In the past, electronic components, such as acceleration sensors or electronic control units of motor vehicles, which had to be mounted in a predefined position or orientation, were typically fastened with the aid of two or more screws which were screwed through parallel cylindrical steel sleeves inserted in a plastic housing of the component into corresponding screw holes of a retention plate of the vehicle body used for fastening. For these components, the housing was additionally frequently provided with a molded plastic pin, which was inserted into a corresponding additional hole of the retention plate for the purpose of temporarily fixing the components during the mounting operation, but only fulfilled a subordinate function for the duration of the mounting operation.
Because fastening electronic components of this type using a single screw has been increasingly requested for reasons of cost, the housing of the electronic components has been provided with one or two more robust molded plastic pegs in the place of the plastic pin only used for temporary fixing, which were inserted into complementary holes of the retainer before the screws were screwed into the screw hole, to ensure defined positioning of the component in relation to the retainer and prevent twisting of the component during tightening of the screws.
Recently, it has additionally been requested that the electronic components be engaged with the retainer before the screws are screwed in to allow one-handed mounting of the components. For this catch function, the plastic pegs molded onto the housing, which have only been used as a positioning aid and antirotation device up to this point, may be replaced by fastening clips, as are already used in the motor vehicle sector for other purposes, for example, for fastening door internal panels or similar components. These fastening clips typically have two parallel flexible catch pins situated at a distance from one another and projecting beyond the component, whose free ends are provided with projecting catch lugs on their exterior sides facing away from one another and are pressed together as the catch lugs pass through an appropriately dimensioned opening, before the catch lugs engage behind an edge of the opening on diametrically opposing points after their passage through the opening.
However, the use of fastening clips of this type has disadvantages. Firstly, fastening clips of this type have a relatively low drop resistance, so that one or both catch pins commonly break off as a result of shocks or impacts during transport and mounting, resulting in either the entire electronic component becoming unusable or at least its mounting being made significantly more difficult. Secondly, fastening clips of this type have lower positioning precision than rigid pegs because of the elastic flexibility and the smaller cross-sectional dimensions of the catch pins. Finally, their function as an antirotation device may also be impaired if an excessively high torque is exerted on the component as the screws are tightened, which may result in shearing off of one or even both catch pins of the fastening clip as a result of the smaller cross-sectional dimensions of the catch pins in comparison to rigid pegs.
Proceeding therefrom, the exemplary embodiments and/or exemplary methods of the present invention is based on the objective of improving a fastener of the type cited at the beginning in such a way that it has greater drop and shear resistance and ensures greater positioning precision during mounting.