Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – Preformed panel circuit arrangement
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-25
2002-10-22
Cuneo, Kamand (Department: 2827)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
Preformed panel circuit arrangement
C174S254000, C174S1170FF, C361S749000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06469261
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring unit received in an electric junction box and the like, which is mounted on a motor vehicle as a mobile unit and the like.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In a motor vehicle as a mobile unit, there is generally mounted various electronic equipment, such as lamps, for example headlamps and tail lamps, and motors, for example a starter motor and a motor for an air-conditioner.
In order to supply electric power to the various electronic equipment, junction blocks are arranged at desired positions in the motor vehicle. In the junction block, circuit boards including printed boards, busbars, and the like, are laminated and various electric circuit units, such as many fuses and relays, are integrated into the circuit boards.
Since the junction block may include fuses, relays and busbars, the junction block is called a fuse block, relay box or electric junction box as a generic term. In this specification, the fuse block, relay box and junction block are hereinafter called, the “electric junction box”, as a generic term.
The electric junction box has a case, control panels received in the case and so on. Electric components, such as relays, fuses and connectors, are mounted in the case. A plurality of electric wires connected to the various electronic equipment are guided into the case. When the control panel is received in the case, wires connected to the various electronic equipment and terminals of the various electric components are electrically connected according to a predetermined pattern.
In order to facilitate the connections between the electric wires and the terminals of electric components, for example, a wiring unit
54
shown in
FIG. 5
has been proposed as the control panel. The wiring unit
54
has a plurality of boards
61
to be laminated with each other, a plurality of terminals
62
and connecting bars
63
.
Each board
61
is made of an electrically insulating material and formed in a flat rectangular plate. Each board
61
has a plurality of hollow grooves
64
, hollow portions
65
and through holes
66
. Each hollow groove
64
is formed hollow from the surface of the board
61
. The grooves
64
are formed in parallel with each other, and extend in the length direction of the board
61
.
Each hollow portion
65
is formed hollow from the surface of the board
61
and opens to the hollow groove
64
. The hollow portions
65
are formed in parallel with each other along the length direction of the corresponding hollow groove
64
. Each hollow portion
65
is formed rectangular in a plan view thereof.
Each through hole
66
penetrates through a bottom position of the corresponding hollow portion
65
of the board
61
. The through hole
66
is provided at a position where the through holes
66
face and align with each other when the boards
61
are laminated with each other.
Each terminal
62
is made of an electrically conductive material such as a sheet metal. As shown in
FIG. 6
, the terminal
62
consists of an electrically contacting part
67
and a connecting part
68
to a wire. The connecting bar
63
can be inserted into the electrically contacting part
67
. When the connecting bar
63
is inserted into the electrically contacting part
67
, an elastic restoring force arises for preventing the connecting bar
63
from being inserted. That is, when the connecting bar
63
is inserted into the electrically contacting part
67
, a relative positional relationship between the electrically contacting part
67
and the connecting bar
63
is kept constant by the elastic restoring force.
A wire
69
can be wired along a direction in the connecting part
68
to the wire
69
. The connecting part
68
has a pressure welding part
70
, which can be pressure welded to the wire
69
, and a pair of wire holding parts
71
provided at positions where a pair of the wire holding parts
71
put the pressure welding part
70
therebetween in the wiring direction of the wire
69
.
The pressure welding part
70
has two pairs of press-in blades
72
, which cut into a covering portion of the wire
69
between the two pairs thereof so as to come into contact with a core of the wire
69
. The wire holding parts
71
have a pair of caulking pieces
73
for caulking the wire
69
therebetween together with the covering portion of the wire
69
. The caulking pieces
73
hold the wire
69
therebetween so as to keep the connection between the press-in blades
72
of the pressure welding part
70
and the core of the wire
69
.
The electrically contacting part
67
and the connecting part
68
are disposed to have such a relative positional relationship that the wiring of the wire
69
is not disturbed in the connecting part
68
. Specifically, with respect to the wiring direction of the wire
69
, the electrically contacting part
67
is disposed intersecting at right angles with respect to the connecting part
68
as shown FIG.
6
.
The terminal
62
electrically connects the wire
69
, which is pressure welded to the pressure welding part
70
, namely the connecting part
68
, to the connecting bar
63
received into the electrically contacting part
67
. The terminal
62
is mounted on the board
61
in a state that the electrically contacting part
67
is received in the hollow portion
65
and the connecting part
68
is received in the hollow groove
64
.
The connecting bar
63
is made of an electrically conductive material and is formed in a band plate-shape. When the connecting bar
63
is received into the through hole
66
and into the electrically contacting part
67
of the terminal
62
, the connecting bar
63
electrically connects with the wire
69
.
In the wiring unit
54
, the wires
69
connected to the various electronic equipment are wired into the hollow grooves
64
. A plurality of the boards
61
are laminated therein, and the hollow portions
65
that receive the electrically contacting part
67
of the terminal
62
and the through holes
66
for receiving the connecting bar
63
, and the like, are selected as desired, thereby the wires
69
are electrically connected to the electric components, such as relays, fuses and collectors, according to a predetermined pattern.
As for the wiring unit
54
shown in
FIG. 5
, in order to form the hollow grooves
64
, hollow portions
65
, and the like, on each board
61
, relatively complicated hollows and projections must be formed on the surface of the board
61
. Therefore, a mold having a complicated configuration for molding the board
61
is required, causing a high cost thereof.
The terminal
62
is formed by bending a sheet metal. Since there are many portions of the sheet metal, at which the sheet metal should be bent, the man-hours required to manufacture the terminal
62
increases, causing a high cost of the manufacture.
Moreover, upon the assembly of the wiring unit
54
, the wire
69
must be pressure welded after the terminals
62
are mounted on each board
61
, from board
61
to board
61
. Therefore, the man-hours required to assemble the wiring unit
54
increases, causing a high cost of the manufacture.
Furthermore, the wiring unit
54
consists of the wires
69
and terminals
62
, which are arranged along the hollow grooves
64
, and the connecting bars
63
, which are received in the electrically contacting part
67
. Thus, since the circuit constitution of the wiring unit
54
is formed with the wires
69
and terminals
62
, which are overlapped with each other along a direction of the lamination of the boards
61
, a restriction on circuit designing increases and the wiring unit
54
shows a tendency to have large size.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a wiring unit, by which the cost of the manufacture and assembly thereof can be prevented from rising and the miniaturization thereof can be attained.
In order to attain the above objective, the present invention is to provide a wiring unit comprising: a first flexible insulating
Murakami Takao
Suzuki Hiroyuki
Yamanashi Makoto
Armstrong Westerman & Hattori, LLP
Cuneo Kamand
Dinh Tuan
Yazaki -Corporation
LandOfFree
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