Electrical connectors – Including or for use with coaxial cable
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-19
2001-09-11
Bradley, Paula (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Including or for use with coaxial cable
C439S582000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06287144
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a coaxial connector element including a coupling for connecting the central conductor of a coaxial cable to a central contact of the connector element.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is known that a coaxial connector element includes a central contact and an outer contact.
The central contact is designed to be connected to the central conductor of a coaxial cable, and the outer contact is designed to be connected to the outer conductor of the coaxial cable, which conductor is generally a grounding braid.
In most cases, the central contact is soldered via its rear end to the central conductor, while the outer contact, or the body of the connector element to which it is connected, is crimped to the braid.
Crimping the braid poses no particular problem, and is almost always satisfactory.
However, soldering the central conductor suffers from numerous drawbacks, among which mention can be made of the following:
the difficulty of using the same quantity of solder from one connector element to another, which is essential to obtain impedance that is always identical;
the need to isolate the solder from the inside wall of the body of the connector element, in order to prevent a residual thread of solder from creating a short-circuit between the central conductor and ground; and
the need to access the rear of the connector element at the time of installing it on a coaxial cable, in order to perform the soldering operation, which requires the presence of an opening that opens onto the rear end of the central contact.
A solution aimed at solving those drawbacks has already been proposed for an L-shaped connector element. That solution consists in providing a fork made up of two resilient prongs at that end of the central contact which is opposite from its connection end, and in providing a coupling on the central conductor of the coaxial cable, which coupling is organized to snap-fasten between the two prongs of the fork of the central contact. That coupling avoids the necessity of performing soldering inside the connector element and guarantees that a predetermined impedance is obtained.
It is thus not necessary to provide an opening in the rear of the connector element because the coupling can be snap-fastened into the central contact via the radial access provided for feeding the cable into the connector element.
Unfortunately, since the rear end of the central contact is accessed radially only, the coupling can snap-fasten to the central contact only if said central contact is suitably angularly-positioned, i.e. if the gap between the two prongs of its fork face the radial opening.
It is thus necessary, in addition to the coupling, to provide keying shapes on the body of the connector element and on the central contact so as to prevent said central contact from rotating, which involves, in particular, specific machining operations which increase the cost of the connector element.
In addition, it is necessary to guide the coupling so as to feed it “blindly” to the fork and to cause it to penetrate accurately between the two prongs of said fork, which requires the additional presence of a guide piece in the body the connector element.
Therefore, although snap-fastening the central contact of the connector element to an intermediate coupling can avoid the drawbacks related to soldering the central contact of the cable, it suffers from numerous other drawbacks which make that solution unattractive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel solution to the problem of soldering the central conductor of the cable to the central contact of the connector element.
The present invention provides a coaxial connector element designed to be mounted on the end of a coaxial cable including a central conductor and an outer conductor, said connector element including:
a central contact having a longitudinal axis and provided with a rear end connected to the central conductor of the coaxial cable and with a front end organized to connect the connector element to a complementary connector element; and
an outer contact connected to the outer conductor of the coaxial cable;
said coaxial connector element being characterized by the fact that it includes a coupling mounted on the central conductor of the coaxial cable, said coupling and the rear end of the central contact being shaped to snap-fasten together independently of the angular position of the central contact relative to its longitudinal axis.
It can be understood that the coupling of the invention offers the advantage, compared with the known coupling, that it is snap-fastened to the central contact of the connector element regardless of the angular position of the central contact, which is thus free to rotate about its own axis.
As a result, in the connector element of the invention, it is not necessary to provide keying means on the central contact.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the connector element is L-shaped. It then includes a body made up of a substantially-cylindrical connection portion in which the central contact and the outer contact are received, and of a cable coupling portion which is also substantially cylindrical, and which is provided with a radial sleeve for feeding in the cable.
In a preferred embodiment of an L-shaped coaxial connector element of the invention, the rear end of the central contact is provided with a circularly-symmetrical neck of the same axis as the longitudinal axis of the central contact, while the coupling is provided with a resilient fork having two prongs defining a seat between them for receiving the neck, the neck being snap-fastened in the seat in the fork by engaging the neck into the fork in a direction that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the contact, the two prongs of the fork moving apart and resiliently moving back again once the neck has reached the seat.
In a preferred variant of this embodiment, the seat is defined by two cylindrical recesses facing each other, having their axes parallel to the separation plane of the two prongs, and each being formed in an inner face of respective one of the prongs of the fork.
Preferably, the diameter of the cylindrical recesses is smaller than the diameter of the neck of the central contact, which makes it possible to concentrate the contact pressures between the resilient prongs of the fork and the neck onto the angular edges of the recesses, so as to prevent oxides from forming on the contact surfaces, by limiting the quantity of oxidizing gases that can penetrate between said contact surfaces.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the free end of each prong of the fork is shaped into a point so as to impart a rotation torque to the coupling, and thereby to the central conductor of the cable, if the coupling enters into contact with the neck of the central contact while it is angularly offset relative to its normal snap-fastening position.
For example, the pointed end of each prong of the fork may be defined by two cylindrical recesses of axes perpendicular to the separation plane of the two prongs, and situated on either side of a midplane of the coupling that is perpendicular to the separation plane of the two prongs of the fork.
The pointed shape of the prongs of the fork is particularly useful because the coupling mounted on the end of the coaxial cable is inserted into the cable coupling portion blindly, i.e. without any possibility of visually inspecting that the coupling is angularly positioned properly relative to the neck of the central contact.
By means of the pointed shapes, and in particular the pointed shapes having concave rounded portions on either side of the point, on the prongs, if the coupling is presented in any inappropriate angular position but with the longitudinal axes of the coupling and of the contact being in the same plane, the ends of the prongs bear against the neck via their rounded edges that are diametrically opposite about the longitudinal axis of the coupling, thereby generating rotation torque tending to cause the c
Bradley Paula
Figueroa Felix D.
Radiall
Schweitzer Cornman Gross & Bondell LLP
LandOfFree
Coaxial connector element comprising a connection for... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Coaxial connector element comprising a connection for..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Coaxial connector element comprising a connection for... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2453912