Removable Rugged Hood Assembly for Electrical Connector EMI Shielding
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cable hoods cannot be easily installed or removed before or after mounting, limiting their versatility and effectiveness in making standard electrical connectors suitable for harsh environments and providing EMI shielding.
Innovation Solution
A removable and attachable rugged hood assembly comprising intermateable male and female connector hood portions with apertures and fastening holes, allowing for easy installation and removal before or after connector mounting, offering EMI shielding and protection from harsh conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If standard electrical connectors are used without rugged hoods, then manufacturing cost and complexity are reduced, but protection against harsh environments and EMI shielding are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The rugged hood assembly is divided into separate male and female connector hood portions that can be independently attached to corresponding connectors. This segmentation allows the protection feature to be added modularly without redesigning the entire connector system, resolving the contradiction between protection and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The rugged hood portions serve as intermediary protective elements between the standard electrical connectors and the harsh environment. These hoods provide EMI shielding and environmental protection while allowing the original connectors to remain unchanged, thus adding protection without fundamentally increasing system complexity.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If rugged hoods are permanently integrated with connectors, then protection is maximized, but ease of installation and removal is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The rugged hood assembly transitions from a static permanent integration concept to a dynamic attachable/removable system. The hood portions can be attached before connector mounting or removed after, providing flexibility in installation timing and ease of operation while maintaining protection when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The rugged hood portions can be attached to connectors in advance before final mounting to the board, or attached later as needed. This preliminary action capability allows the protection to be prepared beforehand without requiring permanent integration, thus improving ease of operation while maintaining protection effectiveness.
3Adaptability or versatility
If connectors are disassembled from PCBs for field upgrades, then adaptability is improved, but time consumption and risk of damage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The upgrade system is segmented into removable hood portions that can be attached or detached without disturbing the connector's mounting to the PCB. This allows field upgrades to be performed by simply attaching/removing the hood portions, eliminating the time-consuming and risky process of disassembling connectors from PCBs while maintaining full adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The protective hood portions are extracted as separate, independently attachable components from the connector assembly. This extraction allows the protection feature to be added or removed without affecting the connector's electrical connection to the PCB, thus enabling quick field upgrades without disassembly time or damage risk.
4Reliability
If standard connectors are used without rugged hoods, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability in harsh conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The reliability enhancement is achieved through segmented hood portions that can be attached to standard connectors. This segmentation allows the reliability improvement to be added as a separate component rather than requiring a complete redesign of the connector, thus improving reliability in harsh conditions while minimizing the increase in overall device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The rugged hood portions are designed to be universally attachable to various connector types (male and female). This universality allows a single hood design to provide reliability enhancement across multiple connector applications, improving reliability in harsh conditions without proportionally increasing complexity for each specific connector type.
Data Source
AI summary
An attachable and removable protective rugged hood assembly for an electrical connector, including board-mounted electrical connectors. The rugged hood assembly comprises a male connector hood portion and a female connector hood portion. The rugged hood assembly allows standard electrical connectors to be used in harsh conditions, such as in military equipment, and also provides electromagnetic interference (“EMI”) shielding.