Description:Complete Specification:
The following specification describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed

Field of the invention
[0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of housing/enclosures for ingress protection. In particular the present invention discloses housing assembly and a gasket for an electronic component.

Background of the invention
[0002] Electronic components used in automotive or industrial set-up require seals that prevent ingress of fluids or solid particulates and intrusion of external impurities, such as dust and moisture, into the interior of machine equipment. The IPX standard (IP Code) classifies and rates the degrees of protection provided against the intrusion of solid objects (including body parts like hands and fingers), dust, accidental contact, and water in mechanical casings and with electrical enclosures. Some electronic circuitry used in automotive or industrial set-up are subjected to harsh condition and require a IPX6 protection.

[0003] Typically, IPX6 & above rating is achieved only via a dispensed liquid sealant for an Electronic Control Unit. It is challenging to meet this ingress protection requirement of IPX6 or above in case of sandwich ECU packaging where 3 or more packaging elements are assembled, especially for a connector region (for example PCB and Connector, Housing Cover, and housing base). Such 3D geometries with tri junctions cannot be effectively sealed using 2D solid gaskets. They require a 3D closed looped, solid gasket design. The proposed design in the invention addresses the necessity of 3D gasket sealing in control units packaging to protect the printed circuit board and hardware from ingress of water.

[0004] Patent application CN115334803 A titled “Elastic sealing element for electronic component shell ” discloses an elastic sealing element for an electronic component shell, which comprises a shell, a top cover is mounted on the outer wall of the top of the shell through bolts, a sealing gasket is adhered to the inner wall of the bottom of the top cover, and a sealing ring is integrally formed on the outer wall of the bottom of the sealing gasket. Sealing lips distributed at equal intervals are integrally formed on the outer wall of one side of the sealing ring, an embedding groove is formed in the outer wall of the side, away from the sealing lips, of the sealing ring, and the embedding groove is located between every two adjacent sealing lips. The sealing gasket is made of a high-temperature-resistant carbon fiber material, the sealing gasket can be effectively prevented from aging in a high-temperature environment, the air bag is filled with inert gas, heat generated in the working process of the electronic component can enable the inert gas to expand, and therefore one side of the sealing ring is extruded to deform, and the sealing effect is improved. Therefore, the contact between the sealing lip on the other side and the shell is tighter, the problem of aging is solved, and the sealing performance is further improved.

Brief description of the accompanying drawings
[0005] An embodiment of the invention is described with reference to the following accompanying drawings:
[0006] Figure 1 depicts a housing cover assembly for an electronic component;
[0007] Figure 2 depicts a gasket (2) for the housing cover assembly;
[0008] Figure 3 depicts a 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) seated in the housing cover assembly;
[0009] Figure depicts the dimensions of the 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) and corresponding top segment (1) of housing.

Detailed description of the drawings
[0010] Figure 1 depicts a housing cover assembly for an electronic component. The housing cover assembly. The housing cover assembly comprises a top segment (1) a bottom segment (4) and at least a gasket (2). The gasket (2) is seated in a channel in either the top segment (1) or the bottom member. A printed circuit board (3) (PCB) resides insides the housing which is responsible for the electronic/electrical functionality of the electronic component. The PCB has an input/output port (31) for connecting to external devices. This input/output port (31) is inscribed in a connector region (11) of the housing. The top segment (1) of the housing, bottom segment (4) of the housing along with gasket (2) are affixed together by means of a plurality of screws.

[0011] Figure 2 depicts the gasket (2) for the housing cover assembly. The gasket (2) seals the top segment (1), the printed circuit board (3), and the bottom segment (4) together when the bottom segment (4) is coupled to the top segment (1). The gasket (2) is made of EPDM rubber (ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber). In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the gasket (2) is made of EPDM Shore 60A. The gasket (2) has a 3-D portion (21) adapted to be circumferentially seated around the connector region (11) of the housing. This is 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) has a beaded profile (22). The beaded profile (22) comprises a double sealing bead. This beaded profile (22) ensures a proper compression with adequate pressure.

[0012] Figure 3 depicts the 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) seated in the housing cover assembly. The 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) is in contact with the connector region (11). This side of the gasket (2) has a pre-defined thickness profile. The thickness profile of this side is characterized by the use of a higher side angled wall i.e. >3-4 Deg. The 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) in contact with the connector region (11) further comprises a draft valley structure (23) making an angle ranging of at least 10 degrees from the vertical axis of the connector region (11). For the best mode of performance this angle can be kept at 15 degrees. The draft valley structure (23) comprises a first fillet structure (24) and at least a second fillet structure (25) of a pre-defined radius respectively. Under various embodiments of the present invention the radius of the first fillet structure (24) is minimum 3mm. Under various embodiments of the present invention the radius of the second fillet structure (25) is minimum 1mm. For the best mode of performance, the radius of first filled structure (24) and the radius of the second filled structure (25) can be 5mm and 2mm respectively.

[0013] The top segment (1) of the housing cover is adapted to accommodate the 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2). Hence it has dimensions conformable to the 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2). The top housing segment has pre-defined thickness at a compression region as shown in figure 3. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the thickness of the housing in compression regions is 2.5mm. This Housing with wall thickness >2mm with controlled surface profile is used to provide robustness against deflection due to sealing pressure from the gasket (2).

[0014] Figure 4 depicts the dimensions of the gasket (2) (4a) and the top segment (1) of housing cover (4b) for an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. This corresponds to the best mode of performance for this invention. However, it must be understood at the outset that, although exemplary embodiments are illustrated in this figure, the present disclosure should in no way be limited to the exemplary implementations and techniques illustrated in the drawings.

[0015] The proposed design for housing cover assembly and a gasket (2) for an electronic component has been experimentally tested. The state-of-the-art wet sealing used to achieve the IPX6 ingress protection is expensive as it requires machine to accurately dispense the wet seal. Further it takes considerable amount of time for curing before usage. There is also a design limitation on sealing angle (for example dispensing sealant on the sealing angle less than 30° is not possible with 2D dispense machine, it needs 3D dispensing, angles less than 10° are not possible with 3D dispense machine also).These proposed 3D solid gasket (2) design addresses these issues. The leak rate achieved is <25 cc/hr at differential air pressure of 180mbar.

[0016] Another advantage of the proposed design for the housing cover assembly is reduction of screw force after ageing. The plurality of screws are used to compress the gasket (2) sandwiched between the housing top and bottom segment (4)s. The initial force of screws say is 1000N but due to temperature and creep (mechanical deformation that occurs when a gasket (2) rubber is exposed to high-stress levels for a long period of time), this screw forces reduces to 500N. The proposed design of the gasket (2) and housing cover assembly can handle thermal aging criteria of 1000 hours @100 Deg.

[0017] It must be understood that the embodiments explained in the above detailed description are only illustrative and do not limit the scope of this invention. Any ancillary modification to the proposed design of the housing cover assembly and a gasket (2) for an electronic component are envisaged and form a part of this invention. The scope of this invention is limited only by the claims.
, Claims:We Claim:
1. A gasket (2) for a housing of an electronic component, said housing comprising a top segment (1) and at least a bottom segment (4), the gasket (2) seated in a channel in either the top segment (1) or the bottom member, the gasket (2) adapted to seal the top segment (1) with a printed circuit board (3) and the bottom segment (4) when the bottom segment (4) is coupled to the top segment (1), the gasket (2) characterized by:
a 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) adapted to be circumferentially seated around a connector region (11) of the housing, said 3-D portion (21) having a beaded profile (22).

2. The gasket (2) for a housing of an electronic component as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gasket (2) is made of EPDM (shore 60A).

3. The gasket (2) for a housing of an electronic component as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gasket (2) side in contact with the connector region (11) has a pre-defined thickness profile.

4. The gasket (2) for a housing of an electronic component as claimed in claim 1, wherein the 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) in contact with the connector region (11) further comprises a draft valley structure (23) making an angle of at least 10 degrees from the vertical axis of the connector region (11).

5. The gasket (2) for a housing of an electronic component as claimed in claim 4, wherein the draft valley structure (23) comprises a first fillet structure (24) and at least a second fillet structure (25) of a pre-defined radius respectively.

6. A housing cover assembly for an electronic component, said housing cover assembly comprising a top segment (1), a bottom segment (4) and at least a gasket (2), the gasket (2) is seated in a channel in either the top segment (1) or the bottom member, said gasket (2) seals the top segment (1) with a printed circuit board (3) and the bottom segment (4) when the bottom segment (4) is coupled to the top segment (1), the housing cover assembly characterized by:
the gasket (2) having a 3-D portion (21) adapted to be circumferentially seated around a connector region (11) of the housing, said 3-D portion (21) having a beaded profile (22).
the top housing segment of the housing adapted to accommodate the 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2), said top housing segment having pre-defined thickness at a compression region.

7. The housing cover assembly for an electronic component as claimed in claim 6, wherein the gasket (2) is made of EPDM (shore 60A).

8. The housing cover assembly for an electronic component as claimed in claim 6, wherein the gasket (2) side in contact with the connector region (11) has a pre-defined thickness profile.

9. The housing cover assembly for an electronic component as claimed in claim 6, wherein the 3-D portion (21) of the gasket (2) in contact with the connector region (11) further comprises a draft valley structure (23) making an angle ranging of at least 10 degrees from vertical axis of the connector region (11).

10. The housing cover assembly for an electronic component as claimed in claim 6, wherein the draft valley structure (23) comprises a first fillet structure (24) and at least a second fillet structure (25) of pre-defined radius respectively.