U.S. patent number 3,571,771 [Application Number 04/807,370] was granted by the patent office on 1971-03-23 for enclosure for plug in relay.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Stegg Electric Limited. Invention is credited to Edward L. Stephanson.
United States Patent |
3,571,771 |
Stephanson |
March 23, 1971 |
ENCLOSURE FOR PLUG IN RELAY
Abstract
An enclosure for electrical components is provided having an
L-shaped base and integral sidewall and a preferably transparent
cover; connecting pins are moulded through the base in a
conventional manner and the cover has lips so that it can be slid
onto the base in a direction at right angles to the axis of the
pins; thus the cover cannot become detached during engagement or
extraction of the pins in their socket components, such as relays
may be mounted on the integral sidewall; a snap action lock remote
from the base indicates closure positively.
Inventors: |
Stephanson; Edward L.
(Belleville, Ontario, CA) |
Assignee: |
Stegg Electric Limited
(Belleville, Ontario, CA)
|
Family
ID: |
4084866 |
Appl.
No.: |
04/807,370 |
Filed: |
March 14, 1969 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
Current U.S.
Class: |
335/278; 174/520;
174/50; 361/626; 361/819 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01H
50/14 (20130101); H01H 50/02 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H01H
50/02 (20060101); H01H 50/00 (20060101); H01H
50/14 (20060101); H01f 007/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;174/52,50,50.5,66,59
;317/117,120,113 ;335/278 ;339/198.2,36 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Clay; Darrell L.
Claims
I claim:
1. A plug-in type component comprising:
an insulating base having a plurality of rigid electrical
conductors fixedly mounted therein and extending therethrough;
a wall integral with and projecting away from said base; and
a separate cover cooperating with the base and the wall and
enclosing a volume therewith, the cover having means gripping the
base upon the upper and lower surfaces thereof upon assembly with
the base by movement relative thereto in a direction substantially
at right angles to the direction of force for engagement for
disengagement of the rigid electrical conductors from a plurality
of connectors in a socket.
2. A plug-in type component as defined in claim 1 wherein the cover
means gripping the base comprises a pair of inwardly projecting
lugs spaced apart so as to accommodate the base thickness
therebetween.
3. A plug-in type component as defined by claim 2 in which the base
has two free parallel sides.
4. A plug-in type component as claimed in claim 3 in which the base
is generally rectangular and the inwardly projecting lugs extend
the length of the three free sides of the rectangle.
5. A plug-in type component as claimed in claim 2 wherein the base
is provided with a recessed register to accommodate the lug of the
cover so as to present a substantially planar surface to the
socket.
6. A plug-in type component as claimed in claim 1 wherein the wall
has two ribs with outward facing registers adjacent the sides of
the wall, the cover engaging the rib registers to provide a face to
face seal.
7. A plug-in type component as claimed in claim 6 in which the ribs
each have an undercut extension to provide a small projection at
the end distant from the base, and the cover has recesses
cooperating with said projections to provide a snap-action assembly
at the cover with the base and sidewall.
8. A plug-in type component as claimed in claim 1, in which the
base and sidewall are light colored and the cover is transparent to
facilitate inspection of the component without removal.
9. A plug-in type electric relay comprising:
a rectangular generally flat insulating base having a plurality of
rigid electrical conductors fixedly mounted therein and extending
therethrough;
a rectangular generally flat wall integral with said base at one
side thereof and at right angles to the plane of said base, said
wall having two ribs providing two external locating registers and
two internal locating registers, adjacent the sides of the
wall;
a cover cooperating with said base and wall and enclosing a volume
therewith, the cover having means gripping the base at the upper
and lower surfaces thereof so as to prevent relative movement at
right angles to the plane of the base while allowing relative
movement in the plane thereof for assembly; and
a flat magnet yoke supported by said wall and located by said
internal locating register.
10. A relay as claimed in claim 9 in which the base and sidewall
are light colored and the cover is transparent to facilitate on
side examination of the contacts and inspection of relay
action.
11. A relay as claimed in claim 9, having a tapped hole in the core
laminations through and perpendicular to the plane of the yoke and
a clearance hole in the flat sidewall, so as to permit the assembly
to be mounted by the sidewall.
12. A plug-in type electric relay as claimed in claim 9 in which
the base adjacent the wall has a recess, the width of the magnet
yoke material thickness and a portion of flat magnet yoke continues
into the recess so that the recess will grip the yoke portion and
tend to prevent distortion.
13. A plug-in type relay as claimed in claim 12 in which the magnet
yoke has a portion at right angles to the flat plane and adjacent
the base, said portion being fixed to said base.
Description
This invention relates to a plug-in enclosure which can be used to
protect electromechanical devices or such components as
photoelectric memory units.
Such enclosures comprise a terminal board or generally planar base
with the required number of spade connectors or pins for connection
to the component, passing through the base; in the prior art a
cover having the shape generally of an open box was usually
removable to permit inspection or adjustment in situ of the device.
The cover is attached to the base by means of screws, wire clips or
catches integral with the cover.
The cover thus becomes part of the structural assembly and is used
to insert and extract the plug-in device. Unfortunately, if the
cover is secured to the base by screws it cannot be slipped off
easily for inspection and adjustment; and if it is attached by
catches it is difficult to remove the unit integrally as the cover
comes off if the spade or pin connectors stick. This disadvantage
is becoming more pronounced as the trend to miniaturization
proceeds, together with multifunctional requirements which
increases the number of the pins. What usually happens in practice
is that the extracting force is next applied to the component
which, in the case of such electromagnetic devices as relays is
sufficient to destroy the alignment by deformation of the soft iron
frame.
It is an object of this invention to avoid the disadvantages of the
prior art and to obtain the advantages of alternative mounting for
the apparatus to be enclosed by building an enclosure with the base
and one side integral and providing a cover to surround the
remainder of the base and to engage the sidewall so as to complete
the enclosure, the cover being provided with a groove around that
part of the periphery which engages the base so that the cover may
be slid on in a direction at right angles to that in which force is
exerted to insert or remove the plug-in enclosure from its socket.
Usually the base is rectangular so that the cover has three
sidewalls and a top wall but other base configurations are also
possible. Other advantages such as wide face to face seals can be
incorporated and a preferred location for providing a snap action
closure lock is also given.
This method for construction of the enclosure is particularly
useful for relays because the magnetic frame can be accurately
located upon, and firmly secured to the sidewall. Thus, any force
on the coil will be transmitted to the base with much less
likelihood of bending the soft iron frame than in the present
designs where there is only a limited space on the base available
for attachment; any significant force on the coil usually destroys
the relay characteristics in prior art relay enclosures.
In the drawings which illustrate an example of an embodiment of the
invention:
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a plug-in type relay;
FIG. 2 illustrated the relay of FIG. 1 fully assembled again in
perspective view;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged scrap section along the plane 3-3 in FIG. 2
showing how the base of the enclosure is gripped by the cover;
FIG. 4 is an enlarged scrap section along the plane 4-4 in FIG. 2
showing how the cover snaps into engagement with the sidewall when
it is home.
In FIG. 1, 2 is generally a plug-in component comprising a base 4
with connection pins 6 therethrough and an integral sidewall 8. The
base and sidewall are preferably white or light colored to
facilitate inspection, and the inner end of the pins 6 carry the
fixed relay contacts 7, directly. The base sidewall 8 has two
integral raised ribs 10 having outer and inner register functions.
The base 4 also has a register 12 for reasons which are explained
below.
A plastic cover 14 which is preferably transparent has two parallel
sidewalls 16, 18, a sidewall 20 parallel to the sidewall 8 integral
with the base, and a top wall 22. The walls of the cover are smooth
on the outside but a pair of lugs 24, 26 on the inside, by
providing a base gripping recess between them, enable the cover to
slide on to the base along a plane parallel to the base; the lug 26
is accommodated in register 12 so as to give the assembly a planar
base; lug 24 registers on the top surface of the base 4 within the
enclosure and does not, therefore, need a register. The lugs 24, 26
gripping the base (26 being accommodated in register 12) may be
understood more easily by reference to FIG. 3 and the direction of
sliding assembly and disassembly of base sidewall (4, 8) with the
four faced transparent cover 14 is indicated by the arrow A in FIG.
2.
From FIG. 2 it can be seen that the outer register function of ribs
10 on base integral sidewall 8 is to provide support for the
transparent cover 14 at the free edge of sides 16 and 18. The inner
register function of the integral base ribs 10 locate magnet yoke
28 in a lateral sense on sidewall 8; the soft iron core laminations
30 for the coil and the soft iron armature support 32 project from
this magnet yoke; a small tag 34 integral with the magnet yoke is
provided parallel to the core on the top of the base 4. A tapped
hole 36 in this tag and a clearance hole 38 in the base enables a
screw to fasten the magnet frame to the base. The coil and armature
are conventional and have, therefore, been omitted for the sake of
clarity, although armature retaining clip 33 and its tension bias
spring anchor hole 35 are shown.
Alternatively, the magnet yoke may be secured to the mount sidewall
8 by means of a screw or screws. This allows complete dissociation
of the separate base functions; i.e., the terminal board contact
and plug function remains in the base 4 and the entire support for
the main structure of the relay or other device is provided by the
integral sidewall 8. Such a magnet yoke may be additionally braced
against the sidewall by the provision of tags 44 in slots 46.
The cover is retained in position by two small projections 40 on
the top end of the register ribs 10. These projections engage
recesses, 42, in the top wall 22, transparent cover 14 and are of
such a height that the edges of the recesses will slide over them
without breaking the cover; but yet they retain the cover when
accommodated in the recesses against any vibration that the
remainder of the assembly will withstand. This snap action
retaining of the transparent cover 14 is best seen in the enlarged
scrap section illustrated in FIG. 4.
While other retaining means may be sued to maintain the cover and
L-shaped base and wall assembly engaged, I much prefer to use these
retaining pips 40 as the snap action gives an audible indication
that the enclosure is properly shut at the top.
The operation of the enclosure will be easily understood. To remove
(or insert) the assembly, it is grasped between finger and thumb on
sidewalls 16 and 18 (or perhaps 20 and 8). The holding pressure
increases the engagement of lugs 24 and 26 with the base 4, so that
the force which the lugs can exert to extract the assembly is at
right angles to and incomparably greater than that required to
slide the cover and base together; this is in contrast to most
prior covers, which are mounted on the base by a motion in the same
direction as that necessary to remove or insert the assembly. This
right angle between the base-and-cover-assembly motion indicated by
arrow A and the removal-or-insertion motion indicated by arrow B is
clearly illustrated by the arrows in FIG. 2.
It will be understood that another feature of this invention is
that the enclosure may be directly mounted on either a horizontal
chassis or even a vertical wall by means of the screw 50 passing
through hole 48 in the sidewall into a tapped hole in the core
laminations 30. Thus, although for easy understanding it is called
plug-in unit, it is adaptable for use as a fixed-plug unit with
which a movable socket may be engaged.
While there has been shown and described what is at present
considered the preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be
obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and
modifications may be made therein without departing from the
invention as defined by the appended claims.
* * * * *