Connection unit having actuating elements and conductor connection openings which are arranged in two rows

Abstract

A connection unit includes a plurality of connection elements arranged next to one another. Each connection element has a conductor connection opening for accommodating an electrical conductor and an actuating element for clamping the electrical conductor in the conductor connection opening and/or releasing said conductor. The actuating elements and the conductor connection openings are arranged on a common side of the connection unit. The actuating elements and the conductor connection openings of the connection elements are arranged in two rows which are spaced apart from one another. The connection unit has at least one first connection element of which the actuating element is arranged in a first row and the conductor connection opening is arranged in a second row, and at least one second connection element of which the actuating element is arranged in the second row and of which the conductor connection opening is arranged in the first row.

Claims

1. A connection unit comprising: a plurality of connection elements arranged next to one another, wherein each connection element has: a conductor connection opening for accommodating an electrical conductor, and an actuating element for clamping the electrical conductor in the conductor connection opening and/or releasing the electrical conductor, wherein the actuating elements and the conductor connection openings are arranged on a common side of the connection unit, and wherein the actuating elements and the conductor connection openings of the plurality of connection elements, respectively, are arranged in two rows which are spaced apart from one another, such that: at least one first connection element has the respective actuating element is arranged in a first row and the respective conductor connection opening is arranged in a second row, and at least one second connection element has the respective actuating element arranged in the second row and the respective conductor connection opening is arranged in the first row.

2. The connection unit according to claim 1, wherein: the connection unit has a plurality of first and second connection elements, and the first and second connection elements are arranged at least partially alternately adjacent to one another.

3. The connection unit according to claim 2, wherein the first and second connection elements are identical, the second connection elements being arranged in the connection unit in a manner rotated by 180° with respect to the first connection elements.

4. The connection unit according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of connection elements are arranged with a grid dimension which is smaller than a collar diameter of a wire ferrule of a maximum usable connection cross section of the conductor connection opening.

5. The connection unit according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of connection elements configured such that the grid dimension divided by a maximum collar diameter has a value of approximately 0.875.

6. The connection unit according to claim 4 wherein the plurality of connection elements are arranged with the grid dimension being smaller than an outer diameter of an insulation of an electrical conductor of a maximum usable connection cross section of the conductor connection openings.

7. The connection unit according to claim 1, wherein the connection unit further includes a common housing in which the plurality of connection elements are arranged.

8. The connection unit according to claim 7, wherein the common housing is configured for printed circuit board mounting.

9. The connection unit according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of connection elements are configured as spring-loaded clamps having a clamping spring, which keeps the electrical conductors clamped in the conductor connection openings with the spring force thereof, and the actuating elements configured to release the clamping of the electrical conductors via the clamping spring upon actuation.

10. The connection unit according to claim 9, wherein the actuating elements are actuating pushbuttons.

11. The connection unit according to claim 1, wherein: the connection elements are screw clamps, the actuating elements are actuating screws, and the electrical conductors are both clamped in the conductor connection openings and released by the actuating screws.

12. The connection unit according to claim 1, wherein the respective conductor connection openings for accommodating electrical conductors have different maximum cross sections.

13. A connection block comprising: a housing; and a plurality of connection elements which are accommodated, and arranged next to one another, in the housing, wherein each connection element has: a conductor connection opening for accommodating an electrical conductor, and an actuating element for clamping the electrical conductor in the conductor connection opening and/or releasing said conductor, wherein the actuating elements and the conductor connection openings are arranged on a common side of the housing of the connection block, and wherein the actuating elements and the conductor connection openings of the plurality of connection elements are arranged in two rows which are spaced apart from one another, such that: at least one first connection element has the respective actuating element arranged in a first row and the respective conductor connection opening is arranged in a second row, and at least one second connection element has the respective actuating element arranged in the second row and the respective conductor connection opening is arranged in the first row.

Description

[0032] Further advantages, details, and features of the invention can be found in the following in the described embodiments. The drawings show, in detail, the following:

[0033] FIG. 1: a representation of a connection unit from the prior art with eight parallelly arranged connection elements in a front view;

[0034] FIG. 2: a representation of a connection unit of a first, preferred embodiment with sixteen parallelly arranged connection elements in a perspective view in a mounted state on a printed circuit board, the connection elements being designed with an actuating pushbutton and some of the connection elements being shown without a housing;

[0035] FIG. 3: a representation of the connection unit from FIG. 2, with additional electrical conductors being inserted into some conductor connection openings;

[0036] FIG. 4: a partial representation of the connection unit from FIG. 3 in a front view; and

[0037] FIG. 5: a representation of a connection unit of a second embodiment with seven parallelly arranged connection elements in a perspective view, the connection elements being designed as screw clamps with an actuating screw.

[0038] In the following description, the same reference signs denote the same components or features, so that a description of a component with reference to one drawing also applies to the other drawings, thus avoiding repetitive description. Furthermore, individual features which have been described in connection with one embodiment can also be used separately in other embodiments.

[0039] A connection unit 10 from the prior art is shown in FIG. 1. The connection unit 10 comprises a plurality of parallelly arranged connection elements 11, which are designed as spring-loaded clamps and are arranged in a common housing 12. Each of the connection elements 11 comprises a conductor connection opening 13 and an actuating element 14. The connection unit 10 is mounted on a printed circuit board 15, with pins 16 of the connection unit 10 extending through the printed circuit board 15 and being soldered thereto. In the illustration in FIG. 1, electrical conductors 17 are introduced into some of the conductor connection openings 13 and held in the conductor connection openings 13 by the action of a spring force of a clamping spring (not shown). The clamping of the electrical conductors 17 in the relevant conductor connection opening 13 can be released by means of an actuation via the associated actuating element 14. The actuating elements 14 and the conductor connection openings 13 are arranged in two rows 18. The parallelly arranged connection elements 11 are arranged with a uniform grid dimension 19.

[0040] FIGS. 2 to 4 relate to a connection unit 20, 32 of a first, preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0041] In this embodiment, the connection unit 20 comprises sixteen parallelly arranged connection elements 21, 32 which are arranged in a common housing 22. In detail, the common housing 22 is designed as a housing 22 for printed circuit board mounting. The connection unit 20 is thus designed in the manner of printed circuit board clamps or a printed circuit board connector for printed circuit board mounting.

[0042] The connection elements 21, 32 are each designed as spring-loaded clamps 21 in the first embodiment. Correspondingly, each of the spring-loaded clamps 21 has a clamping spring 23, as can be seen from FIGS. 2 and 3, in which the connection unit 20 is shown partially without the housing 22. Due to the spring force thereof, the clamping spring 23 causes electrical conductors 26 to be held in a clamped manner in a corresponding conductor connection opening 24.

[0043] Each of the spring-loaded clamps 21 thus comprises a conductor connection opening 24 and, in addition, an actuating element 25. In this embodiment, the actuating elements 25 are designed as actuating pushbuttons 25 or pushers. The actuating pushbuttons 25 allow the clamping of the electrical conductor 26 held by the clamping spring 23 to be released when said pushbuttons are pressed in the direction of the relevant spring-loaded clamp 21. The actuating pushbutton 25 acts directly against the clamping spring 23 in order to tension the clamping spring 23 when said pushbutton is pressed in and to unclamp the electrical conductor 26 accommodated in the conductor connection opening 24. The restoring force of the clamping spring 23 resets the actuating pushbutton 25 after actuation. In addition, an electrical conductor 26 accommodated in the conductor connection opening 24 is clamped and contacted therein after actuation. In the case of spring-loaded clamps 21, the clamping of the electrical conductors 26 in the relevant conductor connection opening 24 already takes place by means of the insertion of the electrical conductors 26.

[0044] The electrical conductors 26 each lead an electrical potential. In this case, the electrical conductors 26 can comprise a single conducting wire or a plurality of conducting wires which are twisted together, for example.

[0045] The actuating elements 25 and the conductor connection openings 24 of the connection elements 21 are arranged in two rows 29 which are spaced apart from one another on one side 30 of the connection unit 20. For this purpose, the connection unit 20 comprises first and second spring-loaded clamps 21a, 21b which are arranged alternately adjacent to one another. The first and second spring-loaded clamps 21a, 21b are identical, with the second spring-loaded clamps 21b being arranged in the connection unit 20 in a manner rotated by 180° with respect to the first spring-loaded clamps 21a. The first and second spring-loaded clamps 21a, 21b are therefore antiparallelly arranged. Correspondingly, in the case of the first spring-loaded clamps 21a, the actuating elements 25 are arranged in a first row 29a and the conductor connection openings 24 are arranged in a second row 29b. In addition, in the case of the second spring-loaded clamps 21b, the actuating elements 25 are arranged in the second row 29b and the conductor connection openings 24 are arranged in the first row 29a.

[0046] The result is an arrangement of the first and second connection elements 21a, 21b in columns next to one another, with the actuating element 25 and the conductor connection opening 24 of a spring-loaded clamp 21 each forming a column. The actuating element 25 and the conductor connection opening 24 lie on an axis of the relevant spring-loaded clamp 21. The result is a matrix-like arrangement of the actuating elements 25 and the conductor connection openings 24 in the two rows 29 and in the spring-loaded clamps 21. The actuating element 25 and the conductor connection opening 24 of each spring-loaded clamp 21 are at the same distance from one another.

[0047] As can be seen in particular from FIG. 4, the adjacent spring-loaded clamps 21 are arranged with a uniform grid dimension 31. The grid dimension 31 defines a distance of an arrangement of the individual spring-loaded clamps 21 next to one another. It indicates the distance from a point of a spring-loaded clamp 21 to, in principle, the same point of an adjacent spring-loaded clamp 21. If the connection elements 21 are arranged next to one another without gaps, the grid dimension 31 corresponds to a width of the connection elements 21. In this embodiment, the connection elements 21 have a width that corresponds to the grid dimension 31.

[0048] In this embodiment, the grid dimension 31 is smaller than a collar diameter of a wire ferrule of a maximum usable connection cross section of the conductor connection opening 24. In detail, the spring-loaded clamps 21 are designed in such a way that the grid dimension 31 divided by a maximum collar diameter has a value of approximately 0.875. This means, for example, that a connection unit 21 comprising a conductor connection opening 24 having a maximum cross section of 4 mm.sup.2 and a collar diameter of 5.4 mm results in a grid dimension of 4.8 mm rounded up (5.4×0.875=4.725). The collar diameter refers to a wire ferrule for use with the electrical conductor 26 having the appropriate cross section.

[0049] The connection unit 20 is mounted on a printed circuit board 27 with pins 28 extending through the printed circuit board 27 and soldered thereto as shown in FIG. 4. In this embodiment, the pins 28 are designed as contact pins which are connected to the clamping spring 23 of the relevant spring-loaded clamp 21 in order to contact the printed circuit board 27 and which bring about an electrical connection of the conductor connection openings 24 to the printed circuit board 27. The pins 28 are guided through the printed circuit board 27 in order to mount the connection unit 20 thereto, in particular by soldering.

[0050] In an alternative embodiment, the spring-loaded clamps 21 are arranged with a grid dimension 31 that is smaller than an outer diameter of an insulation of an electrical conductor 26 of a maximum usable connection cross section of the conductor connection openings 24. The adjacent arrangement of the first and second spring-loaded clamps 21a, 21b results in a distance between the conductor connection openings 24 of each row 29 that corresponds to twice the grid dimension 31, such that an insulation of the electrical conductors 26 protrudes beyond the relevant spring-loaded clamp 21.

[0051] In a second embodiment, which is shown in FIG. 5, the connection elements 21, 32 are designed as screw clamps 32. Otherwise, the connection unit 20 of the second embodiment corresponds to that of the first embodiment. The above statements in relation to the spring-loaded clamp 21 apply accordingly to the screw clamp 32.

[0052] In accordance with the design of the connection elements 21, 32 as screw clamps 32, the actuating elements 25, 33 are designed as actuating screws 33. In this embodiment, the electrical conductors 26 can be both clamped in the conductor connection openings 24 and released by the actuating screws 33, depending on a direction of rotation of the actuating screw 33.

[0053] Depending on the design of the screw clamps 32, deflection elements (not shown here) can be provided, which implement a screwing in of the actuating screws 33 in order to clamp electrical conductors 26 introduced parallel to the actuation screws 33 in the conductor connection openings 24 or to unclamp them. For example, the rotational movement of the actuating screws 33 can be deflected to clamping screws by an angle of 90°.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0054] 10 Connection unit (prior art)
11 Connection element (prior art)
12 Housing (prior art)
13 Conductor connection opening (prior art)
14 Actuating element (prior art)
15 Printed circuit board (prior art)
16 Pin, soldering pin (prior art)
17 Electrical conductor (prior art)
18 Row (prior art)
19 Grid dimension (prior art)
20 Connection unit
21 Connection element, spring-loaded clamp
21a First connection element, spring-loaded clamp
21b Second connection element, spring-loaded clamp

22 Housing

[0055] 23 Clamping spring
24 Conductor connection opening
25 Actuating element, actuating pushbutton
26 Electrical conductor
27 Printed circuit board

28 Pin

29 Row

29a First row

29b Second row

30 Side

[0056] 31 Grid dimension
32 Connection element, screw clamp
32a First connection element, screw clamp
32b Second connection element, screw clamp
33 Actuating element, actuating screw