GB2037506A

GB2037506A - Board for Mounting Dual In-line Electrical Sockets

Info

Publication number: GB2037506A
Application number: GB7941975A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: GRUFFERTY D
Current assignee: GRUFFERTY D
Priority date: 1978-12-06
Filing date: 1979-12-05
Publication date: 1980-07-09
Also published as: GB2037506B

Abstract

The invention relates to a board 1 for mounting a plurality of dual in-line electrical sockets 3 and has an electrically non-conductive surface and a plurality of apertures 2. Each of the apertures 2 is arranged to receive a dual in-line socket 3 with the terminal pins 4 of the socket 3 extending through the aperture. The socket 3 is held to the board by a pair of tabs 7 formed integrally with the board and bent over a part of the socket 3 to positively locate the socket 3 on the board 1. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Board for Mounting Dual In-line Electrical Sockets The invention relates to a board for mounting a plurality of dual in-line (D.l.L.) electrical sockets.

Such electrical sockets are well known and usually have between 8 and 40 elongate terminal pins extending, in two rows parallel to one another, from a rectangular shaped housing, the housing, on the side opposite the terminal pins, having a number of holes each of which communicates with an electrical contact corresponding to one of the terminal pins. In use, integrated circuit packages of one type or another, and which have various numbers of pins, are pushed into the socket, the pins of the integrated circuit package extending into the holes in the socket to make electrical contact.

Such sockets are used in order to enable the units connected to them to be interchanged without having to re-solder units from the circuit board.

Normally, dual in-line electrical sockets are mounted on a circuit board with each of the pins extending through a respective hole in the board. Contact is made with the pins either by a wire wrap method or, when the board is a printed circuit board, by each of the holes being connected to part of the circuit printed on the board. Boards are produced which have, over their entire surface a grid array of holes for the pins or other discrete components, the holes being spaced at 1/10" centres. The sockets are then mounted on the board with each of the terminal pins extending through a respective hole and the necessary electrical connections made to the terminal pins. Normally, the sockets are fastened to the board by adhesive,screws or other common fastening methods. Usually, the circuit boards are made of a compressed card-board or plastics material.

According to the present invention a board for mounting a plurality of dual in-line electrical sockets has an electrically non-conductive surface at least, and a plurality of apertures each adapted to receive a dual in-line socket thereat with at least a plurality of the terminal pins of the socket extending through the aperture.

Preferably, all the pins of a single socket extend through the same aperture and in its preferred form the board comprises a sheet of plastics material which is electrically insulating, the sheets have rows of H-shaped apertures therethrough.

The opposed tabs formed between the legs of the "H" can then be deformed out of the plane of the sheet and bent to hold a D.l.L. socket at the aperture. Such a board can be formed to almost any shape without difficulty, if the plastics material is suitably bendable without being too resilient and thus elastic. Thus, once the sockets have been assembled on the board and wired together the board can be bent to any desired shape, for example, to fit inside the housing of a piece of equipment holding the board.

It will be appreciated that there is virtually no limitation to the size of a board which may be produced as,the sheet can be formed in a continuous strip and thus produced in very long lengths. This a further advantage over prior art boards because it has been normal in the past to have to mount a plurality of boards usually spaced apart and parallel to one another and thus, together with their supports, occupying a substantial volume. With a board according to the present invention a single board can be used to accommodate a very large number of components and although occupying a larger area the volume of space actually occupied by the board and its associated components may be much less.

Additionally large numbers of individual supports are not required.

However, if desired, the completed board can be bent in a sinous fashion once the sockets and components have been assembled onto it, thus producing, in effect, a number of boards, but allowing them to be produced at the same time and allowing wiring to be carried out whilst the board is in a flat condition. Obviously, this is extremely helpful when the circuitry is complicated and there are numerous wires extending between the various components. If the components are all in a single plane then the wiring can be completed much more quickly and more easily than if the boards are stacked.

The tabs may have a snap fit action, and the board may be formed with some apertures having tabs extending from one side of the board and others extending from the other side so that sockets can be snap-mounted from both sides of the board. Additionally, the apertures may be provided in a range of sizes so that different types of dual in-line sockets may be mounted on the same board.

Although, if desired, the sockets may be fixed by an adhesive to the board, a reusable fastening means is preferred, especially if the boards are designed for use in research or educational establishments where they are required to be reused again and again or where the arrangement of the components may be changed during the preparation of the circuitry.

Although it is preferred that all the terminal pins of a single socket extend through a single aperture in the board each of these apertures may be divided by a generally central strand or web of material so that one line of sockets passes through one side of the aperture and the other line of sockets passes through the other side of the aperture. This is particularly useful if the dividing strand additionally forms a part of the fastening holding the socket on the board.

One example of a board according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows the board in its natural state; Figure 2 shows the board with some of the apertures prepared ready to receive D.l.L. sockets; and, Figure 3 shows the board with sockets fitted.

In the example shown the board comprises a sheet of "Darvic" plastics material 1. The sheet is formed with a plurality of H-shaped apertures 2 in a series of rows and at some of these are to be mounted dual in-line sockets 3. The rows and apertures in the rows are spaced so that a socket can be mounted at each aperture if required.

Each of the sockets 3 has a number of terminal pins 4 arranged in two rows and has, mounted thereon, an integrated circuit component 5 which has its terminal pins 6 extending into the socket to make contact with contact elements within the socket connected to the respective terminal pins 4.

Figure 2 shows the board 1 with a number of tabs 7 bent up out of the plane of the board each of the tabs being bent, in use, over a shoulder near the top of a respective D.l.L. socket at each of the apertures (see Figure 3).

It will be appreciated that the size of the apertures can be varied to enable different sizes of D.l.L. sockets to be fitted to the same board. The different size apertures being provided, for example in different rows. The apertures are preferably formed by a conventional punching operation, in which a tool having an H-section is movable into a correspondingly shaped and precisely dimensioned socket in order to shear the plastics material of the board. In the example shown the dimensions of the H-shaped apertures are as follows, width 87.5mm, length 220mm, tab width 40mm, tab length77.5mm and longitudinal separation 3mm.

If required, additional apertures of different shapes may be provided in the board to assist in the location of additional circuit elements.

Claims

1. A board for mounting a plurality of dual inline electrical sockets having an electrically nonconductive surface at least, and a plurality of apertures each adapted to receive a dual in-line socket thereat with at least a plurality of terminal pins of the socket extending through the aperture

2. A board according to claim 1, wherein the apertures are arranged such that all the pins of a single socket can extend through the same aperture.

3. A board according to claim 1 or claim 2, comprising a sheet of electrically insulating plastics material.

4. A board according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein a plurality of fastening tabs for the dual in-line sockets are formed integrally with the board.

5. A board according to claim 1, substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. A board according to any of claims 1 to 5, having mounted thereon one or more dual in-line electrical sockets, at least a plurality of the terminal pins of the socket extending through one of the apertures.