Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-20
2002-06-18
Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
active
06406335
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a joint connector obtained by overlapping a plurality of connector housings having a uniform shape in plural stages. More particularly, the present invention relates to a joint connector which can prevent a tab from being deformed at a time of combination and can previously detect a combination error.
2. Description of the Related Art
As one example of a branching connector for branching a wire, there has been proposed a joint connector in which a plurality of connector housings having a uniform shape are overlapped with each other in plural stages so as to be combined (not prior art). On a surface
101
a
of the connector housing
101
constituting the joint connector mentioned above, as shown in
FIGS. 1 and 3
, a front engaging member
102
, a rear engaging member
103
, a front lock member
104
and a front surface rear lock member
105
are provided. On the contrary, on a back surface
101
b
, a front engaging member inserting hole
106
into which the front engaging member
102
is inserted, a rear engaging member inserting hole
107
into which the rear engaging member
103
is inserted, and a back surface rear lock member
108
engaged with the front surface rear lock member
105
are formed.
In order to combine both of the connector housings
101
and
101
, as shown in
FIG. 1
, a back surface
101
b
of another connector housing
101
is opposed to and overlapped with the surface
101
a
of one connector housing
101
. Then, as shown in
FIG. 2
, from a temporarily placed state before being combined, the connector housings
101
and
101
are combined so as to be held between an upper connector combining member
109
and a lower connector combining member
110
.
The temporarily placed state before being combined corresponds to a state that the front lock member
104
comes into contact with a temporarily engaged surface
112
formed in a lower end of a front lock member engaging hole
111
for inserting and engaging the front lock member
104
as shown in
FIG. 2
, and in a rear portion thereof, as shown in
FIG. 3
, a connector temporarily engaged surface
108
a
on the back surface rear lock member
108
comes into contact with a connector temporarily engaged surface
105
a
on the front surface rear lock member
105
.
When both of the connector housings
101
and
101
are combined from the temporarily placed state, the front engaging member
102
is inserted into the front engaging member inserting hole
106
, and the rear engaging member
103
is inserted into the rear engaging member inserting hole
107
, so that both of the connector housings
101
and
101
are positioned without being shaky in a longitudinal direction and a vertical direction.
Further, in front of the connector housing
101
, the front lock member
104
is inserted into and engaged with the front lock member engaging hole
111
, so that the housing front portion is locked. At the back of the connector housing
101
, respective hook portions of the front surface rear lock member
105
are engaged with the back surface rear lock member
108
, so that the housing rear portion is locked. Accordingly, both of the connector housings
101
and
101
keep a combined state without being separated from each other in a combining direction.
However, since heights between a front contact lock portion (a portion in which the front lock member
104
comes into contact with the temporarily engaged surface
112
) and a rear contact lock portion (a portion in which the connector temporarily engaged surfaces
105
a
and
108
a
of the front surface rear lock member
105
and the back surface rear lock member
108
come into contact with each other) are different from each other, the connector housing
101
overlapped above is inclined forward as shown in FIG.
2
.
Accordingly, when it is intended to combine both of the connector housings
101
and
101
, there is a case that an unnatural contact is generated in the connected portion, a damage is generated in the combined portion or an incomplete combination of both of the connector housings is generated.
Further, as shown in
FIG. 4
, a tab inserting hole
114
extending a tab
113
of a terminal through a terminal receiving chamber
115
is formed on the back surface
101
b
in the connector housing
101
. However, in the temporarily placed state shown in
FIG. 2
, a front end of the tab
113
has a certain distance L with respect to an opposite housing, and is in a state that the front end of the tab
113
is not inserted into the tab inserting hole
114
.
Accordingly, when both of the connector housings
101
and
101
are combined with each other, there is a case that the tab
113
is not inserted into the tab inserting hole
114
, so that the tab
113
is crushed and deformed. In particular, in the case that the connector housing
101
is largely inclined as shown in
FIG. 2
, the tab
113
is further hard to be received by the tab inserting hole
114
. When the tab
113
is deformed without being inserted into the tab inserting hole
114
, the tab
113
is held between the overlapping surfaces of the housings, so as to generate a combination error, so that an electric conduction between the upper and lower terminals cannot be achieved.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been achieved in order to solve the problems mentioned above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a joint connector which can prevent a tab from being deformed at a time of being combined and can previously detect a combination error.
The first aspect of the invention provides a joint connector comprising: a plurality of terminals; a terminal receiving chamber in which the terminals are received and arranged; and a connector housing having the terminal receiving chamber in which a plurality of terminals are received and arranged, wherein the joint connector is constructed by combining a plurality of the connector housings having a uniform shape in plural stages so that the terminal receiving chamber side is set to a front surface, an opposite side is set to a back surface, and the back surface is overlapped with the front surface, wherein a front engaging member, a combining projection portion formed in the front engaging member, a rear engaging member, a front lock member and a front surface rear lock member are provided on the front surface, and a front engaging member inserting hole into which the front engaging member is inserted, a combining projection portion fitting hole to which the combining projection portion is fitted, a rear engaging member inserting hole into which the rear engaging member is inserted, a back surface rear lock member engaged with the front surface rear lock member and a tab inserting hole extending a tab formed in the terminal through the terminal receiving chamber are provided on the back surface, and wherein the combining projection portion is formed so that a part thereof is overlapped with the combining projection portion fitting hole, connector temporarily engaging surfaces are respectively formed in the front surface rear lock member and the back surface rear lock member, and in a temporarily placed state before the connector housings are combined, the combining projection portion comes into contact with an opening peripheral edge portion of the combining projection portion fitting hole and the respective connector temporarily engaged surfaces of the front surface rear lock member and the back surface rear lock member come into contact therewith, whereby each of the combined connector housings keeps a parallel state, and at least a front end of the tab is inserted into the tab inserting hole.
According to the first aspect of the invention, since in a temporarily placed state before the connector housings are combined, the combining projection portion comes into contact with an opening peripheral edge portion of the combining projection portion fitting hole, and the respective connector temporarily engaged surfaces of the front surfac
Ozawa Toshiaki
Sato Kei
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Paumen Gary
Yazaki -Corporation
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