Electrical connectors – Coupling part including flexing insulation – Sealing
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-29
2003-09-09
Ta, Tho D. (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Coupling part including flexing insulation
Sealing
C439S076100, C439S076200, C439S620040, C439S271000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06616480
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sealing structure of an accessory module in which a casing, containing an accessory (e.g. an on-vehicle CCD camera) and a board, and wires, which are to be connected thereto, can be releasably connected together by the use of a ; connector, and besides a sealing performance is enhanced.
2. Related Art
Conventional camera modules Y and Z will be described with reference to
FIGS. 7
to
10
.
FIG. 7
is an enlarged view of a portion of a wire harness
4
on which a clamp
50
with on O-ring
51
is mounted. A wire harness will be described briefly. Generally, a bundle of wires, used for connection to those electrical circuits of an automobile or the like except high-voltage circuits and an ignition circuit, is called a wire harness. Here, however, it means a wiring bundle comprising wiring elements (including wires) which are bundled together so that the mounting of wires or the like can be easily effected in an assembly line for automobiles. The wire harness is also called a wiring harness.
The O-ring
51
, shown in
FIG. 7
, is provided on the clamp
50
so as to keep the interior of a camera casing
3
in an air-tight condition when the clamp
50
is attached to the camera casing
3
. A clamp is a part used for mounting cables, such as a wire harness, on a mating structural object such as an automobile, and here it means a fastening member for fixedly mounting the relevant part.
The clamp
50
includes a threaded portion
50
a
for positively fixing this clamp to the camera casing
3
, a hexagonal head
50
b
used when fixing the clamp
50
to the camera casing
3
by a thread-tightening operation, and a flange portion
50
c
which produces a force to fasten the clamp
50
and the camera casing
3
together, and also plays an important role in a sealing function of the O-ring
51
.
A passage hole
50
d
for passing wires, such as cables
4
a
and
4
a
′, therethrough is formed in the clamp
50
. As shown in
FIG. 7
, the wires
4
a
and
4
a
′, such as cables
4
a
and
4
a
′ (including the drain wire
4
a
′), are passed through the passage hole
50
d
in the clamp
50
with the O-ring
51
, and terminals TL
1
, that is, terminal members TL
1
, are secured to distal ends of the cables
4
a
and
4
a
′, respectively. The terminals TL
1
are received in a connector housing, and in this manner a connector CR
1
is formed at the distal end of the wire harness
4
as shown in FIG.
8
. The terminal designates a terminal member, and means an electrode.
The connector housing will be described briefly, and the connector housing is an electrically-insulating part which holds the terminals, that is, the terminal members, in a suitable arrangement pattern, and has the function of insulating the terminals from one another or from other conductors. Generally, the connector housing has receiving chambers in which the terminals or the like are mounted. The connector means apart for the purpose of achieving an electrical connection, and is provided with electrical connection parts, such as terminals and wires.
After the cables
4
a
and
4
a
′ are passed through the passage hole
50
d
in the clamp
50
shown in
FIG. 7
, a potting processing PG is applied to this clamp. Here, the potting processing PG will be described briefly, and it means a process of pouring soft rubber, such as an epoxy polymer, or a soft resin into a predetermined portion to seal it.
By thus applying the potting processing PG, even each of the cables
4
a
and
4
a
′ can be completely sealed so that the intrusion of moisture, dust, dirt and so on into the interior of the camera casing
3
and the interior of a camera
1
can be prevented. The confirmation of the sealing performance of the thus potting-applied portion is made by an operation for confirming the air-tightness and liquid-tightness by water leakage.
FIGS. 8 and 9
are a perspective view showing the manner of assembling the camera modules Y, Z provided with the conventional on-vehicle CCD camera
1
. The camera module Y, provided with the conventional on-vehicle CCD camera, will be described briefly, and the camera module Y mainly comprises the camera
1
, such as an on-vehicle CCD camera, and a board
2
on which this camera
1
is mounted. The camera module Z comprises the camera module Y, having the camera
1
mounted on the board
2
, the camera casing
3
on which this camera module Y is mounted, and the wire harness
4
comprising the wires
4
a
and
4
a
′ bundled together.
FIGS. 8 and 9
show the process of assembling the conventional on-vehicle CCD, and
FIG. 9
is a perspective view specifically showing troubles encountered when mounting the camera module Y, comprising the camera
1
and the board
2
, on the camera casing
3
.
FIG. 10
is a cross-sectional view taken along the line R—R of
FIGS. 8 and 9
, and also is a conceptual view showing an object to which the wire harness
4
is connected, and more specifically this figure is an enlarged, cross-sectional view showing a condition in which the wire harness
4
is mounted on the camera casing
3
through the clamp
50
.
Here, a CCD will be described briefly, and the CCD mainly designates a charged-coupled device, and more specifically means a device which converts an optical signal, representing an image or the like, into an electrical signal by the use of a semiconductor device responsive to light. The CCD is an abbreviation of “Charge Coupled Device”, and is a semiconductor made public in 1977 by Bell Laboratory of U.S.A. Generally, the picture quality of the CCD is mostly determined by the number of pixels, and the number of pixels of CCDs is set to the wide range of from several hundreds of thousands to several millions. It is surmised that the number of pixels is further increasing so as to meet the requirements made from now on.
CCDs have been extensively used in cameras, such as a digital camera and a video camera, and a facsimile machine, a scanner and a duplicating machine or a copying machine such as a laser beam printer. In the case of a digital camera, a CCD is provided at a focus portion instead of a silver salt film. Recently, CCDs, having a large number of pixels, have become inexpensive, and have much Contributed to the low-cost and high picture quality of digital cameras.
The parts of the conventional camera module Z, shown in
FIGS. 8
to
10
, will be described in detail, and first, the camera
1
mainly comprises a lens
1
c
, and a lens periphery portion
1
d
for fixing the lens
1
c
, as shown in
FIGS. 8 and 9
. Next, the board
2
, on which the camera
1
is mounted, mainly comprises a board body
2
′, and electrical parts (such as connectors) for electrical connection are mounted on this board body
2
′.
A connector CR
2
is provided at the board
2
of the camera module Y provided with the CCD camera
1
. A connector housing of the connector CR
2
, which is a kind of electrical associated part, is secured to the board body
2
′ by fastening elements such as screws. A total of four mounting holes
2
b
, used for fixedly securing the board
2
to the camera casing
3
by screws SC
1
or the like, are formed respectively in those portions of the board body
2
′ disposed adjacent respectively to four corners thereof.
The camera casing
3
is formed by a bottom wall
3
c
and side walls
3
d
and
3
d
′ provided respectively at four sides of this bottom wall in surrounding relation thereto, so that a receiving chamber
3
e
is formed. A cylindrical projected portion
3
h
, which performs the function of fixing the clamp
50
and also the function of sealing the interior of the camera casing
3
, is formed on the side wall
3
d
′. Screw-fixing bodies
3
a
, to which the board
2
, provided with the camera
1
, is adapted to be fixedly secured, are provided respectively at four corners of the receiving chamber
3
e
of the camera casing
3
, and an internally-threaded screw hole
3
b
is formed in each of the
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
Ta Tho D.
Tsukerman Larisa
Yazaki -Corporation
LandOfFree
Sealing structure of accessory module does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Sealing structure of accessory module, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Sealing structure of accessory module will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3060185