U.S. patent number 3,829,818 [Application Number 05/390,439] was granted by the patent office on 1974-08-13 for bus strip.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Rogers Corporation. Invention is credited to Michael F. Iosue, Robert E. Sanders.
United States Patent |
3,829,818 |
Iosue , et al. |
August 13, 1974 |
BUS STRIP
Abstract
A bus strip which can be mounted on an array of terminal posts
merely by pushing the bus strip into mounting engagement with a
desired plurality of terminal posts is disclosed. The bus strip is
a one piece configuration having a central spine with a pair of
wings radiating in opposite directions from one end of the spine.
The spine is provided with a series of holes adjacent the junction
of the spine and wings to mount the bus strip on an array of
terminal posts, and the wings are contoured so as to spring load
the strip against the terminal posts with three points of contact.
The bus strip may also be provided with gaps in the wings and spine
whereby contact with posts may be skipped as desired.
Inventors: |
Iosue; Michael F. (Tempe,
AZ), Sanders; Robert E. (Old Saybrook, CT) |
Assignee: |
Rogers Corporation (Rogers,
CT)
|
Family
ID: |
23542452 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/390,439 |
Filed: |
August 22, 1973 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
439/510; 174/72B;
174/72A |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01R
31/085 (20130101); H01R 31/02 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H01R
31/00 (20060101); H01R 31/08 (20060101); H01R
31/02 (20060101); H01r 031/08 () |
Field of
Search: |
;339/19,22B,242,256,258,273,277 ;248/60 ;211/89,69.8
;24/81H,81PC,243Q |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Gay; Bobby R.
Assistant Examiner: Hafer; Robert A.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A bus strip for mounting on an array of terminal pins for
electrically interconnecting pins in the array, the strip
including:
a spine section having a plurality of spaced apart openings therein
for mounting on an array of terminal pins;
a pair of wings extending in opposite directions from one end of
said spine section, at least a part of each of said wings
overlapping part of said spine; and
contact surface areas on said wings aligned with said openings in
said spine whereby the bus strip is spring loaded into engagement
at three spaced apart points along the length of terminal pins at
said contact surfaces and the periphery of said spaced openings
when mounted on an array of terminal pins.
2. A bus strip as in claim 1 wherein:
each of said wings includes a first section inclined in a direction
from said one end of the spine toward the other end thereof and a
second section extending in the opposite direction from said first
section.
3. The bus strip as in claim 2 wherein:
the junction of said first and second wing sections defines said
contact surface areas.
4. A bus strip as in claim 2 wherein:
said first wing section is inclined with respect to said spine to
form an acute included angle therebetween.
5. A bus strip as in claim 1 wherein:
said spine section is composed of a plurality of spaced apart
segments; and
said wings are composed of a plurality of spaced apart segments
aligned with said spaced apart segments of said spine section, the
spacings between segments in each of said wings being approximately
equal to the spacing between corresponding aligned segments of said
spine section.
6. A bus strip including:
a spine section of generally U-shaped configuration having a closed
first end with legs extending to a second end, each of said legs
having a plurality of spaced apart openings therein aligned with
corresponding openings in the other of said legs;
a pair of wings extending in opposite direction from said legs at
said second end, at least a part of each of said wings overlapping
part of said spine; and
contact surface areas on said wings aligned with said openings in
said legs of said spine so that a line tangent to a contact surface
area and perpendicular to a plane bisecting said spine will pass
through said aligned openings, whereby the bus strip is spring
loaded into engagement at three spaced apart points along the
length of terminal pins at said contact surfaces and the periphery
of said spaced openings when mounted on an array of terminal
pins.
7. A bus strip as in claim 6 wherein:
each of said wings includes a first section inclined in a direction
from said one end of the spine toward the other end thereof and a
second section extending in the opposite direction from said first
section.
8. The bus strip as in claim 7 wherein:
the junction of said first and second wing sections defines said
contact surface areas.
9. A bus strip as in claim 7 wherein:
said first wing section is inclined with respect to said spine to
form an acute included angle with a plane bisecting said spine.
10. A bus strip as in claim 6 wherein:
said spine section is composed of a plurality of spaced apart
segments; and
said wings are composed of a plurality of spaced apart segments
aligned with said spaced apart segments of said spine section, the
spacings between segments in each of said wings being approximately
equal to the spacings between corresponding aligned segments of
said spine section.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to electrical bus strips. More particularly,
this invention relates to electrical bus strips for interconnecting
an array of terminal pins or terminal posts on devices such as
terminal blocks and circuit boards.
In many environments, especially but not limited to the computer
industry, large numbers of electrical circuits are connected to
circuit boards or terminal blocks having terminal posts leading to
the various circuits. Interconnection between the terminal posts
and various circuits is accomplished in a variety of fashions such
as, for example, by wire wrap connecting. It is often desired or
required to interconnect; i.e., bus together; a plurality of
terminal pins to provide, e.g., a common power supply, common
grounding, or circuit interconnections. Typical prior art
approaches to the bussing problem have included the techniques of
soldering a single conductor to each of a desired series of
terminal posts and wire wrapping a common wire to a series of
terminal posts. However, such prior art bussing approaches are time
consuming and thus relatively costly production operations since a
great deal of manual labor is required. Also, soldering and wire
wrapping techniques inherently present the risk of achieving one or
more poor electrical connections. Suggestions have also been made
in the art to provide fabricated connector buses. Examples of such
fabricated buses in the prior art can be found in the U.S. Pats. to
Hovnanian No. 3,609,634, Walterscheid, No. 3,356,183, Sullivan, No.
3,488,620, Sullivan, No. 3,582,864 and IBM Technical Bulletin Vol.
14, No. 8 January 1972. However, these prior fabricated bus devices
have been of somewhat limited versatility, and some of them are not
easily adaptable to bussing patterns of posts, especially irregular
patterns, as distinguished from bussing all of the posts in an
array. Additionally many of these fabricated bus connectors have
the serious drawback of requiring insulating pads at the location
of terminal posts which are to be skipped.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The bus strip of the present invention is a one-piece device which
can be mounted on an array of terminal pins merely by aligning
openings in the bus with the desired terminal pins and then pushing
the bus down on the terminal pins. The bus strip has a central
spine with a pair of wings radiating from opposite sides of one end
of the spine. A series of holes is provided in the spine,
preferably near the juncture of the spine and the radiating wings,
and these holes are positioned for mating engagement with contact
pins or terminal posts. The spine and the wings can be provided
with open spaces, but while still maintaining the mechanical
structural integrity of the bus strip, so that connections can be
skipped between alternate pins or between pins in any desired
regular or irregular pattern, while still permitting use of just
the one-piece bus strip.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
Referring to the drawings, wherein like elements are numbered alike
in the several figures:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bus strip in accordance with the
present invention mounted on a series of terminal posts on a
terminal block.
FIG. 2 is an end view of the mounted bus strip of FIG. 1, viewed
looking at the left end of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a modified configuration of the bus
strip of the present invention with spaces being provided to skip
connection with various terminal pins.
FIG. 4 is a view, similar to the view of FIG. 2, of the bus strip
of FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 is a view taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 3.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the bus strip 10 of the present
invention is shown mounted on a row of terminal pins 12 of a
terminal block or circuit board 14. It will be understood that the
terminal block 14 and the terminal pins 12 do not form part of the
invention but are shown for purposes of illustrating the
environment in which the invention may be employed.
The bus strip, which is made from any suitable conducting material
such as copper, has a central spine 16 of general U-shaped
configuration in cross-section with a pair of wings 18--18
radiating from opposite sides of the open end of the U-shaped
spine. The wings 18 are crimped or bent so that the portion 20
immediately adjacent the spine is inclined toward the spine, so as
to form an included acute angle with the plane of the spine, and
the other portion 22 of the wing is inclined in the opposite
direction. The junction or line of bend between the two angled
portions of each wing forms contact areas or surfaces 24 for
establishing electrical and mechanical contact between the bus
strip and the terminal posts 12. A series of openings 26 are formed
in spine 16, preferably adjacent to the junction between the wings
and the spine, and these openings are positioned to engage the
terminal pins 12.
Mounting of the bus strip of the present invention is a
particularly simple and efficient operation. Openings 26 are
aligned with the tops of the pins 12 on which the bus is to be
mounted, and the bus is then pushed down on the pins to any desired
position at or above the terminal block. The bus strip is
proportioned so that the contact areas or surfaces 24 are aligned
with or overlap part of the openings 26. That is, wing portion 20
is inclined toward spine 16 to such a degree and amount that a line
tangent to the surface 24 on each of wings 18 and perpendicular to
a plane bisecting spine 16 will pass through opening 26. This
proportioning between the spine and the wings results in a spring
loading action urging the contact surface 24 on each wing into
contact with one surface of the terminal pin while simultaneously
urging the surface of opening 26 closest to the closed edge of the
spine into contact with the opposed surface of the terminal pin.
Thus, this proportioning results in a spring loaded mounting of the
bus strip on the terminal pins and provides three discrete contact
areas between the bus strip and each pin being contacted.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration wherein the number of holes 26 is
double the number of pins in any one row. This illustrates the
versatility of the bus strip in that it can be used for pin
patterns of different spacings. Furthermore, bus strips can easily
be fabricated for irregular pin patterns merely by changing the
spacing between openings 26.
Referring now to FIG. 3, a modified version of the bus strip is
shown wherein the wings 18 include only the first inclined portion
20. The contact areas 24 of the FIG. 3 embodiment are defined by
the ends of the wing portions 20 which bear against the terminal
pin as shown in FIG. 4. A comparison between FIGS. 2 and 4 shows
that the arrangement of FIG. 2 has larger contact areas 24
resulting from the bend or junction line between the wing sections.
The contact areas of the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4 can be
increased by contouring the contact areas 24 to a round
configuration or a flat surface parallel to the contact pins. The
configuration of the device shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is proportioned
as is the FIG. 2 embodiment so that the contact areas 24 on the
opposed wings overlap the opening 26 so as to urge the surfaces of
openings 26 adjacent the closed end of the spine into contact with
associated terminal pins thus forming a three point contact with
the terminal pins.
The FIG. 3 embodiment, and particularly as shown in FIG. 5,
possesses an additional feature of the invention which permits the
bus strip to be fabricated to suit bussing requirements wherein one
or more pins in a row are to be skipped. As illustrated in FIGS. 3
and 5, the spine and wings may be formed in a toothed or serrated
configuration with spaces 28 and 30 separating spine segments
16'--16' and wing segments 18'--18', respectively. These spaces are
formed by parts of the spine and wings at desired places so as to
form the spaced apart sections of the spine and wings while still
retaining a unitary and integral bus strip. The configuration of
FIGS. 3-5 is particularly versatile in that it permits the use of
the bus strip for interconnecting any desired irregular pattern of
terminal pins in a row by leaving open spaces, i.e., the spaces 28
and 30, at the location of the pins to be skipped. Furthermore, it
will be noted that the location and sizing of the spacings at the
pins to be skipped is such that a complete absence of contact
between the bus strip and the pins to be skipped is assured, the
openings being larger than the pin to be skipped, thus eliminating
the need for the use of insulating pads or any other kind of
insulation on the bus strip at the location of the pins to be
skipped.
As will be apparent, the feature discussed with respect to the
embodiment of FIGS. 3-5 whereby spaces are provided in the spine
and wings to skip pin contact can also be effected with the
embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 by providing the desired spacings in
the spine and in both of the wing portions 20 and 22. As will also
be apparent, the spine can be shaped in a V or otherwise.
Alternatively, the bus strip can be fabricated, such as by
extrusion, so that the spine 16 is in one flat piece.
While preferred embodiments have been shown and described, various
modifications and substitutions may be made thereto without
departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly,
it is to be understood that the present invention has been
described by way of illustration and not limitation.
* * * * *