Conductor Terminal with Offset Solder Plane and Closure Cover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conductor terminals in existing technologies pose challenges in automatic assembly machines and visibility issues when used in lighting devices, particularly with light-emitting elements like LEDs, due to their design and placement on printed circuit boards.
Innovation Solution
The conductor terminal design features solder connection contact tongues bent out of the plane of the base portion to create an offset solder connection plane, allowing for reduced height integration into printed circuit boards and a closure cover that reduces visibility and provides a suction surface for automatic assembly, while maintaining a separate actuating mechanism to prevent force components that could affect solder joints.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If solder connection contact tongues are placed in the plane of the base portion, then soldering is simplified, but the overall height of the circuit board increases
Solution Approach 1:
The solder connection contact tongues are bent out of the plane of the base portion into a different spatial dimension, creating an offset solder connection plane. This allows the contact tongues to be positioned in a third dimension (offset plane) rather than remaining in the same plane as the base portion, thereby reducing the overall height while maintaining soldering accessibility.
2Illumination intensity
If the base portion has a flat surface, then manufacturing is simplified, but light traps or dark spots form when LEDs are mounted nearby
Solution Approach 1:
The base portion features a localized indented region with a specific geometric shape (e.g., funnel-shaped or conical) rather than a completely flat surface. This local modification creates a light-reflecting geometry that prevents dark spots while maintaining the overall simplicity of the base portion structure and not significantly complicating the manufacturing process.
3Ease of operation
If actuating tabs are directly accessible from the front, then actuation is simplified, but force components affect solder joints
Solution Approach 1:
The actuating tabs are extracted from the front plane and repositioned on the rear side of the conductor terminal. This separation allows the actuation mechanism to operate independently from the solder connection area, enabling simplified actuation while preventing force transmission to the solder joints, thus maintaining solder joint integrity.
4Volume of moving object
If the conductor terminal structure is compact, then space is saved, but handling in automatic assembly machines becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
A closure cover is introduced as an intermediary element that provides a suction surface for automatic assembly machine handling. The closure cover can be attached to the indented region of the base portion, creating a dedicated interface for robotic grippers or suction devices, thereby facilitating automated handling without increasing the overall size of the conductor terminal.
Data Source
AI summary
A conductor terminal with an insulating material housing and a spring-force terminal connection. The spring-force terminal connection has a contact body which is shaped out of a sheet element and has a base portion, lateral wall portions that protrude from the base portion and are mutually spaced, and solder connection contact tongues. The base portion together with the lateral wall portions forms a conductor receiving channel for receiving an electric conductor, and leaf spring tongues protrude from the lateral wall portions so as to face one another, each leaf spring tongue has a clamping edge for clamping an electric conductor received in the conductor receiving channel. The insulating material housing has a conductor insertion opening which leads to the conductor receiving channel on the front face.