WO2007111942A1

WO2007111942A1 - Card-ejecting mechanism for card connector

Info

Publication number: WO2007111942A1
Application number: PCT/US2007/007118
Authority: WO
Inventors: Haijian Bian
Original assignee: Molex Incorporated
Priority date: 2006-03-22
Filing date: 2007-03-22
Publication date: 2007-10-04
Also published as: CN2914394Y

Abstract

A card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector includes a base (2), a transmission member (3) capable of moving with an inserted card, a spring (4) for biasing the transmission member, and a guide pin member (5) for selectively positioning the transmission member on the base. The transmission member includes a common track (330) parallel to the moving direction of the card, a card-feeding track (331) and a card-ejecting track (333), each extending from one end of the common track towards one of two opposite external sides, and a card-locking track (332) having two ends connected to the respective ends of the card-feeding track and the card-ejecting track. The card-feeding track (331) includes a first section (331a) that extends towards an external side direction of the transmission member, a second section (331c) that extends generally parallel to the common track and an offset section (331b) extending between the first section and the second section.

Description

CARD-EJECTING MECHANISM FOR CARD CONNECTOR

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a card-ejecting mechanism, and more particularly to a card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As shown in FlG I₃ a recently available card-ejecting mechanism 6 of a card connector includes a base 60, a transmission member 61 that can move relative to the base 60 and be pushed by an inserted electronic card, a spring 62 for elastically restoring the transmission member 61, and a stop-moving member 63 for selectively positioning the transmission member 61 with respect to the base 60. The transmission member 61 has a contact portion 64 that can be contacted and pushed by the electronic card (as shown in FIG. 2) and a moving portion 65 that can synchronously move with the contact portion 64 in the base 60. The stop-moving member 63 is an inverted U-shaped rod, which has a first end movably positioned within the moving portion 65 and a second end pivoted to the base 60.

Further, referring to FIG. 2, a positioning track is recessed in the moving portion 65, and is provided for the first end of the stop-moving member 63 to make relative movement. The positioning track includes a common track 650, a card-feeding track 651, a card-locking track 652, and a card-ejecting track 653. Before the electronic card is inserted, the first end of the stop-moving member 63 is located at a first card-ejecting position 654 of the common track 650. Once the card is inserted, the front end of the electronic card presses against the contact portion 64 of the transmission member 61, which further drives the transmission member 61 to move with the electronic card. Correspondingly, the first end of the stop-moving member 63 slides from the common track 650 to the card-feeding track 651, and then enters the card-locking track 652 until the electronic card is stopped at a baffle 660 on a mask shell 66 (refer to FIG 1) and cannot be pushed any further. At this time, the first end of the stop-moving member 63 is located at a pre-retaining position 655 of the card-locking track 652. When the user is no longer applying a pushing force, under the tension of the spring 62, the transmission member 61 is pushed back for a small distance, such that the first end of the stop-moving member 63 falls into a retaining position 656 upon being guided by the card-locking track 652, and the stop-moving member 63 and the spring 62 are force-balanced relative to the transmission member 61. At this time, the electronic card is in a correct inserted position. When ejecting the electronic card, the user once again applies a pushing force to the electronic card, so as to make the first end of the stop-moving member 63 released from the retaining position 656 and enter the card-ejecting track 653. When the user is no longer applying the pushing force, the tension of the spring 62 forces the transmission member 61 to move backwards, until the first end of the stop-moving member 63 moves back to the card-ejecting position 654 of the common track 650 along the card-ejecting track 653.

In order to ensure the moving direction of the first end of the stop-moving member 63, a blade spring 661 is protruded from the mask shell 66 of the card connector towards the inner side of the shell 66 to press against the stop-moving member 63. However, being characterized in swinging left and right with the track, the first end of the stop- moving member 63 moves relatively while being pressed against a side wall of the positioning track under the effect of a reverse bias when swinging left and right, and this side wall is referred to as a first side wall 657 below. When feeding the electronic card, under the bias, the first end of the stop-moving member 63 moves from the card-feeding track 651 to the pre-retaining position 655 while firmly pressing against the first sidewall 657 of the card-feeding track 651, and then further enters the card-locking track 652. The end position of the first side wall 657 of the card-feeding track 651 where the first end of the stop-moving member 63 slides by is referred to as a first end point 658. Then, the first end of the stop-moving member 63 slides from the pre-retaining position 655 along a second side wall 652a of the card-locking track 652, across the end position of the second side wall 652a, and enters the retaining position. The end position of the second side wall 652a of the card-locking track 652 is referred to as a second end point 659 below.

However, as required by the miniaturization trend of products, the size of the card- ejecting mechanism 6 should also be reduced accordingly. The card-feeding track 651 and the card-ejecting track 653 first extend from one end of the common track 650 towards two external sides of the moving portion 65, and then further extend parallel to the common track 650. Thus, when the width of the moving portion 65 is reduced, in order to ensure the strength of its slot walls, the extension of the card-feeding track 651 and the card-ejecting track 653 towards the external side has to he alleviated accordingly. As such, the gap h between the first end point 658 of the card-feeding track 651 and the second end point 659 of the card-locking track 652 at the moving direction of the card is enlarged correspondingly. Therefore, being capable of swinging left and right, the first end of the stop-moving member 63 moves relatively while being pressed against the first side wall 657 of the positioning track under an abnormal bias of the blade spring 661. At this time, the first end of the stop-moving member 63 jumps directly over the first end point 658 and enters the card-locking track 652 when sliding across the first end point 658, and the gap between the first end point 658 and the second end point 659 is excessively large, such that the first end of the stop-moving member 63 cannot be stopped by the second side wall 652a of the card-locking track 652, but jumps directly into the card-ejecting track 653, which does not provide the locking function. Therefore, how to both ensure the structural strength of the transmission member and achieve the smooth locking function while following the miniaturization trend of the products has become a problem to be urgently solved in this field.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One aspect of the present invention is to solve the problem of the card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector in prior art to achieve the effect that an electronic card can be locked smoothly while the size of the card-ejecting mechanism is gradually reduced, without influencing the structural quality of the card-ejecting mechanism.

The present invention provides a card-ejecting mechanism for a card connector. The card-ejecting mechanism includes a base, a transmission member capable of moving with an inserted card, at least one restoring member for restoring the transmission member, and a stop-moving member for selectively positioning the transmission member on the base. The transmission member has a card-feeding track, by which the stop-moving member moves while a card is inserted. The card-feeding track first extends towaτds an external side direction of the transmission member corresponding to the card-feeding track, and an offset section. At least one section of the offset section extends towards the external side direction corresponding to the transmission member.

In an embodiment, the transmission member further includes a common track parallel to the moving direction of the card, a card-ejecting track extending from the common track towards the other external side of the transmission member corresponding to the card-feeding track, and a card-locking track connected to the other ends of the card- feeding track and the card-ejecting track respectively. The offset section first extends with a section parallel to the moving direction of the card, and then obliquely extends towards an external direction of the transmission member corresponding to the card-feeding track. The transmission member includes a moving portion that can move on the base, and a contact portion that can contact an inserted card. The card-feeding track is disposed in the moving portion.

The card-ejecting mechanism of the card connector in the present invention employs an offset section disposed in the card-feeding track, which follows the miniaturization trend of the products, does not reduce the structural strength of the products, and exhibits an advantage of securely locking the card.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described according to the appended drawings in which: FIG. 1 is an exploded view of an available card connector mounted on a circuit board;

FIG. 2 is a plane view of a transmission member of the card-ejecting mechanism in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a stereogram of a card connector mounted on a circuit board according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an exploded view of the card connector in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a stereogram of a transmission member of the card-ejecting mechanism in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a stereogram of the transmission member in FIG. 5 with a portion being cut off; FIG. 7 is a plane view of a card-ejecting mechanism installed with an insulator body before the card is inserted; FIG. 8 is a plane view of a card-ejecting mechanism installed with an insulator body after the card is inserted; and

FIG. 9 is a plane view of a transmission member of the card-ejecting mechanism in FIG. 4.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

To better understand the spirit of the present invention, the present invention is further described below through preferred embodiments.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, an electronic card connector 1 for an Express Card is taken as an example for demonstration in this embodiment. The electronic card connector

1 for the Express Card, disposed on a circuit board P, includes a metal cover or shell 10, an insulated body 11, plural conductive terminals 12 received in the insulated body 11, and a card-ejecting mechanism 13. The metal shell 10 defines an accommodation space 100 for an electronic card (not shown) to be inserted through a slot 101. The insulated body 11 and the card-ejecting mechanism 13 are received at an end opposite to the slot 101 of the accommodation space 100. A blade spring 102 is integrally formed with and protrudes from the metal shell 10 towards the inner side of the accommodation space 100 and engages the card-ejecting mechanism 13.

The card-ejecting mechanism 13 includes a base 2, a transmission member 3 that can contact the inserted electronic card and move relative to the base 2 (i.e., the transmission member 3 is movably mounted on the base 2), a restoring or spring member 4 for elastically restoring or biasing the transmission member 3, and a stop-moving member or guide pin 5 for selectively positioning the transmission member 3 with respect to the base 2. The base 2 substantially extends along the moving direction of the electronic card and exhibits a rectangular parallelepiped, and a receiving slot 21 is recessed from the upper surface of the base 2 towards the lower surface of the base 2, and the receiving slot

2 extends along the longitudinal direction of the rectangular parallelepiped.

The transmission member 3 has a moving portion 30 capable of moving in the receiving slot 21 of the base 2, and a stopper 32 extending from the moving portion 30 towards the inner side of the accommodation space. Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the moving portion 30 is of a substantially groove-shaped configuration recessed from the upper surface to the lower surface, and a positioning track 33 is further recessed therein. That is, the positioning track 33 is disposed in the moving portion 30. The positioning track 33 includes a common track 330, a card-feeding track 331, a card-locking track 332, and a card-ejecting track 333. The common track 330 extends at one end of the positioning track 33 relatively far away from the slot 101, and parallel to the advancing direction of the electronic card. The card-feeding track 331 and the card-ejecting track 333 extend from one end of the common track 330 towards two opposite external sides of the moving portion 30, respectively. The card-locking track 332 has two ends connected to respective ends of the card-feeding track 311 and the card-ejecting track 333. The card- feeding track 331 is composed of a first card-feeding section 331a obliquely extending from the common track 330 towards a first external side 300 (close to the external side of the card-feeding track 331) of the moving portion 30, an offset section 331b extending from the first card-feeding section 331a, and a second card-feeding section 331c extending parallel to the common track 330 from the offset section 331b. Offset section 331b is neither collinear with first card-feeding section 331a nor second card-feeding section 331c. The offset section 331b itself is formed by firstly extending a section towards a direction parallel to the common track 330 and then obliquely extending another section towards an external side direction of the transmission member 3 corresponding to the card-feeding track 331 (or towards the first external side 300 direction of the moving portion 30), or defined as an oblique offset section for connecting two parallel tracks. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the offset section 331b can be an offset section that directly connects the first card-feeding section 331a to the second card-feeding section 331c. Of course, a combination of the above offset manners can also be employed according to actual requirements.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the restoring member is a spring 4 in this embodiment, which is received in the receiving slot 21 of the base 2, and can be compressed to press against a position between the inner front wall 210 of the receiving slot 21 and the moving portion 30 of the transmission member 3 after the electronic card is inserted. The stop-moving member 5 is an inverted U-shaped rod having a diameter "P" and has a pivoting portion 50 pivotally mounted to a slot 211 on the base 2 and a driven portion 51 movably positioned in the positioning track 33 of the moving portion 30. The stop-moving member 5 is engaged and held in place by the blade spring 102.

As shown in FIG. 9, before the card is inserted, the driven portion 51 of the stop- moving member 5 is located at a card-ejecting position 335 of the common track 330 (as shown in FIG. 7). Once the card is inserted, a front end of the card presses against the stopper 32 of the transmission member 3, and further drives the moving portion 30 to move forward and start compressing the spring 4. The driven portion 51 of the stop- moving member 5 slides from the card-ejecting position 335 to the first card-feeding section 331a of the card-feeding track 331 along the common track 330, and across the offset section 331b, the second card-feeding section 331c to enter the card-locking track 332, until the card is stopped by the baffle 103 on the mask shell 10 and cannot be pushed any further (as shown in FIG. 3). At this time, the driven portion 51 of the stop-moving member 5 is located at a pre-retaining position 336 of the card-locking track 332. When the user is no longer applying a pushing force, under the tension of the spring 4, the transmission member 3 is pushed back for a small distance, such that the driven portion 51 of the stop-moving member 5 enters a retaining position 337 upon being guided by the card-locking track 332. The stop-moving member 5 and the spring 4 are force-balanced relative to the transmission member 3. At this time, the card is in a correct inserted position of the card connector 1 (as shown in FIG. 8). When ejecting the card, the user re-applies a pushing force to the card to make the card once again press against the baffle 103 until it cannot be pushed any further. Meanwhile, the driven portion 51 of the stop-moving member 5 is released from the retaining position 337 upon being guided by the positioning track 33 and enters a pre-eject position 338 of the card-ejecting track 333. When the user is no longer applying the pushing force, the tension of the restoring member 4 forces the transmission member 3 to move toward the slot 101, until the driven portion 51 of the stop-moving member 5 reaches the above card-ejecting position 335 and stops. During the above process, the card is pushed out of the slot 101 by the stopper 32 of the transmission member 3, which allows the user to conveniently remove the card. When swinging left and right and biased by the blade spring 102, the driven portion

51 of the stop-moving member 5 is driven to move along the inner wall surface of the card-feeding track 331 (i.e., the first side wall 334 as shown in FIG 9) especially when the card is being fed. At this time, an offset section 331b is disposed at the card-feeding track 331, such that a first end 34a of the first side wall 334 close to the card-locking track 332 of the card-feeding track 331 is relatively drawn back compared with a second end 34b in the conventional art (the end marked by the dashed line in FIG. 9), and thus, the gap h between the first end 34a and a third end 35 of the second side wall 332a of the card- locking track 332 close to the retaining position 337 at the moving direction of the card is reduced. When the driven portion 51 of the stop-moving member 63 jumps from the first end 34a of the first side wall 334 of the card-feeding track 331 into the card-locking track 332 due to the abnormal bias, as the gap h between the first end 34a and the third end 35 is reduced, the driven portion 51 of the stop-moving member 5 will be blocked by the second side wall 332a of the card-locking track 332 and cannot jump directly into the card-ejecting track 333, and then the driven portion 51 can normally move to the retaining position 337 of the card-locking track 332, which provides the card-locking function. In the present invention, an offset section 331b is disposed at the card-feeding track

331, such that the first end 34a of the first side wall 334 of the card-feeding track 331 close to the card-locking track 332 is relatively drawn back compared with the second end 34b in the prior art, and thus the gap "h" between the first end 34a and the third end 35 of the second side wall 332a of the card-locking track 332 close to the retaining position 337 in the moving direction of the card is reduced, which effectively prevents the driven portion 51 of the stop-moving member 5 from jumping over the retaining position 337 to directly enter the card-ejecting track 333 when entering the card-locking track 332 from the card-feeding track 331, thereby ensuring the stability of the card-ejecting mechanism 13 in locking the card. As shown in FIG. 9, the gap "h" may be less than the diameter "P" of stop moving member 5. Li another aspect, the adoption of the offset section 331b may not significantly enlarge the maximum width of the positioning track 33 under a limited space, and may not significantly reduce the thickness of the slot wall of the moving portion 30, thus ensuring the structural strength of the card-ejecting mechanism 13.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention are intended to be illustrative only. Numerous alternative embodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the following claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector, comprising: a base; a transmission member movably mounted on the base, the transmission member having a positioning track that comprises: a common track; a card-feeding track and a card-ejecting track, each extending from one end of the common track towards two opposite external sides; and a card-locking track connected to respective ends of the card-feeding track and the card-ejecting track; at least one restoring member for biasing the transmission member; and a guide pin member for selectively positioning the transmission member with respect to the base; wherein the card-feeding track includes a first card-feeding section extending obliquely from said common track towards one of said external sides of the transmission member, a second card-feeding section extending generally parallel to the common track, and an offset section extending between said first card-feeding section and said second card-feeding section.

2. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 1, wherein said offset section is neither collinear with said first card-feeding section nor said second card- feeding section.

3. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 2, wherein said offset section includes first and second offset segments, said first offset segment extending from said first card-feeding track in a direction generally parallel to said second card- feeding track, and said second offset segment extending from said first offset segment to said second card-feeding section.

4. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 1, wherein said offset section includes first and second offset segments, said first offset segment extending from said first card-feeding track in a direction generally parallel to said second card- feeding track, and said second offset segment extending from said first offset segment to said second card-feeding section.

5. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 1, wherein the offset section first extends in a direction parallel to the common track, and then obliquely extends towards an external side direction of the transmission member corresponding to the card-feeding track.

6. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 1, wherein the guide pin member comprises a pivoting portion pivotally mounted to the base and a driven portion movably positioned in the positioning track.

7. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 2, wherein the guide pin member comprises a pivoting portion pivotally mounted to the base and a driven portion movably positioned in the positioning track.

8. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 1, wherein the card-ejecting mechanism further comprises a metal shell and the metal shell has a blade spring pressing against the guide pin member.

9. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 2, wherein the card-ejecting mechanism further comprises a metal shell and the metal shell has a blade spring pressing against the stop-moving member.

10. The card-ejecting mechanism of a card connector of claim 1 , wherein the transmission member comprises: a moving portion capable of moving on the base; and a stopper capable of being pushed by an inserted card; wherein the positioning track is disposed in the moving portion.