EP0846330A1

EP0846330A1 - Electromagnetic relay and its use on a printed circuit board

Info

Publication number: EP0846330A1
Application number: EP96923819A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Josef Kern
Original assignee: Siemens AG
Current assignee: Siemens AG
Priority date: 1995-08-23
Filing date: 1996-07-08
Publication date: 1998-06-10
Anticipated expiration: 2016-07-08
Also published as: WO1997008724A1; US5889451A; BR9610190A; ATE176550T1; DE59601280D1; JPH11512220A; EP0846330B1

Abstract

PCT No. PCT/DE96/01232 Sec. 371 Date Jan. 27, 1998 Sec. 102(e) Date Jan. 27, 1998 PCT Filed Jul. 8, 1996 PCT Pub. No. WO97/08724 PCT Pub. Date Mar. 6, 1997The relay has at least one switching system with a base body (1) forming a baseplate (11), in which base body a contact spring connection element (4) and mating contact elements (5, 6) are anchored and on which base body a coil (21, 22) with a core (23) and a yoke (24) is arranged upright with the coil axis perpendicular to the baseplate, an armature being arranged between the coil and the baseplate. A contact spring (3) connected to the armature (26) is constructed in a U-shaped manner, and the resultant two spring limbs form a connection limb (31) and a contact limb (32) having high current conductivity. The relay can be produced in a simple manner with simple parts either as a single relay or as a double or multiple relay.

Description

description

Electromagnetic relay and its use on a circuit board

The invention relates to an electromagnetic relay with at least one switching system, which has: a base body forming a base plate, a contact spring connecting element and at least one counter-contact element, each of which is anchored in the base body, one with its winding axis perpendicular to the base plate standing coil with a core and a yoke, - an armature arranged between the coil and the base plate and a contact spring connected to the armature, which cooperates with the counter-contact element. The invention also relates to the use of such a relay on a printed circuit board.

A relay of the type mentioned is known for example from DE 28 54 591 AI. There, the contact spring is attached to the yoke as an armature return spring, and the associated connection element is on the opposite side with the

Yoke connected. Apart from the manufacturing difficulties that such a fastening of the current-carrying parts entails on two opposite sides of the yoke, the current path from the contact spring to the printed circuit board is relatively long. The double contact resistance at high switching currents could also lead to undesired heating.

DE 42 43 852 Cl also shows a relay of the type mentioned at the beginning. There, the contact spring is first angled upwards at the rear of the yoke in order to obtain a sufficient spring length, then downwards by 180 ° bent and plugged onto the associated connection element via a connecting element in the form of a spring-type clamping device, where it is then welded tight in a further operation.

The aim of the present invention is to design an electromagnetic relay of the type mentioned at the outset in such a way that it can switch high currents with good use of space, can be produced inexpensively with a few simple parts and with largely identical individual parts both as single relays and as double or multiple relays can be manufactured.

According to the invention, this aim is achieved in that the contact spring forms two spring legs which are connected to one another in a U-shape in the area of the armature bearing and whose ends lie approximately next to one another in the vicinity of the movable armature end, in that a first spring leg acts as a return leg with the contact spring connecting element is connected and that the second spring leg is connected as a contact leg to the armature and interacts at its free end with the mating contact element for making contact.

The contact spring provided according to the invention receives a sufficient spring length with a relatively large spring width for guiding even higher switching currents via the two spring legs connected in a U-shape. Since the spring lies directly below the armature above the base plate and is directly connected to the connecting element via its return leg, the current path can also be kept short and ensure a low transition resistance. To achieve a large spring section, it is expedient for the contact spring with its two spring legs to cover almost the entire area below the armature, the ends of the spring legs projecting beyond the movable armature end and the contact spring connecting element as well as that Mating contact element in the area in front of the movable one Anchor ends are anchored in the base plate and are angled towards each other in the direction of the free ends of the spring legs. The U-shape of the contact spring can be obtained, for example, by cutting out the two spring legs from an essentially flat spring plate and, if necessary, only providing them with pretensioning bends. In another, likewise advantageous embodiment, the two spring legs are obtained by a U-shaped folding of the contact spring by 180 °, the ends of the spring legs being cut away from one another approximately up to half the total spring width; In this way, the relevant end sections can be pivoted toward one another without abutting one another, while the total spring width is available for the current flow in the area of the U-shaped bend.

Since the contacting sections of the contact spring and the mating contact element as well as the contact spring connecting element protrude beyond the area of the coil base area, on the one hand to allow a large spring length and on the other hand to make magnetic circuit parts with large pole faces easy to manufacture, contact sections and A free space in front of the coil that can be used for other purposes. If an approximately cuboid cap is placed on the relay, this free space inside the cap can be used to hold additional components, such as resistors or diodes or a control module. If, on the other hand, a cap which is set back towards the coil above the contacting sections is used, the free space lying outside the housing in this case can also be used to arrange other components, the connecting wires of which then lie next to the relay in the line ¬ terplatte be contacted.

The invention is explained in more detail below using exemplary embodiments with reference to the drawing. Show it

1 and 2 a single relay designed according to the invention without a cap in section and in a perspective view,

3 and 4 an armature contact spring assembly of the relay from FIG. 2 in a side view and in a perspective view,

FIG. 5 shows the basic body of the relay from FIG. 2 in a perspective view,

FIG. 6 shows a modified contact spring in a perspective view,

FIG. 7 shows a modified single relay with a contact spring according to FIG. 6 in a side sectional view,

8 shows a magnet system for a relay according to FIG. 1 or 2 in a perspective view,

FIG. 9 shows a base body of a relay according to FIG. 1 or 2 equipped with an armature contact spring assembly,

FIG. 10 shows an illustration of the yoke fastening in a relay according to FIG. 1 or 2,

FIG. 11 shows a double relay with two relay switching systems according to FIG. 1 or 7,

FIG. 12 shows the arrangement of the two switching systems for the relay according to FIG. 11 without a cap in a perspective view,

FIG. 13 shows a double base body for accommodating two switching systems, FIG. 14 shows a single relay with a stepped cap when installed in a printed circuit board together with other components.

The relay shown in Figures 1 to 5 has a base body 1 of generally L-shaped shape, namely with a substantially horizontal base plate 11 and a vertical support member 12. (The terms "horizontal" and "vertical" refer to the whole Description on a horizontal installation position of the relay, whereby the base plate sits in parallel on a horizontal circuit board.) The base plate 11 has peripheral side walls Ila, Ilb and 11c; at the end distant from the holding part 12, the side walls Ila and Ilb form, with inwardly projecting ribs and grooves, mutually opposite plug-in shafts 13 for receiving the contact elements to be described later.

The vertical mounting part 12 has a generally U-shaped cross section with side walls 12a and 12b and a rear wall 12c. The side walls 12a and 12b, together with the ribs 12d projecting inwards, form a drawer-shaped guide shaft 17. In the area of the guide shaft, windows 14 are cut out, the function of which will be explained later. In addition, the rear wall 12c has a window 18 which ensures the freedom of movement of the anchor, which is also described later.

A magnet system 2 with a coil body 21, a winding 22 arranged on the coil former between its flanges 21a and 21b, a core 23 arranged axially in the coil and an L-shaped angled yoke 24 is fastened in the base body. In the area of the lower coil flange 21a, winding pins 22a are anchored with coil connecting pins 22b bent downwards. The round core 23 has at its lower end a pole plate 23a which is enlarged in cross section and has a pole face 25. The yoke 24 is with its first leg 24a at the upper end of the core 23 attached, for example by notching, welding or the like. The vertical leg 24b of the yoke is inserted into the guide shaft 17 of the base body and fastened there. The lower end edge 24c of the yoke leg 24b forms a support for an armature 26, which forms a working air gap with the pole face 25.

A contact spring 3 is attached to the armature on its underside, which is cut essentially from a spring plate in a U-shape (see FIG. 4) and thus forms two spring legs, namely a return leg 31 and a contact leg 32. The two spring legs lie approximately in one ^• plane, but are movable against each other at their ends and, at most, slightly bent out of their common sheet-metal plane with. The rest leg is fastened with its end 31a to a contact spring connecting element 4, which is bent in an L-shape and is anchored with its vertical section 41 in a plug-in shaft 13 of the base body. This vertical section 41 also carries a connecting pin 41a, while a horizontal section 42 carries the contact spring 3.

The contact leg 32 is fastened to a central section of the armature via a rivet 33 or in another way. The movable end 32a of the contact leg carries opposite contact pieces 32b which cooperate with corresponding counter-contact elements. A normally open counter-contact element 5 is bent in an L-shape; a vertical section 51 is in turn anchored in a slot 13 of the base body; it also forms a pin 51a. A horizontal section 52 of the normally open counter-contact element carries a contact piece 52a.

A likewise counter-contact element 6 bent in an L-shape is anchored with a vertical section 61 in an opening 16 in the base plate 11, while a horizontal portion 62, which carries a contact piece 62a, is anchored on the base plate 11 rests and thereby ensures the stability of this counter-contact element.

FIG. 6 shows a modified contact spring 35, the spring legs 36 and 37 of which are not cut out of one plane, but are obtained by folding the leaf spring by 180 °, namely about an axis parallel to the armature bearing axis. The two spring legs, namely the return leg 36 and the contact leg 37, are cut diagonally in opposite directions towards their free ends, so that they can lie side by side in one plane in these end sections 36a and 37a and can be moved against each other. In the area of the bend 35a, on the other hand, both spring legs have the full width of the contact spring, which essentially corresponds to the armature width. As a result, even higher load currents can be carried than in the embodiment according to FIGS. 3 and 4. The contact spring .35 is otherwise fastened with its spring legs in the same way and provided with contact pieces as the contact spring 3 shown in FIG. 4. Their arrangement in a relay is shown in FIG. The relay is otherwise constructed in exactly the same way as that shown in FIG. 1. In contrast to FIG. 1, a housing cap 10 is additionally shown in FIG. 7, which is put over the magnet system and connected to the base body 1. The remaining gaps between the base body 1 and the housing cap 10 are filled with sealing compound 7 and sealed.

The assembly of the magnetic system with simultaneous adjustment will now be described with reference to FIGS. 8 to 10. The magnet system 2 shown in FIG. 8, which corresponds to that of FIG. 2, is inserted into the base body 1, which according to FIG. 9 already has the armature 26, the contact spring 3 including the connecting element 4 and the counter-contact elements 5 and 6 is equipped. The width of the yoke leg 24b corresponds exactly to the inside width in the guide shaft 17. In addition, however, teeth 27 are formed on the outer edges of the yoke leg 24b, which extend over the width of the Survive slot 13. When the yoke leg 24b is pressed into the guide shaft 17, the side walls 12a and 12b are therefore widened by the teeth 27. The yoke is pushed into the guide shaft 17 until the lower yoke edge 24c bears against the armature and the armature has a predetermined overstroke when the contact piece 32b bears against the make contact piece 52a. This overstroke can be measured, for example, by a probe pressing the armature through a hole (not shown) in the base plate and by measuring the path of the armature from the first closing of the normally open contact to the final contact of the armature with the pole face 25.

When the yoke leg 24b and thus the magnet system 2 has reached the desired position, the yoke leg 24b is fastened in the guide shaft 17. According to the illustration in FIG. 10, this is done in that pressure stamps 8 act in opposite directions on the two side walls 12a and 12b widened by the excess of the teeth 27 with a pressure force F. As a result, the teeth 27 are pressed into the plastic of the base body, where they cause permanent cold deformation. As a result, the expansion stresses are reduced and the two parts, namely the yoke leg 24b and the holding part 12 of the base body, are positively connected to one another.

For additional security, notch punches 9, which are preferably firmly connected to the pressure punches 8, can be pressed in the area of the windows 14 and 15 through the side walls 12a and 12b onto the side edges of the yoke leg 24b, so that the notch cutting edges 91 dig into the material of the yoke. The resulting notch drafts 28 on the side edges of the yoke leg 24b additionally ensure that the magnet system is firmly seated in the desired position. As already mentioned above, the underside of the base plate 11 is sealed with a potting compound 7 in a preferred embodiment of the relay. This potting compound also penetrates into the edge gap between the base body 1 and the cap 10 (see FIG. 7). As is also shown there, the potting compound 7 can also flow into the guide shaft 17 of the holding part 12 by capillary action and additionally glue the yoke leg 24b.

FIG. 11 shows a double relay, two switching systems according to FIGS. 1 and 2 or according to FIG. 7 being accommodated in a cap 100. In this case, two base bodies 1 with the magnet systems built thereon are mounted independently of one another and then accommodated next to one another in the cap 100. The two systems without a cap are shown in FIG. In this case, the two yokes 24 are adjusted independently of one another in the respectively associated base body 1 and fixed by pressing the side walls 12a and 12b together according to FIG. After inserting the two systems into the cap 100, the common underside of the two can

Base body 1 for sealing or be glued in the cap.

An advantageous further development provides, however, that according to FIG. 13 a common base body 101 is provided, which forms a base part with two trough-shaped depressions with a base plate 111 and with the side walls lilac, Illb and 111c and with an intermediate wall Illd. In this case, plug-in shafts 13 are provided as in the single base body 1 according to FIG. 5. A double mounting part 112 is also formed with side walls 112a and 112b, a common rear wall 112c and an intermediate wall 112d as a double version of the above-mentioned single base body 1. Accordingly, this double base body 101 also has two parallel guide shafts 17 for the two yokes 24. The two yoke legs 24b are installed in the guide shafts 17 analogously to FIG. 10 with the difference that now with the Pressure stamps 8 is pressed onto the outer side walls 112a and 112b, while the common middle wall 112d absorbs the forces of the pressure stamps 8 from both sides.

By using a longer cap, more than two switching systems can be combined to form a multiple relay. Switching systems with different functions, e.g. B. a pole-changing relay and a single relay, can be accommodated in a common housing. Depending on the most economical production method, some can

Base body 1 and / or a multiple base body for two or more switching systems can be accommodated in the common cap. This results in an inexpensive assembly of such a multiple relay on a printed circuit board.

As can be seen, for example, in FIG. 2 or FIG. 12, the contact-making parts of the contact spring 3 and the counter-contact elements 5 and 6 are arranged essentially outside the area covered by the magnetic system 2. In this way, the space below the coil can be fully used for a wide contact spring, but also for a pole plate 23a and an armature 26 with a large area. For example, a core with a round pole plate 23a is provided, which is easier to manufacture and assemble than a core with a pole plate cut on one side. The free space above the contact-making parts can be used, for example, in a cap 10 according to FIG. 7 or in a cap 100 according to FIG. to bring. However, it is also possible to design a cap in a step-like manner in adaptation to the shape of the relay construction, as is shown, for example, in FIG. 14 with the cap 200. In the area of the base part, it has a projecting projection 201 above the contact elements, while the upper part 202, which only comprises the coil width or depth, springs back in steps. When installed on a printed circuit board 203, the free space above the projecting Part 201 can be used to accommodate other components 204, the connection wires 205 of which are then soldered next to the relay in corresponding holes 206 in the circuit board.

Claims

claims

1. Electromagnetic relay with at least one switching system, which comprises: - a base body (1; 101) forming a base plate (11; 111), a contact spring connecting element (4) and at least one counter-contact element (5, 6), each are anchored in the base body (1), - a coil (21, 22) arranged with its winding axis perpendicular to the base plate with a core (23) and a yoke (24), one between the coil and the base plate arranged. Armature (26) and - a contact spring (3; 35) connected to the armature (26), which cooperates with the counter-contact element or the counter-contact elements (5, 6), characterized in that the contact spring (3; 35) has two forms in the area of the armature bearing U-shaped interconnected spring legs (31, 32; 36, 37), ^' whose ends in the vicinity of the movable armature end are approximately next to each other, that a first spring leg as a return leg (31; 36) the contact spring connecting element (4) is connected and that the second spring leg is connected as a contact leg (32; 37) to the armature (26) and at its free end to the mating contact element (s) (5, 6) for cooperates.

2. Relay according to claim 1, characterized in that the contact spring (3; 35) with its two spring legs

(31, 32; 36, 37) covers almost the entire area below the armature (26), that the ends of the spring legs protrude beyond the movable armature end and that the contact spring connecting element (4) and the at least one mating contact element (5) are anchored in the area in front of the movable anchor end in the base body (1) and against one another in the direction are angled to the free ends of the spring legs (31, 32; 36, 37).

3. Relay according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the two spring legs (31, 32) of the contact spring (3) are formed by a U-shaped cut from a sheet metal plane.

4. Relay according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the two spring legs of the contact spring (35) are formed by U-shaped folding by 180 ° about an axis parallel to the armature axis, their ends opposite each other approximately to half of the total Feder¬ width are cut free.

5. Relay according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the base body. (1) in the area of the base plate (11) with circumferential side walls (Ila, Ilb, 11c) is trough-shaped, at least the contact spring connection element (4) and a normally open counter-contact element (5) being fastened in vertical plug shafts (13) of the side walls are.

6. Relay according to one of claims 1 to 5, character- ized in that the base body (1) has a perpendicular to the base plate bracket part (12) with a U-shaped cross section, which with grooves in its Seitenwän¬ the (12a, 12b ) has a guide shaft (17) perpendicular to the base plate for receiving a yoke leg (24b).

7. Relay according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the contact spring connecting element (4) and the at least one counter-contact element (5, 6) lie essentially outside the space covered by the coil in the base body (1st ) are anchored and that the core (23) has a pole plate (24) at its end facing the anchor, whose diameter is larger than the inner diameter of the coil.

8. Relay according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that a cap on the base body (1)

(10) sits, which has a space for additional components above the contact spring connecting element (4) and the mating contact element (5, 6).

9. Relay according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized ge indicates that on the base body a cap (200) sits above the contact spring connecting element (4) and the mating contact elements (5, 6) on one of the coil diameter corresponding depth is reset.

10. Relay according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that two or more switching systems (1, 2,

3, 4, 5, 6) are arranged side by side in a common cap (100), the anchors (26) lying side by side in a common plane.

11. Relay according to claim 10, characterized in that the two or more switching systems are arranged in a common base body (101), the second yoke legs (24b) in two guide shafts (17 ) which are in turn delimited by side walls (112a, 112b) and a common middle wall (112d).

12. Use of the relay according to one of claims 9 to 11 on a circuit board (203), characterized gekennzeich¬ net that the space above the contact spring connecting element (4) and the mating contact elements (5, 6) by the reset Cap (200) is free, is used for the arrangement of components (204) whose connecting wires (205) are contacted next to the relay in the printed circuit board (203).