Electrical connectors – Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient... – Spring actuated or resilient securing part
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-09
2002-04-30
Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient...
Spring actuated or resilient securing part
C439S451000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06379199
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention belongs to a technical field of a connector wherein a female terminal is inserted in a chamber of a housing.
2. Related Art
A connector has been known, as shown in
FIG. 17A
, wherein through chambers
82
, in several rows and columns in the directions of height and width, are formed in a housing
81
in parallel to each other, a female terminal
84
being approximately box-shaped in the front half, thus having an approximately rectangular section, and being connected to an electric wire
83
in the back is inserted into and fixed in each of the chambers
82
, and male terminals of a counterpart connector are inserted into these female terminals
84
to make mechanical connections as well as electrical connections (refer to, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Hei 8-106944). A port
85
opens in the top end of the above-mentioned female terminal
84
to receive a male terminal. A splicing part
86
is formed in the back of the female terminal
84
to connect an electric wire
83
. A concave fixing part
87
is formed in an intermediate part of the female terminal
84
. A hook of a lance
88
that is flexibly formed in a chamber
82
of the housing
81
fits into this concave fixing part
87
to make a primary fixing of the female terminal
84
to the housing
81
. Moreover, a fixing piece
90
of a retainer
89
that is fitted into the housing
81
is set at the back of a stabilizer
91
that is formed on the top of the intermediate part of the female terminal
84
to make a secondary fixing of the female terminal
84
to the housing
81
.
Apart from this, a connection structure between a female terminal of this kind and a male terminal has been disclosed in Japanese Provisional Patent Hei 9-232021. As shown in
FIG. 17B
, to hold an inserted male terminal
92
′, a leaf spring
93
′ is integrally formed inside the terminal proper
94
′ of a female terminal
84
′. Moreover, a separate reinforcing leaf spring
95
′ is blanked out together with the terminal proper
94
′ and this reinforcing leaf spring
95
′ is bent on the inner side of the main leaf spring
93
′ to form double springs and ensure a sufficient contacting force.
Further, in Japanese Provisional Patent Hei 5-135819, a female terminal has been disclosed wherein a leaf spring is integrally formed inside the terminal proper and the leaf spring is bent sideways and approximately circularly to form a round part. The front half of this terminal proper is formed into an approximately box-shaped form that comprises a bottom wall, side walls rising from both ends, in the width direction, of the bottom wall, and an outer upper wall and an inner upper wall which extend from the top ends of the respective side walls towards the top ends of the opposing side walls and overlap with each other above and below. As the terminal proper is formed into an approximately box-shaped form having upper walls overlapping with each other, it has merits that the above-mentioned front half is hardly deformed even if, for example, a worker inadvertently steps on it and external forces are exerted to the terminal proper and that the leaf spring inside the terminal proper is protected reliably.
However, in the above-mentioned female terminal
84
′ having double springs, as two leaf springs
93
′,
95
′ overlap with each other, the female terminal
84
′ becomes bulkier in the direction of height, preventing compactification of the connector. Further, the female terminal having a round part being bent sideways into an approximately circular arc becomes bulkier in the direction of width due to this round part, preventing compactification of the connector.
In the case of the female terminal
84
′ having double springs, as each of the leaf springs
93
′,
95
′ is formed by bending, a gap is formed between two unrestricted leaf springs due to springbacks. As the dimension of this gap is a cumulative result of steps of forming two springs, it is difficult to accurately control this dimension in the production. Hence it is hard to avoid dispersion in this gap dimension. This poses a problem. At the time of use, the point of inflection of the spring constant at which the main spring
93
′ contacts the reinforcing spring
95
′ and both springs
93
′,
95
′ start to be deformed varies from product to product. Thus contacting forces are not stable and vary from product to product.
When a female terminal is blanked out of a sheet metal and shaped into a desired form by bending, the smaller is the developed shape of the female terminal, the greater is the efficiency of yielding the developed shapes of the terminal from a material of a given area, thus the cost is lowered. Furthermore, the smaller is the number of bending operations, the simpler is the process of production. This also contributes to reduction in cost.
As a connector is used in combination with a counterpart connector, compactification of the counterpart connector is also desired. Further, if there is an error in assembling a male terminal in the counterpart connector, the male terminal may be assembled to be slightly slant in relation to the housing. In the worst case, such a male terminal may cause a trouble that it can not be inserted into a female terminal.
The above-mentioned stabilizer
91
can exhibit a function of preventing so-called inverse insertion; if the female terminal
84
is inserted into the chamber
82
of the housing
81
in an incorrect orientation, for example, upside down, the stabilizer
91
will catch the entrance of the chamber
82
to prevent further insertion. Because of this function, the female terminal
84
and the retainer
89
are brought to a proper positional relationship and the female terminal
84
is fixed by the retainer
89
. However, as the stabilizer
91
is to be fixed by a fixing piece
90
of the retainer
89
, the stabilizer
91
is provided on the top of the intermediate part of the terminal proper. Accordingly, the front portion of the terminal proper ahead of the stabilizer
91
, even if it is inverted upside down, would be inserted. This, in turn, would make the worker forcefully insert the female terminal
84
further, resulting in a damage to the chamber and nearby of the housing
81
.
When a continuity test or the like is given to a female terminal of a connector, a test jig having a shape identical to that of a male terminal is inserted into the female terminal. When the test jig is used repeatedly, the jig may be deformed. If such a deformed jig is forced into a female terminal, the lead spring, etc. will be damaged to cause a trouble.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present inventor has proposed, in Patent Application No. Hei 10-219753, an invention to solve some problems. That invention, however, has limitations to compactification of the connector and the developed shape of the connector since the leaf spring has a round part and the round part is provided independently of a wall constituting the front half of the terminal proper. Accordingly, one objective of the present invention is to form the front half of a terminal proper into an approximately box-shaped form so as to protect a leaf spring, etc., to use an upper wall so as to form a leaf spring, to form a bead on the leaf spring so as to reduce the number of leaf spring to one and compactify the female terminal in both the directions of height and width as much as possible, to secure sufficient contacting force reliably and move a contacting part of the leaf spring forward, to reduce the length of insertion of a male terminal so as to compactify the counterpart connector and increase the tolerance of the connector to slant of the male terminal, to make the developed shape of the female terminal smaller so as to achieve efficient use of material, reduce the costs and simplify the production process.
To accomplish the above-mentioned objective, the present
Gushi Ross
Japan Solderless Terminal Mfg. Co., Ltd.
Paumen Gary
Studebaker Donald R.
LandOfFree
Female terminal for a connector and a housing therefor does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Female terminal for a connector and a housing therefor, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Female terminal for a connector and a housing therefor will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2840318