Power distribution boxes (PDBs) are commonly used in automotive vehicles to simplify the vehicle electrical system by eliminating multi-branch wiring and consolidating fuses, relays, and other electrical circuit components in a single location. A PDB typically comprises a housing which retains one or more bus bars and has a plurality of integrally formed external receptacles for receiving a variety of electrical circuit components. When the circuit components are inserted into their respective receptacles, electrical terminals of the circuit components pass through slots or other openings in the housing and make electrical connection with the bus bars or wires.
A current trend in automotive vehicle design is toward more electrical components and increasingly complicated and extensive electrical circuitry. As a result, PDBs are required to hold more circuit components. It is generally desirable, however, for a PDB to be as small as possible in order for it to take up a minimum amount of space within the vehicle. When a PDB is originally designed for a particular type of automotive vehicle, the number and type of receptacles provided thereon is determined by the number and type of circuit components required for the various electrical systems planned to be installed in the vehicle. If the number and/or type of the electrical systems is later changed so that the existing receptacles are too few to receive the required number of any one type of electrical circuit component, a costly and time-consuming redesign and change in tooling is required to manufacture a new PDB housing having the required receptacles. It is sometimes the case, however, that the original PDB, while having too few receptacles for a first type of circuit component, will have an excess number of receptacles for a different, second type of circuit component.
If it were possible to insert a circuit component of the first type into an unused receptacle intended for a circuit component of the second type, the circuitry internal to the PDB could be reconfigured relatively quickly and inexpensively by replacing the original bus bar or wire with new bus bars or wires having layouts which connect the new circuit components in the proper manner. Unfortunately, the physical configurations of the receptacles for the different types of circuit components are generally so dissimilar as to prevent such interchangeability. In particular, the terminals which extend from the circuit components are of greatly different size, shape, and layout and so cannot be inserted into connection with the PDB bus bars through any but their own specifically-formed receptacles.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds