Electrical connectors – With supporting means for coupling part – Coupling part or mating part extending into panel opening
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-26
2003-11-18
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)
Electrical connectors
With supporting means for coupling part
Coupling part or mating part extending into panel opening
C439S562000, C439S563000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06648681
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a connector with retainer members, concerning improvement of the retainer members, particularly to a connector with retainer members attachable to a panel of electronic or electrical equipment from either a front or back wall face thereof when attaching the connector to the panel, and a method of attaching the connector to the panel.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As a connector for attachment to a panel of an electronic equipment, electrical equipment, or the like, there has been in widespread use a connector having a pair of elastic retainer arms installed on the sidewalls of a housing proper thereof, which is publicly known. An example of such a connector is disclosed in JU-B 4-21270. FIGS.
6
(A) to
6
(C) show a connector disclosed in JU-B 4-21270, wherein FIG.
6
(A) is a perspective view of the connector, FIG.
6
(B) and FIG.
6
(C) are partially enlarged views of the elastic retainer arms when the connector is attached to a panel.
As shown in FIG.
6
(A), a connector
100
is made up of an insulating housing in box shape, a pair of elastic retainer arms
120
,
120
are installed at substantially intermediate position on sidewalls
110
,
110
, on both sides of the insulating housing, respectively, so as to extend outwardly from the sidewalls
110
,
110
. The elastic retainer arms
120
,
120
each have flexibility enabling them to undergo flexure towards the respective sidewalls when subjected to external force. When the connector
100
is inserted into an attachment port
210
of a panel
200
from the direction of the arrow in FIG.
6
(A), the pair of elastic retainer arms
120
,
120
undergo flexure towards the sidewalls, respectively, against the urging of elastic force thereof, and are inserted into the attachment port
210
. As the connector
100
is inserted deeper into the attachment port
210
, a notched part
130
, provided at the extremity of both the elastic retainer arms
120
,
120
, is butted against a recess
220
provided on both sides of the attachment port
210
, and is caused to undergo flexure inwardly due to pressing force exerted by the recess
220
. When the connector
100
is further pushed into the attachment port
210
, the notched part
130
is shifted from a notch
130
N at the foot thereof towards a notch
130
A at the tip thereof.
Such shifting of the notched part
130
continues until a collar
140
of the connector
100
is butted against the panel
200
. Upon butting of the collar
140
against the panel
200
, the direction of insertion is established and simultaneously, the notched part
130
is secured by pressing force of the recess
220
on each side. The notched part
130
of the respective elastic retainer arms
120
,
120
is provided with a plurality of the notches
130
A,
130
B . . .
130
N, formed thereon, and the respective elastic retainer arms
120
,
120
are retained at any notch of the plurality of the notches in such a way as to correspond to a thickness of a panel plate.
However, with the connector comprising the elastic retainer arms described above, a direction of attachment of the connector to a panel is limited to that from one wall face of the panel owing to a structure of retainer members of the connector, and usually, the connector can be attached only from the direction of the arrow in FIG.
6
(A). If attachment of the connector from a wall face on the opposite side is attempted, this will cause the orientation of the connector to become opposite to that shown in FIG.
6
(A), resulting in a change in a position of connection with another connector. Further, in order to render the orientation of the connector to be the same as the direction of connection even when the connector is attached from the wall face on the same side, there has been the need for preparing a connector with retainer members fitted to the sidewalls, in a different direction. For this reason, two different kinds of connectors are required, which has resulted in an increase in inventories, and has become uneconomical. At the same time, there has been no choice but to place severe limitations on design flexibility in connection with connectors, and attachment thereof to a panel, or the like. Since the elastic retainer arm is made up of an elastic piece in the form of a cantilever, the elastic retainer arm undergoes deformation or breakage if a foreign matter is caught in a gap or the elastic retainer is subjected to an external stress unexpectedly. Further, the elastic retainer arms undergo flexure towards the respective sidewalls against the urging of elastic force thereof at the time of the connector being attached to, or removed from the panel, whereupon stress is concentrated on the root of the respective elastic retainer arms, where the same are attached to the sidewalls, respectively, due to the flexure, and consequently, the root of the respective elastic retainer arms needs to be firmly secured to the sidewall in order to maintain a predetermined elastic force and to prevent breakage. However, the firmer the root of the respective elastic retainer arms is secured to the sidewall, the more the elastic force of the respective elastic retainer arms has to be sacrificed, so that greater force is required when fitting the connector into the panel while there is limitation to force of retaining the connector to the panel, thereby causing a problem of insufficient stability.
Meanwhile, there has been in widespread use another method of attachment by use of a connector provided with screws in place of the elastic retainer arms described above, enabling attachment from either a front wall face or a back wall face of a panel. However, in the case of such a connector using means for secure attachment with screws, there have arisen problems in that the number of parts increases because bolts and nuts are required, and work for attachment is bothersome and poor in efficiency because a jig is required for attaching the connector to the panel, or removing the same from the panel.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has been developed to eliminate the problems described above, and a first object of the invention is to provide a connector with retainer members attachable to a panel from a direction of either a front or back wall face thereof, and easily removable from the panel.
It is another object of the invention to provide a connector with retainer members with enhanced spring stability by preventing concentration of stress on the retainer members.
Further, a still another object of the invention is to provide a method of attaching a connector to a panel, wherein the connector in a predetermined posture can be fitted into an attachment port of the panel when attaching the connector to the attachment port.
The above objects of the invention can be achieved by the following means.
The connector according to the first to sixth aspects of the invention comprises an insulating housing with connector terminals fitted therein, flanges orthogonal to a direction of insertion and removal through the insulating housing and projected outwardly from at least one wall face of the insulating housing, comprising front and back faces, respectively, and a pair of retainer members having flexibility, fixedly attached to both side ends or both up-down ends of the insulating housing, respectively, characterized in that the retainer members are provided with a pair of retainer stepped parts, and there is a gap for allowing fixture of the panel between the front and back faces of the respective flanges and the respective retainer stepped parts of the retainer members.
The pair of retainer stepped parts are inserted into coupling ports of panels such that one retainer stepped part is inserted into a coupling port of a first panel while the other retainer stepped part is inserted into a coupling port of a second panel so that respective panels are retained and secured in the gap between the respective retainer stepped parts and the wall faces of the flanges.
The connector terminals preferably employ male and/or female
Hamada Yusuke
Masaki Katsuyuki
Ushiro Yutaka
J.S.T. Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Lee Jinhee
Reichard Dean A.
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