Data card easily assembled housing

• US 6,313,400 B1
• Filed: 07/13/1999
• Issued: 11/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. (ITT, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. (ITT, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wood, Del, Adams, Terry Lee, Mosquera, Rene Augusto
• Primary Examiner(s): Reichard, Dean A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ngo, Hung V
• Application Number:
  US09/352,443
• Time in Patent Office: 847 Days
• Field of Search: 174/35.R, 361/816, 361/818, 361/737, 361/752, 257/679, 439/76.1
• US Class Current: 174/363
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 5/026 having standardized interfaces flash memory cards G06K19/077

Abstract

A PC or CF (Compact Flash) card housing has housing halves (32, 34) that each includes a sheet metal shield (50, 70) with a main wall lying in a horizontal plane and with primarily vertical side walls (56, 58, 72, 74), with the side walls of the housing halves overlapping when the housing halves are assembled together. Each shield side wall includes dimples (90, 106) formed by deforming out areas of the sheet metal shield side wall. Each dimple has opposite faces respectively forming a recess and a projection. The recesses (108) of the top housing side walls receive projections (94) of the bottom housing side walls to lock the housing halves together when one is pushed vertically into the other. The dimples have opposite sides (140, 142) connected by bends to surrounding sheet metal, and have lower ends (130, 144) severed from surrounding sheet metal. Each housing half also includes a molded plastic body (62, 80) molded to the side walls of the sheet metal shield, at side wall surfaces opposite the active sides that form interlocking recesses and projections.

Claims

1. A data card housing, comprising:

top and bottom housing halves, with each housing half including a sheet metal shield with a main wall lying in a primarily horizontal plane and with primarily vertical side walls that are laterally spaced apart, with each side wall having laterally spaced inner and outer side wall surfaces, with said inner surfaces facing each other and said outer surfaces facing away from each other;

each of said side walls includes dimples with the side walls of said top housing half having top dimples and with the side walls of said bottom housing half having bottom dimples, and said side walls of said top and bottom housing halves overlap with said side walls of said bottom housing half lying within said side walls of said upper housing half, with said dimples of the overlapped side walls locked to each other to prevent separation of said housing halves;

said dimples are formed by pressing in a lateral direction, areas of the sheet metal of each side wall, with each dimple having opposite faces including a first face forming a recess with top and bottom recess surfaces facing respectively downward and upward, and including an opposite second face forming a projection with top and bottom projection surfaces facing respectively upward and downward, and said side walls of said bottom housing half are positioned with the recesses of said top dimples receiving the projections of said bottom dimples, and with the bottom surface of each bottom dimple projection lying vertically above and adjacent to the bottom surface of each top dimple recess to prevent the recess from moving upward.

2. The data card housing described in claim 1 wherein:

said bottom housing half includes a molded plastic body that is overmolded to said bottom side walls, with the plastic body of said bottom housing half filling the recesses of said bottom dimples.

3. The data card housing described in claim 1 wherein:

each of said bottom dimples has horizontally-spaced opposite dimple sides (140, 142) that merge with adjacent areas of the corresponding bottom side wall, and each of said bottom dimples has a bottom middle portion lying between said dimple sides with said bottom middle portion being separated from an area of the corresponding side wall that lies below the bottom middle portion, to leave a primarily flat dimple bottom surface.

4. The data card described in claim 1 wherein:

each of said side walls is elongated in a longitudinal direction which is perpendicular to said lateral direction, and said dimples are longitudinally spaced apart with undimpled areas between pairs of said dimples.

5. A data card which includes a circuit board assembly and a housing that surrounds the circuit board assembly to protect it, wherein:

said housing includes a bottom housing half that has a primarily horizontal bottom wall with opposite bottom sides, and laterally opposite bottom side walls that each extends generally upwardly from one of said bottom sides;

said housing includes a top housing half that has a primarily horizontal top wall with opposite top sides, and laterally opposite top side walls that each depends from one of said top sides, with said top housing half constructed to closely receive said bottom side walls between said top side walls;

each of said side walls includes a plate of sheet metal of predetermined thickness;

the top side walls have inner surfaces that face each other with said inner surfaces each having recesses with said recesses having bottom recess walls that form upwardly-facing lower surfaces;

the bottom side walls have projections that fit into said recesses and that form downwardly-facing surfaces, so said upwardly-facing surfaces of said recesses can abut said downwardly-facing surfaces when said bottom side walls are received between said top side walls.

6. The data card described in claim 5 wherein:

each projection in the side walls of said bottom housing half has a bottom edge that is separated from an adjacent area of one of the bottom side walls that lies immediately below the projection bottom edge, and each recess in the side walls of said top housing half has a wall with a top edge that is separated from an adjacent area of the top side wall that lies immediately above the recess.

7. The data card described in claim 5 wherein:

said projections in said bottom side walls form bottom recesses;

said upper and lower housing halves each includes a molded plastic body that is overmolded to a portion of the corresponding housing half, with the plastic body of said lower housing half filling each of said bottom recesses, and with the plastic body of said upper housing half lying against the outer side of each projection in the upper housing half side walls.

8. A data card housing comprising:

top and bottom housing halves, with each housing half including a main wall lying primarily in a horizontal plane and with each housing half including primarily vertical side walls that are elongated in a longitudinal direction;

the side walls of said top housing half include a plurality of recesses and the side walls of said bottom housing half include a plurality of projections, and said side walls of said top and bottom housing halves overlap and are locked to each other to prevent vertical movement of said housing halves by said projections projecting into said recesses;

said recesses have vertically-facing surfaces, and said projections have vertically-facing surfaces positioned to engage corresponding vertically-facing surfaces of said recesses, to prevent vertical movement of one of said housing halves with respect to the other when said projections lie in said recesses;

said vertical side walls each comprising sheet metal with said recesses and said projections each formed by partially punching out the sheet metal from vertically extending portions of said side walls.

9. The data card housing described in claim 8 wherein:

the projections in the side walls of said lower housing half have longitudinally-spaced projection slides that join adjacent portions of said side walls by bends, and have lower ends which are severed from adjacent portions of said side walls.

10. The data card described in claim 8 wherein:

said side walls have dimples in said sheet metal that form said recesses and projections;

the side walls of said top housing half extend vertically below said recesses therein and the side walls in said bottom housing half extend vertically above the projections therein.