Electrical connectors – With supporting means for coupling part – Coupling part or mating part extending into panel opening
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-27
2002-06-04
Abrams, Neil (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With supporting means for coupling part
Coupling part or mating part extending into panel opening
C174S1520GM, C439S282000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06398582
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of Japanese Patent Application No. H.11-21435 filed on Jan. 29, 1999, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for fixing a grommet into a motor housing, in particular, a structure for fixing the grommet for waterproof sealing into a connector portion of the motor housing with which a connector of a wire harness is coupled, and a motor unit having the same structure and applicable to a power window regulator for vehicles.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional power window regulator for opening/closing a vehicle door glass is composed of a motor unit and a regulator (a link mechanism). The motor unit is provided with a resin molding housing, a DC motor fixed to the housing, reduction gears housed in the housing, a wire harness with a connector coupled with a connector portion of the housing for current supply to the DC motor and a grommet fitted into the connector portion of the housing for waterproof sealing. The motor unit has a waterproof construction for its electrical circuit protection, since water running along the surface of the door window is likely to be entered into the motor unit.
As shown in
FIGS. 9 and 10
, the connector portion
52
of the housing
51
is formed in a column shape and the grommet
53
made of elastic rubber is formed in a tubular shape. For preventing water from entering into a coupling gap between the connector of wire harness and the connector portion
52
, the grommet
53
is fitted closely into an outside circumferential surface of the connector portion
52
.
To rigidly fix the grommet
53
to the connector portion
52
, there have been contemplated various ways that, for example, an inside circumferential surface of the grommet
53
and an outside circumferential surface of the connector portion
52
are glued, the grommet
53
is fastened tight from outside by fasteners such as a C-ring and a clip cord to the connector portion
52
after the grommet
53
is put on the connector portion
52
, a flange provided at a lower end of the grommet
53
is fastened by screws to a flange provided at a lower end of the connector portion
52
or an inwardly projecting portion of the grommet
53
is fitted into a groove or an undercut provided at a lower portion of the connector portion
52
.
However, these ways have such problems that not only more number of component parts or more complicated manufacturing processes are required but also reliability for fixing the grommet
53
to the connector portion
52
is not always sufficient, in particular, in case that these fixing means can not be provided all around circumferences of the connector portion
52
because of a restricted shape of the connector portion
52
integrally provided with the housing
51
.
Further, to cope with the problems mentioned above, it has been proposed that, as shown in
FIGS. 9
,
10
and
11
, the connector portion
52
is provided at a lower outside circumferential surface thereof with a plurality of locking claws
54
, to which a plurality of resilient locking pieces
55
provided at a lower end of the grommet
53
are respectively latched and fixed. Though this construction improves the fixing reliability, the manufacturing processes for fixing the grommet
53
to the connector portion
52
are still complicated and not suitable for automatic assembly thereof, since, after the grommet
53
is put on the connector portion
52
, each of the resilient locking pieces
55
has to be pulled in a lower direction so that the locking pieces
55
may be once deformed resiliently in order to be engaged with each of the locking claws
54
and, then, resiliently returned to the original positions thereof.
Furthermore, as shown in
FIG. 11
, the connector portion
52
is provided at an inside thereof with a locking concave
56
with which a locking convex C
1
of the connector C of the wire harness W is engaged for preventing the connector C from easily being left out the connector portion
52
.
It is very difficult to form the locking concave
56
at the inside of the connector portion
52
simultaneously when the housing
51
is molded or formed in view of the molding die construction of the connector portion
52
. Therefore, to form the locking concave
56
, a locking member
57
provided primarily with the locking concave
56
is separately provided as shown in
FIG. 12 and
, when the housing
51
is molded, the locking member
57
thus separately provided is inserted into the molding die at a position corresponding to the inside of the connector portion
52
as shown in FIG.
11
. The locking member
57
also has a plurality of grooves
59
for positioning a plurality of terminals
58
to be also inserted into the molding die when the housing
51
is molded.
The structure mentioned above, however, has a drawback that the locking member
57
is needed as an additional component part and the terminals
58
have to be primarily mounted on the locking member
57
before the locking member
57
is inserted into the die for molding. As a result, a higher manufacturing cost is required, compared with a case that only the terminals
58
are directly inserted into the die for molding.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a waterproof sealing structure for easily fixing a grommet to a connector portion with which a wire harness connector is coupled with higher fixing reliability, least number of component parts and/or lower manufacturing cost.
It is an another object to provide a motor unit having the same structure as mentioned above.
To achieve the above object, the structure is composed of a housing provided with a connector portion formed at least partly in a column shape, a wire harness connector coupled with the connector portion with a coupling gap and a tubular shaped grommet made of resilient material put on an outside circumferential surface of the connector portion to waterproof seal the coupling gap. A plurality of locking convex portions are provided respectively with an interval therebetween around the outside circumferential surface of the connector portion. On the other hand, a plurality of concave portions are provided respectively with an interval therebetween around an inside circumferential surface of the grommet. By simply pushing the grommet to put on the connector portion, the grommet is resiliently deformed outwardly at the plurality of the convex portions and, after the grommet passes through the plurality of the convex portions, the grommet outwardly deformed is resiliently returned substantially to an original shape thereof so that the plurality of the concave portions may be engaged respectively with the convex portions to rigidly fix the grommet to the connector portion.
It is preferable that each of the concave portions is a through-hole penetrating radially through the grommet from an inside surface to an outside surface thereof.
Further, in case that the housing is provided with a base unit and a bridging portion connecting the base unit and a part of the circumferential surface of the connector portion, the convex portions are arranged except the outside circumferential surface of the connector portion axially extending from the bridging portion and the grommet is provided with a cut in order not to interfere with the bridging portion when the grommet is put on the connector portion and the concave portions are arranged except the circumferential surface of the grommet axially extending from the cut. In this case, it is preferable that at least a part of the outside circumferential surface of the grommet axially extending from the cut comes in contact with and is inwardly pressed against a surface of the base unit when the grommet is put on the connector portion. As a result, the circumferential surface of the grommet may
Kanou Wataru
Matsuyama Youichi
Abrams Neil
Asmo Co. Ltd.
Law Offices of David G. Posz
LandOfFree
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