Patent Application
20100295748
None.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of antennas used for cellular telephone services and the like, and in particular assembly and housing apparatuses and methods therefore.
2. Related Art
Cellular telephone antennas typically mount a plurality of operative components on a generally flat, rectangular, vertically elongated plate sometimes called a reflector tray. These components must be securely mounted on towers and protected from the weather once mounted. Antennas are mounted on cellular towers in an elevated position which subjects them to wind load. Accordingly, the housing components and the fixation of the operative components on their reflector tray must be sturdy and water-tight.
Housings for such antennas include a back, outward facing radome, a top and a bottom. The current techniques for assembling these housings use a disadvantageous plurality of parts, plates, fixators, through holes, and are complex, expensive and cumbersome in assembly and use.
A housing for an antenna has an end member having a radome seat and a back extension. The end member also has at least one actuator housing with an external opening and an internal opening. The end member has no through passage from its external side to its internal side, other than the opening of said actuator housing, such that upon assembly with a back and a radome, the antenna is water-tight. A retention assembly has an internal retaining member and an internal retaining member receiver. An actuator has an external actuation interface, and is mounted in the actuator housing to be water-tight. The retention assembly has a first position and a second position. The first position engages the internal retaining member with the internal retention receiver such as to maintain a closed water-tight engagement with the back and the radome. The retention assembly has a second, released position, that allows disengagement of the end member from a reflector tray.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description of the preferred embodiment(s) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.
The end member 20 also includes at least one actuator housing 34. In the depicted embodiment, there are 2 actuator housings. The actuator housing 34 includes an external opening 36 and an internal opening 38. In the depicted embodiment there are no other openings in the end member 20 from the outside into an internal space of the final assembled antenna 10. Accordingly, the end-cap and radome assembly is water-tight. “Water-tight” as used herein, means that a normal antenna assembled according to the present invention may last a normal service lifetime without damage to or interference with its interior components from normal exposure to moisture, such as wind and rain. In the depicted embodiment, the end member is made of a plastic material. In one embodiment, one of a variety of polymers that may be used includes ryton-R4. The end members, backs, and radomes may be fiberglass reinforced plastic.
In assembly, the internal retention member 44 is placed in internal opening 38, such that a cam seat 54 in the first end of a retention member is aligned with a substantially centered axis of the external opening 36 and the axis cam 46 of the actuator 40. The actuator 40 is then placed in the actuator housing 34 by inserting it in external opening 36. The actuator cam 50 proceeds into the cam seat 54 provided for it in the first end of internal retention member 44. In the depicted embodiment, an integral pivot pin 56 is located on an opposite side of the internal retention member 44 from the cam seat 54 and is substantially aligned with the axis of rotation 46. Pivot pin 56 thereafter seats in a recess 52 provided for it in the end surface 22 of end member 20. (See
In the depicted embodiment, a second actuator and internal retention member may be assembled in a second actuator housing in the same manner used for the first actuator.
The water-tight aspect of the end member 20 is further improved by the orientation of the actuator housing 34, whose opening is downward in the final installed position, thereby avoiding direct exposure to rain and avoiding puddling.
As is best seen in
In assembly a radome 16 is seated in the end member 20 by insertion between mating lips 26 and 30 and, optionally, may be sealed there. Separately, operative components will have been mounted on reflector tray 14 and assembled with a back 12. Optionally, the reflector tray/back assembly may be fixedly attached to a bottom member 18. The radome top end member assembly may then be placed or slid over and onto the reflector tray and/or back assembly and advanced to its final position, fully encapsulating the reflector tray and operative components. The bottom of radome 16 engages the bottom end, and the top of back 12 engages extension 28 of end member 20. The interior retention members 44 will be in the first, disengaged position, and rotated to be flush with the disengagement seats 86. Thereafter, the external actuation interface, the allen receptacle 42 depicted in the embodiment, is turned such that the internal engagement member, the pawl 44 depicted in the embodiment, rotates into the slot 70, where, in close cooperation therewith, a retaining configuration is achieved and maintained. Similarly, the radome 16 and end member 20 assembly may be disengaged and removed from the reflector tray and other components with advantageous simplicity. In the depicted embodiment, only two disengagement or release actions are necessary for this disassembly; rotating the first actuator to the first, disengaged position 80 and then likewise disengaging the second retention assembly. Then the internal components may be exposed by sliding the radome/end assembly off. This advantage is consequential for manufacturing through-put. Substantially all antennas must be tuned at the factory in order to ensure that the operating components are set to the proper operating frequency and that the signal strength and accuracy meet quality standards. This testing is done with hard-wired test apparatus connections that attach inside the antennas to the components on the reflector tray inside the assembled antenna. The test must be executed with the antenna assembled. Accordingly, a back/reflector tray/radome/end cap assembly that is complex and uses plurality of bolts, mounting plates and the like, is disadvantageously time consuming. A disassembly procedure having only 2 steps such as that embodied by the present invention is therefore advantageous. Reassembly is executed in a “blind” manner. That is to say, the worker's engagement and use of the external actuation interface operates the retention assembly and completes the housing assembly for shipping and installation without the need for opening the assembly for access to internal fixation components.
In the depicted embodiment, the internal retention receiver 60, internal retention member 44, and the end member 20 are all made out of polymers. The use of polymers for any one or all of these elements advantageously minimizes the number and surface area of metal to metal contact of components. Metal to metal component contact, particularly of dissimilar metals, is a source of intermodulation distortion. Intermodulation distortion can lead to unacceptably low quality signal outputs by the antenna as a whole, both initially and over time, as corrosion, wear and assembly relaxation caused by wind loading and the like exacerbate intermodulation distortion. Accordingly, because the component configuration of the present invention minimizes the surface areas necessary to achieve appropriately secure housing of the antenna, intermodulation distortion is advantageously minimized. Moreover, the choice of polymer components further advantageously minimizes distortion.
As various modifications could be made to the exemplary embodiments, as described above with reference to the corresponding illustrations, without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the foregoing description and show in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative rather than limiting. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims appended hereto and their equivalents.
