Modeling the Vibration Restraints of Wedge Lock Card Guides

One of the most dominate parameters that influence the calculation of a PWB’s natural frequency is the boundary conditions along the edges of the board. A series of experiments was conducted with Calmark three and five-part wedge locks to determine the boundary condition restraint offered by these commonly used card guides. The wedge locks were modeled as simple supports preventing transverse deflection of the plate edge and as linear elastic springs restraining the rotation of the plate edge. The rotational spring constant for the wedge lock was then calculated in an semi-inverse manner by measuring the natural frequency response of a well-characterized plate.