Electrical Connector Brackets With Coplanar Protrusions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electrical connectors face challenges in ensuring reliable soldering to printed circuit boards due to non-coplanar mounting portions, which can lead to inconsistent connections and reduced stability.
Innovation Solution
The electrical connector design features a mounting portion with three downward protrusions around a hole, ensuring coplanarity and stability during soldering, along with a shielding unit and insulative housing, and a rear sealing member to prevent backward movement and enhance retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mounting portions are designed without coplanarity features, then the structure is simpler, but the soldering reliability and connection stability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting portion incorporates three downward protrusions at specific locations (front, rear, and side) to create localized coplanar contact points with the PCB. This local quality enhancement ensures reliable soldering at critical areas without requiring the entire mounting surface to be complex, thus improving soldering reliability while maintaining reasonable structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The downward protrusions are pre-formed on the mounting portion during manufacturing, establishing coplanarity before the soldering process. This preliminary action ensures that the mounting portion is already positioned correctly relative to the PCB, preventing non-coplanar issues during soldering and improving connection reliability without adding complexity to the soldering process itself.
2Ease of manufacture
If mounting portions are non-coplanar, then manufacturing is easier, but connection stability and consistency worsen
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring the entire mounting portion to achieve high coplanarity (which would be difficult and expensive to manufacture), the design uses three localized downward protrusions. These protrusions are easier to manufacture with precise depth control, and they provide the necessary coplanar contact points for stable connections, thus balancing ease of manufacture with manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting portion is segmented into multiple features: the main mounting surface, the hole for fasteners, and three separate downward protrusions. This segmentation allows each feature to be manufactured and controlled independently, making it easier to achieve the required coplanarity precision for the protrusions without complicating the overall manufacturing process.
3Stability of the object's composition
If coplanarity features are added to mounting portions, then connection stability improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The coplanarity feature is implemented as three small downward protrusions rather than a complex overall structure. These localized features provide the necessary stability for reliable connections while adding minimal complexity to the bracket structure. The protrusions are simple geometric additions that can be integrated into existing bracket designs with minimal structural modification.
Data Source
AI summary
An electrical connector includes: a contact module including an insulative housing and an upper and lower rows of contacts; a shielding shell enclosing the contact module; an insulative outer cover enclosing the shielding shell; and a pair of brackets secured to the insulative outer cover, each bracket including a mounting portion having a bottom surface and a hole, wherein the mounting portion further has three downward protrusions leveled lower than the bottom surface.