Patent Grant
10964999
The present application claims priority from and the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201810270104.2, filed Mar. 29, 2018, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of wireless communication. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a mounting structure for mounting a connector (e.g., a radio frequency connector) to a first fixing part and a second fixing part, an antenna device including the mounting structure, and a method for assembling the antenna device.
In the field of wireless communication, many antennas (e.g. sector antennas) are mounted outdoors, and in order to reduce the maintenance work, the sector antenna should have reliable anti-electromagnetic interference performance and protection performance (for example, reaching the IP65 protection level).
An aluminum extrusion frame is generally arranged on the back of the antenna to allow cooperation with a blind mate connector. The connector should be precisely located in the extrusion frame. Multiple connectors (e.g., radio frequency connectors) need to be connected to the inner core of the antenna before the extrusion frame is installed in order to perform RF (radio frequency) testing. Many mounting structures are known in the prior art, but these mounting structures cannot typically ensure reliable protection performance and/or anti-electromagnetic interference performance after the extrusion frame is mounted. In addition, the mounting work using these mounting structures is relatively complex, particularly when multiple connectors need to be mounted.
One objective of the present disclosure is to provide a mounting structure that can overcome at least one shortcoming in the prior art, an antenna device including the mounting structure, and a method for assembling the antenna device.
According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a mounting structure for mounting a connector to a first fixing part and a second fixing part is provided, characterized in that the mounting structure comprises a main body portion which defines a hollow cavity for receiving the connector, a first flange arranged on an upper surface of the main body portion around the hollow cavity and a second flange arranged on the upper surface of the main body portion around the first flange and spaced apart from the first flange. The mounting structure further comprises: a protective pad received in a protective pad receiving portion defined between the first flange and the second flange; a supporting component to be fixed to the second fixing part, the main body portion being fitted within the supporting component; and at least one fastener used for fastening the mounting structure to the first fixing part, so that the first flange comes into direct contact with the lower surface of the first fixing part.
According to the first aspect, the second flange is slightly lower than the first flange (for example, the second flange is at least 0.1 mm lower than the first flange), so that after the at least one fastener fastens the mounting structure to the first fixing part, only the first flange is in direct contact with the lower surface of the first fixing part. Therefore, a situation in which the second flange is higher than the first flange due to manufacturing tolerance, and accordingly the first flange cannot form good surface contact with the lower surface of the first fixing part, can be prevented. A gasket, for example, a gasket made of a plastic material, can be arranged between the second flange and the lower surface of the first fixing part.
According to the first aspect, preferably, the mounting structure further comprises an adhesion component used for adhering the protective pad into the protective pad receiving portion.
According to the first aspect, preferably, the mounting structure further comprises: at least one vertical locating portion arranged on the lower surface of the main body portion, and the at least one vertical locating portion is in clearance fit with at least one vertical location fit portion arranged in the supporting component, so that the at least one vertical locating portion is movable in at least one direction relative to the at least one vertical location fit portion.
According to the first aspect, preferably, the mounting structure further comprises: at least one horizontal locating portion arranged on a side face of the main body portion; and at least one elastic arm extending upward from the supporting component, wherein a horizontal location fit portion is arranged on the elastic arm, and the at least one horizontal locating portion is in clearance fit with the horizontal location fit portion, so that the at least one horizontal locating portion is movable in at least one direction relative to the at least one horizontal location fit portion.
According to the first aspect, preferably, the connector is in interference fit in the hollow cavity or is integrally formed within the hollow cavity with the main body.
According to the first aspect, preferably, both of the main body portion and the first fixing part are made of metals.
According to the first aspect, preferably, the supporting component is made of a plastic material.
According to the first aspect, preferably, the connector is in conductive contact with the main body portion.
According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, an antenna device is provided, characterized in that the antenna device comprises: at least one mounting structure mentioned above; and the first fixing part and the second fixing part, wherein the mounting structure fixes the connector to the first fixing part and the second fixing part.
According to the second aspect, preferably, the antenna device comprises multiple rows of mounting structures for fixing multiple rows of connectors to the first fixing part and the second fixing part.
According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, a method for assembling an antenna device is provided, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps: 1) providing at least one mounting structure mentioned above; 2) fixing the supporting component to the second fixing part; 3) placing the protective pad into the protective pad receiving portion; 4) inserting the main body portion into the supporting component; and 5) fastening the first fixing part to the main body portion via the at least one fastener.
According to the third aspect, preferably, the provided mounting structure comprises an adhesion component, and the step 3) comprises: adhering the protective pad into the protective pad receiving portion via the adhesion component.
According to the third aspect, preferably, the provided mounting structure further comprises: at least one vertical locating portion arranged on the lower surface of the main body portion, and the at least one vertical locating portion is in clearance fit with at least one vertical location fit portion arranged in the supporting component, so that the at least one vertical locating portion is movable in at least one direction relative to the at least one vertical location fit portion, and moreover, the step 4) further comprises the following steps: forming clearance fit between the at least one vertical locating portion and the at least one vertical location fit portion arranged in the supporting component, so that the at least one vertical locating portion is movable in at least one direction relative to the at least one vertical location fit portion.
According to the third aspect, preferably, the provided mounting structure further comprises: at least one horizontal locating portion arranged on a side face of the main body portion; and at least one elastic arm extending upward from the supporting component, wherein a horizontal location fit portion is arranged on the elastic arm, and the at least one horizontal locating portion is in clearance fit with the horizontal location fit portion, so that the at least one horizontal locating portion is movable in at least one direction relative to the at least one horizontal location fit portion, and moreover, the step 4) further comprises the following steps: forming clearance fit between the at least one horizontal locating portion and the horizontal location fit portion, so that the at least one horizontal locating portion is movable in at least one direction relative to the at least one horizontal location fit portion.
According to the third aspect, preferably, prior to the step 5), the steps 1) to 4) are repeated, until all mounting structures are mounted.
According to the third aspect, preferably, the method further comprises providing at least one connector, wherein the connector is located, integrally with the main body portion, in the hollow cavity of the main body portion, or the connector is inserted into the hollow cavity of the main body portion as a separate component in an interference fit manner.
After reading the specific embodiments below in combination with the drawings, multiple aspects of the present disclosure will be better understood, wherein:
The present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings, and the drawings herein illustrate several embodiments of the present disclosure. However, it should be understood that the present disclosure can be presented in a variety of different ways, is not limited to the embodiments described below; in fact, the embodiments described below are intended to make the present disclosure more complete and fully illustrate the protection scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. It should also be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in a variety of ways to provide more additional embodiments.
It should be understood that, the same reference signs represent the same elements throughout the drawings. In the drawings, the sizes of some features can be modified for the sake of clarity.
It should be understood that the terminologies in the specification are only used for describing specific embodiment, rather than limiting the present disclosure. All the terms (including technical terms and scientific terms) used in the specification have meanings generally understood by those skilled in the art, unless otherwise defined. For the sake of simplicity and/or clarity, well-known functions or structures may be not explained in detail.
The singular forms “one”, “the” and “the” used in the specification include the plural forms unless clearly specified. The terms “comprising”, “including” and “containing” indicate the presence of alleged features, but do not exclude the presence of one or more other features. The terms “and/or” used in the specification include any and all combinations of one or more of related listed items. The terms “between X and Y” and “approximately between X and Y” used in the specification should be interpreted to include X and Y. The term “between about X and Y” used in the specification means “between about X and about Y”, and the term “from about X to Y” used in the specification means “from about X to about Y”.
In the specification, when one element is described as located “on” another element, “attached” to another element, “connected” to another element, “coupled” to another element, or in “contact” with another element, the element can be directly located on the other element, attached to the other element, connected to the other element, coupled to the other element or in contact with the other element, or an intermediate element can be present. In contrast, when one element is described as “directly” located “on” the other element, “directly attached” to the other element, “directly connected” to the other element, “directly coupled” to the other element, or in “direct contact” with the other element, no intermediate element is present. In the specification, that one feature is arranged to be “adjacent to” the other feature can mean that one feature has a part overlapped with the adjacent feature or a part located above or below the adjacent feature.
In the specification, spatial relationship terminologies, such as “above”, “below”, “left”, “right”, “front”, “back”, “high” and “low” and the like can illustrate the relationship between one feature and the other feature in the drawings. It should be understood that the spatial relationship terminologies, in addition to containing the orientations as shown in the drawings, further include different orientations of the device in use or operation. For example, when the device in the drawings is inverted, the original features described as “below” the other features, can be described as “above” the other features in this case. The device can be located in other ways (rotated for 90 degrees or in other directions), and the relative spatial relationship is correspondingly explained in this case.
As shown in
Referring to
Still referring to
It should be noted that four bolts 14 are shown in
In addition, although the main body portion 11 shown in
The mounting structure 10 of the present disclosure may further comprise a supporting component 15 made of a plastic material, and the supporting component 15 may be fixed to the bracket 2 of the antenna device 1 via rivets.
As the frame 3 is connected to the mounting structure 10 in the last step of the assembly process, in order to accurately fix the main body portion 11 installed with the connector 4 to the frame 3 via the bolts 14, the main body portion 11 (including the placed protective pad 12 and adhesion component 13) needs to be movable in the horizontal and vertical directions before the frame 3 is mounted; that is, the main body portion 11 needs to keep a “floating” locking state in the supporting component 15 before the frame 3 is mounted.
In order to keep the “floating” locking state of the main body portion 11 in the supporting component 15 before the frame 3 is mounted, two vertical locating columns 115, preferably being approximately cylindrical, are arranged on the lower surface of the main body portion 11, and a horizontal locating projection 116 (only the horizontal locating projection 116 on one side wall is shown in
In order to cause the elastic arm 152 to open by pressing the horizontal locating projection 116, the horizontal locating projection 116 is provided with an inclined surface 116a, and correspondingly, the elastic arm 152 is provided with an inclined surface 152b. Therefore, when the main body portion 11 is pressed downward, the inclined surface 116a pushes and presses the inclined surface 152b along an outward direction, so that the elastic arm 152 opens outward. It should be understood that it is possible to provide only one of the inclined surface 116a and the inclined surface 152b.
As the antenna device comprises at least one row of connectors, each row of connectors including multiple connectors (for example, each row of connectors comprises eight connectors), and these connectors need to be fixed to the same frame 3 via respective mounting structures 10; thus, the capability of the main body portion 11 to keep the “floating” locking state in the supporting component 15 is particularly beneficial for the assembly of the antenna device. Specifically, due to the “floating” feature, the position of each mounting structure 10 can be adjusted independently from any other mounting structures, thereby enabling the accurate alignment of the threaded hole in the main body portion 11 of the mounting structure 10 and the hole in the frame 3. When the antenna device comprises multiple rows of connectors (referring to
It needs to be noted that, although
A method for assembling the antenna device 1 of the present disclosure will be described below in detail. The described method is not limited to be applied to the antenna device 1 of the specific type as shown in
In the first step, the supporting component 15 is mounted to the bracket 2 via rivets 16 for an example.
In the second step, the protective pad 12 is adhered into the protective pad receiving portion 114 of the main body portion 11 via the adhesion component 13.
It should be understood that the first step and the second step described above can be executed in any sequence.
Then, in the third step, the main body portion 11 provided with the protective pad 12 and the connector 4 is pushed and pressed into the supporting component 15, so that the vertical locating columns 115 are received in the two locating holes 151 as an interference fit, and the horizontal locating projections 116 are received in the corresponding horizontal locating holes 152a as an interference fit so as to lock the main body portion 11 into the supporting component 15 in the “floating” manner.
The steps mentioned above are repeated, until all mounting structures 10 are mounted.
Finally, in the fourth step, the main body portion 11 is self centered and fastened to the frame 3 via the bolts 14 so as to properly compress the protective pad 12, so that the first flange 112 comes into direct contact with the lower surface of the frame 3, and thus reliable anti-electromagnetic interference performance and protection performance are achieved. In addition, it is conceivable that gaskets, such as gaskets made of a plastic material, are arranged on the second flange 113 and the lower surface of the frame 3 to further improve the protection performance.
The method may further comprise: providing at least one connector 4, wherein the connector 4 is located, integrally with the main body portion 11, in the hollow cavity 111 of the main body portion 11, or the connector 4 is inserted into the hollow cavity 111 of the main body portion 11 as a separate component as an interference fit.
As mentioned above, due to the “floating” feature, the position of each mounting structure 10 can be adjusted independently from any other mounting structures, thereby ensuring the accurate alignment of the threaded hole in the main body portion 11 of the mounting structure 10 and the hole in the frame 3. Therefore, the assembly work of the antenna device is simplified.
It needs be noted that although the mounting structure of the present disclosure has been described above in combination with the specific example of the sector antenna, it should be understood that the mounting structure of the present disclosure is not limited to be applied to the field of antenna, but can be applied to all other fields requiring reliable anti-electromagnetic interference performance and dustproof and waterproof performance.
Although the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above, those skilled in the art should understand that many changes and modifications can be made to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure without essentially departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, all the changes and modifications shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure defined by the claims. The present disclosure is defined by the appended claims, and the equivalents of these claims are also encompassed.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20190305400 A1 | Oct 2019 | US |
