Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-13
2002-05-14
Patel, Tulsidas (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Plural-contact coupling part
C439S948000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06386923
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There is a tendency that electronic components mounted on a vehicle is diversified according to increase in application of electronics to an automobile, and wires/cables forming wired circuits for the electronic components, and wire harnesses for bundling the wires/cables are also increased. In recent years, in order to prevent complexity due to increase in kinds of harness, such a structure is often employed that an electronic unit is mechanically connected to an electrical connecting box in which harnesses are taken as much as possible and male terminals and female terminals in both the unit and the box are connected electrically to each other.
FIGS. 1A and 1B
are views showing a conventional example of a structure where an electrical connecting box and an electronic unit are coupled to each other,
FIG. 1A
being a side view and
FIG. 1B
being a plan view. Incidentally, in
FIGS. 1A and 1B
, an electronic unit is illustrated with a double dotted line for a convenience. In
FIGS. 1A and 1B
, reference numeral
1
denotes an electrical connecting box, reference numeral
2
denotes the electronic unit. The electrical connecting box
1
and the electronic unit
2
are connected mechanically to each other, and a male connector portion
3
and a female connectors portion
4
in both the box
1
and the unit
2
are electrically connected to each other by connecting the both mechanically.
In such an assembling structure of the electrical connecting box
1
and the electronic unit
2
, there often occurs assembling modification according to specifications. Therefore, such a structure has been employed conventionally, as illustrated, that a miss-connection preventing boss
5
is provided in a projecting manner at a face-to-face portion of a central portion on the electrical connecting box
1
and a recessed portion
6
in which the miss-connection preventing boss
5
is fitted is provided at the electronic unit
2
. Therefore, by changing the position of the miss-connection preventing boss
5
according to a specification required, the miss-connection preventing boss
5
is fitted in the recessed portion
6
only at a time of proper combination of an electrical connecting box and an electronic unit, while the miss-connection preventing boss
5
interferes with a portion of a mating member other than the recessed portion
6
at a time of improper combination thereof.
In this manner, when the proper combination is employed, an electronic unit can finally be coupled to the electrical connecting box
1
, but when the improper combination is employed, coupling of the electrical connecting box and the electronic unit is made impossible in the course of assembling work so that erroneous connection is prevented from occurring.
In the above-mentioned conventional assembling structure, however, since the recessed portion
6
is formed in a part arrangement region on the side of the electronic unit
2
so as to mate with the miss-connection preventing boss
5
, there is a spatial limitation when electronic parts are mounted to the electronic unit
2
. Therefore, there is a drawback that when, a tall electronic part such as a relay or the like has been mounted on the substrate of the electronic unit
2
, a protection case (not shown) of the electronic unit
2
interferes with the electronic part due to contact or the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide an assembling structure of an electronic unit to an electrical connecting box where, when an electrical part or component is mounted to an electronic unit, there occurs no spatial limitation and which is provided with a miss-connection preventing function.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an assembling structure of an electronic unit to an electrical connecting box, comprising a miss-connection preventing portion provided on at least one of an electrical connecting box and an electronic unit combined to each other, the miss-connection preventing portion being put in a non-interfering state with a mating side member to allow combination of both the electronic unit and the electrical connecting box when the electrical connecting box and the electronic unit are combined properly, and the miss-connection preventing portion being put in an interfering state with the mating side member to prevent the combination thereof when the both are combined improperly, wherein the miss-connection preventing portion is arranged at a peripheral wall portion of at least one of the electrical connecting box and the electronic unit or a portion near thereto, and when the electrical connecting box and the electronic unit are combined improperly, the miss-connection preventing portion interferes with the peripheral wall portion of the mating side member or the portion near thereto.
In the assembling structure of the first aspect, the miss-connection preventing portion is provided at the peripheral wall portion of the at least one of the electrical connecting box and the electronic unit or the portion near thereto, and a portion interfering with the miss-connection preventing portion is provided at a peripheral wall portion of the mating side member or a portion near to the peripheral wall portion. Accordingly, a central region for layout of electrical parts is not subjected to limitation and erroneous connection can be prevented without using any additional testing tool such as a jig.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is an assembling structure of an electronic unit to an electrical connecting box according to the first aspect, wherein the electrical connecting box and the electronic unit are connected through a hinge and the miss-connection preventing portion is disposed near the hinge.
In the assembling structure of this aspect, the miss-connection preventing portion interfering with the mating side member at a time of improper combination is provided near the hinge. Accordingly, when the electronic unit is combined to the electrical connecting box while being rotated relative thereto, connection of a connector of the electrical connecting box and that of the electronic unit can be stopped before start of the connection. For this reason, at a stage before real connection of these connectors is started with force, miss-combination can be found and wasteful work can be avoided.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4952176 (1990-08-01), Koiner et al.
patent: 5370556 (1994-12-01), Olsson
patent: 0 550 057 (1997-04-01), None
patent: 61-20104 (1985-10-01), None
patent: 5-2527 (1993-01-01), None
patent: 10-80041 (1998-03-01), None
Sato Kumiko
Sugiura Tomohiro
Dinh Phuong KT
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Patel Tulsidas
Yazaki -Corporation
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