Abstract:
A housing provided with centrally located electricallyconductive wires and apertures which extend to the conductive wires located inside the walls of the housing. When electrically conductive members are inserted into the apertures and touch the electrically conductive wires, electrical connection can be obtained. Thus, the conductive wires inside the wall of the housing easily allow connection between electronic components or between the electronic components and a power source. The housing is also advantageous in miniaturizing electronic equipment.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a housing for disposing electronic components or the like therein. Conventionally, in electronic equipments such as transmitters, printed boards provided with a plurality of electronic components thereon have been used for disposing various electronic components into housings. In such a conventional electronic equipment, each electronic component is fixed by solder into an aperture in the printed board. The apertures are connected to each other by conductive members or a conductive pattern previously formed on the printed board for maintaining electrical connection. The printed board is then fixed to the inside of a housing by screws or other attaching means. 
     In the aforementioned techniques, printed boards or other members are adopted to connect a variety of electronic components to each other and to dispose the electronic components into the housing. However, the printed boards must have a pattern previously formed thereon. Connecting a lot of conductive members to each other also takes a long time. Moreover, miniaturization of electronic equipments is hampered by ineffective use of space because the conductive members and the printed boards occupy a large space inside the housing. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Wherefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a housing in which electronic components are easily connected to each other without hampering miniaturization of the electronic equipment. 
     A housing, for containing electronic components, being manufactured from a resin and having a plurality of interconnected walls, the housing comprising at least one electrically conductive wire being provided inside said plurality of interconnected walls for achieving an electrical connection therethrough; and a plurality of apertures being provided in said plurality of interconnected walls, said plurality of apertures extending to and communicating with said at least one electrically conductive wire to allow electrical connection between electronic components, when installed, and the at least one electrically conductive wire. 
     A method of manufacturing a multi-layer housing, for containing electronic components, being manufactured from a resin and having a plurality of interconnected walls, the housing comprising at least one electrically conductive member being provided inside said plurality of interconnected walls for achieving an electrical connection therethrough; and a plurality of apertures being provided in said plurality of interconnected walls, said plurality of apertures extending to and communicating with said at least one electrically conductive member, the method comprising the steps of: 
     a) forming by molding an outer body of the housing; 
     b) applying a powdered electrically conductive material on an inner surface of the outer body; 
     c) applying a binder and a solvent to the powdered electrically conductive material and kneading the powder, the binder and the solvent into a paste; 
     d) forming the paste into a desired first electrically conductive member on the inner surface of the outer body; 
     e) allowing the paste to dry; 
     f) molding a central body, having a plurality of first spaced apertures extending to and communicating with the first electrically conductive member, to the inner surface of the outer body; 
     g) applying a powdered electrically conductive material on an inner surface of the central body; 
     h) applying a binder and a solvent to the powdered electrically conductive material on the inner surface of the central body and kneading the powder, the binder and the solvent into a paste; 
     i) forming the paste into a desired second electrically conductive member on the inner surface of the central body; j) allowing the paste to dry; and 
     k) molding an inner body, having a plurality of first spaced apertures and communicating with the previously formed first spaced apertures and a plurality of second spaced apertures extending to and communicating with the second electrically conductive member, to form the multi-layer housing. In order to achieve the above object, a housing of the present invention comprises walls made of resin in which electrically conductive wires are disposed and apertures are provided in the walls and communicate with the electrically conductive wires. The resin mentioned above can be a conventional synthetic resin which is hard to deform under the weight of the electronic equipment, such as hydrocarbon resin (polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and ABS resin), acrylic resin, polyvinyl acetate resin, halogen resin, polyester resin, polyamide resin, polyether resin, phenolic resin, amino resin, polyurethane resin and epoxy resin. 
     The conductive wires can be made of any electrically conductive material such as silver, copper or electrically conductive adhesives. These materials can simply be aligned on a wall if the material is linear. Alternatively, such material in paste form may be applied onto the walls. An outer body and an inner body of the housing can be manufactured separately by a double-layer molding. The housing can also be composed of two or more laminated parts, i.e one laminated part covers the electrically conductive wires carried by the other laminated part. 
     Guide elements can be formed on the surface of the housing along the conductive wires for indicating the positions of the wires. The guide elememts can be a relief, indentation or aperture formed on the surface or painted colors to make a distinction between the wires. The apertures are open on the surface of the housing. The apertures can be provided on either side of the housing. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway view in perspective of a housing of a first embodiment; and 
     FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway view in perspective of a housing of a second embodiment. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Embodiments of the present invention will now be explained in detail hereunder referring to the drawings. 
     FIG. 1 shows a housing of a first embodiment according to the present invention. The housing 1 is made of hard resin such as polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and ABS resin. As shown in the figure, the housing 1 comprises an inner body 1a which has five interconnected walls to form a box-shaped member with an open top, and an outer body 1b which has five interconnected walls and is larger than the inner body 1a. The inner body la and the outer body 1b are integrally connected to one another to form the housing 1. Inside the walls 2 of the housing 1, a plurality of conductive wires 3 are sandwiched in parallel between the inner body 1a and the outer body 1b. The conductive wires 3 contain a conductive material such as silver. In the inner layer of the housing 1 (inner body 1a), a plurality of spaced apertures 4 are provided in line corresponding to each of the conductive wires 3. The plurality of the apertures 4 are open on the inner surface of the housing 1 and extend to and communicate with the conductive wires 3. In this embodiment, the apertures 4 are not provided in the outer body 1b, but only in the inner body 1a. Guides 5 are formed on the inner surface of the housing 1 corresponding to the conductive wires 3 for indicating the position of the conductive wires 3. 
     The housing 1 of this embodiment is manufactured in the method described below. 
     The outer body 1b is molded of the aforementioned synthetic resin by injection molding or the like. In order to form the conductive wires 3 on the inner surface of the outer body 1b, silver another electrically conductive material is first powdered. Secondly, the powder, a binder such as an epoxy resin, and a solvent are knead into a paste and applied in a line, or another desired configuration, on the inner surface of the outer body 1b, and then dried. The electrically conductive material mentioned above can include carbon fibers plated with, for instance, copper (Cu) or silver (Ag). 
     The inner body 1a is formed by a so-called double-layer molding inside the outer body 1b covering the conductive wires 3. Specifically, the inner body 1a is formed between the outer body 1b and a mold which is previously provided with protrusions in order to form the apertures 4. Subsequently, the guides 5 are formed by painting or applying different colors or indicia on the inner surface of the inner body 1a along the conductive wires 3. 
     The effect of the housing thus constructed will now be explained. 
     The housing 1 of the present embodiment is provided with the conductive wires 3 inside the walls 2 of the housing 1 made of resin. The housing 1 is further provided with the apertures 4 in the inner body 1a. The apertures 4 extend to the conductive wires 3. Therefore, in disposing electronic components in the housing 1, electrical connection is easily obtained by inserting unshown electrically conductive members into the apertures 4 for connecting the electronic components to the conductive wires 3. Thus, electrical connection between electronic components or between the electronic components and a power source can be easily obtained without using printed boards or cords. Since the structure of the present invention minimizes the volume of conductive members or other parts around the disposed electronic components, an electronic equipment that uses the housing 1 of the present invention has the advantage of being smaller in size. Moreover, provided with the guides 5 along the conductive wires 3, the housing 1 of the present invention prevents incorrect electrical connections. 
     A housing 10 of a second embodiment according to the present invention will now be explained hereunder referring to FIG. 2. 
     The housing 10 of this embodiment comprises an inner body 10a, a central body 10b and an outer body 10c. The inner body 10a, the central body 10b and the outer body 10c are laminated together integrally to form the housing 10. Provided between the inner body 10a and the central body 10b, and between the central body 10b and the outer body 10c are longitudinal conductive wires 11a and lateral conductive wires 11b, respectively. The vertical conductive wires 11a and the horizontal conductive wires 11b are provided on different planes and do not come into contact with each other. In the inner body 10a, a plurality of shallow apertures 12 are provided in a series of longitudinal lines corresponding to the longitudinal conductive wires 11a. A plurality of deep apertures 13 penetrating both the central body 10b and the inner body 10a are provided in a series of 11b. The shallow apertures 12 and the deep apertures 13 extend to and communicate with the conductive wires 11a and the conductive wires 11b, respectively, and are open on the inner surface of the housing 10. Moreover, on the inner surface of the housing 10, guides 14a and guides 14b are provided to indicate the position of the conductive wires 11a and the conductive wires 11b, respectively. The housing 10 of this embodiment is manufactured by a similar method as in the first embodiment described above but composed of three layers, not two layers as in the first embodiment. By providing longitudinal conductive wires 11a and lateral conductive wires 11b in one housing 10, the second embodiment of the present invention enables complicated wirings to be achieved. The conductive wires 3 and the lateral and longitudinal conductive wires 11b, 11a are connected, as is known in this art, to a power source or other component. 
     This invention has been described above with reference to preferred embodiments as shown in the drawings. Modification and alterations may become apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification. Despite the use of the embodiments for illustration purposes, however, it is intended to include all such modifications and alterations within the scope and the spirit of the appended claims. 
     In this spirit, it should also be noted that in the embodiments as shown and described, the inner body 1a, the inner body 10a and the central body 10b are formed by a double-layer molding or a triple-layer molding. However, the inner body 1a and the inner body 10a can be formed separately from the outer body 1b and the outer body 10c, and then fitted in the outer body 1b or the outer body 10c to form the housing 1 and 10, respectively. The guides 5, 14a and 14b can not only be painted colors but may be codes, characters or other indicia formed on the surface of the inner body 1a and the inner body 10a.