JPH0161236B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a novel connector, a method for connecting conductors to the connector, and a tool used therefor.

A cable consisting of multiple conductors buried parallel to each other and isolated within a flexible sheet of electrical insulation is generally called a "flat ribbon cable" and is widely used in computers, communication equipment, etc. Used in electrical circuits.

In view of the purpose of use, some of these flat ribbon cables have a signal transmission conductor and a grounding conductor buried adjacently within a flexible electrically insulating sheet.

This installation particularly relates to a connector of this kind, which allows a plurality of signal transmission conductors and a ground conductor of a cable to be connected by crimping.

Conventionally, when connecting this type of flat ribbon cable with a buried signal conductor and ground conductor to a connector, the tips of the signal conductor and ground conductor are exposed from the insulating sheet of the cable, and the signal conductor and ground conductor are connected to each other. For example, the conductors are soldered to the corresponding connection parts of a relay printed circuit board provided inside the connector, and one end of the corresponding contact of the connector is further soldered to the connection part of the circuit board.

According to such conventional methods, it is extremely troublesome to connect a flat ribbon cable with a large number of signal conductors and ground conductors to a connector.
It is uneconomical as it requires skill and a lot of time. In addition, the size of conventional connectors of this type is large, and there are many problems and disadvantages when increasing the density due to the miniaturization of recent electronic devices.

The main object of the present invention is to eliminate the problems and disadvantages of the prior art as described above, and to provide a flat ribbon cable connector of the type described above, which is extremely easy to connect.

Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to connect a plurality of signal conductors and ground conductors of a flat ribbon cable to contacts of a connector by using a dedicated and simple crimping tool without soldering. Therefore, at the same time, with one touch,
The object of the present invention is to provide a connector that can be connected by crimp.

Another object of the invention is to provide a connector of the above-mentioned type, a method for connecting the same, and a crimping tool, which greatly saves the number of connection steps and is easy to work with.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a compact connector as described above with a high density arrangement of contacts.

The above-mentioned objects and other advantages of this invention will be more clearly explained in the following description.

Preferred embodiments of the connector of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a flat ribbon cable A that can be used with the connector of the present invention. In the sheet B made of a flexible electrical insulator of the flat ribbon cable A, a plurality of signal transmission conductors S and a grounding conductor G are arranged parallel to the longitudinal axis of the cable A at a predetermined distance from each other. They are buried at intervals. Note that each signal conductor S is combined with one ground conductor G on each side.

An embodiment of the connector of the invention for connecting such a flat ribbon cable A having a signal conductor S and a ground conductor G to a circuit is shown in FIG. The connector 10 includes a base 11 made of an electrical insulator, a signal conductor contact pin 12 attached to the base 11, and a ground conductor contact pin 13.
, a side cover 14 , and a cover 15 .

The base 11 is made of an insulator, and a signal conductor contact pin 12 and a ground contact pin 13 for the signal conductor S and ground conductor G of the flat ribbon cable A to be connected are inserted and fixed therein. It has an opening for the contact pins, and a recess 18 for exposing the legs 16, 17 of these contact pins. It is preferable that at least one side of the upper surface of the base 11 is formed into an inclined surface 19 as shown in FIG.

The signal conductor contact pins 12 are separate and independent metal members that are exposed in the recesses 18 of the base 11, as shown in FIG. A slightly thicker leg 16 that connects to the base 11 (not shown), a stem 20 that has the same thickness as the leg 16 that penetrates and fixes to the base 11, and a leg 16 that protrudes from the non-slanted plane of the base 11.
The wire connection portion 21 is made thinner than the wire connection portion 21. At one end of this connection section, that is, at the upper end, there is a connection section 21.
A single signal conductor crimping piece 22 is provided that projects outward from one side edge of the signal conductor.

The grounding contact pin 13 is exposed in the recess 18 of the base 11 and connects to the other element (not shown) of the connector to be connected, as shown in FIG. A pair of legs 17 extend above the upper end of the signal contact pin 12 at both ends thereof and are provided with a signal conductor crimping piece 22 similarly to the signal conductor contact pin 12; , and a horizontal bar portion 23 connecting at least one pair of legs 17, and a ground conductor crimping portion 24 is integrally formed with the horizontal bar portion 23 at equal intervals on this horizontal bar portion 23. Each ground conductor crimping portion 24 connects two ground conductors G interposed between adjacent signal conductors S.
It is for connecting the 2
The thin leaf protruding piece 25 is provided. Signal crimping piece 22 and ground conductor crimping part 2 of signal contact pin 12
The four protruding pieces 25 are attached to the base 11 so as to be on the same plane and facing the inclined surface 19 of the base 11.

As described above, the signal conductor S and the ground conductor G of the flat ribbon cable A are connected to the base 11 on which the signal conductor contact pin 12 and the ground contact pin 13 are mounted.

Next, the connection method will be explained. First, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of signal transmission conductors S and a pair of grounding conductors G on both sides of the conductors S are connected to a flexible sheet B made of an insulator.
Connect the end of the flat ribbon cable A to be connected to the connector, which is buried in the cable A, at the part C where the desired part is left from the leading edge of the flat ribbon cable A.
A cut is made in the insulating sheet B in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the cable A, and the end side D is pulled out from the cut portion C by a desired distance E in the longitudinal direction. Then, as shown in Fig. 1, the signal conductor S and the grounding conductor G, which had been buried in the sheet B, are exposed by a distance E by which the sheet B is separated, and the final ends of these conductors S and G are exposed. The portion remains on the end side D of the cable sheet. Therefore, the conductor S
The exposed portions E of and G can maintain the mutual spacing while being embedded in the sheet B of the cable A.

The cable A prepared in this way is placed on the side of the inclined surface 19 of the base 11, and the exposed conductor portion E of the cable A is placed in front of the connection portion 21 of the signal contact pin and the ground conductor crimping portion 24. So,
The end side D of the cable A is held so as to be placed on the inclined surface 19 of the base 11.

In order to hold the cable with conductors G and S partially exposed on the base 11, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.
It is convenient to use a dedicated cable clamp 30 as shown. cable clamp 30
consists of a main block 31 and a sub-block 32,
The main block 31 is placed on the flat upper surface of the base 11, and the connection portion 21 of the signal conductor contact pin 12 is placed on the flat top surface of the base 11.
and the horizontal bar portion 23 of the ground conductor contact pin 13
and an upper front edge 34 projecting forward from this support surface 33.
and. A signal conductor S is attached to this front edge 34.
and connect cable A with part of the grounding conductor G exposed. To this end, a part of the surface of the upper edge 34 of the main block 31 is provided with a wavy surface 35 that matches the wavy outline of the cable formed by both conductors G and S embedded in the cable A. is preferred. After applying cable A as mentioned above,
A sub-block 32 is mounted opposite the upper front edge 34 of the main block 31 so as to sandwich the cable A therebetween. For this purpose, stud bolts 36 are provided at both ends of the main block 31, and openings 37 of sufficient size to pass the bolts 36 are provided at corresponding positions at both ends of the sub-block 32. There is. After passing the opening 37 of the sub block 32 through the stud 36, the ribbon cable A is precisely inserted into both the main and sub blocks 31, by screwing a thumbscrew or other suitable handle 38 into the threaded portion of the stud 36. It can be clamped between 32 and 32. Note that in order to clamp the ribbon cable A as described above, the upper front edge 34 of the main block 31 of the sub-block 32 is
Ribbon cable A is attached to the side facing the corrugated surface 35 of
A notch recess 39 corresponding to the thickness of is provided,
Preferably, its surface is a wavy surface that matches the wavy profile of the ribbon cable A, as described above.

Upper block 3 of secondary block 32 which cooperates with main block 31 to hold flat ribbon cable A
The portion facing the contact pin support surface 33 of 1 contacts the exposed conductor portion E of the cable A held between the blocks 31 and 32 with the connection portion 21 and the horizontal bar portion 23 of the contact pins 12 and 13. In order to guide it into position, it is provided with a guide portion 40 that projects inwardly, as shown in FIG.

As described above, using the cable clamp 30 on the base 11, the exposed portion E of the signal conductor S of the flat ribbon cable A is connected to the portion adjacent to the crimp piece 22 of the connection portion 21 of the signal contact pin 12. , and two adjacent ground conductors G are disposed between the protruding pieces 25 of the respective ground conductor crimping portions 24 of the horizontal bar portion 23 connecting the grounding contact pins 13. While holding the conductors S and G together with the crimp piece 22 and the protruding piece 25,
Crimp-connect the conductors G and S below the connection point.
Cut off unnecessary parts. It is desirable to use a crimping and cutting tool 45, an example of which is shown in FIG. 7, for crimping and cutting the conductor.

The crimping cutting tool 45 has an upper grounding conductor crimping block 46 formed of metal or a hard material, a lower signal conductor crimping block 47, and both blocks 4.
6 and 47, and a signal conductor cutting blade 49 which is movably mounted below the signal conductor crimping block 47.

The front end edge of the grounding conductor crimping block 46 has two protruding pieces 25 which are bent inwardly and open into a divergent shape when the block 46 is pressed in the direction of the grounding conductor crimping part 24. A guide groove 50 formed in a W shape is provided so that the grounding conductor G is crimped onto the grounding conductor crimping portion 24 . The grounding conductor cutting blade 48 is a comb having a cutting edge 51 at a position corresponding to the guide groove 50 of the grounding conductor crimping block 46 in order to cut only the exposed grounding conductor G extending downward from the crimping part 24. It is in the shape of a tooth.

The front end edge of the signal conductor crimping block 47 is provided with a crimp piece 22 of the signal conductor that protrudes when the block 47 is pressed in the direction of the connection portion 21 of the signal contact pin, and is folded inward to secure the signal conductor S. A guide groove 52 formed in a semicircular shape is provided so as to be crimped onto the wire connection portion 21 .

The signal conductor cutting blade 49 is the signal conductor crimping piece 2
It is for cutting the exposed signal conductor S extending downward from 2 and can have a single blade.

Note that the cutting edge 51 of the grounding conductor cutting blade 48 and the cutting edge of the signal conductor cutting blade 49 are both held at a position retracted from the deepest part of the respective guide grooves 50 and 52 when cutting the conductors G and S. It is designed so that it can move so as to protrude in the direction of the cutting edge.

In order to operate the crimp-cutting tool 45, it is convenient to incorporate it into a suitable device and to operate it electrically or mechanically.

Now, as described above, the grounding conductor G and signal conductor S of the flat ribbon cable A are crimped to the connection portion 21 at the portion E exposed from the sheet B using the crimping cutting tool 45. piece 22,
By crimping the ground conductor to the crimped portion 24 and the protruding piece 25, and cutting the conductor portions extending downward from the crimped portion using the cutting blades 48 and 49, the remainder including the end side D of the ribbon cable is removed. falls along the slope 19 of the base 11 under its own weight and is removed.

At this point, actuate the handle 38 to remove the main block 31 and the sub-block 3 of the cable clamp 30.
2 are dismantled and removed from the base 11, the side covers 14 and 15 are attached, and the base 11 and the side covers 14, 15 are fixed to each other using appropriate means such as adhesive. .

It is preferable that the cover 14 is provided with an inwardly bulging portion 55 (FIG. 2) in a portion that contacts the horizontal bar portion 23 of the grounding contact pin. This bulging portion 55 is formed by pressing and bending the horizontal bar portion 23 of the grounding contact pin inward when assembling the connector, and connecting the crimp portion 24 of the grounding conductor G to the connection portion 2 of the signal conductor S.
1 to ensure proper isolation of the exposed portions of both conductors.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above in detail, the present invention can be implemented by making various changes to the constituent features described in the claims. For example, a row of signal conductor contact pins 12 and ground conductor contact pins 13 are arranged on the base 11.
Instead of arranging the pins 12 and 13, the sets of pins 12 and 13 may be arranged in two rows facing each other.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing the end of a flat ribbon cable used in the connector of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a side sectional view showing the completed assembly state after the cable is crimped and connected to the connector of the invention; Fig. 3 is a side view of a signal conductor contact pin, Fig. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a grounding conductor contact pin, and Fig. 5 is a plan view showing a section of a part of the cable clamp used for connection work of the connector of the present invention. 6 is a side sectional view along the line - in FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the crimp cutting tool. The relationship between the symbols and constituent elements in the drawings is as follows. A...Flat ribbon cable, B...Sheet, C...Notch, D...End side, E...Conductor exposed portion, G...Grounding conductor, S...Signal conductor, 10... Connector, 11... Base, 12...
Contact pin for signal conductor, 13...Contact pin for ground conductor, 14...Side cover, 15...
... Cover, 19 ... Inclined surface of base, 21 ... Signal conductor contact pin connection part, 22 ... Signal conductor crimping piece, 23 ... Horizontal bar part, 24 ... Ground conductor crimping part, 25 ... Projecting piece, 30... cable clamp, 45... crimping/cutting tool, 55... inwardly bulging portion of cover.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. (a) A base made of an electrical insulator having a recess on one surface; (b) A leg fixed to the base and protruding into the recess and the other side of the base. (c) a plurality of signal conductor contact pins each having a connection portion protruding from the surface of the pin; a signal conductor crimping piece provided on the connection portion of the pin; and (c) a leg fixed to the base and protruding into the recess. and at least one pair of ground conductor contact pins extending from the other surface of the base to a position above the signal conductor crimp piece, and a horizontal bar connecting the ground conductor contact pins to each other at the upper position. and (d) a signal conductor and a ground conductor are buried in the signal conductor crimp piece of the signal conductor contact pin and the ground conductor crimp part. After placing a part of the conductor exposed from a flat ribbon cable consisting of A flat ribbon cable connector consisting of a cover member that is fixed to the flat ribbon cable. 2. The connector according to claim 1, wherein at least a part of the other surface of the base is an inclined surface. 3. The connector according to claim 1, wherein the ground conductor crimping portion is formed of two thin protruding pieces that open outward in a diverging shape. 4. Claim 2, wherein the signal conductor crimping piece and the protruding piece of the ground conductor crimping part are mounted so as to be on the same plane and facing the inclined surface side of the base. connector. 5. A cover that fixes the cover member to the base at least on the side where the signal conductor connection part does not have the crimp piece, and a side that fixes the cover member to the base on one side of the protruding side of the signal conductor crimp piece and the ground conductor crimp part. The connector according to claim 1, comprising a cover. 6. The connector according to claim 5, wherein the side cover is provided with a bulging portion for pressing and deflecting the ground conductor crimp portion. 7 (a) A base made of an electrical insulator having a recess on one surface; (b) A leg fixed to the base and protruding into the recess and a wire connection protruding from the other surface of the base. (c) a plurality of signal conductor contact pins comprising a plurality of contact pins for signal conductors, and a signal conductor crimping piece provided at the connection portion of the pins; (c) a leg portion fixed to the base and protruding into the recess; at least one pair of ground conductor contact pins extending from the other surface to a position above the signal conductor crimp piece; a horizontal bar portion connecting the ground conductor contact pins to each other at the above position; and the horizontal bar. When connecting a flat ribbon cable comprising a plurality of signal conductors and a ground conductor embedded in a flexible insulating sheet to a flat ribbon cable connector comprising a ground conductor crimping portion in a portion thereof, the above-mentioned steps are taken. A cut is made in the sheet near one end of the cable, and the sheet on the end side is pulled out from the cut part of the sheet to expose a part of the buried signal conductor and ground conductor. , disposing and holding the exposed portions of the signal conductor and the ground conductor on the signal conductor crimping piece and the ground conductor crimping portion, respectively; and pressing the crimping piece and the crimping portion to remove the exposed portions of the conductor. cutting off unnecessary exposed portions of the conductor exposed portion; fixing a cover and a side cover having a bulging portion to the base, and connecting the ground by the bulging portion of the side cover. A method of crimping a flat ribbon cable to the connector comprising deflecting the crimp portion of the conductor away from the location of the crimp piece of the signal conductor. (8) (a) a base made of an electrical insulator having a recess on one side; (b) a leg fixed to the base and protruding into the recess and a wire connection protruding from the other side of the base; (c) a plurality of signal conductor contact pins comprising a plurality of contact pins for signal conductors, and a signal conductor crimping piece provided at the connection portion of the pins; (c) a leg portion fixed to the base and protruding into the recess; at least one pair of ground conductor contact pins extending from the other surface to a position above the signal conductor crimp piece; a horizontal bar portion connecting the ground conductor contact pins to each other at the above position; and the horizontal bar. When connecting a flat ribbon cable comprising a plurality of signal conductors and a ground conductor embedded in a flexible insulating sheet to a flat ribbon cable connector comprising a ground conductor crimping portion in a portion thereof, the above-mentioned steps are taken. a cable clamp that supports the flat ribbon cable on the base and guides the cable so that the exposed portions of the signal conductor and the ground conductor are arranged and held in the signal conductor crimp piece and the ground conductor crimp part, respectively; a crimp block for a ground conductor and a crimp block for a signal conductor that are approached from one side of the cable clamp in order to press the crimp piece and the crimp portion to crimp the exposed conductor portion; and the ground conductor. A tool for crimping the cable to the connector, comprising a combination of a knife for cutting an unnecessary exposed part of the exposed part and a knife for cutting an unnecessary exposed part of the signal conductor exposed part.