Electrical connectors – Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient... – Spring actuated or resilient securing part
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-19
2003-04-29
Luebke, Renee (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient...
Spring actuated or resilient securing part
Reexamination Certificate
active
06554659
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector contact capable of coping with a decrease in pitch and shortening the time required for assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As an example of a conventional connector contact, a so-called tulip-shaped contact
100
with the structure shown in
FIG. 1
is available. The contact
100
is comprised of a main body portion
103
bent to have a U-shaped section and having a base plate portion
101
and a pair of parallel upright plate portions
102
standing vertically from the two edges of the base plate portion
101
, elastic pieces
104
extending like beams in the same direction from the respective upright plate portions
102
of the main body portion
103
, and contact portions
105
formed at the distal ends of the elastic pieces
104
. When a male contact
106
is pushed between the contact portions
105
, the elastic pieces
104
elastically deform, as they are forced apart by the male contact
106
, to separate the contact portions
105
apart from each other so as to receive the inserted male contact
106
between them. Simultaneously, the contact portions
105
are urged against the male contact
106
by the elastic forces of the elastic pieces
104
, so that they come into reliable contact with the male contact
106
.
Assume that a connector is to be fabricated by building this contact
100
into a connector housing
107
shown in FIG.
3
. First, a flat plate member is punched to form a flat plate-like blank in which a plurality of contact forming portions
100
A each shown in
FIG. 2
are lined at the equal pitch in a common carrier
110
shown in FIG.
3
. The contact portions
105
are formed at the elastic pieces
104
of each contact forming portion
100
A of this blank so as to make the elastic pieces
104
serve as contacts, and after that the contact forming portion
100
A is bent at bending lines indicated by alternate long and short dashed lines in
FIG. 2
to have the shape of the contact
100
. As shown in
FIG. 3
, the plurality of contacts
100
held by the carrier
110
in this manner are inserted in holes
111
in the connector housing
107
simultaneously, and then the individual contacts
100
are separated by cutting.
In recent years, a pitch W
0
shown in
FIG. 3
, with which the contacts
100
are disposed in the connector, is greatly narrowed. The mainstream pitch W
0
is 2.0 mm, and a connector with a pitch of about 1.5 mm is also under development. In order to cope with this decrease in pitch, the pitch with which the contact forming portions
100
A, serving as a developing form of the contacts
100
, are to be disposed must also be narrowed. With the contact
100
with the shape described above, when the main body portion
103
with the U-shaped section is developed, its width W
2
shown in
FIG. 2
is large, and a decrease in pitch is accordingly limited. More specifically, with the contact
100
with the shape described above, after the male contact
106
is fitted in it, it clamps the male contact
106
with contact forces, thereby exhibiting its connecting function. In order to clamp the male contact
106
in this manner, the main body portion
103
that supports the proximal portions of the elastic pieces
104
so that they oppose each other must be bent into a U-shape, and the U-shaped main body portion
103
must have such a size that it can sufficiently receive the male contact
106
(more specifically, when the male contact has a width of 0.5 mm, the main body portion
103
must have an inner width of about 1.5 mm). Consequently, the width W
2
described above increases undesirably.
For this reason, with these contacts
100
, a pitch W
2
′ (shown in
FIG. 3
) of the contact forming portions
100
A in the blank, which is inevitably larger than the width W
2
obtained by developing each main body portion
103
, must be twice the pitch W
0
with which the holes
111
are formed in the connector housing
107
, the plurality of contacts
100
held by the carrier
110
must be inserted in every second holes
111
of the connector housing
107
, and similarly the plurality of contacts
100
held by another carrier
110
must be inserted in the remaining every second holes
111
. Otherwise, a decrease in pitch cannot be coped with (more specifically W
2
≦W
2
′=2×W
0
).
Then, however, two steps are needed to dispose the contacts
100
, and consequently, the time required for assembly increases undesirably. If the width W
2
is large, the amount of material necessary for forming each contact
100
increases, leading to an increase in cost.
As another example of the connector contact, a so-called fork-shaped contact
120
with the structure shown in
FIG. 4
is available. This contact
120
has a flat plate-like shape as a whole, and is comprised of a main body portion
121
, a pair of elastic pieces
122
extending like beams from the two sides of the main body portion
121
, and contact portions
123
respectively formed at the distal ends of the elastic pieces
122
. When a male contact is pushed between the contact portions
123
, the elastic pieces
122
elastically deform, as they are forced apart by the male contact, to separate the contact portions
123
apart from each other so as to receive the inserted male contact between them. Simultaneously, the contact portions
123
are urged against the male contact by the elastic forces of the elastic pieces
122
, so that they come into contact with the male contact.
Assume that a connector is to be fabricated by building this contact
120
in a connector housing. First, a flat plate member is punched to form a flat plate-like blank in which a plurality of contacts
120
each with the shape described above are lined at the equal pitch, and after that the plurality of contacts
120
are inserted in the holes in the connector housing simultaneously.
With the contacts
120
, since the main body portions
121
need not be formed to have a U-shaped section like that of the main body portion
103
, the width of the contact
120
can be decreased, and accordingly the pitch with which the contacts are disposed in the blank can also be decreased. Even when coping with a decrease in pitch with which the contacts are to be disposed, the contacts
120
can be inserted in the adjacent holes of the connector housing simultaneously with one blank. As a result, the time required for assembly can be shortened, and the amount of material necessary for forming each contact
120
decreases, leading to a decrease in cost.
In the contact
120
with this structure, since those surfaces of its contact portions
123
which come into contact with a male contact
106
are low-smoothness sheared sections formed by punching, contact error undesirably occurs.
Since the contact portions
123
and main body portion
121
are located on the same plane, the male contact cannot have a sufficiently large insertion length due to the problem of interference with the main body portion
121
, and the male contact can be sometimes disengaged easily during use.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-326417 discloses a contact that can solve the problem on contact error of the contact
120
described above. This contact is a fork-shaped contact comprised of a main body portion, a pair of elastic pieces extending like beams in the same direction from two sides of the main body portion, and contact portions respectively formed at the distal ends of the elastic pieces. The elastic pieces are twisted midway, so those portions of the contact portions which come into contact with a male contact form high-smoothness rolled surfaces.
Even in this contact, since the contact portions and the main body portion are located on the same plane, the male contact cannot have a sufficiently large insertion length due to the problem of interference with the main body portion, and the male contact can be sometimes disengaged easily during use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the ab
Hatakeyama Kenichi
Kikuchi Kazuya
Luebke Renee
McGinn & Gibb PLLC
NEC Tokin Corporation
Nguyen Phuong
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