Abstract: The present patent application relates to a novel surgical retractor and the use thereof for thoracoscopic operations.

Abstract: A card-holding device for locking a printed circuit card in a guide rail of a subassembly/subrack includes a retaining element that is inserted in the guide rail at the front edge of a printing circuit card when the circuit card is inserted to retain the card. The retaining element swivels outward and away against the elastic restoring force of an activating element. The activating element is releasable from the retaining element to allow withdrawal of the printed circuit card.

Abstract: A shielded module support structure for printed circuit boards 2 can be inserted on guide rail 7 and having electrical or electronic components has two parallel side walls 3 and at least four module rails 4 for bearing the guide rails 7. The module rails are anodized aluminum or an anodized aluminum alloy and have, at the front side, at least one seating surface 12 for one or more front plates 9, to improve electrical conductivity, sections of the module rails 4 are freed from the anodized layer. This can be done by removal of protrusions 18 by processes such as mechanical milling. For improved contacting, resilient contact bands 19 may be snapped onto the rails 4 into engagement with the bared seating surfaces 12. The resilient contact bands include sharp-edged breakouts 22 for conductive engagement with plates 9 for effecting a shielded enclosure about the circuit boards 2.

Abstract: A contact element having at least one leaf spring 2,3 has a U-shaped contact means 6, the two U-legs 8,9 of which taper towards their ends and can be elastically deformed with respect to each other. This contact element 1 is introduced into a guide groove 22 of a guide rail 13 of a module support structure or the like. The leaf springs 2,3 thereby contact a printed circuit board which can be inserted into the module support structure and the contact means 6, together with guide rail 13, can be clamped in a positioning hole 15 of a module rail 16 of the module support structure to thereby establish electrical contact with the module rail 16. In this manner, the interfering effect of an anodized layer on the module rail 16 is circumvented.

Abstract: A module support structure is proposed for printed circuit boards which can be inserted on guide rails. The four parallel module rails of the module support structure to which the guide rails are mounted are connected to the two parallel side walls via a special mounting technique. Specially shaped mounting bolts are used with a head bolt having a flat seating surface, a substantially cylindrical threaded shaft, as well as a transition piece disposed between the bolt head and the threaded shaft and tapering in a conical manner towards the threaded shaft. The mounting bolts are fed through cylindrical mounting holes in the module rails. During tightening, the transition piece abuts against the outer edge of the mounting holes to force the module rails against the projections disposed above or below the mounting holes. In this manner, an exact positioning of the module rails relative to the side walls is necessarily effected.

Abstract: A shielded module support structure 1 for printed circuit boards 2 which can be inserted on guide rails 7 and having electrical or electronic components is proposed comprising at least four module rails 4 for mounting the guide rails 7. The printed circuit boards 2 are assembled into plug-in modules 10, each having a front plate 9, wherein the front plates 9 are attached to a threaded-hole-strip using screws, the threaded-hole-strips seating in a groove 11, opening towards the front side of the module support structure 1, in the front module rail 4. In order to assure shielding of the module support structure 1 against interfering radio frequency fields, the front plates 9 are contacted with the module rails 4 using specially formed resilient contact bands 15 which can be snapped onto a seating surface 12 of the module rails 4.

Abstract: A paper sheet cassette includes a rotatable guide shaft and a leaf spring secured at one end to the shaft. A pressure plate secured to the shaft receives a stack of paper sheets and is resiliently urged against a feed roll by the spring. The spring and pressure plate are settable to different angular positions to adjust the pressure of the stack against the feed roll and to permit the stack to be placed on the plate.