Easily assembled electrical connector

Details Easily assembled electrical connector Easily assembled electrical connector

1999-07-09

2001-05-08

Vu, Hien (Department: 2833)

Electrical connectors

Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient...

Spring actuated or resilient securing part

C439S606000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06227916

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to an electrical connector having an easily assembled structure, and more particular to an easily assembled receptacle adapted to be used outdoors.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Please refer to
FIG. 1
which schematically shows the appearance of a receptacle, which is suitable to be used outdoors, for example, to extend power supply due to the material property thereof. As shown, the socket
101
of the receptacle
10
is provided for inserting and fitting therein a power plug
11
. By the electric contact of the metal pins
111
,
112
and
113
of the power plug
11
with the conductive terminals (not shown) in the socket
101
, power can be extensively supplied to a distant electrical appliance, especially an outdoor appliance. For an outdoor receptacle, a thermally stable physical property is required because the surrounding temperature that the receptacle is subject to may vary from day to day up to tens of degrees. A material conventionally used for making a general receptacle is polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC, however, is not a good material for an outdoor receptacle due to its relatively high temperature sensitivity in volume, i.e. relatively significant expansion/shrinkage effect with temperature. The significant change in socket volume is likely to obstruct the plugging/unplugging operation of the power plug or cause poor contact between the power plug and the receptacle. Therefore, composite materials and a specific assembling manner have been used to produce an outdoor receptacle.
The composite receptacle includes an inner body and a wrapping portion The inner body is made of an insulating material of relatively low temperature sensitivity, for example a kind of engineering plastic such as polycarbonate, and then partially sealed by the wrapping portion made of a general insulating material such as PVC, leaving the socket face exposed. By this way, even in a chilly climate down to −20° C., the connector can still work well.
For a conventional composite receptacle, the inner body consists of a socket portion and a conductive terminal portion. The conductive terminal portion is located in the socket portion for clamping metal pins of a plug therebetween when the plug is inserted into the socket portion. As shown in
FIG. 2
which schematically shows the conductive terminal portion of a conventional composite receptacle, the conductive terminal portion
21
generally includes two sets of elastic metal pieces
211
and
212
for clamping therebetween two metal pins of the plug, respectively, and one conductive sleeve
213
for optionally receiving therein a ground pin of the plug. In order to guide the metal pins of the plug into the passages
214
of the two sets of metal pieces
211
and
212
smoothly, the front end of each metal piece is properly bent to make the opening
215
of each of the passages
214
have a funnel shape.
Unfortunately, owing to the relatively large passage opening, the positioning of the conductive terminal portion into the socket portion is difficult so that the socket portion of the conventional inner body has to be divided as two parts, i.e. a seat part for receiving the metal pieces and a cover part for securing the metal pieces in the seat part, as shown in
FIG. 3
which schematically shows the socket portion of the conventional composite receptacle having the conductive terminal portion of FIG.
2
.
As shown, the two sets of metal pieces
211
and
212
and the conductive sleeve
213
of the conductive terminal portion are placed downwards into two side trenches
311
and
312
and a top trench
313
of the seat part
31
from the top of the trenches, respectively, with the bent front ends of the metal pieces protruding from the front surface of the seat part
31
. After the conductive terminal portion is settled in the seat part, the cover part
32
is combined with the seat part
31
having positioned therein the conductive terminal portion by inserting the seat part
31
into the cover part
32
from the rear surface of the cover part
32
to form the inner body. Afterwards, the insulating material such as PVC, as mentioned above, is injection molded onto the assembled inner body to form the wrapping portion. By this way, the outdoor receptacle can be obtained.
From the above description, it is understood that the assembling process of the conventional outdoor receptacle is relatively complicated and the manufacturing cost is relatively high owing to the division of the socket portion as two separate parts. By the way, it is also a problem that the manufacturing accuracy should be highly required in order to perfectly combine the two separate parts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector such as a receptacle adapted to be used outdoors and having an easily assembled structure.
According to the present invention, an electrical connector for receiving therein an electrical plug to make an electric connection includes a socket portion made of a first insulating material, and having a first through hole penetrating therethrough, wherein a first and a second openings of the first through hole are located on a first and a second surfaces of the socket portion, respectively, and a shape of the first opening matches a shape of a metal pin of the electrical plug to allow the metal pin to be inserted therefrom; a first conductive terminal consisting of a first base and two first elastic conductive pieces and inserted into the first through hole from the second opening for clamping the metal pin inserted from the first opening in a passage between the two first elastic conductive pieces, wherein the two first elastic conductive pieces are parallelly connected to the first base and have a total width narrower than a width of the first base so that the first base fills the second opening after the two first elastic conductive pieces enter the first through hole; and a wrapping portion made of a second insulating material and applied onto the socket portion for securing and protecting the first conductive terminal in the socket portion.
In a preferred embodiment, the first and the second openings are two slots perpendicular to each other, and the metal pin and the first conductive terminal are two flat metal plates inserted from the first and the second openings, respectively, and cross each other in the first through hole.
In order to assure of a remained vacancy between the first elastic conductive pieces and walls of the first through hole after the first elastic conductive pieces enter the first through hole, the first base preferably has a shoulder structure protruding from sides of the first elastic conductive pieces so as to have a width larger than a total width of the first elastic conductive pieces. The presence of the remained vacancy provides a stretching space for the conductive pieces if a thermally expansion effect occurs.
Preferably, a stopper structure is arranged in the first through hole to sustain against the shoulder structure of the first conductive terminal in order to prevent the first base from entirely entering the first through hole, and thus assure that the first base can fill the second opening.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the socket portion further includes a second through hole penetrating therethrough, wherein a third and a fourth openings of the second through hole are located on the first and the second surfaces of the socket portion, respectively, and a shape of the third opening matches a shape of another metal pin of the electrical plug to allow the another metal pin to be inserted therefrom. In this case, the electrical connector further includes a second conductive terminal consisting of a second base and two second elastic conductive pieces and inserted into the second through hole from the fourth opening for clamping the another metal pin inserted from the third opening in a passage between the second two elastic conductive pieces, wherein the second two el

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Easily assembled electrical connector does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Easily assembled electrical connector, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Easily assembled electrical connector will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2450018