The Whitaker Corporation

Michael J Stora

Thomas M Dlugolecki

Kevin P Faith

Daniel T Casey

Jeffrey M Norton

Gerard J Humphreys

A power supply module (100) for use with a card cage (10) for conditioning card cage input power and transmitting DC power to a backplane (20) of the card cage. The module (100) is adapted to be inserted into a card-receiving region (14) of the card cage from the front, and is removable therefrom. Connectors (70) on the leading edge (66) of the circuit card (102) of the module (100) self-engage with complementary connectors (30) of the backplane to establish power and signal connections therewith upon full insertion of the power supply module into a power module site (34) of the card-receiving region (14). The power supply module includes remote operator shut-off capability, overvoltage protection, overcurrent protection, overtemperature protection, temperature and voltage monitoring, and provides for orderly powering-up and powering-down of the card cage and for initializing critical data storage in the event of power failure. Either the power supply module (100) or card cage (10) provides rectification of AC power input to DC power. The module (100) is adapted to be air cooled by the cooling system for the card-receiving region, defined by a pluggable cooling module (50) with air flow metered into the card-receiving region (14) by a baffle plate (90).

Pluggable power supply for card cage

An operating mechanism (50,182) for providing mechanical advantage for mating and unmating a fixture (10) to a receiver (150) manually at a separable interface for mating complementary arrays of electrical connectors (12,152) for use in testing equipment. The leading end (80,88) of the operating mechanism (50) of the fixture is inserted into a receptacle (182) of the receiver and locks to secure the fixture to the receiver, simultaneously unlocking a subassembly (58) within the operating mechanism to be manually rotated to fully mate the now-adjacent arrays of connectors. The subassembly (58) is movably secured within an outer barrel (54) affixed to a frame (20) of the fixture and includes an axially spring biased central shaft (70) movable within an inner barrel (72). Arrays of locking balls (76,82) within apertures 86,90) of the inner barrel move between annular grooves 78,84) of the central shaft (70) and annular grooves 186,142) of a surrounding cylinder (either the receptacle 182) or the outer barrel (54)) to lock and unlock the central shaft from being axially moved with respect to the particular surrounding cylinder. An acme screw (100) within the operating mechanism converts manual rotation of a handle (52) into gradual axial movement with substantially enhanced force.

Growing community of inventors

Boonton, NJ, United States of America

Michael J Stora