DE10224687A1 - Wire harness system for electronic and electric connections e.g. in motor vehicles, has sets of conductor wires or strips buried in flat insulator strips with connectors at sides and pins at end - Google Patents

Abstract

The wire harness may have pin connections (6) at its first end and further pins or sockets at its second end. Some of the wires leading from the second end go to side branches with connector tags (9). Several sections of flat strip with embedded wires may be connected together by plug-and-socket joints. There is a connecting zone (7) and a zone (Z) with the wires bent at an angle.

Description

Conductor arrangement for establishing an electrical connection, consisting of one of several arranged side by side Leaders formed leadframe, which at least partially by Connection elements made of insulating material is surrounded.

State of the art

Motor vehicle fuse and relay boxes often include Stamped grid contact plates, from which flat flag contacts to be punched. The leadframes are flat Sheets that make up a variety of circuits for connection various components can be punched with fuses and relays.

Depending on the power requirement and available space, many need different types of contacts with the different circuits of the lead frame. Stamping pen and Flag contacts from such lead frames is easy, however the direct establishment of certain contacts, especially of miniature recording contacts from the lead frame very much difficult.

Immediately after punching the leadframe out of a flat one The individual conductor tracks are sheet metal with a Connection element, which is preferably insulating, held together. Thereby can further processing, namely a further punching of Flags, making connections by means of appropriate bends or bringing up connection areas, for example from Control electronics or the like can be prepared and exercised.

After the individual lead frames are made and with the Fasteners have been connected in a last Step the entire lead frame into a carrier plate inserted and closed with a lid.

As an alternative to the connecting elements, according to the state of the art Technology also provided that the electrical conductors with Plastic are encapsulated, the encapsulation as Connecting elements are formed and are rectangular in cross section. After the lead frame in the recesses of a carrier plate have been inserted, they will also be there with one inserted control electronics contacted.

Disadvantages of the prior art

Especially in shaking experiments where the Vibrational acceleration is of the order of 20-30 g, breaks occur within the free leadframe areas. Among the free Punched grid areas are to be understood as the areas between the individual connecting elements, regardless of whether these clipped, welded or sprayed, are arranged.

In addition, the manufacture and assembly of the Stamped grid tolerance problems with regard to the height of the Lead frame, so that at the free ends of the lead frame direct connection to, for example, pins of control electronics is not possible without further processing.

Object of the invention

The object of the invention is to provide a conductor track arrangement create, in which the disadvantages of the previously described state of technology can be avoided.

Advantages of the invention

A major advantage of the invention is that the full encapsulation of the conductor track using insulating material very good protection against breaks in the lead frames in particular with shaking. It results from the Full overmolding no predetermined bending areas and it must be Assembly is therefore no longer taken care that the Punching grid lies flat in a carrier plate, just to be Avoid breaks as previously described.

Another advantage is that the separate manufacture a carrier plate becomes superfluous because the fully encapsulated Lead frame takes over the function of such a carrier plate. In addition, such an encapsulation can already Fastening elements, such as threaded bushings, sleeves or the like can be integrated with.

Another significant economic and technical advantage consists of the individual conductor tracks of the lead frame can be interpreted more narrowly because of the full encapsulation Touching the individual conductor tracks, for example, by Vibration loads are excluded as they are immediately complete are surrounded by insulating material and are therefore fully encapsulated are embedded.

This also prevents short circuits, for example due to material tension or the like.

This means that due to the advantages mentioned above The dimensions of the conductor track according to the invention are very small can be configured. This means that it is also related to it Weight lighter and is also cheaper to manufacture.

Further advantageous refinements of the invention result from the following description, the claims and the drawings out.

drawings

Show it

Figure 1 is a plan view of the arrangement of a conductor track according to the invention, wherein connecting elements have been added in a first step.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the conductor track according to FIG. 1, connecting elements being added in a first working step;

. Fig. 3 is a partial section through the conductor arrangement according to Fig 1 taken along a line III-III;

FIG. 4 shows a plan view of the conductor track arrangement according to the invention shown in FIG. 1; compared to FIG. 1, however, a second sub-step (the overmolding of the lead frames) has already taken place;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the inventive article of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 shows a partial section through the conductor track arrangement of FIG 4 taken along a line VI-VI.

FIG. 7 is a partial enlargement of FIG. 6 in the area of the connecting elements;

Fig. 8 is a side view, partially in section, of a plurality of superposed conductor path arrangements according to Fig. 4;

FIG. 9 shows a sectional illustration of a region of the conductor track arrangement according to the invention according to FIG. 1 along a line IX-IX.

Description of an embodiment

In Fig. 1, the plan view a conductor path arrangement 1 according to the invention after a first machining step. The conductor track arrangement 1 essentially comprises a lead frame 2 which consists of a plurality of conductor tracks 3 arranged next to one another. These conductor tracks 3 each have a first end 4 and a further end 5 .

In order to prevent the individual conductor tracks 3 of the lead frame 2 from touching, connecting elements 6 are provided, which are arranged in a first step - immediately after the lead frame 2 has been punched out of a metal sheet. These are preferably injection molded and have the cross section Q shown in FIG. 3.

In this exemplary embodiment, the cross section Q is formed into three regions A, B, C, the central region B having a greater thickness D1 than the other regions A and C. Preferably, as is also shown in FIG Areas A and C have the same thickness D2.

One end 4 of the conductor tracks 3 of the lead frame 2 ends freely, whereas the other end 5 (connection end) is arranged on a connection element 7 in order to make an electrical connection with control electronics, for example.

In addition, ends 9 are provided on the conductor tracks 3 , which are provided for control connections, sensor connections or other connections.

In a further step, the conductor track arrangement 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is completely encapsulated with an insulating material. The final embodiment is shown in Fig. 4 and in the other figures ( Fig. 5 to 9).

In particular, in Fig. 6 further encapsulation is partially in section very shown impressive, refer to the effect that the conductor tracks 3 are now completely surrounded by insulating material, whereas the connecting elements 6 at least partially encapsulated and are located, as shown in Fig. 7 , due to the double encapsulation between the insulating material from the first encapsulation and the insulating material from the second encapsulation, a gap 10 is formed which occurs due to the shrinkage of the second encapsulation. It is precisely this overlapping arrangement on the connecting elements 6 due to the different areas A, B and C that ensures that the shrinkage of the second extrusion coating does not cause any cracks / gaps that reach as far as the lead frame 2 or the conductor tracks 3 . The gaps 10 formed in this way between the connecting elements 6 and the further extrusion coating serve as so-called expansion joints when heated in the operating state, so that no distortion can occur, which in turn can damage the individual conductor tracks 3 .

The stamped grid 2 , which is overmolded in this way, thus only has exit points (free ends 4 , 5 , 9 ) in order to bring about the corresponding electrical connections.

In a further only schematically in Fig. 4 and Fig. Illustrated embodiment 9 is provided that the vollumspritzte lead frame 2 extends as far as a bending zone Z, where the bending zone Z is formed such that the thickness of the encapsulation here relative to the remaining thickness of the extrusion coating of the lead frame 2 is significantly lower. This makes it possible to bend the further end 5 (connection end) upwards and downwards, ie perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of the lead frame, with a flexible arrangement, for. B. on pins of control electronics can be achieved. The depth of the bending zone Z extends close to the lead frame 2 . However, a thin plastic layer preferably remains over the lead frame 2 or conductor tracks 3 , so that these are still covered and insulated.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 8, it is provided that fully overmolded lead frame 2 , as shown in FIG. 4, is stacked accordingly, so that the different lead frames 2 a, 2 b and 2 c can be placed directly one above the other and the free ends 5 a, 5 b, 5 c of the respective lead frames 2 a, 2 b, 2 c are either connectable to one another or connectable to pins of control electronics (not shown in the drawing). The stacked lead frames 2 a, 2 b and 2 c can be fastened to one another or simultaneously to form a single carrier plate by gluing, screwing, ultrasonic welding, clipping, hot caulking or the like.

Claims (5)

1. interconnect arrangement for producing an electrical connection, consisting of a leadframe formed from a plurality of interconnects arranged next to one another and at least partially surrounded by connecting elements made of insulating material, characterized in that the connecting elements ( 6 ) comprise the interconnects ( 3 ) in a first step. surrounding insulating material, which extend almost perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of the conductor tracks ( 3 ) and the cross section (Q) of the connecting elements ( 6 ) is divided into at least two areas (A, B, C), the different thicknesses (D1, D2) and in a further step the conductor tracks ( 3 ) and the connecting elements ( 6 ) are surrounded with insulating material to form a carrier plate ( 7 ). 2. The conductor track arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that the connecting elements ( 6 ) can be formed by extrusion-coating the conductor tracks ( 3 ) with plastic. 3. trace arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that the individual lead frames ( 2 a, 2 b, 2 c) are electrically contactable with each other. 4. The conductor track arrangement according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a cross-sectional reduction of the further extrusion is provided transversely to the longitudinal extent of the conductor tracks ( 3 ) and thus forms a bending zone (Z). 5. trace arrangement according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the connecting elements in cross section (Q) a first region (D) with a large thickness (D1) and at least one further in the longitudinal extension of the conductor tracks ( 3 ) arranged area (A, B ) have a smaller thickness (D2).