Pin crimping apparatus and product therefrom

#In the printed circuit board technology, mother boards are often utilized. Mother boards are printed circuit boards with conductive elements in circuit array and having aligned apertures in association with the conductive circuit elements. The apertures are adapted to receive deformable pins of card holders. The conductive pins of the card holders are electrically coupled with the circuit elements of the board while the card holders are adapted to physically hold and electrically couple the mother board electrical elements to the electrical elements of the printed circuit boards supported in the card holders. In the construction of the composition product of the mother boards and the card holders it has been necessary to insert the pins of the card holders through apertures in the mother board and then preliminarily join the two in rigid configuration. This joining of the pins of the card holders to the mother board is done by manual insertion of the pins and manually bending a selected number of the pins to the mother board by a bending of about 90.degree.. This product may then be made permanent by contacting the pin side of the mother board with a solder wave to bond each pin into each hole and thus make the product rigid and receptive to additional printed circuit boards.

#The existing practice for carrying out this step has included the manual insertion of all the pins of the card holder through the aligned apertures of the mother board whereafter an operator would manually bend a preselected number, preferably six pins. Automatic bonding of all the pins to all the holes of the mother board could then take place. In such an operation a skilled operator is needed since only certain predetermined pins may be bent. If improper pins were bent, to about the normal 90.degree., they could extend to and contact conductive segments of the mother board to short or otherwise destroy the intended electronic operation of the assembly.

#It is considered that this manual technique can be replaced by a technique to prepare the intermediate product for movement through a solder wave. According to the present invention, all, rather than some, of the pins are uniformly deformed outwardly from the centerline of the card holder to a predetermined amount as for example 30.degree.. The rigidity of this unsoldered assembly permits it to be conveniently presented to a solder wave with rigidity equal to or better than that of the old manual method. It can also be done in a much faster time span and with greater accuracy and without the need of skilled pin benders.

#These and other objects of the instant invention are achieved in the product, and machine for producing that product, as described herein and will become apparent when the instant disclosure is read in association with the attached drawings wherein:

#FIG. 1 discloses a mother board and card holders with their pins deformed for presentation to a solder wave.

#FIG. 2 is an end view of the card holders and mother board of FIG. 1 with one printed circuit board attached.

#Shown in the drawings is a circuit board 10 which constitutes the mother board upon which card holders 12 are to be mounted for supporting printed circuit boards 14. Holes 16 are preformed in the mother board for receiving pins 18 of the card holders. As is well known in the art, conductive elements are formed on the mother board as well as the printed circuit boards held in the card holders for carrying out the electronic operations of the assembly. Pins 18 of the card holders 12 extend through holes 16 for mechanically and electrically coupling the various elements of the assembly.

#Also located on the mother board are apertures 24 for mounting and aligning the mother board and the constituent assembly within the electronic machine wherein the assembly of various printed circuit members are to be utilized.

#In operation, it is desired to form spot solderings, at the junction of the pins of the card holders to the holes of the mother board as at 26 to assure good mechanical and electrical contact and rigidity. This is normally done by placing the mother board, with the card holder pins extending downwardly whereby a machine may provide a wave of liquid solder for generating this coupling.