Connector

Details Connector Connector

2001-01-05

2002-07-02

Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)

Electrical connectors

With guiding means for mating of coupling part

C439S680000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06413114

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an electrical connector.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
An example of a conventional connector is shown in
FIGS. 4 and 5
of this specification. This is a male connector in which a plurality of male terminal fittings protrude from an inner end face of a hood formed within a housing, a female connector being fitted into this hood. Since long and wide male terminal fittings
101
L and narrow and short male terminal fittings
101
S are mixed within a single hood
102
, this connector is termed a hybrid.
When this connector
100
is to be fitted with a female connector
105
, the long male terminal fittings
101
L are first engaged with female terminal fittings (not shown) then the short male terminal fittings
101
S are engaged with female terminal fittings. Since two differing sets of terminal fittings are fitted together, there is a time lapse between the onset of fitting resistance of the long and short terminal fittings
101
L and
101
S. As a result, if the long terminal fittings
101
L are provided on either a left or a right side (relative to the fitting direction of the hood
102
), when fitting commences either a left or right edge (whichever edge does not receive fitting resistance) of the female connector
105
will protrude more deeply, in an inclined manner, into the interior of the hood
102
, thereby impeding the fitting operation.
In order to deal with this problem, a configuration has been employed whereby the long male terminal fittings
101
L are provided as a group in a central location relative to the up-down and left-right directions (relative to the fitting direction of the hood
102
), and the short male terminal fittings
101
S are provided around these centrally located long male terminal fittings
101
L (see FIG.
4
). Alternatively, the short male terminal fittings
101
S are provided in the central location, and the long male terminal fittings
101
L are provided therearound (not shown).
However, the female connector
105
may be inserted in an inclined manner into the hood
102
, not due to fitting resistance, but because the operator inserts the female connector
105
in a misaligned manner. As a result, in order to prevent the female connector
105
and the male terminal fittings
101
L and
101
S from interfering with one another, it is necessary to extend the length B of the hood
102
so that an open end
102
A of this hood
102
comes to be located to the anterior of tips of the male terminal fittings
101
L and
101
S.
In this case, as shown in
FIG. 5
, if the female connector
105
is fitted in an inclined manner and is in a state whereby it makes contact with the open end
102
A of the hood
102
(in the most deeply inserted state), a corner
105
A can be located at any position along a semicircle
104
(shown by the broken line in
FIG. 5
) along the open end
102
A of the hood
102
. That is, the deepest insertion depth of the corner
105
A corresponds to the centre of the open side of the hood
102
(the central location in the up-down direction of FIG.
5
).
In order to prevent interference between the female connector
105
and the male terminal fittings
101
L and
101
S whilst simultaneously keeping the extending length B of the hood
102
short, the short male terminal fittings
101
S should be provided in the central location and the long male terminal fittings
101
L should be provided therearound (in the up-down direction of FIG.
5
). This configuration is not shown. By providing the two male terminal fittings
101
S and
101
L of differing lengths in this manner, the female connector
105
will not incline due to the existence of a time lapse between the onset of the fitting resistance of the male terminal fittings
101
S and
101
L.
However, in the case where there are many more long male terminal fittings
101
L than short male terminals fittings
101
S, or when there are few long male terminal fittings
101
L but they must be provided in the central location (as shown in FIG.
4
), the extending length B of the hood
102
must be made relatively long in order to prevent the long male terminal fittings
101
L from interfering with the corner
105
A of the female connector
105
.
The present invention has taken the above problem into consideration, and aims to prevent a female connector that has been inserted in an inclined manner from interfering with male terminal fittings within a connector having long male terminal fittings provided in a central location within a hood that extends for as short a length as possible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention there is provided an electrical connector having a body, long and short terminal fittings protruding from said body in a fitting direction, and a hood surrounding said terminal fittings, the long terminal fittings being provided centrally in a group, and the short terminal fittings substantially surrounding the long terminal fittings, characterised in that a substantially tubular member extends around and projects beyond at least some of said long terminal fittings, said tubular member projecting in the same direction as said hood, and being adapted to prevent contact between a mating connector and said long terminal fittings.
Such a tubular member protects the long terminal fittings against contact damage due to incorrect assembly. The tubular member may be circumferentially incomplete, for example it may have axial slots, whilst still providing the required degree of protection.
Preferably the tubular member is circumferentially complete, and in the preferred embodiment the tubular member surrounds all of the long terminal fittings, and only the long terminal fittings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3008116 (1961-11-01), Blanchenot
patent: 4229064 (1980-10-01), Vetter et al.
patent: 5238413 (1993-08-01), McCaffrey et al.
patent: 5263872 (1993-11-01), Marpoe, Jr. et al.
patent: 5613871 (1997-03-01), Akeda

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