JPH0318283B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improved switching mechanism for a connector such as a jack or connector, and more particularly to an improved switching mechanism for a connector having at least one set of movable and fixed contacts.

In the conventional switch mechanism of this type of connector, each contact piece is engaged and fixed in each engagement groove formed in a contact piece holding member made of an insulating material using the elasticity of the material. Therefore, it is usually held by a contact piece holding member.

Therefore, it is difficult to continuously mold each contact piece, mold the contact piece holding member, and assemble each contact piece into the contact piece holding member on the same line, and it is difficult to hold multiple contact pieces. However, automation of the production of contact piece holding members has not made it easy to achieve this goal. For this reason, at least each contact piece is generally assembled manually into the contact piece holding member, but when such manual work is done, the accuracy may vary depending on the skill level of the operator. In addition, there is a risk that inconvenient situations such as discoloration of the plated surface of the contact piece due to dirt during handling of the contact piece and contact failure may occur.

In addition, since the contact piece is simply engaged and fixed with the contact piece holding member, there is a risk that the contact piece may become loose due to manufacturing or assembly errors or during long-term use. There was a problem above.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and includes a passage through which a connected body passes, a movable contact piece that contacts the terminal portion of the connected body in this passage, and a fixed piece corresponding to the movable contact piece. In a switch mechanism for a connector equipped with a contact piece, the present invention aims to automate the manufacturing of a contact piece holding member equipped with the contact piece, and to provide an inexpensive switch mechanism that always ensures a certain level of precision. , the gist of which is that at least one set of the movable contact piece and the fixed contact piece are arranged so as to be shifted laterally so that they do not overlap each other in the movable direction of the movable contact piece in the unfolded state of each contact piece. , the embedded portions of each of the contact pieces are embedded and held in a contact piece holding member made of an insulating material, at least a part of which forms at least a part of the side wall of the connector, and the non-embedded portion of the movable contact piece is held embedded. By bending, the contact portion of the movable contact piece that contacts the object to be connected protrudes into the passage through which the object to be connected passes, and the non-embedded portion of at least one of the contact pieces is bent. By doing so, the contact portions connecting both of the contact pieces are made to face each other in the movable direction of the movable contact piece.

Hereinafter, one embodiment will be explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

This embodiment relates to a switch mechanism of a jack, that is, a switch mechanism of a connector configured to be operated by inserting and removing a plug.

The jack shown in FIG. 1 includes at least a box-shaped jack body main body 1 having a plug insertion tube 2 on the front wall, and a flat plate-like contact piece holding member 3 that is engaged and fixed to the upper opening of the body main body 1. , two sets of fixed contact pieces 4, 5 that are moved toward and away from each other by inserting and removing the plug 10.
and a switch mechanism equipped with movable contact pieces 6 and 7. Incidentally, the jack body main body 1 and the contact piece holding member 3 are both molded from an insulating resin material.

The contact piece holding member 3 includes first and second fixed contact pieces 4, 5 and first, second and third movable contact pieces 6, 7,
8 is inserted and is integrally molded with resin, and is manufactured by the following process.

That is, first, as shown in FIG. 3, a single metal plate is punched out, and the contact pieces 4 to 8 are partially connected to each other and arranged on the same plane without overlapping. A contact piece gathering plate 9 having an arranged shape is obtained.
In this case, relatively shallow bending or protrusion processing is performed as necessary to the extent that the flatness of the contact piece assembly plate 9 is not impaired. For example, in this example:
Contact portions 6a, 7 of the first and second movable contact pieces 6, 7
The tip portion of a is processed to protrude to form contact portions 6d and 7d that protrude slightly downward.

Next, both surfaces of the contact piece assembly plate 9 are hoop-plated with a highly conductive material such as silver. However, if a plating material or a clad material is used as the metal plate, such a plating step is not necessary.

Then, the contact piece assembly plate 9 is attached to the embedded portion, that is, the contact portions 4a to 8a of each contact piece 4 to 8 and the terminal portion 4.
The conductive parts 4c to 8c between the conductive parts b to 8b and the connecting parts 9a between the base ends of the contact parts of the first contact pieces 4, 6 and the second contact pieces 5 and 7 are each connected to upper and lower molds (not shown). The contact piece holding member 3 is formed by injecting a resin material into the cavity while holding the contact piece holding member 3 horizontally in a state in which it is located in a cavity between the two.

After that, unnecessary parts of the contact piece collecting plate 9 (the parts hatched with chain lines in FIG. 3) 9b, 9b...
At the same time, each connecting portion 9c between the tips of the contact portions of the first contacting pieces 4, 6 and the second contacting pieces 5, 7 and each connecting portion 9a are separated. A contact piece holding member 3 is obtained in which pieces 4 to 8 are embedded and held in a state where they are each independently separated (see FIG. 4).
Although each of the connecting portions 9a is embedded in the resin layer, the cutting and separation thereof is performed using a through hole 3 for introducing a punching tool formed in the resin layer on the upper and lower surfaces of each connecting portion 9a.
This is done by punching using parts a and 3b.

Then, a part of the non-embedded portion of each contact piece 4 to 8 is bent to form a contact portion for forming a jack circuit. That is, the contact portions 6a, 7a, 8a of each movable contact piece 6, 7, 8 are bent downward into a dogleg shape, and the contact portions 4a, 5a of each fixed contact piece 4, 5 are bent into corresponding Contact portions 6d of movable contact pieces 6, 7,
7d downward in an S-shape, each movable contact piece 6,
The contact portions 6a, 7a, 8a of 7 and 8 are located below the lower surface of the contact piece holding member 3 by a predetermined amount, that is, the plug 10
each movable contact piece 6, 7.
The contact portions 6d and 7d are brought into elastic contact with the contact portions 4d and 5d, which are the tips of the contact portions 4a and 5a of the fixed contact pieces 4 and 5, respectively.

Furthermore, terminal portions 4b to 8b of each contact piece 4 to 8
are bent downward from the left and right side surfaces of the contact piece holding member 3, respectively.

In this way, each of the contact pieces 4 to 4 as shown in FIG.
8 is embedded and held in the contact piece holding member 3.

This contact piece holding member 3 engages itself with the engaging portions 1a and 1b formed on the upper surface of the main body 1, and also engages with the terminal portions 4b to 8b of each of the contact pieces 4 to 8.
By engaging the engaging recesses 4e to 8e formed in the respective engaging parts (not shown) formed on the left and right side surfaces of the body main body 1, the contact portions 6a, 7a, 8a of each movable contact piece are The plug contact portion, which is a bent portion of the plug, is engaged and fixed to the upper opening of the main body 1 while protruding into the plug insertion path. That is, the contact piece holding member 3 forms a part of the side wall of the jack together with the main body 1. The contact portions 4d, 5d of the fixed contact pieces 4, 5 are supported by respective receiving support portions 1c, 1d formed on the main body 1.

In a jack having such a configuration, when the plug 10 is inserted from the plug insertion tube 2, the first, second, and third movable contact pieces are attached to the tip portion 10a, ring portion 10b, and ground portion 10c of the plug 10, respectively. The contact portions 6a, 7a, 8a of the first and second movable contact pieces 6, 7 are in contact with each other, and the contact portions 6d of the first and second movable contact pieces 6, 7,
7d is the contact part 4 of the first and second fixed contact pieces 4 and 5
d and 5d (see Fig. 1).

If the configuration is as in the above embodiment, the steps of obtaining the contact piece assembly plate 9 from one metal plate, injection molding the contact piece holding member 3 with the contact piece assembly plate 9 inserted, and the contact piece assembly are performed. Bend the plate 9 into a predetermined shape,
Since the process of obtaining the separated contact pieces 4 to 8 can be performed continuously on the same line, each contact piece 4 to 8 can be obtained continuously on the same line.
8 can be easily manufactured automatically. Therefore, the manual work required in the past is not required, and the production of the contact wall holding member 3, as well as the production of the entire jack, can be carried out extremely efficiently, and an inexpensive jack can be provided. can. Furthermore, the various inconveniences caused by manual work as described at the beginning are not caused.

In addition, since each contact piece 4 to 8 is embedded and held in the contact piece holding member 3, each contact piece 4 to 8 is extremely strong compared to the case where each contact piece is engaged and fixed as in the past. Therefore, there is no risk that the contact pieces 4 to 8 will be unintentionally shaken. Furthermore, as described above, by bending each contact piece 4 to 7 after embedding it in the contact piece holding member 3, the relative positional accuracy of each contact piece 4 to 8 can be greatly improved. can.

Furthermore, unlike in the past, it is not necessary to form an engaging part for engaging each contact piece, which means that it is necessary to make the resin layer thicker than necessary in order to secure the engaging part. Since there are no holes, the jack can be made smaller and thinner. Also,
The contact piece holding member 3 also functions as the upper wall of the jack body, thereby reducing the number of parts.

In addition, the terminal portions 4b to 8b of each contact piece 4 to 8 are
Contact piece holding member 3 attached to the upper surface of the body main body 1
Since it hangs down from the base, it also has the advantage of ensuring sufficient space to prevent flux from entering.

The structure of the jack according to the present invention is the same as the above-mentioned No. 1.
The present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and may be configured as follows, for example.

That is, in the second embodiment shown in FIG.
(not shown). In this way, the contact portions 4d and 5d of each fixed contact piece 4 and 5 and the movable contact piece 6,
7 and the contact surfaces of the movable contact pieces 6, 7, and 8 with the plug 10 are both the third
Since this is one side, that is, the bottom surface of the contact piece assembly plate 9 shown in the figure, if an expensive conductive material such as silver is plated, only one side of the contact piece assembly plate 9 (or metal plate) should be plated. Just plating is enough, and the plating cost can be significantly reduced.

By the way, in the first and second embodiments, the contact portions 4d, 5d of the fixed contact pieces 4, 5 are received and supported by the respective receiving support portions 1c, 1d formed on the body main body 1. , contact portion 6 of movable contact pieces 6, 7
Due to the elastic contact action of d and 7d, the contact portion 4
d, 5d from being accidentally displaced downward, the receiving support portions 1c, 1d are not formed on the body main body 1, and a corresponding support piece portion (Fig. (not shown) may be formed on the contact piece holding member 3.

Further, in the third embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the tips of the contact portions 4a, 5a of each of the fixed contact pieces 4, 5 are bent downward into an L-shape, so that each of the fixed contact pieces 4, 5 is The contact portions 4d and 5d are the contact portions 6d and 7 of each movable contact piece 6 and 7.
It is configured to be orthogonal to d (the second
(The fixed contact piece 5 is not shown). In this way, the rigidity of the contact portions 4d, 5d of the fixed contact pieces 4, 5 can be greatly improved compared to the cases in the first and second embodiments, so that the receiving support portion It is not necessary to provide anything corresponding to 1c, 1d and the support piece, and there is an advantage that the shape of the body main body 1 or the contact piece holding member 3 can be made simpler.

Further, in the fourth embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, the contact piece holding members 13 are each shaped like a flat plate.
A first contact piece holding member piece 13a in which the first fixed contact piece 14 and the first movable contact piece 16 are embedded and held, and a second contact piece holding member piece 13a in which the second fixed contact piece 15 and the second movable contact piece 17 are embedded and held. Metal connecting pieces 20, 20 are attached to the contact piece holding member piece 13b and both the contact piece holding member pieces 13a, 13b...
The plug insertion cylinder 12 is connected to the third contact piece holding member piece 13c in which the third movable contact piece 18 is embedded and held, and is configured in a U-shape.
Jack body body 11 with an open top housing
First and second contact piece holding member pieces 13a, 13 are provided on the inner surfaces of the left and right side walls 11a, 11b of the body main body 11.
b are incorporated in a state in which they are brought into polymerization contact with each other.
In this case, the third contact piece holding member 13c forms the side wall of this jack together with the main body 11. Note that each connecting piece 20 is also constructed as a part of a contact piece. With such a configuration, the left and right side walls 11a, 11b of the body main body 11 and the first and second
Since the contact piece holding member pieces 13a and 13b are overlapped, the rigidity of the jack body is greatly improved. Further, although the contact piece holding member 13 is U-shaped, after being formed into a flat plate shape as shown in FIG.
Since it can be easily assembled into a U-shape by bending each connecting piece 20, the manufacturing process can be automated as in each of the embodiments described above. In this embodiment, the contact piece assembly plate 19 is punched and formed into a shape as shown in FIG. 9, and each contact piece holding member piece is 13a, 13b, 1
3c is injection molded, and then each unnecessary part (the part hatched with a chain line in Fig. 9) 19b, 19
b.... and each connecting portion 19 between the contact pieces.
After cutting off each of a and 19c, each contact piece 14 to 18
Contact portions 14a to 18a and terminal portions 14b to
18b is bent into a predetermined shape to manufacture the contact piece holding member 13 in the unfolded shape as shown in FIG. In this case, each connecting piece 20 is constructed from a part of each contact piece, but it goes without saying that the connecting piece 20 may be a metal piece separate from the contact piece or a resin film.

In the fourth embodiment, the body main body 11 and the contact piece holding member 13 are constructed separately, but FIGS.
In the fifth embodiment shown in FIG. 12, the side wall of the jack is composed only of the contact piece holding member 13. That is, as shown in FIG. 11, the third contact piece holding member piece 13c and the front wall body 21 having the plug insertion tube 22 are integrally connected to each other in a hanging manner at the front end of the third contact piece holding member piece 13c. Connect the wall 21 to each contact piece 1
4 to 18 are inserted, and the first and second contact piece holding members 13a, 13b are folded downward via each connecting piece 20, and each engagement formed on the second contact piece holding member piece 13b. By engaging the claws 13d with respective engaging recesses 13e formed in the first contact piece holding member piece 13a, it is possible to assemble the jack as shown in FIG. 10. With such a configuration, it is possible to easily automate the manufacture of the entire jack, and the jack can be assembled extremely easily by folding. In addition, in each of the fourth and fifth embodiments, the first, second and third movable contact pieces 16, 17, 1
Reference numerals 8 are operated in contact with the tip portion 10a, ring portion 10b, and ground portion 10c of the plug 10, respectively.

Further, in the fifth embodiment, the third contact piece holding member piece 13c and the front wall body 21 may be constructed separately, and the two pieces 13c and 21 may be connected by a connecting piece. Yes (not shown).
By doing so, each member 13, 21 can be molded from a material that is optimal for its function. For example, in order to prevent wear due to insertion and removal of the plug 10, the front wall body 21 is molded of a material with excellent wear resistance, and on the other hand, each contact piece holding member piece 13a, 13b provided with a contact piece, 13c seems to be made of a material with excellent heat resistance.

Furthermore, in the sixth embodiment shown in FIG. 13, a jack in which the first and second fixed contact pieces 24, 25 and the first, second and third movable contact pieces 26, 27, 28 are embedded and held. A front wall body 21 having a plug insertion tube 22 is integrally erected at the front end of the contact piece holding member 23 serving as a side wall, thereby forming a jack. With this configuration, the jack can be manufactured in a completed state, and an extremely inexpensive jack can be provided. Of course, the molding of each of the contact pieces 24 to 28 and the molding of the contact piece holding member 23 including the front wall body 21 can be performed in the same manner as in each of the embodiments described above.

In each of the first to sixth embodiments described above, a jack is used as the connector, but the connector to which the present invention is applied may be any other connector such as the following connector for connecting a printed circuit board. It may be hot.

That is, the connector shown in FIG. 14 includes a contact holding member 33 made of an insulating material, in which a fixed contact piece 31 and a movable contact piece 32 that is always in contact with the fixed contact piece 31 are arranged in parallel and held embedded. and a connector main body 35 made of an insulating material that forms a passage for a printed circuit board as a connected object, that is, an insertion hole 34 between the member 33. When a printed circuit board 36 is inserted into the insertion hole 34, each movable contact The contact portion 32a of the piece 32 is separated from the contact portion 31a of the corresponding fixed contact piece 31, and the contact portion 32a of each movable contact piece 32 is configured to be brought into contact with each pattern 36a of the printed circuit board 36. ing. The contact piece holding member 33 has each contact piece 31, 31...,
32, 32, . . . are inserted into resin molding in the same manner as in the previous embodiments, and together with the connector main body 35 constitute the side wall of this connector. In other words, a single metal plate is punched out and the first
A contact piece overlapping plate 39 having a shape as shown in Fig. 5 is formed,
The contact piece holding member 33 is injection molded with the embedded part of the contact piece collection plate 39 located in the cavity (Fig. 15), and then the unnecessary parts hatched with chain lines in Fig. The first connecting portion 3 connects the tips of the contact portions 31a of the fixed contact piece 31.
9a and the second connecting portion 39b connecting the tips of the terminal portions 32b of each movable contact piece 32, and the third connecting portion 3 connecting the respective contact pieces 31, 32 to each other.
9c, 39c... and each contact piece 31, 32
are each independently separated (Figures 16 and 17),
Furthermore, the contact pieces 31a, 32 of each contact piece 31, 32
a and the terminal portions 31b and 32b are bent as shown in FIG. Note that each of the third connecting portions 39c is cut and removed using through holes 3a and 3b for introducing a punching tool formed on the upper and lower sides thereof. In this way, the same effects as those of the above-mentioned embodiments can be achieved in terms of manufacturing and precision of the connector, but the effect is even more significant, especially since the connector has a large number of contact pieces.

By the way, in the seventh embodiment, the connector main body 35 is molded separately from the contact piece holding member 33,
Although both 33 and 35 are integrated by heat welding after molding to assemble the connector, as shown in the fourth or fifth embodiment, these two 33 and 35 are formed as part of a contact piece assembly plate. It is also possible to form the connector in an expanded state connected via connecting pieces such as , etc., and then assemble the connector by folding the molded parts. Furthermore, if the connector main body 35 is also configured to hold a contact piece embedded in the same way as the contact piece holder 33, a connector using a printed circuit board with patterns formed on both sides can be obtained. Further, the contact portion 31a of each fixed contact piece 31 is bent as shown by the chain line in FIG. may be configured.

As can be easily understood from the above explanation, according to the present invention, each contact piece is punched from the same metal plate,
It can be formed by bending, and
These processes and the molding of the contact piece holding member that holds each contact piece can be performed continuously on the same line, making it easy to automate the production of the contact piece holding member that holds multiple contact pieces embedded. It can be realized.

Therefore, the contact piece holding member and the switch mechanism can be efficiently manufactured without causing the inconveniences associated with manual work as in the past, and an inexpensive switch mechanism can be provided.

Furthermore, since at least a part of the contact piece holding member in which the contact piece is embedded constitutes at least a part of the side wall of the connector, the wall thickness of this side wall can be made larger than necessary compared to the case where the engaging part of the contact piece is formed on the side wall. This eliminates the need to increase the thickness of the connector, contributing to miniaturization of the connector.

Furthermore, since the contact piece holding member also serves as a part of the side wall of the connector, it is possible to reduce the number of parts and reduce costs.

Furthermore, since the embedded part of the movable contact piece is embedded and held in the contact piece holding member, and only the contact part of the movable contact piece with the object to be connected protrudes into the passage of the object to be connected, the movable contact piece is strong. The movable contact piece is fixed to the object to be connected, so that there is no deviation in the movable range of the contact portion of the movable contact piece with the object to be connected. Therefore, the reliability of the contact between the movable contact piece and the object to be connected can be maintained at a high level at all times.

Moreover, since each contact piece is embedded and held in the contact piece holding member, there is no need to manually incorporate each contact piece into the contact piece holding member, and this together with the fact that the switch mechanism has excellent accuracy. can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 to 4 show an embodiment of a jack equipped with a switch mechanism according to the present invention. Figure 1 is a vertical side view of the jack with a plug inserted, and Figure 2 is FIG. 3 is a plan view of the contact piece assembly plate, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional plan view of the contact piece holding member showing the state in which each contact piece is expanded, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of the contact piece holding member. FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional side view of the main parts of the switch mechanism showing the second embodiment, and FIG.
FIGS. 7 to 9 show the fourth embodiment, FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the jack, and FIG. FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the contact piece holding member in the unfolded state, FIG. Fig. 10 is a perspective view showing the assembled state of the jack, Fig. 11 is a perspective view showing the state before the jack is assembled, and Fig. 12 is a perspective view showing the jack in its assembled state.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the main parts viewed from a different angle.
FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a jack showing a sixth embodiment, and FIGS. 14 to 17 show an embodiment of a connector equipped with a switch mechanism according to the present invention. Vertical side view of connector, 1st
5 is a cross-sectional plan view of the contact piece holding member showing a state in which the contact piece assembly plate is embedded and held; FIG. 16 is a partially cutaway plan view of the contact piece holding member showing a state in which each contact piece is expanded; FIG. 17 is a longitudinal sectional side view of the same. 3, 13, 23, 33, 43... contact piece holding member, 4, 5, 14, 15, 24, 25, 33, 4
5, 46...Fixed contact piece, 4a, 5a, 6a, 7
a, 8a, 31a, 32a...Contact part (non-embedded part), 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b, 8b, 31b,
32b, 44c, 45b, 46b...terminal part (non-embedded part), 4c, 5c, 6c, 7c, 8c...
Conductive part (embedded part), 4d, 5d, 6d, 7d, 1
4a, 14b, 15a, 16a... contact portion, 6,
7, 8, 16, 17 (8, 26, 27, 28, 3
2, 44...Movable contact piece, 9, 19, 39, 49...
...Touch piece collection plate, 9a, 9c, 39c, 49b...
Connection part, 10...Plug.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Having a passage through which the connected object passes,
In the switch mechanism of the connector, which includes a movable contact piece that contacts the terminal portion of the connected object in this passage and a fixed contact piece corresponding to the movable contact piece, at least one set of the movable contact piece and the fixed contact piece is provided. ,
Contact pieces made of insulating material that are arranged laterally so as not to overlap each other in the movable direction of the movable contact pieces in the unfolded state, and at least a part of which forms at least a part of the side wall of the connector. By causing the holding member to embed and hold the embedded portions of each of the contact pieces and bending the non-embedded portions of the movable contact pieces,
The contact portion of the movable contact piece that contacts the object to be connected projects into the passage through which the object to be connected passes, and the non-embedded portion of at least one of the contact pieces is bent. 1. A switch mechanism for a connector, characterized in that contact portions connecting the pieces are opposed in the moving direction of the movable contact piece. 2. The switch mechanism for a connector according to claim 1, wherein the movable contact piece and the fixed contact piece are formed by punching from the same metal plate. 3. The switch mechanism for a connector according to claim 1, wherein the contact portion of the fixed contact piece is bent in a direction perpendicular to the contact portion of the movable contact piece. 4. The switch mechanism for a connector according to claim 1, wherein the contact portion of the fixed contact piece is supported by a support piece portion formed on the contact piece holding member.