Electrical connectors – With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in... – Retaining means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-16
2001-08-28
Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in...
Retaining means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06280226
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector having a locking arm.
2. Description of the Related Art
A prior art connector having a locking arm formed integrally with the outer surface of the connector housing is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-112577. The locking arm of the prior art connector includes a base part that is erected from the outer surface of the connector housing. The locking arm also includes an arm part that is cantilevered from the base part and that extends along the outer surface of the connector housing. A locking projection is formed on the outer surface of the arm part, which is the surface that does not confront the outer surface of the connector housing. The connector can be connected with a mating connector. During this connection, the locking projection interferes with the hood of the mating connector. As a result, the locking arm flexes elastically toward the outer surface of the connector housing. When both connectors are placed in the normal fit-in state, the locking arm is restored elastically to its original state, and the locking projection is locked to a locking hole of the hood. As a result, both connectors are locked to each other in the normal fit-in state.
The prior art connector housing accommodates metal terminal fittings which are fixed to ends of electric wires. Several such connectors with wires and terminal fittings are combined with each other to produce a wire harness subassembly. Several wire harness subassemblies are packed in a shipping case by piling them up one upon another for transport.
In the connector having the locking arm, a flexure space is provided between the locking arm and the outer surface of the connector housing. The locking arm is cantilevered and extended over the connector housing. Thus, there is a possibility that foreign matter may penetrate into the flexure space between the locking arm and the outer surface of the connector housing.
The wire harness subassemblies are taken out from the shipping case one by one in a place where the wire harness is assembled. At this time, an electric wire of another wire harness subassembly that is still in the shipping case may penetrate into the flexure space and may be caught by the locking arm. If the wire harness subassembly is to be forcibly taken out from the shipping case in this state, the locking arm of the connector caught by the electric wire is subjected to a force of forcibly displacing the locking arm in a direction away from the outer surface of the connector housing, with the locking arm tilting on the base part acting as the supporting point.
In this event, there is a possibility that the locking arm of the conventional connector can be broken at its base part even though the displacement amount of the locking arm is not very great.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described situation. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a connector capable of preventing breakage of a locking arm displaced in away from the connector housing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The subject invention is directed to a connector having a connector housing and a locking arm formed integrally with an outer surface of the connector housing. The locking arm includes a base part erected from the outer surface of the connector housing. An arm part is cantilevered from the base part and extends almost parallel with the outer surface of the connector housing. A flexure space is provided between the outer surface of the connector housing and an inner surface of the arm part. The flexure space permits the arm part to flex elastically when the connector and a mating connector are locked to each other. In this construction, the thickness of the base part is set larger than that of the arm part.
It is preferable that the surface of the base part that is continuous with the inner surface of the arm part and with the outer surface of the connector housing consists of a substantially cylindrically generated arc-shaped surface.
As explained above, the prior art locking arm is broken at its base part when the locking arm tilts away from the outer surface of the connector housing, with the base part acting as the supporting point of the tilting motion of the locking arm. It is conceivable that this breakage occurs because the base part has a great increase in the rate of strain relative to change in the tilting angle of the locking arm.
In consideration of this possible cause for the breakage in the prior art, the connector of the present invention has a base part with a thickness that is set larger than the thickness of the arm part. Hence, it is possible to allow the base part to be less flexible than the arm part and thus suppress the increase of the strain of the base part. Further, the force of tilting the locking arm is relaxed by elastic deformation of the arm part that is more flexible than the base part.
The rear surface of the base part that is continuous with the inner surface of the arm part and with the outer surface of the connector housing is formed as the substantially cylindrically-generated arc-shaped surface. Thus, rear surface of the base part has a larger radius of curvature than that of a surface formed in combination of a curved surface and a flat surface. Consequently, it is possible to prevent the stress from being convergently applied to the rear surface of the base part.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4993967 (1991-02-01), Matsumoto
patent: 1-112577 (1989-07-01), None
Aoyama Masahiko
Hio Masahide
Takatsuki Kozue
Casella Anthony J.
Hespos Gerald E.
Prasad Chandrika
Sircus Brian
Sumiwomo Wiring Systems, Ltd.
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