Patent ID: 8582311

Claim:
A housing for protectively enclosing a printed circuit board, comprising: (a) a base ( 4 ); (b) a pair of parallel spaced vertical housing side walls ( 6 , 7 ) extending upwardly from said base, said base and said housing side walls cooperating to define a chamber, said side walls being spaced a given distance (X 1 ); (c) a vertical planar printed circuit board (LP) mounted in said chamber parallel with said housing side walls, said printed circuit board having a pair of vertical edge portions extending outwardly beyond the corresponding vertical edges of said side walls, respectively; (d) at least one plug connector ( 12 ) mounted on each of said printed circuit board extending vertical edge portions; and (e) a pair of vertical side members ( 14 , 15 ), each of said side members having a generally U-shaped horizontal cross-sectional configuration including: (1) a vertical transverse body portion ( 14 a , 15 a ); and (2) a pair of vertical parallel spaced leg portions ( 17 , 18 ), said leg portions being spaced a distance less than said given side wall spacing distance, said leg portions cooperating with said transverse body portion to define a vertical groove; (f) said side members being mounted on said printed circuit board vertical edge portions with said printed circuit board extending edge portions being received in said side member vertical grooves, respectively, said side members containing access openings ( 16 ) opposite said plug connectors, respectively, the side member leg portions of each of said side members extending between said housing side walls and said printed circuit board, respectively, whereby portions ( 21 ) of said housing side walls overlap said side member leg portions.