Insulative Organizer Maintains Leadframe Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electrical connectors face challenges in maintaining alignment of leadframe assemblies during assembly and mounting, which can lead to misalignment and installation issues with underlying substrates.
Innovation Solution
An electrically insulative organizer with a stiffener wall, projection, and alignment arms is used to maintain alignment of leadframe assemblies by inserting into a channel defined by the assemblies, with grooves and retention walls ensuring precise positioning and preventing movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If leadframe assemblies are spaced along a row direction without support structures, then assembly simplicity is improved, but alignment stability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an organizer as an intermediary component that receives leadframe assemblies in a row direction and maintains their alignment. The organizer acts as a mediator between the simple row-spaced configuration and the requirement for stable alignment, allowing assemblies to be easily positioned while preventing misalignment through the organizer's structural constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
The organizer modifies the spatial parameters of leadframe assembly positioning by defining specific receive spaces with predetermined spacing and alignment features. This changes the positional parameters from arbitrary spacing to precisely controlled intervals, maintaining alignment stability while preserving assembly simplicity.
2Manufacturing precision
If alignment structures are added to maintain leadframe assembly positioning, then alignment precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The organizer serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides alignment constraints, maintains spacing between assemblies, offers structural support, and enables easy insertion/removal of leadframe assemblies. This multi-functionality achieves high alignment precision without proportionally increasing complexity, as a single component performs several alignment-related tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The organizer is divided into modular receive spaces, each capable of holding an individual leadframe assembly. This segmentation allows the alignment structure to be scaled and configured for different numbers of assemblies without requiring a completely different design, managing complexity through modularity while maintaining precision.
3Productivity
If leadframe assemblies are freely positioned during assembly, then assembly speed is improved, but mounting accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The organizer is pre-configured with receive spaces that define the correct positions and orientations for leadframe assemblies before assembly begins. This preliminary arrangement of receiving structures allows assemblies to be quickly placed without requiring precise positioning operations, maintaining both high assembly speed and mounting accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The organizer mediates between the need for rapid assembly and the requirement for precise mounting by providing a pre-positioned framework. Assemblies can be quickly inserted into the organizer's receive spaces at high speed, and the organizer ensures they are held in the correct positions for accurate substrate mounting, eliminating the trade-off between speed and precision.
Data Source
AI summary
Electrically insulative organizers configured to maintain alignment of leadframe assemblies in an electrical connector are disclosed, in one example, an organizer includes a stiffener wall and a projection that extends from the stiffener wall. The electrically insulative body is sized to be inserted into a channel defined by the leadframe assemblies. In another example, an organizer includes an electrically insulative organizer body and a plurality of divider walls that are supported by the organizer body and spaced from each other along a lateral direction so as to be positioned for insertion between adjacent leadframe assemblies.