Electrical connectors – Adapted to cooperate with duplicate connector – Engaged by lateral movement
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-01
2003-04-22
Vu, Hien (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Adapted to cooperate with duplicate connector
Engaged by lateral movement
C439S701000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06551119
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for absorbing a joint (splice) created in a branch section when electrical signals are distributed and picked up by distributing electrical wires which are made to branch from electrical wires or a piece of wire harness.
2. Related Art
Recently, there has been a tendency that the structure of electrical wires for signal use and pieces of wire harness for automobile use becomes more complicated in accordance with the progress of electronic control. Therefore, for example, as shown in
FIG. 8
, a plurality of pieces of sub-harness (A), (B), (C), . . . are made to branch from a plurality of positions of one piece of wire harness
1
. Each piece of sub-harness is composed of distributing wires
2
. A joint connector
3
, which will be referred to as J/C in this specification hereinafter, arranged at the end portions of the distributing electrical wires
2
is connected with a joint box, which will be referred to as J/B in this specification hereinafter, which is an electrical connection box and also connected with other devices mounted on an automobile, so that electrical continuity can be attained for transmitting electrical signals.
In the above description, it is described that a plurality of pieces of sub-harness (A), (B), (C), . . . are made to branch from one piece of wire harness
1
. However, the piece of wire harness
1
is actually produced in such a manner that the pieces of sub-harness (A), (B), (C), . . . are previously produced separately and jointed to each other into one piece of wire harness
1
in the latter production process.
FIG. 9
is a view schematically showing the wire harness illustrated in FIG.
8
. In the case where the splices of the branch sections of the distributing electrical wires
2
in the pieces of sub-harness (A), (B), (C), . . . are absorbed, an electrical connection box such as J/B is commonly used. However, the following problems may be encountered in the actual condition. When the number of the branch sections is large and J/B is used for absorbing the splices of all the branches, the number of the distributing electrical wires
2
is much increased, so that the electrical circuit
2
a
in J/B becomes more complicated. As a result, the size of J/B itself is increased. Therefore, in the case of an automobile, the accommodating space of which is strictly limited, the costs of parts are raised due to the increase in the size of J/B, which is disadvantageous in all aspects. The degree of freedom of changing the design of the circuit is low in the case of the splice absorbing structure in which J/B is used. Accordingly, the productivity of the wire harness is deteriorated. As a result, the production cost is raised.
The simplest way to solve the above problems is to absorb the splice of the branch of the distributing electrical wires
2
without using J/B and J/C.
FIGS. 10A and 10B
are views showing an electrical connector disclosed in Unexamined Utility Model Publication Sho.48-30785 which is proposed according to the above concept. In this case, the insulating box
4
is used instead of J/B and J/C, and the connecting terminals
6
are press-fitted into the square grooves
5
provided inside the insulating box
4
. Due to the foregoing, the connecting terminals
6
, which are adjacent to each other, are connected to each other with pressure, so that the splices can be absorbed and electrical continuity can be attained.
According to the splice absorbing connector disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Hei. 8-22859, there are used terminal insertion holes, which have not been used yet, out of a large number of terminal insertion holes provided in the existing J/B housing, and also there is used a bus bar of the fuse retainer. As a result, no specific J/C for absorbing the splice is used in the branch section, and the splice can be absorbed by using the existing J/B. Due to the above arrangement, the number of electrical wires can be reduced.
However, according to the related art disclosed in the above two patent publications, only the splices between the distributing electrical wires
2
of the pieces of sub-harness (A), (B), (C), . . . shown in
FIG. 8
are absorbed, that is, consideration is not given to the absorption of the splice between one sub-harness and another sub-harness.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a splice absorbing structure effective for reducing the number of electrical wires in a circuit and enhancing the productivity of the wire harness by absorbing the splice between the distributing wires and also the splice between the pieces of sub-harness without using J/B and J/C which are conventionally used for absorbing the splice of the electrical wires at the branch.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a splice absorbing structure in which a plurality of pieces of sub-harness for distributing and picking up electrical signals from a piece of wire harness are made to branch, the pieces of sub-harness are respectively composed of a plurality of distributing electrical wires and splices of the distributing electrical wires at the branch section are absorbed, comprising: a connecting terminal crimped to an end portion of the distributing electrical wire at the branch section of the sub-harness, having a contact point elastic piece at the end portion; and a plurality of blocks, the number of which corresponds to the number of the pieces of sub-harness, capable of being engaged with and put on each other, having a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers arranged in parallel for accommodating the connecting terminals, wherein when the plurality of blocks are put on each other, the contact point elastic piece of the connecting terminal of the piece of sub-harness on one side comes into contact with the corresponding contact point elastic piece of the connecting terminal of the piece of sub-harness on the other side so that electrical continuity can be accomplished.
Due to the above structure, when the blocks corresponding to a plurality of pieces of sub-harness are put on each other, the connecting terminals accommodated in the blocks, which correspond to each other, come into contact with each other, so that the connecting terminals are electrically communicated with each other. In this way, the splice between the pieces of sub-harness can be absorbed, or the splice between a plurality of distributing electrical wires of one piece of sub-harness can be absorbed.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a splice absorbing structure in which the block has a longitudinal opening and a bottom opening at the forward end of the terminal accommodating chamber for accommodating the contact point elastic piece of the connecting terminal, a top of the contact point elastic piece is engaged with the bottom opening on the other block side from the longitudinal opening when the blocks are put on each other, so that the top of the contact point elastic piece comes into contact with a base portion of the other contact point elastic piece, and a splice between one piece of sub-harness and the other piece of sub-harness can be absorbed.
In this case, since the longitudinal opening and the bottom opening are formed in the terminal accommodating chamber of each block, when the blocks are put on each other, the connecting terminals of the pieces of sub-harness accommodated in the lower block come into contact with the corresponding connecting terminals of the pieces of sub-harness accommodated in the upper block. Due to the foregoing, the splice between the pieces of sub-harness can be absorbed.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a splice absorbing structure in which a lateral opening for communicating an end of one terminal accommodating chamber with an end of the other terminal accommodating chamber, which is adjacent to one terminal accommodating chamber, is formed in one of the bloc
Matsuoka Yutaka
Sakamoto Masami
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
Yazaki -Corporation
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