a receptacle connector assembly, having a housing 6 'with a single row of cavities receiving the contact, each identical with the cavities 9 described above. The spring contacts in the cavities are identical with those in the lower row of cavities of the housing 6 shown in Fig. 14. The contact tails 34 '"of these receptacle contacts extend downward through the respective holes in a housing. PCB board 4 of printed circuits, in such a way that they do not obstruct the face 12 of the receiving housing 6 ', so that the needles of a first needle collector PH1 can be coupled with the receptacle assembly by means of the face 12 'of the housing 6' receiving the contact or needles of a second needle collector PH2 can be coupled with the assembly by means of the coupling face 10 'of the housing 6'.

Fig. 16 schematically shows an alternative embodiment including a housing 6"having rows of cavities 9 'in which the rims 22' of the cavities 9 'of the adjacent rows project from the same wall surface 24' in the case The vertices 42 of the spring contacts in the adjacent cavities therefore project in the same direction, Figures 17 and 18 show a variant of the spring contacts 8 wherein the retaining portion 33 'of the contact has two pairs of retaining lugs 48' and 48"respectively, to contact the surfaces of the slot 15. Since the housing of each example described above can be simply molded due to that each cavity of the housing is defined by flat surfaces and the cavities are all of constant cross-section to the flanges 22, 22 'and since each contact of The spring has only a single leaf contact spring, the receptacle connector assembly is highly susceptible to miniaturization. Thus, for example, a twenty-position connector assembly, having two equal rows of spring contacts, can be 2.5 cm in length, 0.5 cm in width and 0.6 cm in height. As will be apparent from the foregoing description, the housing 6 can be used in a vertical, horizontal through hole or receptacle connector assembly mounted on the surface and the contact tails of the spring contacts can be easily adapted to such modes of use , the contact springs are identical for all modes. According to the mode of use of the assembly, a coupling needle can be coupled either by means of the coupling face of the housing or by means of the face of the housing receiving the contact. Since the housing is made of rectifiable material and the contact springs are made of brass, the assembly can be recycled when its useful life ends. By virtue of the simplicity of the housing and the spring contacts and the ease with which they can be loaded into the housing, the assembly is compatible with the overall manufacture. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known by the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is the conventional one for the manufacture of the objects to which it relates. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following

Claims (9)

1. Claims 1. An electrical receptacle assembly for application to a printed circuit board, the assembly includes an insulating housing having a rectangular cross-section defining at least one row of cavities receiving the contact, each opening at first and second opposed external faces of the housing, which are defined by first, second, third and fourth flat elongated surfaces arranged orthogonally, extending substantially from the first opposite external face of the housing to a position proximate the second opposite external face of the housing; and a contact in each cavity, each contact includes a flexing portion having a section that engages the contact, an intermediate retention portion and a rear contact tail, extending from the retention portion and projecting outwardly. from the first outer face of the housing, each cavity has a contact receiving part, of constant cross section along the flexing contact portion; the assembly is characterized in that: the flexibly contacting portion is an arcuate leaf contact spring, which extends forwardly from the retaining portion to the section which engages the contact and terminates at a free end, the free end urges against the first flat surface, with the section engaging the intermediate contact to the retaining section and the free and spaced end of the first and fourth flat surfaces; the retaining portion is flat and has opposingly projecting retaining lugs, which extend in contact retention grooves along the second and third flat surfaces, the retaining portion and the retaining lugs are secured against the first flat surface; whereby the spring can be pressed towards the first flat surface during engagement by a needle contact after insertion.
2. 2. An assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises a flange extending from the first flat surface proximate the second external face of the housing for its splicing by the free end of the front end portion of the flexible portion during the flexion.
3. 3. An assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that the front free end of the flexionable portion of the contact is coplanar with the intermediate retention portion of the contact.
4. 4. An assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that the flexionable portion has a front rectilinear section and a rear rectilinear section, both extend obliquely from the first flat surface and cooperate to define an inlet having a vertex projecting towards the fourth. flat surface.
5. 5. An assembly according to claim 4, characterized in that the front and rear rectilinear sections of the contact spring are of substantially equal lengths and of equal width.
6. 6. An assembly according to claim 5, characterized in that the inlet of the flexibly section is displaced from the plane of the intermediate retention portion by a distance which is substantially equal to the material thickness of the receptacle portion.
7. 7. An assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that the contact tails have end portions projecting substantially at right angles to the first outer surface of the housing.
8. 8. An assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that the contact tails have end portions extending parallel to the first outer surface of the housing.
9. 9. An assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that the respective entrances to the contact cavities along the first and second external faces of the housing are widened.