Pickup Cap Friction Pads Prevent Slippage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pickup caps for electrical connectors lack secure retention mechanisms that prevent slippage during automated pick and place operations, leading to instability and potential misalignment.
Innovation Solution
A pickup cap design featuring a planar body with flexible legs and friction pads that bow slightly to create an interference fit with the connector housing, combined with protrusions to prevent over-insertion, ensuring secure engagement and stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional pickup caps are used without secure retention mechanisms, then the structure is simple, but the pickup cap slips and becomes unstable during automated pick and place operations
Solution Approach 1:
The pickup cap employs flexible legs made of elastomeric material that can deform elastically. These legs include friction pads that bow slightly upon insertion into the connector housing, creating an interference fit that secures the pickup cap to the connector. The flexibility allows the legs to conform to the housing interior while maintaining secure retention.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical parameters of the legs by making them slightly larger than the receiving slots in the housing, creating an interference fit. The elastomeric material properties allow the legs to deform under insertion force and then retain a bowed shape, generating frictional forces that prevent slippage during pick and place operations.
2Reliability
If friction pads are designed to create interference fit, then secure retention is achieved, but the insertion force required increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible legs made of elastomeric material can deform under insertion force, allowing the friction pads to be pressed into the housing slots. Once inserted, the elastic recovery creates the interference fit and frictional retention. This flexibility enables secure retention while accommodating the insertion force requirement.
Solution Approach 2:
The legs transition from a flexible state during insertion to a more rigid retained state after insertion. The dynamic deformation during insertion allows the pads to engage the slots, and the subsequent elastic recovery creates the secure interference fit. This dynamic behavior balances insertion force requirements with retention security.
3Reliability
If the pickup cap is securely retained during pick and place operations, then stability is improved, but removal becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The elastomeric legs provide secure retention during normal operations through their bowed, friction-based engagement. However, when removal force is applied, the flexibility of the legs allows them to deform and release from the interference fit, enabling easy removal when needed. The same flexibility that provides secure retention also facilitates easy removal.
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 design provides a secure and stable retention of the pickup cap within the connector housing, preventing slippage and misalignment during pick and place operations, while allowing for easy removal when needed.
Implementation Method 1
The friction pads may be received into complementary slots in the housing of an electrical connector. The distance between outermost surfaces of opposing friction pads may be slightly less than the distance between outermost surfaces of the slots that receive those pads. Consequently, when the pickup cap is received into the connector housing, the legs may bow slightly, causing friction between the friction pads and slots to secure the pickup cap to the connector.
Data Source
AI summary
A pickup cap for an electrical connector is disclosed. The pickup cap may include a planar body portion and a plurality of opposing legs extending from a side of the body portion. A respective friction pad may extend from each leg. The friction pads may be received into complementary slots in the housing of an electrical connector. Friction between the friction pads and walls that define the slots may be sufficient to secure the pickup cap to the connector. The planar body portion may include a pickup portion. When the pickup cap is received into the connector housing, the legs may bow slightly. The pickup portion, however, may remain generally planar, and generally parallel to the mating plane defined by the vertical connector, even when the pickup cap is fully inserted into the connector housing.