Seal for a joint or juncture – Seal between fixed parts or static contact against... – Contact seal for other than internal combustion engine – or...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-21
2001-09-18
Sandy, Robert J. (Department: 3626)
Seal for a joint or juncture
Seal between fixed parts or static contact against...
Contact seal for other than internal combustion engine, or...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06290239
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a seal construction of a connector, and more particularly to a seal construction of a relay connector for an automatic transmission.
2. Related art
A conventional art technique will be briefly described with reference to
FIGS. 5 and 6
.
FIG. 5
is a cross-sectional view of a conventional relay connector for an automatic transmission which connector has the function of preventing oil from leaking from an oil case to the exterior through a gap in a conductor portion (wire harness) of a cable.
A relay connector
51
is mounted in a through hole
53
, formed through a wall
52
of an oil case of an automatic transmission through an O-ring
55
, fitted in a groove
54
formed in an outer peripheral surface of the connector, and a flange
56
. With respect to a seal construction of this relay connector, a partition wall
58
is formed within a hollow connector housing
57
in integral relation thereto, and is disposed perpendicularly to an axis C of the connector, and a plurality of terminals
59
(for transmitting electrical signals) are insert molded in the partition wall
58
, and extend in the direction of the axis C of the connector housing
57
such that these terminals
59
are exposed to a gas phase side and an oil phase side. The gas phase-side chamber is divided into two regions A and B by a separation wall
70
which is disposed parallel to the axis C of the connector, and has a gouging prevention function.
In this relay connector
51
, when the temperature of the oil phase side becomes high, the degree of intimate contact between the connector housing
57
and the electric terminals
59
is lowered because of the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the two, which leads to a possibility that the oil leaks from the oil phase side to the gas phase side. Therefore, a filling material
60
a,
60
b
(see FIG.
6
), such as an epoxy resin, is filled in the gas phase-side chamber.
FIG. 6
is a cross-sectional view showing only the gas phase side, and showing a condition in which the filling material
60
a,
60
b,
filled therein, is completely solidified.
However, in the above conventional seal construction of the relay connector
51
in which the plurality of resin-filling regions, in which the plurality of terminals are arranged, are separated from each other by the separation wall, a width Wa of the region A of the chamber in the relay connector
51
is larger than a width Wb of the region B (Wa>Wb), and therefore the region A and the region B are different in cross-sectional area from each other. Namely, if the resin-filling regions A and B have the same filling height, these regions are different in volume.
Usually, an epoxy resin, silicone or the like, used as the filling material
60
a,
60
b,
has a high viscosity, and therefore in the filling operation, much time is required for the filling of the filling material, so that the filling material is solidified before it is filled uniformly over the entire area.
If the filling regions are different in cross-sectional area (volume), the conditions of the solidified filling material in the two regions are different from each other, and the filling material flows at higher speed (that is, at higher filling rate) in the larger region A than in the narrower region B, and is solidified earlier. Therefore, the height of the filled resin in the narrower region B, in which the filling material is filled at lower speed, is larger than that in the larger region A. As a result, the excess filling material adheres in an irregular manner to the terminals and seal surfaces and so on in the narrower region B.
Therefore, the reliability of the connector is lowered by the degraded electrical performance of the terminals, and in addition, the filling material is wasted.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
This invention has been made in view of the above problems of the conventional seal construction of the connector, and an object of the invention is to provide a seal construction of a connector in which good reliability is achieved, and a filling material can be saved, and the efficiency of a filling operation is high.
The above object of the invention has been achieved by a seal construction of a connector in which a plurality of resin-filling regions, in which a plurality of terminals are arranged, are separated from each other by a separation wall; wherein the plurality of resin-filling regions are equal to each other in cross-sectional area in a direction perpendicular to axes of the terminals.
In the connector seal construction of the invention, preferably, the shortest widths of the plurality of resin-filling regions in a direction perpendicular to a direction of juxtaposition of the terminals are equal to each other.
In the present invention, the plurality of resin-filling regions are equal to each other in cross-sectional area in the direction perpendicular to the axes of the terminals, and with this construction, the filling materials, filled respectively in the resin-filling regions, can have generally the same thickness.
The shortest widths of the plurality of resin-filling regions in the direction perpendicular to the direction of juxtaposition of the terminals are equal to each other, and with this construction the filling materials, filled respectively in the region filling regions, are prevented from flowing differently from each other.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3781456 (1973-12-01), Knowles et al.
patent: 3806625 (1974-04-01), Long
patent: 4103136 (1978-07-01), Karakis et al.
Sandy Robert J.
Schwing Karlena D.
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
Yazaki -Corporation
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