Abstract:
A combination structure of a socket and a container is provided. The combination structure includes a container having an opening, and a socket includes a connecting section for being engaged with the opening, a first end extended from the connecting section for being electrically connected to an electronic equipment which is positioned outside the container, and a second end extended from the connecting section for electrically connecting to a circuit unit which is positioned inside the container, wherein a cross-section of the second end is greater than that of the opening and the cross-section of the opening is greater than that of the first end so that the first end is passed through the opening from an inside of the container and exposed to an outside of the container, and the opening blocks the second end for avoiding the second end passing therethrough and fixing the socket inside the container besides mutually fixing the connecting section.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates to a combination structure and method of a socket and a container, and more particular to a combination structure and method of a socket which can be passed through a container from an inner portion thereof to an external portion thereof.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Please refer to FIG. 1A which illustrates an assembling schematic view of a socket and a container in the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, a socket  13  is passed through an opening  101  of a container  10  from the outside thereof. The socket  13  has a fixing portion  130  which is located at an appropriate position thereof. The opening  101  is set at a panel  100  of the container  10 . The fixing portion  130  of the socket  13  is integrated with the container  10  through a fixing element  15  (which can be a screw, a rivet, or a bolt). Furthermore, a conducting wire  14  is welded to a solder pad  110  of a circuit board  11  in the container  10 .  
           [0003]    Thus, in this conventional structure as described above, the electrical connection between the socket  13  and the circuit board  11  must be proceeded after the socket  13  and the container  10  have been fixed together. The manufacturing steps of the conventional structure are described as follows: (1) fixing the circuit board  11  at the container  10 ; (2) fixing the socket  13  at the container  10 ; and (3) electrically connecting the socket  13  with the circuit board  11 . Among these, the sequences of the steps (1) and (2) can be exchanged to each other and the processes will not be influenced. However, for completing the electrical connection of the socket  13  and the circuit board  11 , the operator must pass the tool through a channel of the container  10  which is opposite to the direction of the socket  13  passing through the opening  101  of the container  10 . But, the space of the container  10  is limited, especially when the container  10  is a power supply of a computer, the space is extremely narrow. Consequently, the operator must pay much more attention to avoid damaging the electronic elements (not shown) on the circuit board  11  when welding, manufacturing and assembling. Otherwise, in this conventional structure, the socket  13  is not passed through the tin furnace together with the other electronic elements (not shown) on the circuit board  11  but welded separately and artificially. In other words, it needs twice processes, and thus the quality of the finished product will be influenced by the ability and the physical and mental conditions of the operator. Therefore, the defective might be increased which will cause an increase of the cost.  
           [0004]    Please refer to FIGS.  1 B˜ 1 C which illustrate assembling schematic views of a conventional structure. For solving the problem described above, namely increasing the operation space when welding, a working hole  18  (as shown in FIG. 1B) of the container  10  is pre-kept and then sealed after completely welding, or one panel of the container  10  is non-sealed firstly and then sealed after welding. However, both in these two situations, the container  10  can not be a whole case at the first time.  
           [0005]    If the assembling method as shown in FIG. 1A is adopted, the electronic elements will easily be damaged during the manufacturing process so that the defective problem is increased. If the assembling methods as shown in FIGS.  1 B˜ 1 C are adopted, the manufacturing processes will become more complex. Furthermore, because the circuit board  11  is fixed in the container  10  before the conducting wire  14  is welded thereon, the sequential welding processes and checking angles are also limited and will then cause a reduce of the yield. All these are the defects that the conventional structure may produce.  
           [0006]    For solving the problems described above, another assembling method is proposed. As shown in FIGS.  2 A˜ 2 B, a socket a 13  is previously and completely welded with a circuit board (not shown) before assembled with a container a 10 . A slide trough a 130  is set at two sides of the socket a 13 , so that the container  10  will be assembled with the socket a 13  through assembling the slide trough al 30  with an edge a 100  of an opening a 101  on the container a 10 . Moreover, the opening a 101  is always set around one edge of a panel of the container a 10  for saving the space. However, as shown in FIG. 2B, it can be seen that if the socket  13  is set at the center of the panel of the container a 10 , a residue portion a 101 ′ will be formed so as to waste the space and also cause the container a 10  to be sealed not hermetically. Please further refer to FIG. 2A, for successfully plugging the socket a 13  into the opening a 101 , a space (not shown) must be pre-kept at a panel (not shown) which is adjacent to the opening a 101 . After the socket a 13  is completely assembled, the space will then be sealed (whose structure is similar to the panel  19  in FIG. 1C). Thus, although the assembling methods illustrated in FIGS.  2 A˜ 2 B can overcome the disadvantages derived from the welding processes in the prior art (as shown in FIGS.  1 A˜ 1 C), the container a 10  still can not be previously formed as a whole case, and the processes will also become more complex and still need one more step for assembling the case. Consequently, this assembling method still can not simplify the assembling processes of the socket a 13  and the container a 10 .  
           [0007]    Because of the technical defects described above, the applicant keeps on carving unflaggingly to develop a “combination structure of socket and container” through wholehearted experience and research which.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    It is an object of the present invention to provide a socket structure which can be passed through a container from the inner portion thereof and then be fixed.  
           [0009]    It is another object of the present invention to provide a socket which can be pre-welded with a circuit board before assembling, namely after connecting the socket with the circuit board, the socket is then connected to the container, for simplifying the fabricating processes, increasing the assembling efficiency, and improving the yield rate.  
           [0010]    In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a combination structure of a socket and a container includes a container having an opening, and a socket including a connecting section for being engaged with the opening, a first end extended from the connecting section for being electrically connected to an electronic equipment which is positioned outside the container, and a second end extended from the connecting section for electrically connecting to a circuit unit which is positioned inside the container, wherein a cross-section of the second end is greater than that of the opening and the cross-section of the opening is greater than that of the first end so that the first end is passed through the opening from an inside of the container and exposed to an outside of the container, and the opening blocks the second end for avoiding the second end passing therethrough and fixing the socket inside the container besides mutually fixing the connecting section.  
           [0011]    Preferably, the connecting section and the container are locked together via a lock-in way.  
           [0012]    Preferably, the connecting section further includes a first hook and the container further includes a second hook in which the first hook and the second hook are locked to each other.  
           [0013]    Preferably, the connecting section includes a screw thread for rotating into the opening.  
           [0014]    Preferably, the connecting section and the opening are engaged via a bayonet.  
           [0015]    Preferably, the connecting section and the container are fixed together via a bolt.  
           [0016]    Preferably, the connecting section and the container are fixed together via a rivet.  
           [0017]    Preferably, the container is a case of a power supply.  
           [0018]    Preferably, the circuit unit is a circuit board.  
           [0019]    In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a combination structure of a socket and a container includes a container including a faceplate having an opening thereon and a socket being set in the container including a connecting section for being engaged with the opening, a first end extended from the connecting section for being electrically connected to an electronic equipment which is positioned outside the container, and a second end extended from the connecting section for being electrically connected to a circuit unit which is positioned inside the container, wherein a cross-section of the opening is greater than that of the first end so that the first end is passed through the opening from an inside of the container and exposed to an outside of the container, and the opening blocks the second end for avoiding the second end passing therethrough and fixing the socket inside the container besides mutually fixing the connecting section.  
           [0020]    The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed descriptions and accompanying drawings, in which: 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0021]    FIGS.  1 A˜ 1 C show the assembling schematic views of the socket in the prior art;  
         [0022]    FIGS.  2 A˜ 2 B show the assembling schematic views of another socket in the prior art;  
         [0023]    FIGS.  3 A˜ 3 B show the assembling and structural schematic views of the socket in the first preferred embodiment according to the present invention;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 4 shows the assembling and structural schematic view of the socket in the second preferred embodiment according to the present invention;  
         [0025]    FIGS.  5 A˜ 5 C show the assembling and structural schematic views of the socket in the third preferred embodiment according to the present invention; and  
         [0026]    FIGS.  6 A˜ 6 B show the assembling schematic views of the lock-in way of the socket in the fourth preferred embodiment according to the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0027]    The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments. It is to be noted that the following descriptions of preferred embodiments of this invention are presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only; it is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed.  
         [0028]    Please refer to FIGS.  3 A˜ 3 B which illustrate the assembling and structural schematic views of the socket in the first embodiment according to the present invention. As shown in FIGS.  3 A˜ 3 B, a socket  23  includes a connecting section  230 , a first end  232  which is connected to the front end of the connecting section  230 , and a second end  231  which is connected to the back end of the connecting section  230 . When assembling the socket  23  with a container  20 , firstly the socket  23  is electrically connected to a circuit board  21  through conducting an electric wire  24  and a solder pad  210 . After the socket  23  is connected to the circuit board  21 , the circuit board  21  together with the socket  23  are put into the container  20  and the first end  232  of the socket  23  will be passed through an opening  201  of the container  20 , so that the connecting section  230  of the socket  23  will be blocked against a panel  200  which is adjacent to the opening  201 . Finally, the socket  23  and the container  20  are fixed together through a fixing element  25  (which can be a screw, a rivet, or a bolt, as shown in FIG. 3B). In this embodiment, the fixing element  25  will be passed through the panel  200  to integrate with the connecting section  230  of the socket  23  for fixing the socket  23  on the container  20 . Because the cross section area of the opening  201  is only slightly larger than that of the first end  232  and smaller than that of the second end  231 , the socket  23  will be blocked by the second end  231  when assembling. Consequently, the socket  23  can stay close to the panel  200  without passing through the container  20  and the second end  231  can remain inside the container  20 .  
         [0029]    As it can be seen in FIGS.  3 A˜ 3 B, the cross section area of the second end  231  is larger than that of the opening  201 , so that when assembling the socket  23 , the operator only needs to simply pass the fist end  232  through the container  20  from the inside thereof to block tightly against the container  20  and continuously fix the socket  23  and the container  20  via the fixing element  25 , so that the assembling processes can be finished.  
         [0030]    Moreover, for more effective and easily assembling the socket, the present invention can further include a set of fixing devices separately set on the socket  23  and the container  20 . With this set of fixing devices, the fixing element  25  as shown in FIG. 3 will not be needed any more, and the operator only need to process a translation or a rotation and the socket  23  can be fixed on the container  20 .  
         [0031]    As shown in FIG. 4 which illustrates the assembling and structural schematic view in the second embodiment according to the present invention, a female thread is set at an inner surface of a surrounding structure  320  of an opening  301  on a container  30  and a male screw is set on a connecting section  330  of a socket  33 . The surrounding structure  320  and the connecting section  330  are the fixing devices which can mutually integrate to each other. In this situation, the assembling steps are (as described above): electrically connecting a circuit board (not shown, please refer to FIG. 3) to the socket  33 ; putting the socket  33  with the circuit board into the container  30  and passing a first end  332  of the socket  33  through the opening  301 ; and rotating the socket  33  into the surrounding structure  320  for fixing to each other via a screw way so as to complete the assembling.  
         [0032]    Compared with the embodiment described in FIG. 3, the one illustrated in FIG. 4 lacks of the fixing element  25  (as shown in FIG. 3) but sets the female thread inside the surrounding structure  320  of the opening  301  and the male screw on the connecting section  330  of the socket  33 . According to this structure, the operator only needs to rotate the socket  33  after passing the first end through the opening  301  and the socket  33  and the container  30  can be fixed to each other well. Furthermore, for avoiding the circles of the rotation being too many, the screw and thread can be formed to have a multi-stage structure, so that the socket  33  only need to be rotated a small angle for fixing the socket  33  and the container  30 .  
         [0033]    Please refer to FIGS.  5 A˜ 5 B which illustrate the assembling and structural schematic views in the third embodiment according to the present invention. For more effectively assembling a socket  43  and a container  40  and reducing the cost of assembling, the socket  43  can further include a lug  44  and the surrounding  402  of an opening  401  can further include a notch  400 . When a first end  432  of the socket  43  is passed through the opening  401  of the container  40 , the lug  44  is simultaneously passed though the notch  400  (as shown in FIG. 5A). Then, the lug  44  is rotated to mutually block the surrounding  402  of the opening  401  (as shown in FIG. 5B). Because the cross section area of the second end  431  (as shown in FIG. 5C) is larger than that of the opening  401 , when the second end  431  which owns larger cross section is blocked against the surrounding  402  of the opening  401 , the operator can easily notice that the socket  43  can not be passed through the opening  401  any more and then the operator can rotate the socket  43  to diverge the lug  44  from the notch  400 .  
         [0034]    Please again refer to FIG. 5C which shows the sectional drawing of the hatch C in FIG. 5B. It is clear that the lug  44  is rejected by the surrounding  402  and the second end  431  is blocked against the container  40 , and thus the socket  43  can be stably fixed on the container  40 .  
         [0035]    As shown in FIGS.  5 A˜ 5 C, this combination method called bayonet can effectively simplify the combination process between the socket  43  and the container  40 . Therefore, when assembling, the operator only needs to pass the first end  432  through the opening  401  and rotates the socket for diverging the lug  44  from the notch  400  and rejecting the lug  44  against the surrounding  402  of the opening  401 , and the socket  43  can be fixed on the container  40 . The surrounding  402  of the opening  401  stops the lug  44 , so that the socket  43  will not go back into the container  40 . In addition, the manufacturing of the lug  44  is easier than that of the screw of the connecting section  330  (as shown in FIG. 4). The notch  400  can be formed together with the formation of the opening  401  which is generally made by a punching method, and, of course, this is easier than forming a thread on the inner surface of the surrounding structure  320  of the opening  301  (as shown in FIG. 4). Compared to the embodiment described in FIGS.  3 A˜ 3 B, the one illustrated in FIG. 5 lacks the fixing element  25 , so that the assembling time will become shorter, an error which might be produced in integrating the fixing element  25  can be reduced, and the yield rate can also be increased.  
         [0036]    Please refer to FIG. 6A which illustrates the assembling schematic views of the lock-in way of the socket in the fourth preferred embodiment according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6A, a socket  53  includes a first hook  5301  set at a connecting section  530  thereof and a container  50  includes a second hook  502  set on a receiving portion  500  thereof. When a first end  532  is passed through the opening  501 , the first hook  5301  will lock with the second hook  502  (as shown in FIG. 6B) so as to guarantee that the socket  53  will not go back into the container  50 .  
         [0037]    Certainly, the locking method described above can be achieved through another way and will not be limited. Besides, another significant character of this method is that a notch (as shown in FIGS.  5 A˜ 5 B) will not be left on the appearance, and because it does not need the additional fixing element (as shown in FIG. 3), a screw or a nut will not be left outside the container  50 . Consequently, the container  50  will own a succinct and smooth appearance under this condition.  
         [0038]    The characters of the present invention can be easily recognized through the embodiments described in FIGS.  3 ˜ 6 . Take FIG. 3 as an example. When assembling the socket  23  and the container  20 , the socket  23  can be previously connected with the circuit board  21  (e.g., the circuit board in the power supply apparatus), the socket  23  and the circuit board  21  can be simultaneously put into the container  20 , and then the first end  232  of the socket  23  is passed through the opening  201  and the socket  23  and the container  20  will block each other. In one word, the socket according to the present invention is passed through the container from the inside thereof and is previously connected to some electronic elements which will be positioned inside the container. Oppositely, in the prior art, as shown in FIGS.  1 A˜ 1 C, the socket  13  is connected with the container  10  from the outside thereof and then fixed (e.g., fixing element  15 ). Thus, the connecting processes between the socket  13  and the circuit board  11  must be completed in the extremely narrow space inside the container  10  which will cause the increase of the manufacturing processes and also the artificial cost.  
         [0039]    If the socket structure of the present invention is adopted, as shown in FIG. 3, the socket  23  can be connected to the circuit board  21  before being connected to the container  20 . Therefore, the assembling processes are simplified. And, it is obvious that the welding of the circuit  21  and the socket  23  outside the container  20  will be easier than inside thereof. Namely, all electronic elements and the socket  23  are plugged on the circuit board  21  at the same time and are also passed through the tin furnace together, so that it only needs one time of tin solder. Compared with FIG. 1, the prior art processes the first welding of welding the electronic elements on the circuit board  11  when passing through the tin furnace and the second welding of welding the conducting wire  14  on the circuit board  11  after the circuit board  11  is set inside the container  10 . Therefore, the prior art needs one more welding process than the present invention, namely one more chance to produce an error. Moreover, because the socket in the present invention can be passed through the tin furnace and plugged in the circuit board together with other electronic elements, it can avoid an artificial carelessness which might be occurred in the prior art. Furthermore, in the prior art, when welding the conducting wire  14  on the circuit board  11 , except the common problem of different sizes of the welding beads when artificially welding, there will also be some additional beads drop on the circuit board  11  which might cause the short circuit or damage the circuit board  11 . And it will also be inconvenient to clean up the dropped beads which will delay the manufacturing processes, increase the cost, and also delay the time of exporting the product. In conclusion, the troubles caused by the conventional structure will seriously influence the whole working of the manufacturer.  
         [0040]    Furthermore, the embodiments illustrated in FIGS.  4 ˜ 6  are set the thread of the screw on the socket  33  (as shown in FIG. 4), set the lug  44 ,  54  on the socket  43 ,  53  (as shown in FIG. 5), or employ a lock-in way (as shown in FIG. 6) to connect to the container  30 ,  40 , and  50  and are more effective than utilizing the fixing element  15 ,  25 . Because the step of integrating the fixing element will therefore be saved, the operation error will also be avoided at the same time. Thus, to be compared with the prior art, the present invention is more practical, more effective, simpler and easier for operating. And, most importantly, the present invention avoids the welding process inside the container which will easily cause an error. Consequently, the present invention is more progressive than the prior art.  
         [0041]    While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.