Straddle Mount Connector Contact Assembly Retooling Reduction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing straddle mount connectors require significant retooling for each change, leading to high capital expenditures due to the need for retooling of contacts and overmolding dies, making them costly and inefficient to manufacture.
Innovation Solution
A straddle mount connector design featuring a housing with a contact assembly that includes a contact organizer with upper and lower contact channels, locating features, and blocking surfaces, allowing for easy assembly and loading of contacts into pre-molded channels within the housing, reducing the need for frequent retooling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If separate contact arrays are overmolded and assembled into the housing, then the connector can be manufactured with modular components, but retooling is required for each change leading to high capital expenditures
Solution Approach 1:
The contact organizer is designed with a universal structure that can accommodate different contact configurations and arrangements. The standardized cavity interface and contact holding mechanisms allow the same organizer design to be used across multiple connector variants, eliminating the need for retooling when adapting to different contact requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The connector is divided into distinct functional modules: the housing with cavity, the contact organizer as a separate assembly, and the contacts themselves. This segmentation allows the contact organizer to be manufactured independently and assembled into the housing, providing flexibility to change contact configurations without retooling the entire connector or housing.
2Ease of operation
If contacts are separately loaded into the housing, then assembly flexibility is improved, but the number of assembly steps and potential for error increases
Solution Approach 1:
The contact organizer merges multiple contacts into a single pre-assembled unit that is loaded into the housing as one component. This combining of contacts with their supporting structure reduces the number of separate assembly steps while maintaining the flexibility of modular construction, as the entire contact assembly can be installed in a single operation rather than loading each contact individually.
Solution Approach 2:
The contacts are pre-assembled and organized onto the contact organizer framework before being installed into the housing. This preliminary assembly ensures proper positioning and alignment of contacts, reducing assembly errors and simplifying the final installation step into the housing cavity.
Data Source
AI summary
A straddle mount connector includes a housing and a contact assembly received in a cavity of the housing between a mating card slot and a host board slot. The contact assembly has a contact organizer having upper and lower contact channels in a top wall and a bottom wall, respectively receiving upper and lower contacts and engaging corresponding upper and lower locating features. The upper and lower contacts are electrically connected to a host board and a mating card. The contact assembly is loaded into the cavity such that upper and lower blocking surfaces of the housing block the upper contacts in the upper and lower contact channels.