Electrical connector

Details Electrical connector Electrical connector

2000-11-08

2001-10-02

Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

With insulation other than conductor sheath

Plural-contact coupling part

C439S848000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06296524

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors and, particularly, to an electrical connector made by integrally molding a housing and terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese SUM patent application Kokai No. 3-126389 discloses a pair of electrical connectors locked to each other. As
FIG. 3
shows, a first connector
50
has a housing
51
to which a terminal
52
is attached. The terminal
52
has a contact section
53
with a trapezoidal recess
54
. A second connector
60
has a housing
61
to which a resilient terminal
62
is attached. The resilient terminal
62
has a semi-circular projection
63
at a tip thereof and a small semi-circular contact portion
64
at the middle position thereof.
In use, the second connector
60
is plugged into the first connector
50
in a direction A such that the projection
63
of the terminal
62
is snapped in the recess
54
of the terminal
52
, locking contact between the contact portion
64
and the contact section
53
. In the above connectors, the terminal
52
is fitted into the housing
51
upon assembling.
It is well known that a terminal can be integrally molded with the housing of an electrical connector. If the electrical connector of
FIG. 3
is made by such integral molding, the recess
54
of the terminal
52
is filled with the molding resin, causing poor contact. In addition, the resin can adhere to the contact section
53
with which the contact portion
64
of the mating connector
60
is brought into contact.
Since the position for making electrical contact is different from the position for locking the electrical contact, the terminal becomes long, resulting in the large connector. To avoid such a problem, it is desired that the lock section works also as contact section. However, this is difficult to do because of the above problem that the resin can adhere to the lock section.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an electrical connector capable of allowing integral molding of a housing and a terminal without resin adhesion to the contact section, thus providing reliable contact between the terminals.
An electrical connector relative to the invention comprises a housing made of an insulative material and at least one terminal made of an elongated metal member and molded integrally with the housing such that a contact section thereof is exposed in the housing for contact with a mating terminal.
According to the invention, a side ridge is provided around the contact section so that the metal mold is brought into close contact with the side ridge to prevent the insulative material from entering the contact section. The mating terminal is moved in a direction parallel to or perpendicular to the contact section for contact. Where it is moved in parallel, it produces a click when it passes the side ridge, indicating that the terminal has reached a predetermined position and been locked.
The side edge may have a width greater than that of the elongated metal member to absorb a widthwise positionally error of the mating terminal. This is particularly effective where a plurality of terminals are arranged at small intervals. The contact section may have a width equal to or greater than that of the elongated metal member, producing great advantages. It is preferred that the side edge is flush with a surface portion of the housing surrounding the side edge so that the mating terminal can reach the side edge without resistance.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5224866 (1993-07-01), Nakamura et al.
patent: 5639248 (1997-06-01), Yagi
patent: 5800186 (1998-09-01), Ramirez et al.
patent: 5885092 (1999-03-01), Ito et al.
patent: 6036504 (2000-03-01), McHugh et al.
patent: 6036549 (2000-03-01), Wulff

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