CN1133251C

CN1133251C - Electrical connectors

Info

Publication number: CN1133251C
Application number: CN 99815071
Authority: CN
Inventors: 理查德·德鲁尼克
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1998-12-17
Filing date: 1999-12-16
Publication date: 2003-12-31
Anticipated expiration: 2019-12-16
Also published as: NZ512362A; CN1332894A; AU1867000A; GB2361366A; WO2000036709A2; GB0114491D0; GB9904214D0; WO2000036709A3

Abstract

A telephone plug (1) having a resilient displaceable latch member (31) for retaining the plug in a corresponding socket is described. In one embodiment, both ends of the latch member are integrally moulded with the plug. In another embodiment one end of the latch member is integrally moulded with the plug and the other end is retained by a retention member (33) having a catch mechanism. The telephone plug (1) may be part of a telephone adapter.

Description

Electrical connector

The present invention relates to electrical connectors and adapters and in particular, but not exclusively, to telephone electrical connectors and adapters for interconnecting telephone devices of different standards, such as british and american standards. These adapters are useful to travelers, but are also required to convert telephony devices, such as modems, from one standard to another.

In this regard, it is becoming common practice for some manufacturers of telephone equipment to fit an attractive telephone plug to the equipment in a standard regardless of where the equipment is manufactured or provided in the world.

The object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector such as a telephone plug or an adapter which is simple in structure and easy to assemble, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost and improving the strength.

According to the present invention there is provided a telephone plug comprising a body and a resilient retaining member adapted to secure the plug in a corresponding socket, the retaining member comprising a limb having opposite inner and outer ends, wherein the inner end of the limb is integral with the body and the limb further comprises a retaining member integral with the body and limiting movement of the outer end of the limb.

The limbs are preferably elongate and are resiliently deformable to lock and unlock. The limb extends away from the body at an acute angle, which may be, for example, an angle of less than 30 degrees to the direction of insertion of the plug into the socket.

The retaining member is substantially at right angles to the main body, i.e. the retaining member extends outwardly from the main body in a direction substantially perpendicular to the insertion direction. The holder is rigid.

The holder is integral with the outer end of the limb. In this way, the locking member is formed integrally with the main body. The end of the locking member of a conventional uk telephone plug is free and can be potentially cumbersome to manipulate; this in turn causes the retaining member to be disconnected during use. The phone plug of this embodiment of the present invention has such locking members: it is not possible to break when in use, because the outer ends of the limbs are held by the holder 5.

Another construction is that the holder comprises a jamming mechanism for limiting the freedom of movement of the outer end of the limb. The catch mechanism comprises a hook on the outer end of the limb and an aperture in the retaining member having an axis substantially parallel to the direction of insertion of the plug into the socket. The aperture may be rectangular in shape.

When the outer end of the limb is caught in the aperture, the locking member cannot be disengaged because its movement is restricted so that it is no longer a potential nuisance when handling the telephone plug in use. This structure has the advantages that: the retaining member has a greater resiliency than the other structure. This allows less resilient plastics to be used to form the retaining member.

Alternatively, the holder may be connected to the limb by a joint. In this embodiment, the retaining member is preferably formed from a resilient material.

A projection may be provided between the retaining member and the body to limit inward deformation of the retaining member. The protrusion may be disposed adjacent the retainer.

A plurality of cutouts may be integrally molded in the retaining member, for example to increase its flexibility or to engage corresponding projections in the receptacle. The body may be formed of molded plastic.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a telephone adapter comprising:

a hollow body formed of an electrically insulating material having

A first part constituting the part of the plug,

a second portion forming a socket portion, the plug portion and the socket portion conforming to different electrical standards; and

a carrier member formed of an electrically insulating material mountable within the body and extending into the plug portion and the receptacle portion, the carrier member having an upper surface and a lower surface and including

The region that partially constitutes the plug portion,

forming the upper surface area of the socket wall,

a series of grooves oppositely disposed on at least one surface of the carrier member in each region,

a plurality of integral wire members extending from the plug portion to the receptacle portion, each wire member including

A free end portion constituting an elastically deformable electric contact in the socket portion, and

disposed in the intermediate portion of the carrier member within the corresponding slot so that the integral wire elements are maintained in spaced relation.

The series of slots may be located on the lower surface of the carrier member and the free ends of the wires may be bent around the carrier member so as to extend into the socket at an acute angle to the upper surface of the carrier member.

The carrier member may be mounted in the hollow body by means of a socket portion.

The wire is one of: it can be bent into a desired shape and it will retain that shape, or at least tend to return to that shape when elastically deformed. The wire may be of any desired cross-sectional shape, such as round or square, and if desired, the contact portion may be plated to resist corrosion, such as gold.

The invention is illustrated schematically in the drawings by way of example. Wherein,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a telephone adapter of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the adapter of FIG. 1 as seen from the receptacle;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the adapter of FIG. 1 from the plug;

FIGS. 4 through 6 are respective exploded opposite side and plan views of the adapter of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 7 and 8 are respective end views of the assembled adapter of FIG. 1;

fig. 9 is a perspective view of a telephone plug of a second embodiment of the present invention;

figures 10 to 12 are respective side, plan and end views of the plug of figure 9;

FIG. 13 is a side view of a telephone adapter of another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is an end view of the adapter of FIG. 13; and

FIG. 15 is a side view of the adapter of FIG. 13;

fig. 16 is a side view of a telephone adapter of another embodiment of the present invention.

Figures 1 to 8 show a telephone adaptor comprising a hollow housing 1 formed from an electrically insulating material, the housing having a first part constituting a plug part 3 and a second part constituting a socket part 5. The plug 3 comprises a body 23 and a resilient retaining member 31, the retaining member 31 being adapted to secure the plug 3 in a corresponding socket (not shown), such as a uk standard telephone socket. The locker 31 includes: a limb 32 having opposite inner and

outer ends

34, 36; and a holder 33 formed integrally with the socket portion of the housing 1. The inner end 34 of the limb 32 is integral with the body 23 of the plug, while the outer end 36 of the limb 32 is integral with the retainer 33. In practice, the retaining member is moulded integrally with the body.

The limbs 32 of the locking member are approximately parallel to the insertion conductor of the plug 3 into the socket, i.e. the limbs are at an acute angle of less than about 30 degrees to the direction of insertion. The retainer 33 extends along a side from one edge of the receptacle portion 5 of the housing 1.

The retaining member 31 is shaped to engage a corresponding socket, for example by integrally moulding engagement notches 47 and projections 49 in the limb 32, engaging corresponding projections and recesses in the socket (not shown).

A projection 35 extends from the housing 1 toward the lock member 31 to limit inward deformation of the lock member 31. The projection 35 is disposed adjacent to the holder 33.

In this embodiment, the plug portion and the socket portion conform to different electrical standards, for example, electrical standards of telecommunications authorities in different countries.

The adapter further comprises a separate carrier piece 7 formed of an electrically insulating material, which can be mounted in the housing 1. As shown in fig. 2 and 3, the carrier 7 is inserted into an opening 21, which is constituted by a hollow shell. The underside 53 of the carrier member is formed with a plurality of wire supports, here slots 11 defined between adjacent projections 12, which are provided with a plurality of wires 13 so that the integral wire elements are maintained in spaced relation. The area of the underside 55 of the carrier element 7 constitutes a wall 57 of the socket part 5.

Wires 13 extend from the plug 3 into the socket part 5, each comprising opposite inner and outer

free end portions

15, 17 and an intermediate portion 19 which is arranged in a corresponding slot 11 in the carrier element 7. The inner free end 15 forms an elastically deformable locking mechanism ensuring that the carrier element 7 is in place on the finished product. The outer free end portion 17 constitutes an elastically deformable electrical contact within the socket portion. The inner and outer free ends of the wire are each capable of being bent around the carrier member to extend at an acute angle to the upper surface of the carrier member.

The shape of the body is not essential and figures 9 to 12 show embodiments with different body shapes. Specifically, the retainer 33 is generally semi-circular and extends from the surface 43 of the receptacle end 5 of the adapter. The limb 32 of the retaining member 31 is integral with the retaining member 33.

Fig. 13 to 15 show another embodiment with different designs of retaining members and retaining members. In this embodiment the inner end 34 of the limb 32 of the locking member is formed integrally with the body (as in the previous embodiment), but the outer end 36 is a free end. Retainer 33 includes a locking mechanism 45 that limits movement of outer end 36. The locking mechanism 45 comprises a hook 41 on the outer end 36 which is deformed towards the body from the line of the rest of the limb. Hook 41 is adapted to engage aperture 39 in retaining member 33. The aperture 39 passes through the retainer 33 in a direction substantially parallel to the direction of insertion of the plug into a corresponding receptacle (not shown).

Another locking mechanism is also used. For example, instead of holes, the retaining member may be formed with projections adapted to cooperate with the outer ends of the retaining member.

When the outer end 36 of the limb 32 is caught in the aperture 39, the locking member cannot be disconnected in use because its movement is restricted and it no longer constitutes a potential nuisance when handling the telephone plug.

Fig. 16 shows another embodiment of a design with a different retaining member and retaining member. In this embodiment the inner end 34 of the limb 32 of the locking member is formed integrally with the body (as in the previous embodiment), but the outer end 36 is connected to the retaining member 33 by means of a joint 51. The joint is flexible so that the limb 32 can be deformed. The retaining members 32 are slightly curved and approximately at an acute angle of 30 degrees relative to the sides of the socket part 5. The holder is formed of a plastic material having a greater elasticity than the aforementioned structure of the locker 31.

The present invention thus provides a novel telephone plug and adapter that addresses significant problems in known structures.

Claims

1. A telephone plug including a body and a resilient retaining member for securing the plug within a corresponding socket, the retaining member comprising: a limb having opposite inner and outer ends, wherein the inner end of the limb is integral with the body; a holder integral with the body and the outer end of the limb to limit movement of the outer end of the limb; and a flexible joint between the outer end of the limb and the holder, enabling the limb to be deformed.

2. The telephone plug of claim 1, wherein: the limb extends away from the body at an acute angle.

3. A telephone plug as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein: the retaining member is substantially at right angles to the body.

4. A telephone plug as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein: the holder is rigid.

5. A telephone plug according to claim 1 or claim 2 including a projection disposed between the retaining member and the body to limit inward deformation of the retaining member.

6. The telephone plug of claim 5, wherein: the projection is located adjacent the retainer.

7. A telephone adaptor comprising a plug as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.

8. The telephone adapter of claim 7, comprising: a hollow housing formed of an electrically insulating material, the housing having a first portion constituting a plug portion and a second portion constituting a socket portion, the plug portion and the socket portion conforming to different electrical standards; and a carrier member formed of an electrically insulating material mountable within the housing and extending into the plug portion and the socket portion, the carrier member having an upper surface and a lower surface and including a region partially defining the plug portion, an upper surface region defining a wall of the socket, a series of opposed slots in at least one surface of the carrier member in each region, a plurality of unitary wire elements extending from the plug portion to the socket portion, each wire element including a free end portion defining an elastically deformable electrical contact in the socket portion and an intermediate portion disposed in a corresponding slot in the carrier member, the unitary wire elements being secured in spaced relation.

9. The electrical adapter of claim 8, wherein: the series of slots are located on the lower surface of the carrier member and the free ends of the wires can be bent around the carrier member to extend into the receptacle at an acute angle to the upper surface of the carrier member.

10. An electrical adaptor as claimed in claim 8 or 9 wherein: the carrier member is mountable into the hollow housing via the socket portion.