Patent Application
20120212115
The present invention relates to the use of a fastener soldered to glass for the attachment of other devices to the glass plate. More specifically, it relates to a fastener surface mount soldered to a glass plate used as means for attaching a window glass to a chassis of an electronic device such as a cell phone.
Soldering to glass, while not widely done, is known in the art. A common application is the soldering of an antenna attachment on the back window of a car. However, the glass itself is typically held to the car by a glued in place gasket on the metal frame.
Many cell phones are more frequently using a full glass front panel. This currently leaves the manufacturer no option but to glue or creatively gasket and fixture the glass. These options often leave the product designer less than optimal aesthetic solutions. Because of its brittle nature, structurally mounting a glass plate is a difficult process. Adhesives feature prominently in the arsenal of fastening methods available, however adhesives have some serious drawbacks. Generally adhesives are not recyclable, in fact they are often poisons to recycling meaning their presence can prevent a batch of material from being recycled. Adhesives also offer some challenges to manufacturing and are frequently not preferred in a manufacturing environment. Tempered glass cannot easily be drilled or modified to place bolt holes. Usually clips and hooks are employed to fasten and fixture the glass, but these are often imprecise and inexact methods that allow for some movement in the final position.
In order to meet the needs in the art described above, the present invention enables firm fixturing of glass to a frame or chassis through the use of a soldered-on mechanical fastening device. The soldering can be done in numerous ways, but the most economical is to first put a localized solderable coating on the glass and then use surface mount technology to solder a fastener to the glass. The present fastener combination assembly is non-intrusive and does not cut into the glass so the tempering and structure of the glass remains unchanged. The soldering temperatures are low enough to not interfere with the atomic structure of most glasses as well.
The fastening device soldered to the glass can be of a variety of configurations. Most typical would be a threaded nut or stud that is then engaged to the chassis. That threaded fastening device could be affixed so that the threads are aligned normally to the surface of the glass or parallel to the glass surface. While threaded fasteners are the most universally acceptable, buttons, pins and snaps can also be used as well as other common simple fastening devices. To solder any of these fasteners to the glass, a coating must first be applied to the glass to provide a solderable finish. This coating may be tin, silver, copper, gold or another solderable metal. Applying this finish to the glass is not uncommon and can be done by many coaters in the glass industry.
The soldering of a fastening device to the glass and mounting the glass structure with that element is a unique aspect of the invention. This becomes very useful in industries that want to use glass, while minimizing the surrounding elements, for example cell phone display windows. More specifically, the applicant has invented a combination of a window glass and a housing of an electronic device wherein the housing has a member having an aperture for receiving an externally threaded fastener. That fastener secures a transparent glass window by an internally threaded female fastening device having a base affixed with a rear surface of the window by soldering while threadably engaging the fastener to rigidly secure the window to the housing. The soldering process is preferably by wave soldering and the fastening device can have an internally threaded axial bore which is either perpendicular to or parallel to the surface of the window. Typically, the fastener will be the screw and the housing member can be planar and parallel to the window in some cases.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods, and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.
What is claimed as being new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent of the United States is as follows:
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61444260 | Feb 2011 | US |
