Electrical card connector

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an electrical card connector, and particularly to an electrical card connector with an ejector.

2. Description of Prior Art

With the development of electronic appliances, an express card connector has been widely used to achieve data transmission between an express card and a corresponding electronic appliance. In order to draw the express card out of the card connector conveniently, the express card connector will have an ejector to eject the express card.

An electrical card connector with an ejector is described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0123320, which was published on May 29, 2008. The card connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of contacts received in the housing, a shell covering the housing and ejector assembled on the housing. The ejector is located at one side of the housing and received in a space defined by the shell. The ejector includes a base portion, a spring, a pin member and an ejecting member. The base portion is separated with the housing, and the pin member and the ejecting member are assembled on the base portion. The spring is assembled on the pin member and the shell. When an electrical card is inserted into the connector, the ejecting member bears a force forwardly, and the spring bears a force backwardly. The base portion may be moveable corresponding to the housing by the two adverse forces, and the ejector will be disabled.

Hence, it is desirable to have an improved electrical card connector to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art.

Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide an electrical card connector with an ejector assembled on the housing firmly.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an electrical card connector comprises: a metallic shell; an insulative housing located at the front of the shell, the housing cooperating with the shell to form a card receiving space; a plurality of contacts received in the housing; and an ejector assembled on the housing and comprising a base with a heart-shaped slot, a spring, a pin member and an ejecting member assembled on the base. The base is located at a side of the housing, and the ejecting member is moveable in a card inserting direction. The base is secured to the housing to limit a lateral movement of the base.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electrical card connector in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to the FIG. 1 , but taken from other aspect;

FIG. 3 is an exploded, perspective view of the electrical card connector shown in FIG. 1 ; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an insulative housing and a base of the electrical card connector.

Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the present invention in detail.

Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 4 , an electrical card connector 100 of the present invention comprises an insulative housing 10 , a plurality of contacts 20 held on the housing 10 , a shell 30 covering the housing 10 , a guiding member 40 and an ejector 50 .

The insulative housing 10 is located at the front of the shell 30 , and comprises a main portion 11 , a pair of guiding arms 12 and a pair of assembling portions 15 extending rearward and forwardly from opposite sides of the base portion 11 respectively. A mating portion 13 extends rearward from the main portion 11 and is disposed between the two guiding arms 12 . The contacts 20 are received in the mating portion 13 and extend beyond the insulating housing 10 to be soldered on a circuit board (not shown). One of the guiding arms 12 further defines a receiving groove 14 extending vertically, and a pair of stoppers 16 are located at the front and the rear of the receiving groove 14 , an opening (not labeled) is defined between the stoppers 16 .

Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 , the shell 30 is assembled on the housing 10 to define a card receiving space (not labeled). The shell 30 is L-shaped, and comprises a main body 31 and sidewalls 32 extending downwardly from the main body 31 . The main body 31 comprises a front section 33 and a rear section 35 extending rearward from the front section 33 . The width of the rear section 35 is wider than that of the front section 33 along a transverse direction perpendicular to a card insertion/ejection direction. A holding piece 37 and a receiving portion 38 extend downwardly from a lateral side of the front section 33 . The holding piece 37 with a receiving hole 371 thereon is located behind the receiving portion 38 . The receiving portion 38 is used for receiving the ejector 60 . A pair of screws 16 are assembled on the front of the front section 33 and are held in the assembling portions 15 of the housing 10 to assemble the shell 30 on the insulating housing 10 together.

The guide element 40 is approximately a triangle shape and assembled to sidewall 32 of the shell 30 . The guide element 40 has a board 41 and an L-shaped perpendicular wall 42 extending forwardly and upwardly from a front end of the board 41 . The perpendicular wall 42 is formed with a protrusion 421 at an outside thereof to be received in the receiving hole 371 of the holding piece 37 .

Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 4 , the ejector 50 is located at one side of the housing 10 , and comprises a base 51 , a resilient member 52 , an ejecting member 53 and a pin member 54 . In this embodiment, the resilient member 52 is a spring. The base 51 comprises a vertical portion 510 with a heart-shaped slot 514 therein and horizontal portions 513 , 511 extending outwardly from the vertical portion 510 respectively. The horizontal portion 511 defines a guiding slot 517 along the card insertion/ejection direction. A holding portion 515 is formed on the vertical portion 510 toward the guiding arm 12 , which is received in the vertical receiving groove 14 of the insulative housing 1 . The holding portion 515 further defines a pair of gaps 516 located at the front and rear portion thereof. The holding portion 515 engages with the receiving groove 14 to secure the base 51 to the insulative housing 10 . The stopper 16 is received in the gap 516 to prevent the base 51 moving in the horizontal direction. The rear end of the vertical portion 510 defines a rectangular hole 512 . The protrusion 421 of the guide element 40 is received in the receiving hole 371 of the holding piece 37 after the protrusion 421 passes through the rectangular hole 512 .

The ejecting member 53 is moveably assembled on the base 51 . The ejecting member 53 comprises a sliding portion 531 sliding along the guiding slot 517 , an intermediate portion 532 extending horizontally from an upper portion of the sliding portion 531 and an ejecting portion 533 extending downwardly from a free end of the intermediate portion 532 and exposed into the card receiving space to eject a card directly. The sliding portion 531 and the ejecting portion 533 are located at the opposite sides of the base 51 .

One end of the pin member 54 locks in a hole 535 defined in the ejecting member 53 and the other end thereof is moveably received in the heart-shaped slot 514 of the base 51 . One end of the spring 52 is assembled on the guiding member 40 and the other end thereof locks the pin member 54 .

When an electrical card (not shown) is inserted into the card receiving space, the ejecting portion 533 of the ejecting member 53 bears a force toward forwardly, and the sliding portion 531 of the ejecting member 53 bears another force toward backwardly. The two reverse forces will derive the base 51 rotatablely. The holding portion 515 cooperates with the receiving groove 14 and the stopper 16 is received in the gap 516 to limit movement of the base 51 in a horizontal direction, and accordingly, the base 51 is secured on the housing 10 . Therefore, the ejector 50 can be assembled on the housing 10 firmly.

It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.