JPH10199603A - connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate imperfect insertion with a simple structure and easy formation by detecting an incomplete insertion of a terminal in a connector provided with a spacer for double locking the terminal. SOLUTION: A communication hole 4 for a terminal accommodating chamber 2 is provided in a housing unit 1, a spacer 11 that has pull-off preventive abutment sections 17 is inserted in the hole 4, and a terminal 21 in this accommodating chamber is locked. The communication hole 4 is provided orthogonally to the terminal accommodating chamber 2 from the top wall of the housing unit 1 and in the spacer 11, a flexible locking piece 14 and the pull-off preventive abutment section 17 for the terminal 21 are provided from the insertion end side in an appropriate interval in the vertical directions. In addition, the flexible locking piece 14 is engaged with the terminal in a temporary locking state of the spacer 11 and the flexible locking piece 14 and the pull-off preventive abutment section 17 are simultaneously locked to the terminal in a final locking state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improved double locking connector in which a terminal housed in a housing body is locked by inserting a flexible locking piece (lance) and a spacer having a retaining contact portion. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view showing a conventional connector 31 described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 64-54678.
Is a longitudinal sectional view showing the assembled state. In the drawing, reference numeral 32 denotes a housing body made of synthetic resin.
2 has a communication hole 35 from the upper wall 33 to the terminal accommodating chamber 34.
Is provided, and a synthetic resin spacer 37 having a retaining projection 38 for the female terminal 36 is inserted therefrom. Further, the flexible locking pieces 3 are provided in the terminal accommodation chambers 34 in the housing main body 32.
The flexible locking piece 39 engages with and locks the notch hole 40 of the female terminal 36 inserted into the terminal accommodating chamber 34.

Further, in an end wall 41 of the housing main body 32, a die-cutting hole 42 for forming a flexible locking piece 39 (an insertion of a jig rod (not shown) for releasing the locking of the flexible locking piece 39) is provided. And the counter terminal insertion hole 43 are integrally opened. The spacer 37 is provided with a temporary locking claw 44 and a final locking claw 45 for the housing body 32. When the spacer 37 is pushed in from the state shown in FIG.
Abuts on the protruding piece 46 to prevent the coming off.

[0004] In the double locking connector 31, since the flexible locking piece 39 is provided in the terminal accommodating chamber, the internal structure of the housing body 32 is complicated, and the molding die is also complicated and expensive. Therefore, the cost is increased. In addition, since the lance (flexible locking piece 39) and the spacer 37 are separate bodies, a die-cutting hole 42 also serving as a terminal punch must be provided from the front end (or the rear end) of the housing body 32.
This increases the size of the housing. Further, since the retaining protrusion 38 of the spacer 37 is engaged from both sides sandwiching the female terminal 36, the spacer 37 may be pushed in even when the female terminal 36 is in a half-inserted state.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above, the present invention simplifies the internal structure of the housing, thereby reducing manufacturing costs including mold costs, and detecting half-insertion of terminals. It is an object of the present invention to provide a connector having a structure suitable for miniaturization, which can prevent terminal disconnection beforehand.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector according to the present invention, wherein a communication hole for a terminal accommodating chamber is provided in a housing main body, and a terminal accommodating hole is provided in the communication hole. In a connector for inserting a spacer having a retaining contact portion with respect to a terminal in a room, the communication hole is provided perpendicularly to a terminal accommodating chamber from an upper wall of the housing main body, and the spacer is provided in the spacer with respect to the terminal from an insertion end side thereof. A flexible locking piece and the retaining contact portion are provided at appropriate intervals in the vertical direction, the flexible locking piece is engaged with the terminal in a temporary locking state of the spacer, and the flexible locking piece is engaged in a final locking state. A configuration is adopted in which the flexible locking piece and the retaining contact portion are simultaneously engaged with the terminal. As described above, the flexible locking piece that double-locks the terminal and the retaining contact portion are provided on the spacer, and the spacer and the housing body are separate bodies. The structure is simplified, the molding is simple, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the spacer has a terminal insertion hole for allowing the terminal to be inserted and withdrawn in the temporarily locked state, and the flexible locking piece is connected to the terminal insertion hole. It is preferable to provide a locking piece forming hole which also serves as a bending space, and to have a structure in which a hole edge of the locking piece forming hole constitutes the retaining contact portion. According to the above configuration, the terminal insertion hole and the locking piece forming hole may be provided in the plate-like body, and the flexible locking may be provided in the locking piece forming hole. Easy. The locking piece forming hole is preferably formed to be narrower than the terminal insertion hole (claim 3), whereby the strength of the retaining contact portion and the locking force with respect to the terminal can be further increased.

It is preferable that the flexible locking piece is formed by bulging a locking projection for engaging with the terminal at a free end thereof. Further, it is recommended that the engaging surface of the retaining contact portion with respect to the terminal is provided so as to be located forward of the engaging surface of the locking portion of the flexible locking piece with the terminal (claim 5). . As a result, the incompletely inserted terminal can be completely inserted into the proper position.

It is preferable that a locking release hole is provided in the locking projection of the flexible locking piece on an engagement surface with the terminal so that a terminal removal jig can be inserted. . Thus, unlike the conventional double locking connector 31, it is not necessary to provide a hole for removing a terminal in the housing body.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5, reference numeral 1 denotes a synthetic resin housing main body, in which a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers 2 are vertically arranged in two stages. Each terminal accommodating chamber 2 is formed as a rectangular square hole penetrating back and forth, and a terminal retaining wall 3 is provided at a front open end. As shown in FIG. 5, the inner wall surfaces on both sides at the front end of the terminal accommodating chamber 2 are formed as tapered tapered surfaces 2a slightly narrower than the terminal width d. On the other hand, a communication hole 4 orthogonal to each of the upper and lower terminal accommodating chambers 2 is formed in the upper wall 1a of the housing body 1. At both rear corners of the communication hole 4, groove-shaped spacer locking portions 5 are vertically recessed along the inner surfaces of the left and right side walls 1 b of the housing body 1.
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a main locking claw 6 is provided at an upper portion of the locking portion 5, and a temporary locking claw 7 is provided at a lower portion.

The spacer 11 is a plate-shaped rectangular parallelepiped which is inserted in alignment with the communication hole 4.
And a terminal insertion hole 12 corresponding to the
2 is provided with a narrow locking piece forming hole 13 which is continuous with 2, and in this forming hole 13 a flexible locking piece 14 is provided. At the free end of the flexible locking piece 14, a locking projection 15 is formed by bulging through a taper 14a on the lower surface.
3a and the cut-and-raised locking piece 25 (see FIG. 4). A locking release hole 16 is provided on the front surface of the locking projection 15, that is, the engagement surface 15 a with the female terminal 21 for inserting a terminal removal jig (not shown).

The edge of the narrow locking piece forming hole 13 forms a retaining contact portion 17 for the female terminal 21.
7, that is, the engaging surface 17 a with the female terminal 21 is located forward of the engaging surface 15 a of the locking projection 15, and the lower end edges of both engaging surfaces 15 a, 17 a are tapered 15 b, 17 b, respectively. Is provided. Further, on both end sides of the rear surface of the spacer 11, a main locking projection 18 is formed on the upper part so as to be elastically displaceable through a slit 19, and a temporary locking projection 20 is provided on the lower part.

The female terminal 21 has a rectangular cylindrical electric contact portion 23 with a mating male terminal (not shown) at one end of the substrate 22 and an electric wire connection portion 24 at the other end. The locking piece 25 is formed by cutting and raising the substrate 22.

Next, the assembly of the connector will be described.
As shown in FIG. 6, the spacer 11 is inserted into the communication hole 4 of the housing body 1 and the temporary locking projection 20 is
Is engaged with the temporary locking claw 7, the final locking projection 18 rides on the upper wall 1 a of the housing body 1.
Is restrained from moving up and down, and is temporarily locked.

In this provisionally locked state, as shown in FIG. 8, the terminal receiving chamber 2 of the housing main body 1 and the terminal insertion hole 12 of the spacer 11 communicate with each other. Female terminal 21 can be inserted into the connector. When the female terminal 21 is inserted, the flexible locking piece 14 is temporarily bent upward and elastically displaced by the electric contact portion 23 slidingly contacting the bottom surface of the locking projection 15 following the taper 14a, but the rear shoulder portion 23a is elastically displaced. When separated from the locking projection 15, the flexible locking piece 1
4 returns elastically. As a result, the lower half of the engaging surface 15a of the locking projection 15 faces the rear shoulder 23a of the female terminal 21,
Engagement and primary locking prevent back slippage. The female terminal 21 is pulled out by the retaining wall 3 at the front opening end.

When the female terminals 21 are inserted and locked in all the terminal accommodating chambers 2, the spacer 11 is pushed down as shown in FIG. To the final locked state. In this fully locked state, as shown in FIG. 9, the engaging surface 17 a of the retaining contact portion 17 of the spacer 11 is connected to the rear shoulder 23 a of the female terminal 21.
And the engaging surface 15 of the locking projection 15 of the flexible locking piece 14
a completely engages with the locking piece 25 of the female terminal 21,
The female terminal 21 is doubly locked.

When the spacer 11 is temporarily locked as shown in FIG.
There is a considerable gap V between the terminal housing 2 and the upper wall 2b. A pin (not shown) is inserted through the gap V, and the tip of the pin is inserted into the lock release hole 16 of the locking projection 15 to displace the flexible locking piece 14 toward the upper wall 2b. Since the engagement with 23a is released, the female terminal 21 can be pulled out.

When the spacer 11 is moved from the temporary locking state to the final locking state, as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. In addition, since the spacer 11 cannot be moved to the fully locked state, the half-inserted state of the female terminal 21 can be detected.

However, if the taper 15b of the locking projection 15 of the flexible locking piece 14 is in an incompletely inserted state riding on the rear shoulder 23a (see FIG. 4), when the spacer 11 is strongly pushed down, the taper 15b As a result, the female terminal 21 moves forward, so that it can be corrected to a substantially completely inserted state as in the case of FIG.

From the above-mentioned almost completely inserted state, the spacer 1
1 is pushed down, the taper 17
b, the female terminal 21 is further advanced, and the front edge 23b of the electric contact portion 23 is tapered on both sides of the tapered surface 2a,
2a, the female terminal 21 is completely inserted. In the fully inserted state, since the spacer 11 is in the fully locked state as described above, the female terminal 21 is prevented from double-moving, and the flexible locking piece 14 secures the board 22 of the female terminal 21. It is pressed against the bottom wall 2c of the terminal accommodating chamber 2, and the
Is prevented by the tapered surfaces 2a, 2a of which the front edge 23b is tapered. Accordingly, the female terminal 21 does not move in the front-back and up-down directions in the terminal accommodating chamber 2 and is in a fixed position.

While the above description has been given of an example in which the female terminal 21 is double-locked by the spacer 11, the present invention can be similarly applied to a male terminal and a female housing for receiving and locking the male terminal.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The flexible locking piece that double locks the terminal and the retaining abutment are provided on the spacer, and the spacer and the housing body are separate parts, so both molds have simplified structures. Therefore, the molding is simple and the production cost can be reduced (claim 1). Further, the spacer has a simple structure as a whole since it is sufficient to provide a terminal insertion hole and a locking piece forming hole in the plate-like body and provide a flexible locking in the locking piece forming hole. It is easy (claim 2). Further, since the locking piece forming hole is formed narrower than the terminal insertion hole, the strength of the retaining contact portion and the locking force with respect to the terminal can be further increased (claim 3).

[0023] The flexible locking piece has a bulging protrusion formed at its free end to engage with the terminal. Since the locking portion of the flexible locking piece is provided in front of the engaging surface with respect to the terminal, the terminal locking force of the flexible locking piece is large, and the incompletely inserted terminal is positioned at the proper position. It can be completely inserted (claims 4 and 5).

In addition, the locking projection of the flexible locking piece is provided with an unlocking hole on the engaging surface with the terminal so that a jig for removing the terminal can be inserted. Unlike the double locking connector, it is not necessary to provide a hole for removing the terminal in the housing body (claim 6).

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a connector showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view of a spacer 11 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view showing a temporarily locked state of a spacer 11 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a mutual relationship between a spacer 11 and a female terminal 21 in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a mutual relationship between the terminal receiving chamber 2 of the housing main body 1 of FIG. 1 and the female terminals 21;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a temporarily locked state of the spacer 11;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a fully locked state of the spacer 11.

FIG. 8 shows a female terminal 1 in a temporarily locked state of the spacer 11.
It is sectional drawing which shows a next engagement.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing double locking of the female terminal when the spacer 11 is fully locked.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a half-inserted state and an incompletely inserted state of the female terminal 21.

FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional double locking connector.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view showing a temporarily locked state of a spacer 37 of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Housing main body 2 Terminal accommodating chamber 4 Communication hole 11 Spacer 12 Terminal insertion hole 13 Locking piece forming hole 14 Flexible locking piece 15 Locking projection 15a Engaging surface 16 Lock release hole 17 Disengagement contact portion 17a Engagement Surface 18 Final locking projection 19 Temporary locking projection 21 Female terminal 23 Electrical contact portion 23a Rear shoulder 25 Locking piece

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A connector in which a communication hole for a terminal accommodating chamber is provided in a housing body, and a spacer having a retaining contact portion for a terminal in the terminal accommodating chamber is inserted into the communication hole, wherein the communication hole is an upper wall of the housing body. The spacer is provided at right angles to the terminal accommodating chamber, and the spacer is provided with a flexible locking piece for the terminal and the removal contact portion from the insertion end side thereof at appropriate intervals in the vertical direction. A connector in which the flexible locking piece is engaged with the terminal in the stopped state, and the flexible locking piece and the retaining contact portion are simultaneously engaged with the terminal in the fully locked state. 2. The locking device according to claim 2, wherein the spacer has a terminal insertion hole that allows the terminal to be inserted and removed in the temporarily locked state, and the flexible locking piece also serves as a flexible space continuously with the terminal insertion hole. The connector according to claim 1, further comprising a piece forming hole, wherein a hole edge of the locking piece forming hole forms the retaining contact portion. 3. The connector according to claim 2, wherein the locking piece forming hole is formed narrower than the terminal insertion hole. 4. A flexible projection which is formed at a free end of the flexible engagement piece with an engagement projection for engaging with the terminal.
The connector according to 2 or 3. 5. The connector according to claim 4, wherein an engagement surface of the retaining contact portion with the terminal is located forward of an engagement surface of the locking projection of the locking projection with the terminal. 6. The connector according to claim 4, wherein a locking release hole is provided on an engagement surface of the locking projection of the flexible locking piece with the terminal.