International Business Machines Corporation

Simon D Yu

Wilton L Cox

Leonard Douglas Hobgood

Charles David Fieselman

Paul Gilbert Watson, Jr

Joseph Donald Poole

Leon S Nguyen

Stuart L Young

John Jacomino, Jr

Kenneth J Guskie

Mark E Ferguson

The top and bottom parts of a one-piece cover of a PCMCIA card are snapped together to form lap-joint seams which are welded together with a laser, under argon gas. Only a few small tack welds are required to substantially increases the mechanical strength and moisture resistance and to eliminate the risk of accidentally opening the card. The operation can be done at a high rate with minimal cost. Also, an internal frame may be made much narrower to allow more card area, while still meeting structural requirements for PCMCIA cards. The weld penetrates fully through the first layer of the seam and only partially through a second layer. During welding a fixture holds the seams in reasonably precise position and tightly closed so the seams are much tighter after welding than when the card is only snap closed. The precise positioning of the seams also allows the size of the weld to be minimized which reduces the risk of burn through which may damage electronic components enclosed within the card during welding. The card is plugged into an externally accessible slot in a computer system during operation.

Snap together PCMCIA cards with laser tack welded seams

A printed circuit card assembly. The assembly comprises a single-piece, stamped bottom cover having a plurality of tabs, each tab having apertures; a printed circuit card having a plurality of slots, each slot adapted to receive one of the tabs; and a single-piece, stamped top cover having opposite sides, a side rail on each side, and a plurality of prongs extending from each side rail, the prongs adapted to snap fit into the apertures in the tabs when the top and bottom cover are joined.

Snap-together printed circuit card cover with integral card support

A cartridge having top and bottom metal covers which enclose a circuit board, the metal of the covers forming a seam which is welded at locations therealong to bond the two covers together. The covers may form a snap-fit, lap, or butting seam where the welds are applied. The cartridge is particularly useful in PCMCIA applications.

The present invention features an improvement in the construction and manufacturing of small peripheral cartridges which plug into exterior slots of computer systems such as PCMCIA cards. The metal cover of a snap-together PCMCIA card is typically tack welded at its seams An inexpensive and highly accurate welding technique is presented for performing this welding operation. The inventive welding technique may be used without risk of damage to highly sensitive electronic components. The lap joint seam formed using the techniques exhibits the strength and stiffness characteristics that allow the size of welded seams to be minimized thereby also reducing the risk of burn-through or other damage to the cards during manufacturing.

A continuous process line for producing computer cartridges includes a closing station for squeezing cover portions of the cartridges together, followed by a connection station to permanently secure the cover portions together, followed by a station to mark the cartridges for identification. The closing station includes two low friction surfaces such as rollers and/or fixed slides with low friction surfaces, which taper together to close a partially folded one piece snap together PCMCIA card cover. The connection station includes a Nd:YAG laser welder with inert gas to laser weld lap joints at the seams of the snap-together cartridges. The marking station includes an applicator for applying preprinted labels to the cartridges. An automatic controller senses the positions of the cartridges as they move down the line and initiates the securing and marking of the cartridges depending on the position of the cartridges.

Computer cartridges assembly process line with integrated closure, weld,

Disclosed is a method of populating printed circuit boards with surface mount technology devices in a multi-board work board holder. The method includes the steps placing the printed circuit boards into a multi-board work board holder having a plurality of apertures corresponding to the individual printed circuit boards. The multi-board work board holder is placed onto a surface mount technology production line, and solder paste is selectively applied onto contact pads on surfaces of the printed circuit boards. Integrated circuit chips are next placed onto the solder paste bearing surface of the printed circuit boards, with the contact leads of the integrated circuit chips bearing on deposited solder paste. The printed circuit boards and the work board holder are heated to the reflow temperature of the solder. The x-y plane and z axis coefficients of thermal expansion of the multi-board work board holder are matched to the x-y plane and z-axis coefficients of thermal expansion of the printed circuit boards to avoid warpage and misalignment of the printed circuit boards.

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Harrisburg, NC, United States of America

Simon D Yu