Connector

Details Connector Connector

2002-04-12

2003-12-30

Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)

Electrical connectors

Coupling part including flexing insulation

Hinged or flexed detent on insulation engaging to secure...

Reexamination Certificate

active

06669507

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector capable of doubly anchoring a terminal within a connector housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7
shows a conventional connector disclosed in JP-A-2000-58180 which is a prior art related to the connector.
A connector
101
includes a connector housing
102
of synthetic resin, a front holder
120
of synthetic resin which is fit in a front end opening
103
of the connector housing
102
, female terminals
125
each to be inserted in each of terminal chambers
105
of the connector housing
102
, and a terminal anchoring spacer
140
of synthetic resin which is inserted orthogonally to the terminal chamber
105
from an opening in a lower wall
102
b
of the connector housing
102
.
The connector
101
constitutes a male connector which is fit into the fitting space of a complementary female connector (not shown) and locked using a locking arm
107
. The female connector includes a connector housing with a fitting hood and a female terminal to be mated with the male terminal.
The connector housing
102
has three terminal chambers formed in a height direction. Each of the terminal chambers
105
is defined by left and right partition walls (side walls at the left and right ends) and upper and lower partition walls
106
(upper and lower walls at the upper and lower ends). The upper and lower partition walls
106
are communicated with sloping partition walls
141
which slope upwards in a forward direction of the terminal anchoring spacer
140
.
The upper and lower partition walls
106
are each provided with a flexible terminal anchoring lance
110
at the front through the sloping partition wall
141
of the terminal anchoring spacer
140
. The terminal anchoring lance
110
is formed to slope upward, and has a vertical anchoring face
110
a
(first anchoring portion) at the tip which cooperates with the first anchoring stage
129
at the front of the female terminal
125
. A space which permits the terminal anchoring lance
110
to deflect is formed beneath the terminal anchoring lance
110
. Incidentally, the expressions “upper and lower”, “left and right” and “front and rear” are defined for convenience of explanation. Therefore, they do not necessarily accord with the directions when the connector is actually used. The expression “upper” refers to the side where a locking arm
107
for cooperating with a complementary female connector is provided; the expression “front” refers to the side where the connector is coupled with the complementary connector, and the expression “left and right” refers to the direction orthogonal to both the “left and right” and the “front and rear”.
No upper and lower partition walls are formed in front of the terminal anchoring lance
110
to form an opening space passing vertically. At the front of the opening space, a square front opening
103
where the front holder
120
is mounted is formed. The front holder
120
is mounted in the front opening
103
using an anchoring means.
The front holder
120
, which is a body separate from the connector housing
102
, has four partition walls
121
which define the front side of the terminal chambers
105
. The uppermost partition wall
121
is located in flush with the horizontal plane of the upper wall
102
a
of the connector housing
102
. The lowermost partition wall
121
is located along the lower wall
102
b
of the connector housing
102
. The intermediate two partition walls
121
are located in alignment with upper and lower walls
106
of the connector housing
102
.
The partition walls
121
are provided perpendicularly to the wall
122
of the front holder
120
, and an electric contact portion
126
of the female terminal
125
is accommodated between the upper and lower partition walls
121
. In the wall
122
are formed a terminal insertion hole
123
corresponding to the electric contact of a complementary male terminal (not shown) and a jig insertion hole
124
for releasing the engagement between the terminal anchoring lance
110
and the female terminal
125
.
In the configuration described above, since the connector housing
102
is provided with the front opening
103
, the front opening
103
serves as a rapping hole or die-cutting hole. This facilitates the resin molding of the terminal anchoring lance
110
which is likely to generate insufficient filling because of its complicated shape, and improves the molding accuracy of the terminal anchoring lance
110
.
The terminal anchoring spacer
140
includes upper and lower inclined partition walls
141
which define the terminal chambers
105
of the connector housing
102
, another inclined partition wall
141
integral to the operation portion
142
at the lower end and side walls (not shown). The pitch between the partition walls
141
vertically arranged is equal to that between the upper and lower partition walls
106
of the terminal chamber
105
. The terminal anchoring spacer
140
is inserted in a spacer inserting hole
112
which passes vertically through the terminal chambers
105
.
The terminal anchoring spacer
140
is a body molded separately from the connector housing
102
, but is used in a state where it has been inserted in the connector housing
102
. The terminal anchoring spacer
140
is slidable vertically between a provisional anchoring position (state) and a final anchoring position (state). The provisional anchoring state refers to the state where the terminal anchoring spacer
140
has been pulled out downward so as to project from the lower wall
102
b
of the connector housing
102
. In this provisional anchoring state, the female terminals
125
are inserted into the terminal chambers
105
. Thereafter, the terminal anchoring spacer
140
is squeezed upward so that the female terminals
125
are completely anchored and preliminarily anchored. Thus, each of the female terminals
125
is anchored doubly by the terminal anchoring lance and the terminal anchoring spacer.
Some connectors do not employ the terminal anchoring spacer
140
. In this case, the female terminals
125
are anchored by primary anchoring by the terminal anchoring lance
110
.
The female terminal
125
includes an electric contact portion
126
at the front and a wire connecting portion
131
at the rear. The electric contact portion
126
is constructed of a box-shaped circumferential wall
127
and an elastic contact piece
128
located within the circumferential wall
127
. The electric contact portion
126
has a first anchoring stage
129
cooperating with the terminal anchoring lance
110
formed at the front and a second anchoring stage
130
cooperating with the terminal anchoring spacer
140
formed at the rear. The wire connecting portion
131
is constructed of a front crimping piece
132
electrically connected by crimping the core
146
of the wire
145
and a rear crimping piece
133
fixed by crimping the cladding
147
.
However, the above conventional connector provides the following problems to be solved.
One problem is that, since the connector
101
with the terminal anchoring spacer
140
inserted into the connector housing
102
requires a large number of components, the structure of the connector
101
becomes complicated and bulky.
Specifically, since there is a tendency for the number of electric components around the instrument panel of a motor vehicle to increase and for the space for arranging electric wires to decrease, it is desirable for the connectors to become compact. The above connector, which involves a large number of components, cannot satisfy such a requirement.
Another problem is that as the number of components increases, the production cost for the components increases. In addition, the operation of assembling the connector
101
requires a larger number of steps and the management of maintaining the accuracy of assembling the components becomes complicated. This is an obstacle of realizing the cost reduction.
However, if the terminal anchoring spacer
140
is abolished to miniaturize th

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