Patent Abstract:
A device and method including a slot insertion member is to hold a number of card edge slots having a plurality of pins extending from them in alignment for insertion of the plurality of pins into a plurality of holes of a printed circuit board. At least one grip attachment member is connected to the plurality of slot insertion members to hold the plurality of slot insertion members in a fixed position. At least one grip member is connected to at least one grip attachment member to enable the holding and positioning of the slot holder.

Full Description:
FIELD 
   The embodiment disclosed herein relates to a device and method for assembling card edge slots into a substrate. More particularly, it enables the simultaneous placement of multiple card edge slots into a printed circuit board (PCB) while reducing the possibility of tilting or movement of the card edge slots during the manufacturing process. 
   BACKGROUND 
   With the increased competitive environment amongst the providers of personal computers (PCs) and their suppliers, an increased need for improved productivity at lower cost and higher quality has existed as never before. One of the key components in a PC is the baseboard  5 , sometimes referred to as a motherboard, in which many components of a computer system are attached. As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , a baseboard  5  may comprise a printed circuit board of multiple layer design in which holes are drilled therein to accept card-edge slots (slots)  40  and, directly or indirectly, a processor  15 . It should be noted that  FIG. 1  is provided as an example of a simplified baseboard  5 . As would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, numerous other components, not shown, would be connected to the baseboard  5 . 
   Once the baseboard  5  or printed circuit board is assembled with holes drilled into the appropriate locations, slots  40 , with pins  50  extending from the underside of the slot  40 , as shown in  FIG. 2B , are manually inserted into the appropriate holes drilled into the printed circuit board or baseboard  5 . This insertion of the pins  50  into the holes requires care so that the pins  50  are not bent and the slot  40  does not tilt to one side or another. This process is repeated for each and every slot  40  that needs to be inserted in the particular printed circuit board. Once all slots  40  are inserted through the holes in the printed circuit board, the pins  50  extend beneath the printed circuit board. Thereafter, the printed circuit board is passed over a wave solder machine that solders the pins  50  into position on the printed circuit board. Finally, a card  55  is inserted into electrical contact card slot  45  (card slot  45 ), as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2A , within slot  40  so that card  55  makes electrical contact with the based board  5 . This card  55  may be, but not limited to, a memory board, a sound board, or other peripheral device controller board. 
     FIG. 2A  is a top view of the slot  40 , shown in  FIG. 1 , while  FIG. 2B  is a side view of the slot  40 . Further,  FIG. 2A  shows further detail of the card slot  45  with the electrical contact points for the card  55  to establish electrical contact therewith. Also,  FIG. 2B  shows the pins  50  extending through the bottom of the slot  40  and it is these pins  50  which are inserted into baseboard  5  or other printed circuit board. 
   In addition to improper placement of the slot  40  in the printed circuit board by the installer, during the wave soldering process it is possible for the pins  50  of the slots to be pushed up through the holes in the PC board and possibly have the slots  40  tilted at an angle. Once the slots are tilted at an angle it may become difficult to properly position a board  55 , such as, but not limited to a memory board, sound board, or other peripheral board, into the slot  40  so as to make proper electrical contact more difficult or for one board  55  to come into contact with another board  55  in another slot  40 . During production inspection phase a board  5  with a tilted slot  45  would be rejected and either reworked to correct the problem requiring additional time, labor, and materials, and increasing the possibility for added handling related damage or entirely scrapped. Thus, it is unlikely that the board  5  would be shipped to the customer. 
   Thus, the present method for placement of slots into printed circuit boards is time-consuming since each slot is inserted individually and may cause tilting problems to occur due to human error or the action of the wave solder machine. 
   Therefore, a device and method is needed that will simplify and make more efficient the process of installing slots into printed circuit boards. Further, this device and method should further reduce the possibility of tilting occurring for a given slot either due to manual displacement or the action of a wave disorder machine. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The foregoing and a better understanding of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments and the claims when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, all forming a part of the disclosure of this invention. While the foregoing and following written and illustrated disclosure focuses on disclosing example embodiments of the invention, it should be clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and the invention is not limited thereto. The spirit and scope of the present invention are limited only by the terms of the appended claims. 
     The following represents brief descriptions of the drawings, wherein: 
       FIG. 1  is a diagram of a printed circuit board having slots and a microprocessor connected thereto; 
       FIG. 2A  is a top view of a card edge body (slot); 
       FIG. 2B  is a side view of a card edge body (slot); 
       FIG. 3A  is a side view of a slot holder used in an example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 3B  is a side view a slot holder with a slot attached used in an example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 4A  is a top view of a slot holder used in an example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 4B  is a top view a slot holder with a slot attached used in an example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 5A  is a front/rear view of a slot holder used in an example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 5B  is a front/rear view a slot holder with slots attached used in an example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 6  is a top view of a slot holder used in an alternate example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 7  is a side view of a slot holder used in an alternate example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 8  is a side view of a slot holder used in an alternate example embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 9  is a side view of a slot holder used in an alternate example embodiment of the present invention; and 
       FIG. 10  is a flowchart illustrating the process employed in mounting a number of slots into a printed circuit board. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   Before beginning a detailed description of embodiments of the subject invention, mention of the following is in order. When appropriate, like reference numerals and characters may be used to designate identical, corresponding or similar components in differing figure drawings. Further, in the detailed description to follow, exemplary sizes/models/values/ranges may be given, although the present invention is not limited to the same. As a final note, well-known components of computer networks may not be shown within the FIGS. for simplicity of illustration and discussion, and so as not to obscure the disclosure of the embodiments. 
     FIG. 3A  is a side view of a slot holder used in an example embodiment of the present invention. The slot holder illustrated in  FIG. 3A  comprises a slot insertion member  30  that may hold slot  40  in its proper position. A grip member  10  is also provided so that a person may insert the slot holder containing slots  40  into the holes contained in the printed circuit board. In addition, a grip attachment member  20  is provided and serves at least two functions. First, the function of the grip attachment member  20  is to provide an attachment point for the grip member  10  to the slot insertion member  30 . Further, the grip attachment member  20  may serve to limit the depth that the slot insertion member  30  may be placed into the slot  40 . 
     FIG. 3B  is a side view of a slot holder with a slot  40  attached used in an example embodiment of the present invention. As indicated in  FIG. 3B  slot  40  would abut against grip attachment member  20 . However, as previously discussed and as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill the art, alternative mechanisms for limiting the depths at which insertion member  30  is placed into card slot  45  are possible. Once slot insertion member  30  is placed into card slot  45  of slot  40 , a person may insert pins  50  into a printed circuit board by holding grip members  10  and aligning pins  50  with the holes in the printed circuit board and pressing downwards. 
     FIG. 4A  is a top view of the slot holder used in an example embodiment of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 4A , a plurality of slot insertion members  30  are all connected to two grip attachment members  20  which in turn are connected to two grip members  10 . Therefore, any number of slot insertion members  30  may be attached to the grip attachment members  20  and thereby hold an equal number of slots  40 . As indicated in  FIGS. 4A and 4B , four slots  40  may be held by four slot insertion members  30  and an operator may place all four slots  40  into a printed circuit board simultaneously using the slot holder shown in FIGs  4 A and  4 B. However, the structure illustrated in  FIGS. 4A and 4B  are provided as examples and any number of slot insertion members  30  may be attached to grip attachment members  20  and thereby support an equal number of slots  40 . 
     FIGS. 5A and 5B  are a front/rear view of the slot holder used in an example embodiment of the present invention as illustrated and discussed in  FIGS. 3A through 4B . As with the previous figures,  FIG. 5B  illustrates an embodiment of  FIG. 5A  with slots  40  covering the slot insertion members  30 . Otherwise, all other figure elements remain the same as previously discussed and will not be discussed further here. 
     FIG. 6  is a top view of a slot holder used in an alternate example embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 6  differs from  FIG. 4A  in that one slot insertion member  30  is missing. As would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art the positioning and number of slot insertion members  30  depends on the configuration of the printed circuit board or baseboard  5 . Therefore, any number of slot insertion members  30  may be contained in a slot holder and the spacing between slot insertion members  30  may vary. Further, the slot insertion members  30  may not be parallel to one another, as shown in  FIG. 6 , but may be placed at various angles to other slot insertion members  30  and relative to grip attachment member  20 . 
     FIG. 7  is a side view of a slot holder used in an alternate example embodiment of the present invention. The slot holder shown in  FIG. 7  is similar to that shown in  FIG. 3A  with the exception that slot insertion member  30  has insertion points  60  at opposite ends of slot insertion member  30 . The insertion points  60  serve to hold slot  40  in place only at the ends of card slot  45  of slot  40 . In this manner the slot holder may be more easily removed once slots  40  have been placed on the baseboard  5  or the printed circuit board. Further, due to the concave shape of the indentation in the slot insertion member  30  between the insertion points  60 , more pressure is applied to the ends of slots  40  than the middle. 
     FIG. 8  is a side view of a slot holder used in an alternate example embodiment of the present invention. The slot holder shown in  FIG. 8  is similar to that shown in  FIG. 3A  with the exception that slot insertion member  30  has an insertion point  60  only at one end of slot insertion member  30 . Having an insertion point  60  at one and as shown in  FIG. 8  could server at least two different purposes. First, the slot holder, as shown in  FIGS. 4A through 6 , may be used to hold card slots  45  of different lengths. Therefore, the same slot holder may be used to insert both long and short slots  45  that may often be the case in a baseboard  5 . Second, the insertion point  60  may serve to hold slot  40  in place only at one end of card slot  45  of slot  40 . In this manner the slot holder may be more easily removed once card slots  40  have been placed on the baseboard  5  or the printed circuit board. Further, due to the insertion points  60  being at one end of slot insertion member  30 , more pressure is applied to that one end of slots  40  than the other. This may be beneficial if only a portion of the printed circuit board has holes that are exposed to the action of the wave solder machine. 
     FIG. 9  is a side view of a slot holder used in an alternate example embodiment of the present invention. The slot holder shown in  FIG. 8  is similar to that shown in  FIG. 3A  with the exception that slot insertion member  30  has a number of insertion points  60  along the entire length of the slot insertion member  30 . The insertion point  60  serves to hold slot  40  in place throughout the entire card slot  45  of slot  40 . In this manner the slot holder may be more easily removed once slots  40  have been placed on the baseboard  5  or the printed circuit board as compared to the example embodiment shown in  FIG. 3A . Further, due to the insertion points  60  being placed along the entire length of slot insertion member  30 , pressure is equally applied to the slot  40 . 
     FIG. 10  is a flowchart illustrating the process employed in mounting a number of slots  40  into a printed circuit board. The process begins in operation  100  and immediately proceeds to operation  110 . In operation  110 , a slot  40  is placed on a slot insertion member  30 . Thereafter, in operation  120  it is determined slots  40  have been mounted onto a slot insertion member  30 . If all slots  40  have not been placed on a slot insertion member  30  then the process returns to operation  110 . However, if all slots  40  have been placed on slot insertion members  30  then processing proceeds to operation  130 . In operation  130  the slot holder is held by the group member  10  and positioned so that pins  50  align with the holes in the printed circuit board  5 . Thereafter, in operation  140 , pressure is applied to the grip members  10  until the slots  40  come into contact with the substrate of the printed circuit board. In operation  150 , the printed circuit board is placed into a wave solder machine in which the pins  50  are soldered into position on the printed circuit board. Thereafter, in operation  160  the slot holder is removed from the slots and the process terminates in operation  170 . 
   The benefit resulting from the present invention is that a simple, reliable, device and method is provided that will simplify and make more efficient the process of installing slots into printed circuit boards by enabling the simultaneous installation of several slots. Further, this device and method reduces the possibility of tilting occurring for a given slot caused either by manual displacement or the action of a wave solder machine by applying pressure simultaneously across several slots. 
   While we have shown and described only a few examples herein, it is understood that numerous changes and modifications as known to those skilled in the art could be made to the example embodiment of the present invention. Therefore, we do not wish to be limited to the details shown and described herein, but intend to cover all such changes and modifications as are encompassed by the scope of the appended claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 8