Contact member
AssigneeKitagawa Industries Co., Ltd.
InventorTsutomu Kawai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A contact member formed with a flat metal structure and an integrated elastomeric body. The contact member can be used to ground a printed circuit board (PCB) with a surrounding housing. The housing loads the contact member in a direction perpendicular to the face of the PCB. The elastomeric body supports the flat metal structure during repeated cycles of loading and unloading of the contact member. The elastic resiliency of the elastomeric body can help to reduce the effects of plastic deformation of the contact member, resulting in more reliable electrical connections a source outside of the PCB. And the elastomeric body does not require adhesive or separate fixing devices to hold it in place.
Claims18
A contact member comprising;
- a thin sheet conductive member, and
- an elastomeric body,
- wherein the thin sheet member comprises;
- a base part of which at least a portion can be mounted to a surface of a printed circuit board;
- a contact part which is provided to establish an electrical connection between a contact element and the surface of the printed circuit board;
- and
- a supporting spring part which is connected to the base part and to the contact part;
- and
- wherein the supporting spring part supports the contact part in such a manner that the contact part can be deformed in a direction perpendicular to a plane containing the portion of the base part which can be mounted to the surface of a printed circuit board;
- wherein the elastomeric body is disposed between the base part and the contact part;
- and
- wherein the elastomeric body is attached to the supporting spring part by allowing a portion of the thin sheet member to penetrate inside of the elastomeric body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.