Circular connector

Details Circular connector Circular connector

2001-04-26

2003-02-11

Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)

Electrical connectors

With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in...

Retaining means

C439S353000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06517373

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a circular connector and more particularly to a circular connector comprising a first connector element that is specifically a plug and a second connector element that is specifically a socket or a housing adapter.
2. Prior Art
Such circular connectors are preferably designed in such a way that, to connect together and latch the two connector elements that make up the connector, the connector needs only to be inserted along the direction of the longitudinal axis of the connector with no additional motions and no enclosure being required for locking. The connector should have automatic, spring-actuated locking. By pulling on an actuation element of the plug, the locking should release itself automatically. Thus, to unlatch and release the circular connection, no further motion should be required that is not along the longitudinal or principal direction. In addition, the same actuation element should serve for unlocking on releasing the circular connection as well as for locking on insertion.
These requirements are met by a plug known in the art, which, together with a socket, forms a circular connection and has a tube-shaped inset that surrounds the contact inset, in which in one embodiment, latch flanges are stamped out of the metallic, tube-shaped inset directed along the longitudinal direction of the plug (U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,455). Each one of the latch flanges is surrounded by a U-shaped slit in such a way that the free end of the latch flange, each of which is near the open end of the plug, has an elastic radial motion while the other, opposing end of the latch flange melds into the tube-shaped inset. On one side of the latch flanges at their free ends, shaped, beveled latch tabs of the latch flanges hook into a circumferential groove behind a rim or lip of a recess on the outer side of the second connector element, a socket, when the plug is inserted in it. To lock this latch flange, a support is used that lays against the side of the latch flange opposite from the latch tab and can slide along this side in the longitudinal direction of the plug. Each support has a free, radially elastic end, which is directed toward the free end of the plug, and on its opposite end is firmly attached to a ring element or formed as a single piece with it. The supports, which can also be designated as braces, run approximately over the length of the latch flanges. The supports are normally pushed by a coil spring, which is supported between the ring element and a cap of the plug, up to the free end of the latch flanges so as to end essentially there. They can be pulled back in the opposing direction against the force of the spring in order to release a latched plug connection. For this purpose, two radial tabs on the ring element are used, which are pushed by means of a coil spring against a ring-shaped cutout in an actuation slide, which is thereby pressed forward. Then during the process of plugging in, the latch flanges can be inserted into the groove behind the ring-shaped recess on the front side of the second circular connection element in that the latch flanges, as a result of their beveled tabs, bend the end of the supports downward to the extent that the supports are stopped at the front side of the second connector teams and are not brought further along by the motion of insertion until the latch tabs of the latch flanges lie completely within the groove and the latch flanges leave the ring-shaped recess free to receive the supports. The supports are pushed so far forward by the force of the spring to the free end of the latch flanges that these are effectively supported in the ring-shaped recess and thereby locked. The latch flanges can only be extracted from the groove behind the ring-shaped recess when, by a pull on the actuation slide, the supports are withdrawn from the ring-shaped opening against the force of the spring.
With this known circular connector, the goals of simple operation for locking and unlocking mentioned in the introduction are indeed achieved but with a relatively complicated, multipart constructive design of the connector requiring an appreciably costly production and assembly. An essential complication arises in that the supports have a motion opposite to that of the actuation slide in the locking procedure, that is to say, must be carried out in a two-stage process, and has to be held back to achieve the desired relative motion.
In another circular connector known in the art, the plug consists of a contact pin, a cylindrical isolation bushing and a locking sleeve, which can slide along the isolation bushing but is not spring loaded (DE 31 11 073 A1). The contact pin is held in the isolation bushing whose one end is cut out into elastic brackets having ring-shaped bulges near their centers. The brackets extend out through openings in a shoulder of the locking sleeve. The latter has a neck with a bulge facing radially outward that can fit into a ring-shaped groove formed on the inside of the brackets. Before establishing a contact between a socket contact in a drill hole of an isolation housing and the contact pin of the plug, the locking sleeve of the plug is pulled back so that its shoulder touches the beginning of the brackets. The ends of the brackets are left free and extend radially outward. They are inserted into the socket contact while being bent inward so that, eventually, the bulges of the brackets latch into a ring-shaped groove in the drill hole of the isolation housing. In this position of the brackets, they are locked when the locking sleeve is slid forward and its neck is pushed under the brackets and the bulges of the neck snap into the recess of the brackets so that these can no longer be simply pulled out of the latched position. To accomplish this, the locking sleeve must first be pulled out using an extraction tool and the brackets with their bulges can again be elastically unlatched from the groove and the plug can be removed. Therefore, before establishing a contact and to release a contact, a separate relative positioning of the locking sleeve and the bushing must be precisely established and maintained and, only to lock the latched contacts, must the locking sleeve be slid into another position, the locking position. Before and after the brackets are inserted into the drill hole in front of the circular connection contact, they are splayed radially outward, can easily here be accidentally bent further outward and possibly damage but even under standard operation require care on insertion in the drill hole in front of the circular connection contact. Material fatigue can also occur from the bending process under standard procedure. Apart from that, the circular connector known in the art is hardly appropriate for shielded embodiments and sealed protection.
Part of the further state of the art is a connector pair with a plug and a socket, each with a contact inset and a housing, for which, in the area of the free end of the one housing there are one or more indentations on its outer wall and in the area of the free end of the other housing one or more engaging elements corresponding with the indentation are arranged, which, in a first position, project into the cavity of the other housing and, in a second position, release the cavity of the other housing (DE 43 25 895 C1). A sleeve surrounding the free end of the other housing in a rest position forces the engaging element into the cavity of the other housing and in an actuation position allows the engaging element to be released from the cavity of the other housing. Preferably, three engaging elements are staggered around the circumference. Each engaging element has a relatively complicated profile with a three-legged, open angular form. During assembly, they must each be individually placed in an opening in the other housing and held there until the sleeve is slid over the engaging elements. The profile and the opening, which receives both the second and the third legs of the engaging element with play and

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