Title: Connector having a built-in memory IC mounted on a development cartridge
Abstract: A connector with a built-in memory IC which is mounted on a rotary development unit of a printer. The memory IC substrate is disposed within a contact protecting member and behind the rear side of an impact receiving member. A first electric contact is disposed on the front side of the impact receiving member and is connected to a second electric contact via a conductive member. The second electric contact spring contacts the memory IC substrate. The connector contains guide members to help stabilize the connection between the connector and the body side connector of the printer.
Patent Number: 6,892,039 Issued on 05/10/2005 to Okamoto, et al.
| Inventors:
|
Okamoto; Katsumi (Nagano-Ken, JP);
Shirokoshi; Junji (Nagano-Ken, JP);
Aoki; Takeshi (Nagano-Ken, JP)
|
| Assignee:
|
Seiko Epson Corporation (Tokyo, JP)
|
| Appl. No.:
|
367968 |
| Filed:
|
February 19, 2003 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
| Feb 19, 2002[JP] | 2002-041139 |
| Feb 19, 2002[JP] | 2002-041140 |
| Feb 20, 2002[JP] | 2002-042877 |
| Mar 04, 2002[JP] | 2002-057178 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
399/90; 399/119; 439/326; 439/630 |
| Intern'l Class: |
G03G 015/00; H01R013/62; H01R024/00 |
| Field of Search: |
399/90,111,119
439/326,630
|
References Cited [Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
| 4222622 | Sep., 1980 | Griffin et al.
| |
| 4903167 | Feb., 1990 | Lichtensperger.
| |
| 5907748 | May., 1999 | Kawana.
| |
| 5963759 | Oct., 1999 | Kojima et al.
| |
| 5980294 | Nov., 1999 | Kanda et al.
| |
| 6014533 | Jan., 2000 | Kawana.
| |
| 6056573 | May., 2000 | Nishioka.
| |
| 6238248 | May., 2001 | Ogura et al.
| |
| 6349182 | Feb., 2002 | Otsubo et al.
| |
| Foreign Patent Documents |
| 0 813 356 | Dec., 1997 | EP.
| |
| 0 821 445 | Jan., 1998 | EP.
| |
| 0 822 469 | Feb., 1998 | EP.
| |
| 0 913 745 | May., 1999 | EP.
| |
Primary Examiner: Lee; Susan
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Sughrue Mion, PLLC
Claims
1. A connector with a built-in memory IC which is mounted in a rotary development
unit and of which data is read and written by bringing an apparatus body-side connector
in contact with said connector, comprising: a plurality of contact members; a guide
member(s) which is formed integrally with the contact members for guiding the movement
of the apparatus body-side connector; an impact receiving member being provided
on one surface thereof with said guide member; and a contact protecting member
which is disposed on the other surface of the impact receiving member and encompasses
a memory IC substrate.
2. A connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein said guide member is formed outside
of the contact members.
3. A connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein said contact members have contacts
of which electric connect is achieved by sliding with terminals of the apparatus
body-side connector, and wherein conductive members extending from said contact
members through the impact receiving member are elastically in contact with terminals
of the memory IC substrate by spring force so as to form fixed contacts.
4. A development cartridge having a connector, as claimed in claim 1,
2,
or
3, which is fixed to an end thereof.
5. An image forming apparatus having a development cartridge as claimed in claim 4.
6. A connector to which a memory IC substrate is detachably attached and which
comprises conductive members having connecting terminal relative to an apparatus
body-side connector and connecting terminals relative to the memory IC substrate,
wherein the connecting terminals of said conductive members relative to the memory
IC substrate have elasticity,
wherein the front end of said memory IC substrate is inserted into a mount portion
of the connector body and the rear end of said memory IC substrate engages a hook
portion of the connector body by utilizing the elasticity of the memory IC substrate,
thereby installing the memory IC substrate to the connector body.
7. A connector as claimed in claim 6, wherein said memory IC substrate has a
cutout which is formed in the front end thereof to be inserted into the mount portion
of the connector body at a position slightly off the center thereof.
8. A connector as claimed in 7, wherein the line of the connecting terminals
of a plurality of current carrying elements relative to the memory IC substrate
is aligned with the line of the terminals of the memory IC substrate.
9. A connector comprising a positioning mount portion which is engaged with a
front end of a memory IC substrate and a hook portion for engaging a rear end of
the memory IC substrate and having contacts which are in contact with terminals
of the memory IC substrate by spring force in the state that the memory IC substrate
is detachably installed to the connector, wherein said contacts are aligned in
a plurality of lines and, among said contacts, a contact at the center side of
a substrate is set to have a spring load higher than the other contacts.
10. A connector as claimed in claim 9, wherein said contacts are aligned in two
lines, the contacts in the first line have lower spring load and are located at
the positioning mount portion side, and the contacts in the second line have higher
spring load and are located at the center side of the substrate.
11. A development cartridge having a connector, as claimed in 10, which is fixed
to an end thereof.
12. An image forming apparatus having a development cartridge as claimed in claim 11.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a connector with a built-in memory IC for reading/writing
data such as consumption of toner, to a development cartridge having such a connector,
and to an image forming apparatus using such a development cartridge.
In image forming apparatuses such as printers, a memory IC is mounted on a development
cartridge. By connecting the memory IC to an apparatus body-side connector, data
such as information about remaining amounts of respective color toners, cartridge
freshness information about whether the present cartridge is new or old, cartridge
placing information for informing the apparatus body whether a cartridge is placed
or not, conditions about image formation such as development bias, and recycle
information about how many times a cartridge is exchanged, are written. When the
development cartridge is placed, the history information is read out from the memory
IC so that the information can be recognized on the apparatus body side.
In this case, for example in a cartridge of an inkjet printer, a memory IC substrate
in which history information is written is connected to a connector by crimping
electric wires or a memory IC substrate is soldered to terminals of a connector.
Conventionally, a memory IC to be mounted to a development cartridge
comes in contact with an apparatus body-side connector so that mechanical force
is directly applied to the memory IC when data is read/written. Therefore, the
life of contacts of the memory IC is short. In addition, since high voltage is
applied to the development roller, contact members are susceptible to field noise
due to the effect of the applied voltage so that malfunction easily occurs due
to static electricity and/or toner stains. Therefore, the protection of the memory
IC and the stability of contacts are not enough ensured.
In case that the terminals of memory IC substrate are connected to the connector
by crimping electric wires, inferior contact such as insufficient crimping and
breakage of the wires may occur. In case that the memory IC substrate is soldered
to the terminals of the connector, inferior contact may be occur due to bad soldering
and there is another problem that when the memory IC substrate is reused, the memory
IC substrate should be removed by heating so that even if it can be removed, information
stored in the memory IC may be broken due to heat. Longer contact member is particularly
susceptible to field noise because it serves as an antenna.
SUMMERY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to ensure the stability of contacts
of
a connector with a built-in memory IC and thus to improve the reliability.
It is another object of the present invention to ensure the stability of contacts
of a connector with a built-in memory IC and thus to improve the reliability.
It is another object of the present invention to ensure the stability of contacts
by avoiding the occurrence of inferior contact, and to make a memory IC substrate
detachable so that the memory IC is reusable.
It is still another object of the present invention to make a memory IC substrate
detachable and also stabilize the mounted state of the memory IC substrate.
Therefore, the first invention is a connector with a built-in memory IC
which is mounted in a rotary development unit and of which data is read and written
by bringing an apparatus body-side connector to be connected with and spaced apart
form said connector, and comprises an impact receiving member; a first electric
contact which is disposed on the front side of the impact receiving member; a memory
IC substrate which is disposed on and apart from the rear side of the impact receiving
member; and a second electric contact which is configured by bringing a conductive
member extending from the first electric contact into contact with a terminal of
the memory IC substrate.
The second invention is a connector with a built-in memory IC which is mounted
in a rotary development unit and of which data is read and written by bringing
an apparatus body-side connector to be connected with and spaced apart form said
connector, and comprises a plurality of contact members; a guide member(s) which
is formed with the contact members; an impact receiving member being provided on
one surface thereof with said guide member; and a contact protecting member which
is disposed on the other surface of the impact receiving member and encompasses
a memory IC substrate.
The third invention is a connector to which a memory IC substrate is detachably
attached and which comprises conductive members having connecting terminals relative
to an apparatus body-side connector and connecting terminals relative to the memory
IC substrate, wherein the connecting terminals of said conductive members relative
to the memory IC substrate have elasticity.
The fourth invention is a connector comprising a positioning mount portion which
is engaged with a front end of a memory IC substrate and a hook portion for engaging
a rear end of the memory IC substrate and having contacts which are in contact
with terminals of the memory IC substrate by spring force in the state that the
memory IC substrate is detachably installed to the connector, wherein said contacts
are aligned in a plurality of lines and, among said contacts, a contact at the
center side of a substrate is set to have a spring load higher than the other contacts.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an illustration for explaining an image forming apparatus of the present invention,
FIGS. 2(
a)-2(
c) are illustrations for explaining
the position for the replacement of a development cartridge, the position for reading/writing
data of a memory IC, and the position for development standby, respectively,
FIGS. 3(
a), 3(
b) are illustrations for connection
and separation between connectors for a memory IC,
FIG. 4 is an illustration for explaining a rotary development unit,
FIGS. 5(
a)-5(
c) are illustrations for explaining
a connector with a built-in memory IC,
FIG. 6 is an illustration for explaining a connector terminal,
FIGS. 7(
a), 7(
b) are illustrations for explaining
the installation of a memory IC substrate into a connector body, and
FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing the main parts of the connector into which
the memory IC substrate is installed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described
with reference to the attached drawings.
FIG. 1 is an illustration for explaining an example of an image forming apparatus
according to this embodiment. After charged by a charging unit (not shown), a photoreceptor
1 is subjected to image exposure by an exposure unit
2, thereby forming
an electrostatic latent image thereon. Thus formed electrostatic latent images
are sequentially developed with four color toners, respectively. The color toners
are supplied from development rollers of development cartridges
31 through
34 placed in a rotary frame
30 of a rotary development unit
3,
respectively. A transfer belt
4 to be driven by a transfer belt driving
roller
5 is arranged to face the photoreceptor
1 at a primary transfer
position. The toner images of the respective color toners are primarily transferred
to the transfer belt
4 and superposed on each other on the transfer belt
4.
On the other hand, a paper sheet taken from a sheet cassette
6 is fed
through
a feeding passage
7 to a secondary transfer position between the transfer
belt driving roller
5 and a transfer roller
8 where the four toner
images are transferred to the paper sheet at once. Here, the top of the image on
the transfer belt
4 is detected by a belt position detection sensor
9.
The control is conducted so that the top of the image and the top of the paper
sheet are met. The image secondarily transferred to the paper sheet is fixed by
a fixing unit
10. In case of double-side printing, the paper sheet is returned
to the feeding passage
7 and an image is transferred to the verso of the
paper sheet. After transferred and fixed, the paper sheet is discharged outside
the apparatus.
Each of the development cartridges
31 through
34 for four colors
of the rotary development unit
3 has a connector
40 with a built-in
memory IC (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as "memory IC-integrated connector")
(as will be described later in detail) mounted therein. According to this structure,
a body-side connector
50 can read/write data. The body-side connector
50
is driven by a driving member
51 with a motor to move ahead to its advance
position and moves astern to its resting position. When the cartridge is replaced
with new one, the body-side connector
50 moves ahead to the advance position
where the body-side connector
50 is electrically connected to the connector
40 to read/write the data of the memory IC. Normally, the body-side connector
50 is in the resting position. Each development cartridge can be removed
and attached to the apparatus at a position corresponding to a cartridge-replacement
opening
11 formed in the apparatus body. The image forming apparatus is
provided with an exhaust duct
12. Scattered toner particles and other dust
are sucked through a suction port
14 near a development nip where the development
roller and the photoreceptor are in contact. After filtered by a filter
13,
the sucked air is exhausted through the exhaust duct
12. In this case, the
position where the memory IC-integrated connector
40 and the body-side connector
50 are connected is arranged on the upstream side than the development nip
in the rotational direction of the development unit, thereby preventing the connecting
portion between the connectors from being affected by scattered toner particles.
FIGS.
2(
a)-
2(
c) are illustrations for explaining
the position for the replacement of the development cartridge, the position for
reading/writing data of the memory IC, and the position for development standby.
The home position of the rotary development unit is detected by a position detecting
plate
37 and a position detecting sensor
36 wherein the position
detecting sensor
36 senses a cutout position of the position detecting plate
37.
FIG.
2(
a) is an illustration for explaining the cartridge replacement
position (Position {circle around (
1)}). As mentioned above, the cartridge-replacement
opening
11 is formed in the apparatus body. The development rollers {circle
around (
1)} through {circle around (
4)} of the rotary development
unit
3 can be replaced at the position corresponding to the cartridge-replacement
opening
11. In this position {circle around (
1)}, any of the connectors
40 of the development cartridges does not face the body-side connector
50
and the photoreceptor
1 does not face any of development roller.
FIG.
2(
b) shows the position where data is read/written from/to
the memory IC and the development roller faces the photoreceptor so as to conduct
development (Position {circle around (
2)}). As a reading/writing command
is outputted from the apparatus body side, the positional relation of Position
{circle around (
2)} is satisfied and the body-side connector
50 is
activated to connect the connector
40, thereby reading/writing data.
FIG.
2(
c) shows a position on the way of switching the development
operation by the rotary development unit from one color to another color (Position
{circle around (
3)}). In this position, the photoreceptor and any development
roller do not face each other.
FIGS.
3(
a),
3(
b) are illustrations for connection
and separation between the connectors.
As shown in FIG.
3(
a), for connection, the body-side connector
50
is moved ahead to the advance position by a motor. As will be described later,
the body-side connector
50 is guided by guiding members of the memory IC-integrated
connector
40 and is therefore plugged with the memory IC-integrated connector
40. The connectors are electrically connected by sliding contact between
terminals thereof. For separation, the connector
50 is moved astern to the
resting position so that the connectors
40 and
50 are separated.
The connector
40 is fixed to the development unit by connector-fixing screws
48 and the connector
50 is fixed to the apparatus body by connector-fixing
pins
53.
FIG. 4 is an illustration for explaining the rotary development unit.
The rotary development unit
3 is fixed to side plates
20,
21
which are sheet metal. The development cartridges
31 through
34 placed
in the rotary frame
30. Each memory IC-integrated connector
40 is
fixed to the end of each development cartridge
31-
34. In this embodiment,
the side plate
21 is a driven side and the side plate
20 is a non-driven
side. To prevent the memory IC-integrated connector
40 from being affected
by heat of the driving means, the memory IC-integrated connector
40 is fixed
to a connector cover
39 received in a receiving portion
22 which
is formed by drawing the side plate
20 of the non-driven side. The receiving
portion
22 surrounds the connector
40 except a surface facing the
body-side connector
50 and thus functions as a shield for preventing the
connector
40 from being affected by voltage applied to the development roller.
The memory IC-integrated connector
40 is covered by a connector cover
39
and an IC protective member
38 composed of a resin ring is arranged on the
inner surface of the receiving portion so as to prevent the memory IC from being
affected by static electricity from the sheet metal forming the receiving portion.
FIGS.
5(
a)-
5(
c) are illustrations for explaining
the memory IC-integrated connector of the embodiment, wherein FIG.
5(
a)
is a plan view thereof, FIG.
5(
b) is a front view thereof, and FIG.
5(
c) is a sectional view taken along a line A—A of FIG.
5(
a).
The memory IC-integrated connector
40 comprises a base
41 as a member
for receiving impact produced during connection, and two guide members
42
which are disposed to stand on one surface (surface to be connected to the body-side
connector) of the base
41 at both end portions near edges of the base
41.
Disposed on the other surface (back surface) of the base
41 is a contact
protecting member
45 encompassing a memory IC substrate
46. The base
41, the guide members
42, and the memory IC substrate
46 are
integrally formed as a chassis
47. In addition, contact members
43,
44 are disposed integrally with the guide members
42 at locations
between the guide members
42 to stand in parallel with the guide members
42, respectively. The reason why the guide members
42 are arranged
outside the contact members is that the guide members
42 of the connector
40 is encompassed by the body-side connector so as to improve the stability
of connection between the connector
40 and the body-side connector during
the connecting operation and to stabilize the contact state of contacts.
In this embodiment, four contact members
43 are aligned in a line at the
front side (far from the end of the development roller) and three contact members
44 are aligned in a line at the rear side (near the end of the development
roller) of the chassis
47, that is, the contact members are aligned in two
lines and thus being compact as a whole. Of cause, the contact members are not
limited to be aligned in two lines and may be aligned in a line or three lines.
The terminals of the four contact members
43 at the front side are a data
terminal, a connection detecting terminal, a ground (GND) terminal, and a data
reading/writing terminal, while the terminals of the three contact members
44
at the rear side are a clock terminal, a power source terminal, and a chip select
(CS) terminal.
The contact members
43,
44 comprise contact terminals
43a,
44a to which terminals of the body-side connector are connected
by sliding contact each other. The contact members
43,
44 have spring
contact terminals
43b, 44b extending through through
holes formed in the base
41 to the back side of the base
41. The
spring contact terminals
43b, 44b are arranged to come
in elastically contact with terminals of the memory IC substrate
46. When
the memory IC substrate
46 is mounted to the contact protecting member
45,
the spring contact terminals
43b, 44b come in elastically
contact with the terminals of the memory IC substrate
46. The memory IC
substrate
46 is pressed against a mounting surface of the contact protecting
member
45 by spring force of the contact terminals
43b, 44b
so that the memory IC substrate
46 is spaced apart from the base
41.
When the body-side connector
50 is driven by the motor to move ahead to
its advance position and thus come in contact with the connector
40, the
terminals
43a, 44a of the contact members
43,
44 are slid to and come in contact with the terminals of the body-side connector
and the impact produced by the contact is received by the base
41. However,
since the memory IC substrate
46 is spaced apart from the base
41,
the impact is not directly transmitted to the contact portions between the terminals
of the memory IC substrate
46 and the contacts
43b, 44b.
The connector
40 is structured to have the sliding contacts to be connected
to the body-side connector on one side of the base
41 as impact receiving
member and the fixed contacts to be connected to the memory IC substrate supported
by floating construction to have a space relative to the back side of the base
41. Therefore, the impact, produced when the body-side connector is connected,
is received by the base
41 and is not transmitted to the memory IC substrate,
thereby keeping the stable contacts relative to the memory IC substrate.
The double-contact structure composed of the contacts relative to the memory
IC substrate and the contacts relative to the body-side connector achieves the
arrangement of preventing the impact, produced when the body-side connector is
connected, from being directly transmitted to the memory IC substrate so as to
stabilize the contacts relative to the memory IC substrate, and achieves the contacts
relative to the body-side connector while sliding the terminals so as to refresh
the contacts, improving the reliability of the contacts.
Because of the triple structure composed of a guiding portion, an impact
receiving portion, and a contact protecting portion, the connection relative to
the body-side connector is conducted by the guiding portion, the impact produced
during the connection is received by the impact receiving portion, and the memory
IC substrate is encompassed by the contact protecting member (portion), thereby
ensuring the stability of the contacts. In addition, since the terminals relative
to the body-side connector are slid to the corresponding terminals, the contacts
thereof can be refreshed, thereby improving the reliability. Since the guide portion
is arranged outside the terminals of the contacts relative to the connector, the
insertion is stabilized, thereby ensuring the stability of the contacts of the terminals.
In order to protect the memory IC substrate to be mounted to the connector from
inferior contact due to toner stains and from destruction of data due to effect
of static electricity, it is preferable that the contacts of the memory IC substrate
are located not to be directly exposed to outside. In this embodiment, the memory
IC substrate is surrounded by the contact protecting member
45 and is supported
by the spring contacts inside the contact protecting member
45.
Among the seven contact members shown in FIG. 5, the four contact members aligned
with the guide members
42 in a line are located at a far side relative to
the development roller (at the front side) and the balance i.e. the three contact
members are located at the development roller side. Among the four contact members
at the front side, the contact member
43G as a ground terminal is the longest
so that the contact member
43G first touches the body-side connector during
the connection.
At the time of development, a voltage of 2 KVp-p is applied to the development
roller. The contact members are susceptible to field noise due to the effect of
the applied voltage. The longest contact member is particularly susceptible to
field noise because it serves as an antenna. Accordingly, in this embodiment, the
ground terminal
43G is arranged at farthest from the development roller.
Of cause, long terminals other than the ground terminal are preferably located outside.
FIGS.
7(
a),
7(
b) are illustrations for explaining
the installation of the memory IC substrate into the connector body.
FIG.
7(
a) is an illustration showing the installed state of the
memory IC substrate as seen from the back side of the connector. The memory IC
substrate
46 is provided at a position slightly off the center thereof with
a cutout
46a. The front ends on the both sides of the cutout
46a
have different extension length. The connector body is formed with a positioning
mount portion
60 having depressions of which depths are different corresponding
to the both sides of the substrate. Therefore, when a user tries to insert the
front ends of the substrate into the positioning mount portion
60 in the
wrong way, the insertion should be unworkable. That is, the arrangement can prevent
the mistaken insertion. On the other hand, the rear end of the substrate is arranged
to engage a hook portion
61 of the connector body.
FIG.
7(
b) is a sectional view for explaining the installation
of the memory IC substrate. The memory IC substrate
46 is made of elastic
resin. The front ends of the substrate are inserted into the positioning mount
portion
60. The substrate is pressed against the connector body by the pivotal
movement and is warped by utilizing its elasticity so that the rear end of the
substrate engages the hook portion
61. At this point, the terminals of the
memory IC substrate are in elastic contact with the spring contact terminals
43b,
44b, so that the memory IC substrate is pressed against the positioning
mount portion
60 and the hook portion
61 because of the spring force
of the contacts, thereby stabilizing the installation and stabilizing the contact
state. Therefore, the inferior setting due to external force or the like may never
be cause, thereby achieving the simplification of the terminal structure and thus
improving the reliability of contacts.
Further, since the memory IC substrate is made of a material having elasticity,
the memory IC substrate is elastically and detachably installed to the connector
body, thereby improving the assembility and applying reusability to the memory
IC substrate. Since the terminals are aligned in a plurality of lines, smaller
connector can be achieved. In addition, since the cutout for positioning is formed
in the memory IC substrate, mistake insertion of the substrate can be prevented.
For reusing the memory IC substrate, in case that the memory IC substrate is
fixed by soldering or the like such as in an inkjet printer, the IC itself should
be heated for unsoldering during the operation removing the memory IC so that information
stored in the memory may be broken. On the other hand, for reading out information
stored in the memory without detaching the memory IC, terminals must be brought
in contact with the memory IC attached to a narrow space of a large apparatus such
as an electrophotographic apparatus which is larger than inkjet printers. This
operation is extremely complex.
In this embodiment, however, since the spring contact members make contact relative
to the terminals of the memory IC substrate, the memory IC is detachable. Even
though the connector body is fixed, the memory IC can be easily removed and collected
so that information stored therein can be read out and reused.
FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing the main parts of the connector into which
the memory IC substrate is installed.
The contact members
43,
44 are formed on both sides of the chassis
47 of the connector
40 and extend over the back side of the connector
body. The extending portions of the contact members
43,
44 are bent
to obtain elasticity so as to form contacts
43b, 44b, respectively.
The connector body is provided with the positioning mount portion
60 and
the hook portion
61 as mentioned above. As mentioned above, the end of the
memory IC substrate
46 with the cutout is inserted into depressions of the
positioning mount portion
60 and the substrate
46 is pressed against
the connector body so that the other end engages the hook portion
61, that
is, the installation is carried out by utilizing the elasticity of the substrate.
During this, the terminals,
63,
64 of the memory IC substrate come
in contact with the contacts
43b, 44b of the connector
side to form fixed contacts.
In this embodiment, the terminals of the memory IC substrate are terminals
63,
64 in two lines at the positioning mount portion
60 side relative
to the center thereof. For locating the spring supporting points P
1, P
2
farthest from the terminals
63,
64, the spring supporting points
P
1, P
2 are located near the hook portion
61. According to
this structure, the terminals
63,
64 come in softly contact with
the contacts
43b, 44b by the spring force during the
installation of the memory IC substrate, thereby obtaining suitable contacting force.
Since the spring supporting points P
1, P
2 are located at substantially
the same position, the length from the spring supporting point to the contact
43b
is longer than the length from the spring supporting point to the contact
44b.
Accordingly, the force of the contacts
43b is smaller than the
force of the contact
44b because these are made of the same material.
The installation of the memory IC substrate is carried out by inserting the end
near the terminals
63,
64 into the depressions of the positioning
mount portion
60 and pressing the substrate to force the other end to engage
the hook portion as shown in FIG.
8. Therefore, the force of the contact
43b, which first comes into contact, is set to be smaller than that
of the contact
44b, thereby facilitating the installation and stabilizing
the installation. Because the installation can be done with weak force, the memory
IC substrate is hardly damaged and is therefore reuseable.
As described above with regard to FIG. 5, the contact member
43 is composed
of four contacts and the contact member
44 is composed of three contacts.
In case of that the contacts are aligned in a plurality of lines (two in this embodiment)
and the lines are different from each other in the number of contacts as mentioned
above, the contacts of the larger number side (the contact
43b with
lower spring load) are positioned at the positioning mount portion side, thereby
minimizing the force required for installation, facilitating the installation,
and stabilizing the installation. In addition, because the installation can be
done with weak force, the memory IC substrate is hardly damaged and is therefore reuseable.
In case that the number of the contacts with lower spring load is different from
the number of the contacts with higher spring load, the number of the contacts
with lower spring load is set to be larger. Even with larger number of contacts,
no problem occurs because of the lower spring load. Since the force at the contact
is determined by spring pressure, the terminal is not affected even with larger
number of contacts.
When the contacts of the larger number side (the contact
43b with
lower spring load) are positioned on the positioning mount portion side, the contact
44b with higher spring load and having relatively larger contact
force is positioned near the center of the memory IC substrate, thereby increasing
the spring contact pressure at the center when the memory IC substrate is installed.
Because the spring contact pressure at the center is increased, the substrate is
pressed from the center thereof so that pressure is equally applied to the positioning
mount portion side and the hook portion side, thereby achieving the stable mounting.
The mounted state of the substrate is stabilized.
As mentioned above, in case that terminals are arranged in a plurality of lines
which are different in spring load by setting the spring load of contacts at the
center of the substrate to be higher than that of the other contacts of the other
portion, pressure is equally applied to the positioning mount portion side and
the hook portion side, thereby offering advantages of stabilizing the mounted state
of the substrate.
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