Electrical connectors – With circuit conductors and safety grounding provision – Grounding to conductive sheath of cable
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-01
2003-04-29
Feild, Lynn D. (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With circuit conductors and safety grounding provision
Grounding to conductive sheath of cable
C439S616000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06554623
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shielded connector having a structure for carrying out the electromagnetic shielding and grounding to be used for connecting shielded wires to an equipment and the like.
(2) Description of the Related Art
FIG. 6
illustrates an example of a conventional shielded connector to be mounted on a motor vehicle or an electric vehicle. A part of the shielded connector
75
(a female connector
77
) is similar to one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-126657.
The shielded connector
75
consists of a male connector
76
and the female connector
77
. In the present specification, a connector having a connector receiving chamber
78
is defined as the female connector
77
(the left side connector in
FIG. 6
) while a connector having a part to be received into the connector receiving chamber
78
is defined as the male connector
76
(the right side connector in FIG.
6
).
FIG. 6
shows a state in which the male and female connectors,
76
and
77
, respectively, are fit with each other. The female connector
77
is directly mounted on a connector-mounting wall
79
made of electrically conductive metal of an equipment.
The male connector
76
has a female terminal
81
inside its inner housing
80
made of synthetic resin, then the terminal
81
is connected to a core
83
of a shielded wire
82
. The shielded wire
82
consists of the core
83
, an inner coat
84
made of electrically insulating resin coating the core
83
, a woven metal shield
85
made of electrically conductive metal surrounding the outside of the inner coat
84
, and an outer coat
86
made of electrically insulating resin coating the woven metal shield
85
.
The woven metal shield
85
is connected to an end of cylindrical shielding shell
87
made of electrically conductive metal at the male connector side and the shielding shell
87
is disposed outside the inner housing
80
. The inner housing
80
integrally continues to an outer housing
88
which has a locking arm
89
engaging with the mating female connector
77
.
The female connector
77
has a male terminal
91
inside its connector housing
90
made of synthetic resin, an electric contact part of which protrudes in the connector receiving chamber
78
. The male terminal
91
is connected to a wire
92
of the equipment side. A cylindrical shielding shell
93
made of electrically conductive metal at the female connector side is disposed along an inner wall surface of the connector receiving chamber
78
.
The shielding shell
93
at the female connector side has one resilient contact part
94
coming in contact with the shielding shell
87
at the male connector side at one end of the shielding shell
93
and another resilient contact part
95
coming in contact with the connector-mounting wall
79
of the equipment at another end of the shielding shell
93
. The another resilient contact part
95
has a plurality of spring pieces, wherein each spring piece resiliently comes in contact with an inner circumferential surface of a hole in the wall
79
so as to ground both shielding shells
87
and
93
. Thereby, noises of electromagnetic waves from the outside of the shielded connector
75
, those generated inside the shielded connector
75
and those transmitted through the shielded wire
82
are eliminated to the outside of the shielded connector
75
, thereby bad effects of the noises against the equipment are removed. A rear holder
96
, which is attached to the rear end of the connector housing
90
, prevents the shielding shell
93
from coming off.
However, in the conventional structure of the shielded connector described above, there is a possibility that the permanent strain against the connector-mounting wall
79
and the wear caused by hitting of the resilient contact part
95
of the shielding shell
93
arises being influenced by the strong vibrations during the traveling of the vehicle and the temperature change in the temperature cycle, thereby the shielding performance (i.e., performance of electromagnetic shielding) for the shielded connector deteriorates. In addition, since the contact with the connector-mounting wall
79
is carried out by the resilient contact part
95
, therefore the resilient contact part
95
or the inner circumferential surface of the hole in the connector-mounting wall
79
needs surface treatment for wear-resistance or electric conduction with the object of securing the durability, thereby a great deal of time are required and the shielded connector costs high. Furthermore, since the shape of the resilient contact part
95
is complicated, therefore the cost of the shielding shell
93
becomes high.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to solve the above problem and to provide a shielded connector, by which the grounding with respect to the connector-mounting wall of the equipment can be always stably carried out without the permanent strain and the wear of the resilient contact part in a severe environment such as the mounting on the vehicle, the electromagnetic shielding performance can be maintained stable, a high electromagnetic shielding performance can be attained, and the cost of the surface treatment of the connector-mounting wall and that of the resilient contact part having a complicated shape can be reduced.
In order to attain the above objective, the present invention is to provide a shielded connector comprising:
a first connector having a first inner housing for receiving a first terminal connected to a shielded wire and an electrically conductive shielding shell, which is coated on the outer circumference of the first inner housing and connected to a shielded part of the shielded wire; and
a second connector having an electrically conductive shielded terminal resiliently coming in contact with the outer circumference of the shielding shell, an electrically conductive outer housing coming in contact with the shielded terminal for receiving the shielded terminal, a second inner housing inserted in the outer housing, a second terminal inserted in the second inner housing, and an electrically conductive connecting member, which is integrally formed with the outer housing and fixed on a connector-mounting wall of ground side with fixing means.
With the constitution described above, by an engagement between the first and second connectors, the shielded part of the shielded wire, the shielding shell, the shielded terminal, the electrically conductive outer housing and the connecting member are electrically connected with each other, and in addition, the connecting member is firmly fixed on the connector-mounting wall of the ground side with the fixing means. Therefore, noises from the shielded wire are stably grounded and noises from an equipment are stably grounded to the woven metal shield, thereby the electromagnetic shielding performance can be improved. Especially, instead of the ground connection with the connector-mounting wall by the conventional resilient contact part, a direct grounding is carried out from the connecting member of the electrically conductive outer housing. Therefore, even in a severe environment of the mounting on a vehicle such as vibration and temperature change, the ground connection to the connector-mounting wall of an equipment and the like can be always stably carried out, thereby the electromagnetic shielding performance can be stably maintained high.
Moreover, since the connecting member integrally formed with the electrically conductive outer housing is firmly bonded to the connector-mounting wall by face contact, therefore the shielding shell employing the conventional resilient contact part and the surface treatment of the connector-mounting wall for the purpose of improving the durability are not needed any more, thereby the structure of the shielded connector can be simplified and the cost thereof can be reduced.
Preferably, the shielding shell, the shielded terminal, the outer housing and the connecting membe
Armstrong Westerman & Hattori, LLP
Feild Lynn D.
Prasad Chandrika
Yazaki -Corporation
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