Electrical connectors – With vitreous-type envelope – Having bayonet-coupling contact
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-28
2004-06-15
Nguyen, Son V. (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With vitreous-type envelope
Having bayonet-coupling contact
C439S578000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06749464
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a shield connector used to connect shield wires.
2. Related Art
A shield wire is comprised of a covered conductor and a shield layer, constituted by a shield brading or the like, that are covered with an insulation sheath. In order to connect such shield wires, a shield connector is employed. A shield connector is comprised of male and female connectors adapted to be fitted to each other. Each connector has a housing that accommodates therein a connector terminal and a shield pipe to which a covered conductor and a shield layer of a shield wire are connected, respectively. The conductor extending through the connector is shielded from external electric field by the shield pipes.
FIGS. 6A
,
6
B,
7
,
8
A and
8
B show by way of example a conventional shield connector comprised of male and female connectors
12
and
14
to which shield wires
10
A and
10
B are connected, respectively.
The male connector
12
includes a first housing
16
for receiving a male terminal
18
and a first shield pipe
20
. The housing
16
is constituted by inner and outer housings
16
a
,
16
b
between which the shield pipe
20
is disposed. The shield pipe
20
may be inserted between the inner and outer housings
16
a
,
16
b
fabricated beforehand or may be formed integrally with the housings
16
a
,
16
b
by means of insert forming. A first shield wire
10
A has its distal end portion whose insulation sheath
10
s
and insulating coating
10
q
are peeled off, so that a shield layer
10
r
and a covered conductor are exposed from the insulation sheath
10
s
and further a central conductor
10
p
is exposed from the insulating sheath
10
q
. The male terminal
18
is inserted into the inner housing
16
a
of the male connector
12
and retains a distal end of the covered conductor of the shield wire
10
A, with the exposed central conductor
10
p
of the covered conductor crimped and connected to the male terminal
18
.
Further, the male connector
12
has an elastic ring
22
made of silicon rubber or the like and press-fitted to the shield pipe
20
. The elastic ring
22
has resiliency to electrically connect the shield layer
10
r
to the shield pipe
20
, which layer extends from between the elastic ring
22
and the insulating coating
10
q
to a distal end face of the elastic ring
22
and which is folded back to the insulation sheath
10
s
. The folded-back end of the shield layer
10
r
is fixed to the insulation sheath
10
s
by means of a fastening ring
24
of the male connector
12
. The male connector
12
further includes a wire seal ring
26
of silicon rubber or the like which is press-fitted to the outer housing
16
b
for water-tightly sealing between the shield wire
10
A and the outer housing
16
b
, and a backup ring
28
of engineering plastic or the like which is fitted to an end of the outer housing
16
b
for preventing the wire seal ring
26
from being detached from the outer housing
16
b.
The female connector
14
is fabricated basically in the same manner as the male connector
12
. In
FIGS. 6A and 6B
, reference numeral
30
denotes a second housing comprised of inner and outer housings
30
a
,
30
b
between which a second shield pipe
34
is disposed. Accommodated in the inner housing
30
a
is a female terminal
32
to which a central conductor
10
p
of a second shield wire
10
B is crimped and connected. The outer housing
30
b
is formed at its intermediate portion with an inner tube
30
c
. A housing seal ring
36
is disposed on an outer periphery of the inner tube
30
c.
In the shield connector configured as mentioned above, the male and female connectors
12
,
14
are fitted to each other as shown in
FIGS. 6A and 6B
, whereby the male terminal
18
is fitted to the female terminal
32
to establish electrical connection between central conductors
10
p
of the shield wires
10
A,
10
B that are individually connected to the terminals
18
,
32
. Furthermore, respective distal end portions of the shield pipes
20
,
34
of the connectors
12
,
14
are fitted to each other, whereby electrical connection is established between the shield layers
10
r
of the shield wires
10
A,
10
B individually connected to the shield pipes
20
,
34
. In addition, the outer housing
16
b
of the male connector
12
is fitted between the outer housing
30
b
of the female connector
14
and the housing seal ring
36
, which water-tightly seals between the outer housings
16
b
and
30
b.
The conventional shield connector has a drawback that the covered conductor comprised of the central conductor
10
p
and the insulating coating
10
q
of the shield wire
10
A is bent obliquely upward between the elastic ring
22
and a proximal end of the male terminal
18
, whereas the covered conductor of the shield wire
10
B is bent obliquely downward between the elastic ring
22
and a proximal end of the female terminal
32
, as shown in
FIGS. 6A and 7
.
The reason why the covered conductors are bent will be explained. Both the male and female terminals
18
and
32
are generally fabricated by press-forming a thin metal plate. In the fabrication, a bottom face of each terminal serves as a reference face to provide the terminal with a proximal-end crimp portion and a distal-end fitting portion. The male and female terminals
18
,
32
are substantially the same in the construction of their crimp portions, but differ from each other in the construction of their distal-end fitting portions. That is, the distal-end fitting portion of the male terminal
18
is formed into a plate shape, whereas the distal-end fitting portion of the female terminal
32
is configured to have elastic tongues to which the plate like distal-end fitting portion of the male terminal
18
is fitted. Thus, the female terminal
32
is larger than the male terminal
18
in a height measured from the bottom face to the top face of the distal-end fitting portion. For this reason, when the male terminal
18
is fitted to the female terminal
32
, the bottom face of the female terminal
32
is located below that of the male terminal
18
. Since, a vertical distance between the central axis at the proximal-end crimp portion and the bottom face of the terminal is substantially the same between the male and female terminals
18
,
32
, the proximal-end crimp portion of the female terminal
32
is located below that of the male terminal
18
. Accordingly, the central axis U
1
at the proximal-end crimp portion of the male terminal
18
(i.e., the distal end of the covered conductor of the first shield wire
10
A) is positioned above the central axis V at the distal-end fitting portion of the male terminal
18
, and the central axis U
2
at the proximal-end fitting portion of the female terminal
32
(i.e., the distal end of the covered conductor of the second shield wire
10
B ) is positioned below the central axis V. On the other hand, each of the first and second shield wires
10
A,
10
B is supported by the ring
22
, etc. disposed in the shield pipe, so as to be aligned with the central axis V at the connector end.
As explained above, according to the conventional shield connector having the first and second shield pipes
20
,
34
disposed coaxially with each other, the covered conductor of the first shield wire
10
A at one end of the connector is positioned at the same height as the central axis V, with a distal end thereof positioned above the central axis V, so that the covered conductor is bent obliquely upward. On the other hand, the covered conductor of the second shield wire
10
B at the other end of the connector is positioned at the same height as the central axis V, with a distal end thereof positioned above the central axis V, so that the covered conductor is bent obliquely downward. Resilient forces produced by the covered conductors that are bent in the above manner act to incline the distal ends of the male and female terminals
18
,
32
obliquely upward and downward, and thus the distal-end fitting porti
Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP
Nguyen Son V.
The Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd.
LandOfFree
Shield connector including male connector and female connector does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Shield connector including male connector and female connector, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Shield connector including male connector and female connector will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3357906