Flat Flexible Cable Seal Assembly for Edge-Conforming Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge of creating a reliable, fluid-impermeable seal around flat flexible cables (FFCs) and their connectors, particularly at their narrow edges, has proven difficult due to the need for quick, robust, and low resistance termination techniques that can withstand harsh environmental contaminants.
Innovation Solution
A seal assembly comprising a cover, housing, and header with an elastomeric body featuring internal and external sealing ribs, relief wells, and gel-filled regions to conform to the FFC's periphery, providing an impermeable seal through staged compression.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional sealing methods are used for FFC connectors, then the sealing process becomes complex and unreliable, but the FFC connectors remain vulnerable to environmental contaminants
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs an elastomeric seal body that flexes and conforms to the narrow edges and complex geometry of the FFC connector. This flexible membrane approach allows the seal to reliably adapt to the cable's profile without requiring complex rigid sealing structures, thereby improving sealing reliability while avoiding increased device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes compression force as a controllable parameter to transform the elastomeric seal body into an effective barrier. By applying controlled compression during assembly, the seal material deforms to fill gaps and conform to the FFC edges, creating a reliable seal through parameter control rather than complex structural design
2Reliability
If the seal must conform to the narrow edges of the thin FFC, then the seal design becomes more difficult, but effective sealing at these edges is critical for fluid impermeability
Solution Approach 1:
The elastomeric seal body acts as a flexible thin film that can bend and conform to the narrow edges of the FFC. This flexibility allows the seal to wrap around the cable edges and create fluid-impermeable barriers at critical locations without requiring complex multi-component sealing structures
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs an elastomeric material with specific durometer properties that combines flexibility for conforming to narrow edges with sufficient structural integrity to maintain seal pressure. This material selection resolves the design challenge by providing both edge conformity and sealing force in a single homogeneous component
3Productivity
If quick and robust termination techniques are implemented for FFCs, then assembly speed increases, but the sealing of connectors becomes more challenging under time constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The elastomeric seal body is pre-positioned within the connector housing before FFC insertion. This preliminary placement ensures the seal is already in the correct location and orientation, allowing quick FFC insertion and compression without requiring complex alignment steps, thereby maintaining both assembly speed and sealing quality
Solution Approach 2:
The elastomeric seal body automatically conforms to the FFC edges and creates the seal through its own elastic deformation when compressed during assembly. This self-sealing mechanism eliminates the need for additional sealing operations or adjustments, enabling quick assembly while ensuring reliable connector sealing
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The seal assembly effectively seals against the FFC's major and minor surfaces, ensuring moisture and dirt resistance by conforming to the cable's edges, even under harsh conditions.
Implementation Method 1
a seal made of an elastomeric body defining a central cavity through which a FFC can be directed and sealed. The seal is configured to be retained within the other assembly components, and be compressed when the assembly is assembled, in order to provide a predictable seal by conforming the seal against the periphery of the FFC
Implementation Method 2
The seal body includes seal enhancing features such as relief wells, or sealing zones that are more conformable than the balance of the seal body. The sealing zones may be gel filled hollow region of the seal body, or a softer durometer material
Data Source
AI summary
A seal assembly for a flat flexible cable, including: a subassembly having a cable opening sized to receive a flexible flat cable therethrough, and having a cover, a housing, the flexible flat cable, and a cable seal component having a central cavity; a header selectively connectable with the subassembly and configured to deform the cable seal component when connected, thereby creating an impermeable seal about the flexible flat cable. The cable seal component may be provided with sealing enhancements that improve the conformability against the narrow edges of a flexible flat cable and provide reliable and predictable sealing.