WO1995010171A1

WO1995010171A1 - Parallelepipedal sub-assembly

Info

Publication number: WO1995010171A1
Application number: PCT/DE1994/001136
Authority: WO
Inventors: Peter Fischer; Peter Heider
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 1993-10-05
Filing date: 1994-09-29
Publication date: 1995-04-13
Also published as: DE9315087U1

Abstract

The invention concerns an essentially parallelepipedal sub-assembly (5) for an item of electric equipment consisting of several sub-assemblies (1 to 6), the sub-assembly (5) being designed as a one-piece insulating unit (5) on which electrical and/or electronic components (7) and contact elements (8) intended to provide an electrically conducting connection between the sub-assembly (5) and the electric equipment are mounted, the components (7) being connected with each other and with the contact elements (8) by conductor paths on the insulating unit (5).

Description

description

Cuboid assembly

The present invention relates to an essentially cuboidal assembly for an electrical device consisting of several assemblies.

Such assemblies are widely used. By way of example only, reference is made to DE 34 18 844 C2 and DE 36 03 750 C2. The assemblies described there have an assembled printed circuit board which is provided with a box-shaped encapsulation. The circuit board carries both electrical and electronic components as well as contact elements for connecting the module to a bus system. The known assemblies consist of several parts that have to be manufactured individually and assembled by hand. This type of manufacture and assembly is comparatively expensive,

From EP 0 465 692 AI a circuit carrier is known which consists of plastic and which is metallized in places so that it also performs circuit board functions in addition to its mechanical carrier function. However, conventional printed circuit boards are also used as assemblies in this publication.

The object of the present invention is to create an assembly which is simple and inexpensive and in particular also fully automatic to manufacture and equipable. In particular, manual assembly effort should be eliminated.

The object is achieved in that the assembly is designed as a one-piece insulating part on which electrical and / or electronic components and contact elements for the electrically conductive connection of the assembly to the

CORRECTED SHEET (ARM 91) ISA / EP electrical device are arranged, the components being electrically conductively connected to one another and to the contact elements via conductor tracks arranged on the insulating part.

Further advantages and details emerge from the following description of an exemplary embodiment, using the drawing and in conjunction with the subclaims. Show:

1 shows an electrical consisting of several assemblies

Device, FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the electrical device and FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a peripheral module.

According to FIG. 1, the electrical device consists of the central unit 1 and the peripheral modules 2 to 6 of a programmable logic controller. The assemblies 1 to 6 of the control are constructed essentially identically. For this reason, only assembly 5 is described in more detail below by way of example.

According to FIG 1, the assembly 5 is designed as a one-piece, essentially cuboid injection molded part. The injection molded part 5 was metallized over the entire area after the injection molding. The metallization was then removed in places, e.g. B. by local irradiation with a laser, so that the remaining coating locations form electrical conductor tracks. For the sake of clarity, the conductor tracks are not shown in FIG. 1.

The electrical and electronic components 7 are connected to one another and to the contact elements 8 via these conductor tracks. The contact elements 8 serve the

CORRECTED SHEET (RhGEL 91) ISA / EP electrically conductive connection of the assembly 5 with corresponding, invisible contacts of the assembly 6.

As can be seen from FIG 1, the contact elements 8 are designed as projections, while the invisible ones

Contact elements of the module 6 are formed as contact surfaces - analogous to the contact surfaces 7 'of the module accessories 1'-6'.

Of course, the assembly 5 also has contact surfaces on the side adjoining the assembly 4, which are configured in the same way as the contact surfaces of the assembly 6. The connection between these contact surfaces (not shown) and the contacts 8 of the assembly 5 can be made in several ways respectively. For example, it is possible that the assembly level 9 of the assembly 5 has recesses which have been (at least partially) closed again by the metallization and thus enable a connection between the contact elements. It is also possible to borrow a connection via a circumferential electrical connection, e.g. to produce on the surfaces 10 to 14 and corresponding surfaces, not shown, on the invisible side of the assembly 5. As an alternative to this, it is also possible to use continuous metal pins in the tool for producing the assembly 5, which act as continuous contact elements.

As already mentioned, the assembly 5 is a one-piece injection molded part. The electrically conductive connection between opposite sides can therefore also be accomplished in that metal pins are inserted into a tool holder before the part is injection molded and the assembly 5 is then sprayed around the metal pins. The metal pins must of course have a sufficient length to the opposite

To be able to connect the sides in an electrically conductive manner.

REPORT _I GTES SHEET (HEGEL 31) ISA / ΞP In the given embodiment, the contact elements 8 are rigid. With a corresponding design, the contact elements 8 could also be resilient, that is to say compensate for tolerances. Likewise, the contact elements 8 could also - instead of directly connecting adjacent assemblies to one another in an electrically conductive manner - e.g. B. can be arranged on the surface 14 in order to be contacted with a common bus connection. In this case in particular, the contact elements 8 can also be formed as depressions.

According to FIG. 1, the modules 1 to 6 are assigned module additions 1 'to 6', via which the external wiring of the modules 1 to 6 takes place. For example, the power supply and possibly a serial bus system are connected to the module add-on 1 ". The peripheral wiring, that is to say sensors and actuators, is connected to the other module add-ons 2 'to 6'. The module add-ons 1 'to 6' are also injection molded parts, which have been metallically coated, the coating being removed in places after the coating The assembly of the entire electrical device, that is to say the modules 1 to 6 and the module additives 1 'to 6', is carried out as follows:

First, the module accessories 1 'to 6' are swung next to each other onto a standard DIN rail (not shown) and locked there. Then the modules 1 to 6 are inserted into the corresponding module additions ^{1 1} to 6 'and also pivoted onto the top-hat rail. The modules 1 to 6 are therefore included in the module supplements 1 'to 6'.

When the modules 1 to 6 are swung open, the contact surfaces 7 'of the module accessories ^{1 1} to 6' make contact with the additional contact elements of the modules 1 to 5, not shown

CORRECTED SHEET (RΞ ZL C1) ISA / EP Projection 8 'arranged. The additional contact elements are of course also connected in an electrically conductive manner to the conductor tracks of the respective assemblies. Analogously, the contact surfaces 7 ^{1 are} connected to the connection elements 9 ¹ (for example spring-loaded terminals).

By means of the invention described above, a finely modular structure of a programmable logic controller can be implemented cost-effectively, that is to say a structure which has only one or two inputs or outputs per peripheral module 2-6. In addition, the structure has a so-called standing wiring, i.e. the wiring does not have to be disconnected in order to replace the peripheral modules 2-6 themselves.

The additional contact elements (not shown in FIG. 1) are galvanically separated from the contact elements 8 of the bus system by optocouplers (also not shown in FIG. 1). In the worst case, the corresponding modules 2 to 6 can be destroyed in the worst case in the event of faulty peripheral wiring on one of the module accessories 2 'to 6 ¹ , but not other modules.

The additional modules 1 'to 6 ¹ are usually galvanically connected to each other. The power supply therefore only has to be fed in at the module add-on 1 'assigned to the central unit 1. The other module supplements 2 'to 6' are supplied with energy via the first module supplement 1 '. Alternatively, it is also possible that some module additions, e.g. B. the add-on module 3 ', are galvanically separated from the add-on module arranged to the left of it, here the add-on module 2'. In this case, a new power supply that is completely independent of the previous energy supply can be connected to this module add-on. This makes it possible to freely assign the individual outputs of output modules

CORRECTED SHEET (RULE 91)! SA / EP roots, in extreme cases down to one rooting.

2 now shows as a block diagram the electrical structure associated with the electrical device described above. 2, the modules 1 to 6 are connected via the bus system 15. The module additions 1 'to 6' are connected to the corresponding modules 1 to 6. External lines 16 are connected to the module additions 1 'to 6'.

As can be seen particularly clearly from FIG. 3, the bus system 15 is designed as a shift register. It consists of at least three lines 17 to 19. These are the clock line 17, via which a common system clock for all modules 1 to 6 can be specified, the control line 18, via which data transmissions are displayed, and the data line 19, via which the data transfers take place.

For the transmission of data, each peripheral module 2 to 6 has a shift register 19 ', which is pushed through the bus system 15 during data transmissions. In the present case, the shift register 19 'has a length of two bits because the assembly 5 can read in two input signals from a technical process via the lines 16.

The input signals read in via the lines 16 are first fed to the input stages 20, in which, for example, a level conversion takes place. From there, the signals are fed via the optocouplers 21 to the logic circuit 22, which carries out the communication with the bus system 15.

The design of the bus system 15 as a shift register is particularly advantageous in the present case, because of the

CORRECTED SHEET (RULE 91) ISA / EP Effort to address the individual I / O modules 2 to 6 is minimized.

As a result, due to the invention described above, the constructive structure results in a cost-effective possibility of realizing a finely modular structure, while the associated bus system enables the electrical device to be operated efficiently.

Finally, it should also be mentioned that the modules 2 to 6 can of course also be designed only for the input or output of a single input or output signal. The input and output signals can be analog or digital signals. Furthermore, another head module could be used instead of the central unit 1, for example a fieldbus connection.

CORRECTED ^" BLS BL Γ iEGEL 91)

ISA / EP

Claims

claims

1. Essentially cuboidal assembly (5) for an electrical device consisting of several assemblies (1-6), the assembly (5) being designed as a one-piece insulating part (5) on which electrical and / or electronic components (7) and Contact elements J_8) ___ are arranged for the electrically conductive connection of the assembly (5) to the electrical device, the components (7) being electrically conductive with one another and with the contact elements (8) via conductor tracks arranged on the insulating part (5) are bound.

2. Module according to claim 1, d a d u r c h g e - k e n n z e i c h n e t that the contact elements (8) are designed as projections and / or as depressions.

3. Assembly according to claim 1 or 2, that the contact elements (8) are designed as resilient contact elements (8).

4. An assembly according to claim 3, characterized in that the contact elements (8) are comb-like, are arranged at at least one end at an interface (9) of the assembly (5) and are at an acute angle (α), typically 1 ° to 10 °, rise from the interface.

5. The assembly of claim 4, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the interface under the contact elements (8) has stops (23).

6. An assembly according to claim 4 or 5, that the contact elements (8) are connected to one another by transverse webs (24).

CORRECTED SHEET (RULE 91) ISA / EP

7. Assembly according to one of the above claims, that the contact elements (8) and / or the components (7) at least partially on a recessed outer surface (9)

-, 5 are arranged.

8. Assembly according to one of the above claims, that the assemblies (1-6) are connected when the electrical device is assembled.

10 adjoin each other and that mutually corresponding contact elements (8) of adjacent assemblies (1-6) are directly connected to one another in an electrically conductive manner.

9. Module according to one of the above claims, d a -

15 due to the fact that it is designed as an assembly (5) which can be mounted on a mounting rail and that it has additional contact elements which are electrically conductively connected to the conductor tracks, the additional contact elements being designed and

20 are arranged so that when the assembly (5) is mounted on the mounting rail, they produce an electrically conductive connection with an additional module (5 ') which is already mounted on the mounting rail and accommodates the assembly (5).

25

10. An assembly according to claim 9, dadurchge ¬ indicates that the additional contact elements of the contact elements (8) are galvanically separated, for example by _* optocouplers (21).

30

11. The assembly according to claim 10, dadurchge ¬ indicates that the module additions (l ¹ to 6 ') are at least partially galvanically isolated from each other.

35

12. Module (5) for an electrical device consisting of several modules (1 to 6), in particular module (5)

CORRECTED SHEET (RULE 9V,

ISA / EP according to one of the above claims, wherein the assembly (5) a maximum of two input or output stages (20) for reading a maximum of two input signals from a technical process or for outputting a maximum of two output signals to a technical process, at least one with the inputs - Registers (19 ') connected to output stages (20) for temporarily storing the input and output signals and connecting elements for connecting the register (19') to a cross-module bus system (15).

13. An assembly (5) according to claim 12, that the bus system (15) is designed as a shift register.

14. Electrical device consisting of several assemblies (1 to 6) according to one or more of the above claims.

CORRECTED SHEET (RULE 91)

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