Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
2003-11-17
2004-08-17
Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
active
06776667
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a modular jack in which a modular plug is plugged.
2. Description of the Related Art
A modular jack is one of conventional connectors which are used in telephone equipment or local area network (LAN). The modular jack is usually mounted on a circuit board and the modular plug, which connects a plurality of core wires, such as cables, to each other, is plugged in the modular jack.
For example, as shown in
FIGS. 13
to
16
, Japanese Patent Application Kokai Number 2000-299164 discloses such a conventional modular jack. The modular jack comprises a housing body and eight terminals (the first to eighth terminals
3
,
4
,
5
,
6
,
7
,
8
,
9
, and
10
) provided in the housing body. The housing body is composed of an insert
11
and a modular jack assembly
12
for receiving the insert
11
.
The insert
11
is composed of a rear wall
13
and a top wall
14
extending forwardly from the top of the rear wall
13
. A predetermined number of upper grooves
15
are formed on the upper surfaces of the rear and top walls
13
and
14
and a predetermined number of rear grooves
16
are formed on the rear surface of the rear wall
13
such that the rear grooves
16
continues from the upper grooves
15
and extend in a vertical direction.
The respective terminals
3
to
10
are fixed to the rear wall
17
via an extended portion
17
and divided into two groups in accordance with the shapes thereof to reduce the electrical cross-talk. The first group consists of the first, third, fifth, and eighth terminals
3
,
5
,
7
, and
10
, and the second group consists of the second, fourth, sixth, and seventh terminals
4
,
6
,
8
, and
9
. As shown in FIG.
15
(A), the respective terminals
3
,
5
,
7
, and
10
of the first group have a fixed portion
18
fixed to a board
26
, a vertical portion
19
extending vertically along the rear groove
16
, a horizontal portion
20
extending horizontally along the upper groove
15
, and a contact portion
21
folded back obliquely in a lower back direction at the end of the horizontal portion
20
. The top of the contact portion
21
is a free end. As shown in FIG.
15
(B), the respective terminals
4
,
6
,
8
, and
9
of the second group have a fixed portion
22
fixed to a board
26
, a vertical portion
23
extending vertically along the rear groove
16
, a horizontal portion
24
extending horizontally along the upper surface of the rear wall
13
, and a contact portion
25
curved downwardly from the end of the horizontal portion
24
and then extending obliquely in an upper forward direction. The top end of the contact portion
25
is supported by the front end of the top wall
14
.
As shown in
FIG. 16
, the modular jack assembly
12
is mounted on the circuit board
26
and comprises sixteen receiving cavities
27
and
28
arranged in two-stage at the front side thereof. The insert
11
and the terminals
3
to
10
are arranged in the receiving cavity
28
of the lower stage and other insert and terminals (not shown) are arranged in the receiving cavity of the upper stage. Under this condition, the respective receiving cavities
27
and
28
are provided with plug-in cavities (not shown) in which the modular plugs are plugged.
When the modular plug is plugged in the modular jack, the contact portions
21
and
25
of the terminals
3
to
10
of the first and second groups are brought into contact with terminals (not shown) of the modular plug for electrical connection between the modular jack and plug.
In the conventional modular jack, however, it is required that the contact portions
21
of the terminals
3
,
5
,
7
, and
10
of the first group are bent in the oblique lower back direction from the front end of the top wall
14
after the terminals are fixed to the insert
11
. Accordingly, long-time assembly work and lengthy terminals are required, which makes it difficult to reduce the assembling and material costs. Also, a sufficient height of the housing body is necessary for bending the contact portions
21
in the oblique lower back direction, which makes it difficult to minimize the size of the housing body in the heightwise direction and the size of the modular jack.
In addition, since the housing body is composed of the insert
11
and modular jack assembly
12
, which incorporate the respective terminals
3
to
10
into the housing body, it is difficult to reduce the number of parts and the manufacturing cost cannot be reduced.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a modular jack, which makes it possible to reduce the assembling and material costs, minimize the size of the product, and reduce the number of used parts.
According to an aspect of the invention, a modular jack in which a modular plug is plugged, comprises a housing body including a cavity at a front side thereof in which the modular plug is plugged and a rear wall having openings and fixed portions, and a plurality of terminals fixed to the fixed portions and extend to the cavity in a form of cantilevered beams supported by the fixed portions, wherein the terminals are inserted into the openings to be fixed to the fixed portions.
It is preferable that the fixed portions include first and second fixed portions spaced from each other in a heightwise direction of the modular jack by a predetermined distance, wherein the first and second fixed portions are arranged alternately.
According to another aspect of the invention, the terminals include first terminals which are fixed to the first fixed portions and second terminals which are fixed to the second fixed portions, wherein the respective first terminals have first forwardly inclined contact portions and the second respective terminals have second forwardly inclined contact portions, wherein the first and second inclined contact portions have angles of inclinations which are different from each other.
It is preferable that the first and second inclined contact portions have first and second curved sections, respectively, at front ends thereof, wherein the first and second curved sections are disposed at different positions from each other in a back-and-forth direction.
Also, it is preferable that the housing has a plurality of control portions in a bottom wall thereof at positions corresponding to those of the terminals so that the terminals abut against the control portions to prevent excessive flexure of the terminals.
With the above-described structure, when the respective terminals are inserted into the openings in the rear wall of the housing body, they are firmly fixed to the housing body and extend to the plugging cavity in the form of cantilevered beams supported by the fixed portions.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5057035 (1991-10-01), Drewnicki
patent: 5186649 (1993-02-01), Fortner et al.
patent: 6093060 (2000-07-01), Wiebking et al.
patent: 6210235 (2001-04-01), Wu
patent: 6296527 (2001-10-01), Zhang et al.
patent: 6431917 (2002-08-01), Belopolsky et al.
patent: 6461200 (2002-10-01), Shi et al.
patent: 2000-299164 (2000-10-01), None
Funatsu Akira
Watanabe Toru
Hirose Electric Co. Ltd.
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Paumen Gary
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