GB2220805A

GB2220805A - Electrical connector with fixing tab

Info

Publication number: GB2220805A
Application number: GB8911753A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Yoshitsugu Fujiura; Shigeru Ishikawa
Original assignee: AMP Inc
Current assignee: TE Connectivity Corp
Priority date: 1988-05-31
Filing date: 1989-05-22
Publication date: 1990-01-17
Anticipated expiration: 2009-05-22
Also published as: KR940011573B1; GB8911753D0; JPH0749733Y2; GB2220805B; JPH01176373U; KR890017831A

Abstract

An electrical connector (10) for electrical and mechanical connection to conductive and metal areas of a printed circuit board (100) comprises a dielectric housing (12) having passageways (14) in which contact sections of electrical contacts (11) are secured. Post sections (17) of the contacts (11) extend outwardly from a rear surface of the housing (12) for electrical connection to conductive areas of the hoard (100). Profiled recesses (19) extend inwardly from a bottom surface (12a ) of the housing (12) and receive metal securing members (20) with profiles corresponding to the recesses (19), secured with an outer exposed surface located in a plane containing the bottom surface (12a) of the housing (12). The members (20) can be soldered to the board (100) to reduce stress and deformation during electrical coupling and uncoupling. <IMAGE>

Description

ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR WITH FIXING TAB The present invention relates to electrical connectors and more particularly to electrical connectors that include post sections of electrical contacts that extend outwardly from a rear surface of a dielectric housing for electrical connection to conductive areas of a printed circuit board and metal securing means secured to a bottom section of the housing having a surface for engagement with the circuit board and the metal securing means being mechanically connectable to a metal area of the circuit board.

Electrical connectors are normally mounted onto a printed circuit board with the post sections of the electrical contacts that are secured in a dielectric housing extending outwardly from a rear surface of the housing for electrical connection to conductive areas of the circuit board. The post sections of one type of connector have surface-mounting sections that are electrically connectable to the conductive areas of the circuit board. In another type of connector, the post sections are positioned in through holes in the circuit board and are electrically connected to the conductive areas thereof.

In both types of these connectors, bolts or other securing members extend through holes in the sides of the housing to secure the connectors onto the printed circuit board. However, this does not prevent the housing from bending and deforming which places the surface mount or through hole soldered connections under stress that can result in the connections being disconnected. Bending occurs when the connector mates with a complementary electrical connector. Deformation takes place during the soldering of the post sections to the conductive areas of the circuit board.

In order to overcome this problem, a bottom surface of the dielectric housing of a connector that engages a surface of the circuit board onto which the connector is to be mounted includes wedge-shaped recesses that have wedge-shaped metal securing members press-fitted within the wedge-shaped recesses with the bottom surfaces of the metal securing members being coplanar with the bottom housing surface. The recesses extend in the same direction; thus, when the metal securing members are soldered to metal areas on the circuit board, the connector cannot be bent in one direction, however it can be bent in the other direction during mating and unmating of the connector with a complementary connector thereby resulting in stresses to the soldered connections therefore possible failure or poor connections of the electrical contacts to the conductive areas of the circuit board.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to resolve the foregoing problems and provide an electrical connector that will prevent stresses to the electrical connections of the electrical contacts to conductive areas of a printed circuit board when forces are applied to the connector.

According to the present invention, an electrical connector comprises a dielectric housing having electrical contacts including contact sections secured in passageways of the housing and post sections extending outwardly from a rear surface of the housing for electrical connection to conductive areas of a printed circuit board, securing means secured onto the housing and having sections that are soldered to metal areas of the circuit board to secure the connector onto the circuit board so that when forces are applied to the connector, stresses to the electrical connections of the post sections of the contacts to the conductive areas of the circuit board are prevented.

The securing means, according to one embodiment of the invention, are T-shaped members that are press-fitted into T-shaped recesses located in a bottom surface of the housing with alternate recesses extending in one direction while the other alternate recesses extend in the opposite direction and the exposed bottom surfaces of the securing members are coplanar with the housing bottom surface for surface-mounting connection to the metal areas on the circuit board.

The securing members of another embodiment of the invention include leg members that are disposed in through holes in the circuit board and connected to the metal areas thereof.

The securing means of a further embodiment of the invention comprises an elongated bar secured in an elongated recess within the bottom surface of the housing and including leg members that are disposed in though holes in the circuit board and connected to the metal areas thereof.

The embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is an exploded and perspective view showing an electrical connector having surface mount contacts, securing members and a printed circuit board.

Figure 2 is a part perspective view in cross section of the connector of Figure 1 showing. a securing member in position in the housing.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the securing member.

Figure 4 is an exploded perspective view showing an electrical connector having through hole contacts and another alternative embodiment of the securing member.

Electrical connector 10 of Figures 1 and 2 includes a dielectric housing 12 and electrical contacts 11. Housing 12 is molded from a suitable dielectric material which has a profiled mating section 13 extending outwardly from a front surface. Passageways 14 extend through mating section 13 and have contact sections 16 of contacts 11 secured therein. Post sections 17 of contacts 11 extend outwardly from a rear surface of housing 12 and they have vertical sections extending parallel to the housing rear surface and horizontal sections that extend parallel to a plane of a bottom surface 12a of housing 12. Arcuate termination sections 18 are located in the horizontal sections of the post sections 17 for surface-mounting connection to conductive areas (not shown) of a printed circuit board 100.Mounting sections 15 of housing 12 have holes 15a extending therethrough for receiving bolts or other securing members therein for securing connector 10 onto circuit board 100.

Spaced T-shaped recesses 19 extend into housing 12 from bottom surface 12a with alternate recesses 19 extending rearwardly whereas the other alternate recesses 19 extend forwardly. Each recess 19 has sections 19a, 19b with tapered surfaces 19a' in the sides of section 19a while the sides of section 19b are parallel.

T-shaped securing members 20 are metal and are press-fitted into correspondingly-shaped T-shaped recesses 19, as shown in Figure 2, with sections 20a, 20b of members 20 mating with sections 19a, 19b of recesses 19 and tapered surfaces 20a' of members 20 likewise engaging tapered surfaces 19a' of recesses 19. The exposed surfaces of members 20 are coplanar with the plane of bottom surface 12a of housing 20 which enables securing members 20 to be soldered to metal areas (not shown) on circuit board 100 at the same time that termination sections 18 are soldered to conductive areas thereof thereby providing additional mechanical securing of connector 10 onto circuit board 100.

Due to alternate securing members 20 extending in a rearward direction while the other alternate securing members 20 extend in a forward direction will prevent housing 12 bending during mating of connector 10 with a complementary electrical connector thereby preventing stresses to the soldered connections of terminating sections 18 to the conductive areas of circuit board 100.

The arrangement of securing members 20 also prevents them from slipping out of recesses 19 during the mating and unmating of the connectors.

Securing member 220 shown in Figure 3 has sections 220a, 220b just like securing member 20; however a leg member 220c extends outwardly and downwardly from section 220b. Thus, the leg members 220c of securing members 220 are disposed in through holes (not shown) in circuit boar' 100 when connector 10 is mounted and secured thereon and legs 220c are soldered to the metal areas of circuit board 100 simultaneously with the soldering of termination sections 18 to the conductive areas. Post sections 17 can have only vertical sections which are disposed in through holes (not shown) of circuit board 100 instead of containing the lower horizontal sections with surface mount termination sections 18 when using securing members 220.

Connector 310 of Figure 4 has vertical sections 317 of the post sections of electrical contacts 311 that are parallel with respect to the rear surface of dielectric housing 312 and which are disposed in through holes 401 in printed circuit board 400 when connector 310 is secured thereon so that the post sections of the electrical contacts 311 are electrically connected to conductive areas of circuit board 400 via soldering. An elongated recess 319 is located in the bottom surface 312a of housing 312. Spaced integral projections 319a extend downwardly from the bottom surface of recess 319.An elongated metal plate 320 having spaced holes 320a is disposed in recess 319 with projections 319a being press-fitted into respective holes 320a thereby securing metal plate 320 in recess 319 with the outer surface of plate 320 being coplanar with the plane of the bottom surface 312a of housing 312. Projections 319a can have heat applied to the ends causing them to expand thereby heat staking the plate 320 in position in recess 319.

Legs 320b extend outwardly and downwardly from plate 320 at the locations of projections 319a. Legs 320b are disposed in through holes 402 in circuit board 400 and are soldered to metal areas of circuit board 400 thereby mechanically securing connector 310 to circuit board 400 between mounting sections 315 which are secured to circuit board 400 via bolts, screws or the like that extend through holes 315a therein. Thus, connector 310 is prevented from bending during connecting and disconnecting with a complementary connector thereby preventing stresses to the soldered connections of post sections 311 to the conductive areas of circuit board 400.

If desired, a carrier strip from the stamping and forming of contacts 11, 311 can be used without any legs and secured in recess 319 via projections 319a as a metal plate for surface mounting of surface-mounting sections (not shown) of post sections 317 to conductive areas of circuit board 400 while the metal plate is soldered to a metal area on the circuit board.

An electrical connector has been disclosed which has forwardly and rearwardly-directed profiled recesses extending inwardly from a bottom surface of the housing in which profiled metal securing members are secured so that exposed outer surfaces or legs of the securing members can be soldered to metal areas or through holes of a printed circuit board along with soldering surface mount termination or through hole sections of electrical contacts to conductive areas of the circuit board thereby electrically connecting and mechanically securing the connector onto the circuit board to prevent bending of the connector during connecting and disconnecting of the connector with a complementary connector and protecting the soldered electrical connections from stresses.

Instead of using several profiled metal securing members, an elongated metal plate having spaced holes is disposed within an elongated recess in a bottom surface of the connector housing with spaced projections extending outwardly from a bottom surface of the recess being press- fitted into respective holes of the metal plate thereby securing the metal plate within the recess. The metal plate can be surface mounted to a metal area of a circuit board or have legs for disposition in through holes and soldered to metal areas of the circuit board to mechanically secure the connector to the circuit board.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. An electrical connector for electrical and mechanical connection to conductive and metal areas of a printed circuit board comprises a dielectric housing having passageways in which contact sections of electrical contacts are secured, post sections of the electrical contacts extend outwardly from a rear surface of the housing for electrical connection to conductive areas of the printed circuit board and a metal securing member is secured to the housing for mechanical connection to metal areas of the printed circuit board, characterized in that: the housing has a profiled recess extending inwardly from a bottom surface of the housing (12,312) in which the securing member having a profile corresponding to the profiled recess of the housing is secured.

2. An electrical connector as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said profiled recess comprises a plurality of T-shaped recesses with alternate recesses extending rearwardly while the other alternate recesses extend forwardly, said securing member comprises a plurality of T-shaped securing members press-fitted within said T-shaped recesses.

3. An electrical connector as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that leg members extend outwardly and downwardly for disposition in through holes in the circuit board.

4. An electrical connector as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said profiled recess comprises an elongated recess having spaced projections extending outwardly from a bottom surface of said elongated recess, said securing member comprises an elongated metal plate having spaced holes in which said projections are press-fitted.

5. An electrical connector as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that spaced leg members extend outwardly and downwardly from said metal plate for disposition in through holes in the circuit board.

6. An electrical connector as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the post sections . of the electrical contacts include vertical sections and horizontal sections and arcuate termination sections along the horizontal sections.

7. An electrical connector as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the post sections of the electrical contacts have vertical sections extending parallel to the rear surface of the housing for disposition in through holes in the circuit board

8. - An electrical connector for electrical and mechanical connection to conductive metal areas of a printed circuit board, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.