JPS6020726B2 - Photographic flash lamp array with support structure on base - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a multi-lamp photographic flash unit, and more particularly to an array of electrically ignitable flash lamps operably mounted on a printed circuit board and associated base support structure. It is something.

The construction of a multi-lamp photography flash unit includes a linear array of flash lamps connected to a printed circuit board with dependent contact tabs for insertion into the camera green connector.
For example, U.S. Patent Nos. 3 and 5 & Satoshi 5 and 3,725
693, is well known in the art.

A printed circuit board-lamp assembly is supported by a through-type base with contact tabs extending through slots in the base and is enclosed with a lamp reflector by a transparent cover. According to said first patent, the base has a vertically extending slot in which a printed circuit board is seated;
Positioning and upright support are provided such that the contact tab passes through the central entrance of the slot. Said second
In the patent, the base has a central opening □ for the contact tabs, but the positioning and support of the circuit board is accomplished by a pair of posts located at opposite ends of the base, each having a respective terminal end of the board inserted into the base. It has a slot for In practical implementation, the nominal width of the vertical base slot or post slot should be slightly larger than the nominal width of the printed circuit board to provide the necessary clearance to accommodate normal variations in component tolerances. No.

As a result of this gap, many circuit board-lamp assemblies can hang loosely on the base member, and the dot tabs can slant within the base and fail to maintain "correct dimensions" with respect to the base-cover assembly. Sometimes. If the printed circuit board tilts during the array sealing operation, array components such as reflectors will remain in the wrong position as they are sealed to the top of the printed circuit board.
A contact plate that is not the correct size for the cover base assembly will not fit properly in the camera. This obstructs the camera's viewfinder and sometimes renders it inoperable. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved multi-photo flashlamp array.

More specifically, the object is to economically provide an electrically ignitable multi-lamp flash unit including a printed circuit board interconnection member and an improved means for supporting the circuit board and maintaining stability of the unit. It is to be.

These and other objects, advantages and features, in accordance with the principles of the present invention, provide a flashing unit which resiliently engages opposite sides of a supported printed circuit board by means projecting from opposite sides of a slot in each post. This is accomplished by providing a pair of flexible bifurcated posts on the upper side of the base of the.

For example, the base and post can be formed from a plastic material and the protrusion means can include opposed protrusions defined on the sidewalls of the post slot, each protrusion extending from the side of the supported printed circuit board. The slot has a flat surface and a sloped surface toward the outer end of the slot to facilitate insertion of the circuit board. Before the post slots are assembled, the gap between the opposing protrusions in each slot is narrower than the thickness of the printed circuit board;
The remainder of the slot, on the other hand, is sized to be wider than the thickness of the circuit board. By forming the support posts in this manner, the support structure that guides board insertion is easily and economically provided, and is flexible enough to accommodate changing component tolerances, and is flexible enough to accommodate changing component tolerances. Fixedly locating and providing a benching action to maintain the position of the contact tab, the tab passes through a slot in the base from the circuit board in a predetermined dimensional relationship with respect to the base. Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

0 In the particular embodiment of FIG.
It consists of an array of 0 lamps, each mounted on each side of the printed circuit board 2.

The lamps each have a pair of lead-in wires 3, each electrically connected to an adjacent pair of lamp contact areas or pads 4 on the circuit board 2 and fixed, for example by soldering or welding. Photographic flash lamps are of the tubular, base type and contain an ignition filament, as is well known in the art, to which an electric current is supplied through lead-in wire 3 to the ignition filament, which ignites an intense flash of light. It comprises an airtight tubular glass enclosure filled with a filamentary combustible material such as shredded zirconium or hafnium foil. As described in the cited patent, the printed circuit board 2 is made of enamel or glass or other vitreous material having printed circuit conductive patterns of, for example, silver and glass paste applied to each side of the board 2. It comprises a thin metal sheet substrate, such as steel, with a coating of insulating material such as on both surfaces.

The conductive pattern on each side of the board 2 includes a plurality of terminals located on tabs 7 that hang down on the board 2 centered along the vertical edge opposite the end of the board on which the lamp 1 stands. It has a contact area 6 . The terminal contacts 6 are in the form of elongated strips extending parallel to each other and at right angles to the ends of the taps 7, and these are connected to a plurality of lamp contact areas or pads 4 by suitably shaped conductive tracks 8. Selectively interconnected. The pads 4 are usually aligned adjacent opposite ends of the board 2, and there are two for each lamp 1. For a row of five lamps 1, there are six terminal contacts 6, one for each lamp and one for all lamps in common.

Tab portion 7 is therefore adapted to be inserted into the end connector assembly for operatively interconnecting with the selective energizing circuit. The printed circuit board 2 is mounted vertically on the elongated base 9.

FIG. 2 shows only the base member, which is a single piece molded from a suitable plastic material, such as polystyrene. The base member 9 is of the through type, the printed circuit board 2 being received within the base and resting on its bottom wall - and the contact tab portion 7 of the circuit board being centered on the bottom wall 10 of the base. It is adapted to extend downwardly through a vertical through slot 11 located at the bottom and protrude from the underside of the base to expose the lamp terminal contact portion 6. As will be described in more detail below, the printed circuit board 2 extends upwardly from the bottom wall 10 of the base member and includes a through slot 11.
It is rigidly and precisely supported upright into the base by a pair of flexible bifurcated support posts 12 located on opposite sides of the base. Each post 12 has a longitudinally extending slot 13 aligned with the through slot 11 into which the opposite end of the rigid circuit board 2 is fitted. The upper side of the bottom wall 10 is provided with a slot-shaped recess located on the opposite side of and vertically aligned with the through-slot 11 in order to provide additional support means in which the printed circuit board can be seated. 18 will be provided. In addition to the lamp 1 mounted on the base 9, the unit includes a plurality of reflectors each arranged around a flash lamp and arranged in a linear array of a pair of back-to-back lamp reflectors. 14 and a box-shaped light transmitting cover 15 of a suitable transparent plastic, such as polystyrene, surrounding the flashlamp assembly, reflector and printed circuit board. More particularly, the reflector 14 is provided in the form of a pair of strips or moldings inserted between the two rows of lamps and placed on the top edge of the base 9.
A cover 15 lies over the assembled lamp 1 and reflector 14 and surrounds the four sides of the base 9 around the shouldered upper edge portion 17. The cover 15 is ultrasonically deposited or otherwise properly tightened to the base 9;
A single structure for arrays that can be plugged into a camera or flash accessory as a unit and removed and discarded when all lamps have been flashed. According to the invention, each support post 12 has, towards its outer end, an elastic spring on opposite sides of the circuit board in order to accurately position the board 2 and maintain the integrity of the tap 7. Means projecting from both sides of the slot 13 are provided which engage the slots.

More particularly, Figures 3 and 4 show side and top views, respectively, of a single support post with the circuit board removed and from one end inside the base. A bottom wall 10 of the base 9 is defined by a first comb upper surface 19 and a second surface 2 spaced apart in the direction of the koji. Each branch post 12 projects from and is disposed at right angles to the first or ward upper surface 19, so that the slot 13 of each post is also disposed at right angles to the upper base surface. Typically, the posts 12 are an integral part of the entire molded base piece 9, and the "protruding means" described below correspond to the protrusions 21 defined on the respective plastic sidewalls of the slots. It becomes more. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the paired projections of each slot are arranged opposite each other toward the outer end of the slot. The vertical slot side walls 22 below the projection 21 are generally parallel before assembly and extend to the upper wall 19 of the bottom wall of the base. More specifically, each post slot 13 extends into a respective slot-shaped recess 18;
Both are aligned with the through slot 11. The nominal width between the lower sidewalls 22 is greater than the nominal thickness of the printed circuit board, allowing for normal variations within dimensional tolerances of the mating parts. Vertical slot side walls 23 on projection 21 are generally parallel to wall 22, but are spaced wider apart to facilitate positioning of the circuit board in slot 13 during assembly.

Each projection 21 has a flat surface 24 parallel to the slot sidewall 22 and a mirror-beveled surface 25 to the outer end of the slot. Each Su. The unbent gap provided between the flat parts 24 of the projections facing the circuit board (before assembly with the circuit board) is narrower than the thickness of the printed circuit board 2. The sloped surfaces 25 therefore slope inwardly from the widely spaced slot walls 23 to the narrowly spaced flat surfaces 24 and merge to facilitate insertion of the printed circuit board into the slot 13. As shown in FIG. 5, once the printed circuit board 2 is fully inserted into the slot 13 and its bottom end is seated along the slot-shaped recess 18 onto the bottom surface 19, the opposed projections 21 Support opposite sides of the printed circuit board.
Each post portion defining the sides of the slot 13 is
For example, the post 12 may be a protrusion of the base 9 molded from a plastic material such as polystyrene. Therefore, by inserting the disk 2 into the narrower projection 21, the post halves are opened somewhat and the opposing flat surface 24 is
It elastically engages the sides of the circuit board like a bench for fixing the circuit board to the base, while absorbing varying component tolerances. However, it is of particular importance that the flexible branch posts 12 maintain uniform lateral pressure when supporting the circuit board and remain rigid and straight forward throughout all subsequent assembly processes, thus ensuring the position of the contact tabs 7. Maintaining a predetermined dimensional relationship with respect to base 9 and bottom wall 101. In other words, the flexible post 12 is
It guides and centers the circuit board tab 7 into the through-slot 11 and then prevents the projecting tab from being tilted or otherwise thrown out of position, thereby preventing the flash unit from interfering with the camera or flash device. prevent improper installation. Although the invention has been described with respect to particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications can be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged external view of a photographic flash unit having a linear array of electrically ignitable flash lamps connected to a printed circuit board and a base support structure in accordance with the present invention to more clearly illustrate the structure; Fig. 2 is a partially removed external view of the base member adopted in the flash unit of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a partially removed cross-sectional view of the base member used in the flash unit shown in Fig. 1. 2 is an enlarged side view of one of the support posts projecting from the base of FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a top view of the support post shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a view of the installed circuitry from one end inside the base. Figure 3 shows the support post of Figure 3 with a disc; 1: Lamp, 2: Printed circuit board, 3: Lead-in wire, 4: Pad, 6: Contact part, 7: Tab, 8: Guide track, 9: Base, 10: Bottom wall, 11: Penetrating slot, 12: Support post, 13: slot, 14: reflector, 15: cover,
16: Top edge, 17: Shoulder, 19: Upper surface (first surface)
, 20: second surface, 21: protrusion, 22: side wall, 23:
Side wall, 24: flat surface, 25: head slope. FIG. l FIG. 2 FIG. 3 FIG. 4 FIG. 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 a printed circuit board having dependent contact tabs for insertion into an end connector assembly; a plurality of flash lamps connected to the printed circuit board; and an upper surface supporting the printed circuit board and through which the contact tabs extend; and a base having a multiple lamp flash unit including a base having a through slot projecting from the other side, the support structure projecting from an upper side of the base and extending through the through slot. a pair of oppositely positioned flexible bifurcated posts each having a longitudinally extending slot aligned with a through slot in which the circuit board is received and seated; each post has means projecting from opposite sides of the slot and toward an outer end for resiliently engaging opposite sides of a printed circuit board seated in said slot, and each of said projecting portions being connected to said printed circuit board. has a flat surface in a portion relative to one side of the printed circuit board, such that the position of the contact tab fixedly positioned on the printed circuit board and passing through the through slot is in a predetermined orientation relationship with respect to the base. The support structure is configured to be maintained at.