JPH0487167A - Electric contact - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide possibility of using a material having good conductivity and processing easiness such as pure copper and permit both a receptacle (female) and tab (male) to be used for another purpose by furnishing both a male and a female contact with a contact part having detaining means substantially in the same form and with a connection part with a wire, etc. CONSTITUTION:An electric contact is fabricated from a relatively thick plate with good conductivity, for ex. pure Cu plate through punchoff and folding processes. The front end constitutes a contacting part 20 in the form of an approx. flat plate. To convert this electric contact into a female contact the contacting part 20 of the electric contact is enclosed and a resilient member 40 is formed. When this electric contact is intruded into the resilient member 40, a resilient tab 46 is fitted in an opening 22 in the contacting part 20 of the electric contact, and the electric contact and resilient member 40 are held stably. Thereby a male contact is provided while the electric contact is used as it is, and easy conversion can be made into a female contact by mounting the resilient member 40.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an electrical contact, particularly an electrical contact (contactor or terminal) suitable for a power supply connector through which a relatively large current flows.
Regarding.

[Conventional technology]

BACKGROUND ART Home appliances such as electric refrigerators and electric washing machines that flow relatively large currents, and electronic applied devices such as electronic computers and medical electronic devices require power sources that consume relatively large amounts of power and flow large currents.

Electrical connectors for interconnection between wires or conductors with a current capacity of several 1 OA to several 100 amps in such electrical/electronic equipment are generally made of a good conductor, such as copper, having a sufficiently large cross-sectional area.

A conventional electrical contact for relatively large currents is disclosed in US Pat. No. 3,976,348. That is, as shown in FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B), a substantially flat tab-shaped contact T is used for a glue septacle-shaped contact R made of an elastic metal such as phosphor bronze. The receptacle-shaped contact R has a cantilever-like elastic contact piece 4, and a locking protrusion 6 is cut and raised at its center contact portion, and a lock release portion 5 is formed at its free end. Further, on both sides of this contact piece 4, there is a substantially C-shaped contact member 2 having a side guide 9 and a pair of contact parts 3 on the outside thereof. The tab-shaped contact T has a substantially flat contact portion 11 having an opening 10 in the center. Although the other side of this contact T is omitted, it has, for example, a well-known wire connection part. When the tab-shaped contact T is fitted into the receptacle-shaped contact R,
As shown by the dotted line in No. 6 m(B), the tab-shaped contact T
is inserted between the contact piece 4, the side guide 9, and the pair of contact parts 3, and the locking protrusion 6 engages with the opening lO, so both contacts R and T are in the fitted state unless the lock release part 5 is pressed. maintain.

Furthermore, as another conventional electrical contact,
No. 72 and Utility Model Publication No. 2-20763 have been proposed. The former method simply involves inserting a flat tab-shaped contact into a box-shaped receptacle contact with a rectangular cross section. Here, the receptacle-type contact has a pair of cantilever-shaped elastic contact pieces (main leaf springs) rearward from the front end of the bottom surface, and also has a secondary leaf spring for "prying prevention" to prevent excessive deformation of the contact pieces. . The latter has a relatively low elasticity auxiliary elastic member attached to a pair of contact pieces with relatively low elasticity, and when a tab-shaped contact is inserted, the auxiliary spring member comes into contact with the side wall of the insulating housing to supplement the contact pressure of the contact pieces. This is a contact for large current.

[Problems solved by the invention]

However, all of the conventional electrical contacts described above have the following problems. That is, in the electrical contact disclosed in the above-mentioned US patent, it is necessary to use a highly elastic metal such as phosphor bronze for the receptacle type contact, and it is not possible to use a highly conductive and highly workable material such as pure copper. Can not. Regarding the last conventional example, although it is possible to use a contact made of a relatively low elastic material, a housing that engages with an elastic member is an essential condition. Furthermore, even more important than the drawbacks mentioned above, since the receptacle-type contacts and the tab-type contacts have different shapes, the manufacturing process is not only complicated and expensive, but also requires a large amount of material when punched from a metal plate. There was a problem in that scrap (punching residue) was generated and raw material usage efficiency was low.

Therefore, the present invention allows the use of a material such as pure copper that is a good conductor and has excellent workability, and can be locked in the mated state, and can be easily reloaded if necessary. (female) or tab (
The purpose is to provide highly efficient electrical contacts that can be used for both male and female types.

[Means for solving problems]

According to the electrical contact of the present invention, both the male and female contacts have a substantially flat plate shape with a contact portion having an engaging means of substantially the same shape and a connecting portion with a wire or the like. The male contact is used as is, and the female contact is a separate elastic (spring) member that is engaged with and integrated with the engaging means.

To manufacture such an electrical contact, a strip of a highly conductive metal such as a copper plate is placed in a staggered pattern (internested structure) with the contact area at the center and the wire connections on opposite sides.
This allows a large number of electrical contacts to be obtained from the metal strip (or metal stock) with minimal scrap of the metal strip. Since the metal strip has low elasticity, punching and bending is easier than in the case of elastic metal, and the workability is extremely good.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the electrical contact of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the basic form of an embodiment of an electric mount tact according to the present invention, with FIG. 1(A) being a top view and FIG. 1(B) being a side view. This electrical contact is manufactured by punching and bending a relatively thick, good conductor, such as a pure copper plate.

The front (fitting) end thereof is a substantially flat contact portion 20 . A taper 21 is formed at the frontmost end of this contact portion 20 to facilitate fitting and insertion with a mating contact. This taber end 21
A substantially rectangular opening 22 is formed at a position slightly apart from the opening 22 .

Ears 23 are formed on both rear sides of the contact portion 20. As will be described later, the opening 22 and the ear 23 constitute an engaging means.

The rear end of the electrical contact is formed with a connection 30, in this particular embodiment a wire crimp barrel 31 for wire crimping as is well known, and an insulating crimp barrel 32. The wire crimp barrel 31 is crimply connected to the conductor or core of a wire (not shown), while the insulating barrel 32 is crimply connected to the insulating sheath of the wire. A plurality of ribs 33 or embossments perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the electrical connector are formed on the base corresponding to the conductor barrel 31 to ensure crimp connection with the conductor of the wire. Such electrical contacts are stamped and formed at regular intervals on the long common carrier 35 for manufacturing convenience. Positioning holes 3 are located at positions corresponding to the electrical contacts of this common carrier 35.
6 are formed at regular intervals.

Figure 2 shows the contact part 2 of the electrical contact in order to convert the electrical contact in Figure 1 into a female type (receptacle) contact.
2 shows an elastic member 40 configured to cover 0. The same figure (A
) shows an end view, (B) shows a side view, and (C) shows a side sectional view. This elastic member 40 is preferably formed by bending a highly elastic material such as stainless steel, and has a bottom side 41, side walls 42, 4
3, and an upper wall 44. The center portion of the upper wall 44 is bent inward and has a pressing portion 45 for pressing a mating contact. A portion of the bottom wall 41 is slightly pushed inward (upward) and deformed, and a substantially central portion is cut and raised to form an inclined tongue piece 46. The vicinity of the rear ends of both side walls 42 and 43 are pressed inward (7 to form protrusions 47 and 48).

FIG. 3 shows a side view of a female electrical contact 50 in which the elastic member 40 of FIG. 2 is attached to the contact portion 20 of the electrical contact of FIG. The substantially flat contact portion 20 of the electrical contact shown in FIG. 1 is inserted from the rear end (right side) of the elastic member 40 shown in FIG. 2 toward the front end, with the tip 21 leading. The aforementioned protrusions 47 and 48 formed on both side walls 42 and 43 of the elastic member 40 have downwardly inclined guide surfaces as shown in FIG. 40 toward the bottom wall 41. When the electrical contact is pushed further into the resilient member 40, the resilient tongue 46 engages with the opening 22 of the contact portion 20 of the electrical contact, and the rear edges of the side walls 42, 43 of the resilient member 40 close to both sides of the electrical contact. It engages the ears 23 to stably hold the electrical contact and the elastic member 40. Therefore, the contact part 2 of the electrical contact
The opening 22 and both ears 23 serve as means for engaging the elastic member 40. - Once engaged, the elastic member 40 is held in that state. In other words, the electrical contact in FIG.
If used as is, it will become a female contact, and the elastic member 4
0 can be easily converted to a female contact.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the use of female electrical contacts T of FIG. 1 and female electrical contacts R of FIG. 3 to make interconnections between wires. A pair of wires 50 that are insulated strands
．． A female electrical contact T and a female electrical contact R are crimped and connected to the terminals 50', respectively. That is, wire 50, 50°
The insulating barrel 32.32' is crimped to the insulating coating 51.
]" are respectively crimped. Of course, the female electrical contact R engages and holds the elastic member 40 in the engagement means of the contact portion 20°.

Next, with reference to FIG. 5, a method for manufacturing the electrical contact shown in FIG. 1 will be briefly described. Since such electrical contacts are substantially similar to conventional tab or female contacts, they can be punched and folded at regular pitches from elongated metal stock. However, in one embodiment, the insulating barrel portion 32 is approximately 19111! l11 contact part 2
0 is approximately 6.3+am wide. Therefore, in conventional punching processes, electrical contacts are punched out at a pitch of approximately 20 mm, resulting in a large amount of scrap. Therefore, as shown in Figure 5,
A carrier strip is formed in a staggered or inter-nested manner on both sides of the metal stock, and the contact portion 20. ．． 20.
.

By overlapping 20s, , , , 2 On, it is possible to obtain twice as many electrical contacts as before with a pitch of approximately 21.6mm, which reduces scrap and increases metal stock usage efficiency. .

Although the electrical contacts of the present invention have been described above with reference to preferred embodiments, the present invention should not be limited to these specific embodiments, and it is understood that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the gist thereof. I can understand. For example, the contact portion 20 of an electrical contact is not necessarily flat, and may have a plurality of ribs (convex stripes) formed in its longitudinal direction to reduce contact resistance, or may be bent instead of being formed into a single plate shape. I did 2
It may also be in the form of a single plate. The connection portion of the electrical contact is not necessarily limited to a crimp connection, but may also be a well-known insulation displacement connection structure or a tine shape or compliance pin shape inserted into a through hole of a circuit board. Furthermore, since the shape and material of the elastic member 40 do not particularly require electrical conductivity, they can be appropriately selected in consideration of elasticity, strength, workability, and the like.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As understood from the above description, the electrical contact of the present invention can be used in both female and female contacts, and in the case of a female contact, only an elastic member is attached. Therefore, not only is it easy to manufacture and store electrical contacts, but also high conductivity materials such as pure copper can be used, which has a significant practical effect in that a large current capacity and high workability can be realized.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1A and 1B are top and side views of a preferred embodiment of the electrical contact according to the present invention, and FIGS. 3 is a side view of a female electrical contact obtained by attaching the elastic member of FIG. 2 to the electrical contact of FIG. 1; FIG. 4 is a side view of the electrical contact of FIG. Figure 3 shows interconnections between wires using the female type and female electrical contacts, Figure 5 shows the main parts of the manufacturing process for the electrical contacts in Figure 1, and Figures 6 (A) and (B). ) shows a perspective view and a front view of a conventional electrical contact. 20, , Contact portion 30 , , Connection portion 22,
23 ,,,,Engagement means 40 ,,,Elastic member [M63 FIG4 [16(

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an electrical contact having a connecting portion at one end and a contacting portion at the other end, the contacting portion has an approximately flat plate shape with an engaging means, so that it can be used as a male contact as it is, and the contacting portion can be used as a male contact. An electrical contact, characterized in that it can be made into a female contact by being fitted with an elastic member which substantially surrounds and engages said engagement means.