EP0959531B1 - Borne électrique femelle d'un seul tenant - Google Patents

Borne électrique femelle d'un seul tenant Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0959531B1
EP0959531B1 EP19990109536 EP99109536A EP0959531B1 EP 0959531 B1 EP0959531 B1 EP 0959531B1 EP 19990109536 EP19990109536 EP 19990109536 EP 99109536 A EP99109536 A EP 99109536A EP 0959531 B1 EP0959531 B1 EP 0959531B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
terminal
contact
wall
mating end
mating
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP19990109536
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0959531A3 (fr
EP0959531A2 (fr
Inventor
Frederic Quaranta
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Whitaker LLC
Original Assignee
Whitaker LLC
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Whitaker LLC filed Critical Whitaker LLC
Priority to EP19990109536 priority Critical patent/EP0959531B1/fr
Publication of EP0959531A2 publication Critical patent/EP0959531A2/fr
Publication of EP0959531A3 publication Critical patent/EP0959531A3/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0959531B1 publication Critical patent/EP0959531B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
    • H01R13/00—Details of coupling devices of the kinds covered by groups H01R12/70 or H01R24/00 - H01R33/00
    • H01R13/02—Contact members
    • H01R13/10—Sockets for co-operation with pins or blades
    • H01R13/11—Resilient sockets
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
    • H01R43/00—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing, assembling, maintaining, or repairing of line connectors or current collectors or for joining electric conductors
    • H01R43/16—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing, assembling, maintaining, or repairing of line connectors or current collectors or for joining electric conductors for manufacturing contact members, e.g. by punching and by bending

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a single-piece stamped and formed electrical receptacle terminal.
  • connection section such as a crimp barrel for connection to a conducting wire, further comprising a contact section for connection to a complementary terminal, and means for securing the terminal within the cavity of a connector housing.
  • receptacle terminals for mating with tab or pin terminals to have resilient cantilever beam contact arms extending from opposed sides of the terminal to receive the complementary pin or tab therebetween.
  • an additional outer spring body stamped and formed from a stronger material such as stainless steel is positioned around the contact section of the terminal and serves to provide means for securing the terminal within the connector housing and extra spring support for increasing the spring strength of the inner contact arms.
  • Such an outer spring body often has the effect of protecting the inner contact area thus making the receptacle terminal more robust, but also increases the contact pressure and provides a stronger support for securing of the terminal in a connector housing.
  • a two part terminal is however costly to produce, in comparison to a one-piece terminal, for example as shown in U.S. 4,148,547.
  • the latter terminal does not however have an outer cage that is robust because side and tops walls are separate from each other. Furthermore the outer cage side walls require a long strip of sheet metal leading to a lot of material waste.
  • a single piece terminal with a more robust outer cage is shown in European patent EP 125927B where cantilever beam contact arms are folded into the cage from the top wall seam.
  • there is high material wastage because the width of the layout of the crimping barrel is much less than the cage and contact arm section.
  • a terminal according to French patent application 2 751 793 overcomes certain of the aforementioned problems by reducing material usage and providing a well protected inner receptacle contact section in a single piece design.
  • the cantilever beam contact arms are protected from the effects of false insertion of a mating pin terminal by provision of a front wall that guides and locates a mating pin terminal during insertion into the receptacle terminal.
  • the front wall also serves to provide inwardly stamped extensions or tabs against which the cantilever beam contact arms resiliently abut in order to pre-stress the contact arms thereby increasing the contact force against a mating terminal.
  • the terminal described in this reference also has the advantage of being easily inserted through a seal without damaging the seal.
  • a single piece electrical receptacle terminal for mating with a complementary tab or pin terminal the terminal stamped and formed from sheet metal and comprising a connection section and a contact section comprising a contact body with top, side and bottom walls forming a box-shape defining an inner cavity area for receiving the mating terminal therein, the contact section further comprising cantilever beam contact arms extending from the opposed side walls and having contact portions arranged proximate a mating end wall at a mating end of the terminal, the mating end wall provided with a cutout for guiding and locating the mating tab or pin terminal into the inner cavity area and between the contact arms, wherein the side walls comprise mating end portions attached and extending from opposed side edges of the mating end wall and folded substantially orthogonally therefrom in order to be arranged along sides of the contact section, the side wall mating end portions comprising locking shoulders for locking the terminals in a connector housing,
  • the layout of sheet metal from which the single piece electrical terminal is formed is compact thereby requiring little material usage and scrap, in view of provision of the mating wall side portions extending from side edges of the mating end wall. Nevertheless, a compact and well protected contact area is provided by extension of the mating end side wall portions to the region of the contact arm contact portions. Secure and reliable locking of the terminals within connector housings is ensured in a simple manner by the locking shoulders provided on the mating end side wall portions.
  • the mating end side wall portions may be secured to the top or bottom walls by welding, for example laser welding, in order to provide a compact yet rigid mating end portion of the contact section.
  • the top or bottom walls and the mating end side wall portions may be provided with interleaving extensions projecting transverse to the terminal mating direction. The interleaving extensions thus also securely hold the mating end wall of the terminal to the top, bottom and side walls.
  • the mating end wall may be folded from the bottom wall substantially orthogonally thereto whereby the interleaving extensions of the mating end side wall portions co-operate with complementary extensions provided on the top wall.
  • connection end of the contact section may be provided with a connection end wall, for example folded substantially orthogonally from the top wall, in order to prevent material or objects from flowing or being inserted into the inner cavity area from a rear end of the terminal, thereby further protecting the contact arms.
  • the connection end wall may also assist in rigidifying the box-shape of the contact section.
  • a connection end of the side walls may be further provided with secondary locking extensions having locking shoulders provided over a transition portion of the contact that interconnects the contact and connection sections, the transition portion having a width narrower than the contact section side walls such that space is provided for engagement of secondary locking shoulders of a connector housing behind the secondary locking extensions.
  • an electrical receptacle terminal 2 comprises a connection section 4 in the form of a crimping barrel for connection to a wire, and a contact section 6 attached to the connection section 4 via a transition section 8.
  • the terminal 2 is stamped and formed from sheet metal, for example as illustrated in figures 3-6, as a single piece terminal.
  • the contact section 6 comprises a bottom wall 10, opposed side walls 12 extending substantially orthogonally from side edges 13 of the bottom wall, and a top wall 14 facing the bottom wall 10.
  • the top, side and bottom walls form a box-shaped receptacle defining an inner cavity area 16 receiving a mating tab or pin contact section of a complementary terminal (not shown).
  • the contact section 6 is further provided with a front or mating end wall 18 and a rear or connection end wall 20 positioned respectively at the mating end and connection end of the contact section 6.
  • the mating end and connection end walls 18, 20 extend approximately perpendicularly to the insertion direction (I) of a mating pin terminal.
  • the mating end wall 18 is attached to and extends from the bottom wall 10 and is bent substantially 90° from the bottom wall as best seen when comparing figures 5 and 6.
  • the mating end wall 18 is further provided with a cutout 20 as best seen in figures 5 or 6, formed by inwardly stamping extensions or ledges 22 (see figures 2 or 5) that project roughly in the insertion direction (I).
  • the contact section is further provided with a pair of opposed cantilever beam contact arms 24 extending from an attachment portion 26 proximate the connection section 4 to free ends 28 proximate the mating end wall 18.
  • the contact arms 24 are integrally connected with the side walls 12 at the attachment portion 26 and converge into the inner cavity area 16 to contact portions 29 proximate the free ends 28.
  • the free ends 28 resiliently abut against the inward extensions 22 of the mating end wall 18 such that the contact arms are in a pre-stressed condition, in order to increase the contact force against a mating pin terminal inserted between the contact portions 29.
  • the free ends 28 of the contact arms 24 may be coined (i.e. stamped thinner) in order to extend the length of the contact arms to enable engagement with ledges 22.
  • the contact section 6 further comprises mating end side wall portions 30 that extend from side edges 32 of the mating end wall 18 and which are bent substantially orthogonally from the mating end wall 18, for approximate alignment with the side walls 12 as best seen when comparing figures 6 and 7.
  • the mating end side wall portions 30 are fairly short in comparison to the overall length of the contact section, a rear end 34 of the side wall portions 30 being in the vicinity (with respect to the insertion direction (I)) of the contact portions 29 of the contacts 24.
  • the rear end or edge 34 of the mating end side wall portions 30 forms a locking shoulder for engagement of a connector housing locking protrusion thereagainst in order to lock the terminals in connector housings.
  • the mating end side wall portions 30 provide protection for the contact arm free end and contact portions 28, 29.
  • the mating end side wall portions 30 are attached to the top wall 14 (and could similarly be attached to the bottom wall 10) by welding a top (and/or bottom) edge 38 of the side wall portions to the top (and/or bottom) wall 14.
  • the weld may for example be a laser generated spot weld 40.
  • Attachment of the mating end side wall portions 30 to the top and/or bottom walls provides for a rigid box-shape contact section with well protected contact portions 29 in a compact arrangement that requires particularly low material usage and wastage.
  • This can be understood by viewing figure 3 which shows the planar layout of sheet metal stamped to form the various walls and contact arms, prior to the bending (forming) operations.
  • the length of material L in the insertion direction (I) is particularly short, and the scrap material resulting from stamping out the arms and side walls (see spaces 33) is particularly low in view of the advantageous arrangement of contact arms 24, bottom 10, top 14, side 12, front 18 walls and mating end side wall portions 30 extending from side edges 32 of the mating end wall 18.
  • the contact arms 24 are formed and top wall halves 14a are folded up along bend lines 42 parallel to the insertion direction (I) as shown in figure 4.
  • the side walls 12 are folded perpendicularly from the base wall 10 around bend lines 43 extending in the insertion direction (I).
  • the contact pre-stressing ledges 22 may be folded from the mating end wall 18 in the steps shown in figure 4 or figure 5, simultaneously forming the terminal receiving cutout 20.
  • the mating end wall 18 may then be folded upwards from the bottom wall 10 as shown in figure 6 and subsequently the mating end side wall portions 30 folded into the side walls as shown in figure 7, and welded to the top and/or bottom walls.
  • connection end wall 20 Whilst the connection end wall 20 is not shown in figures 4-7, the connection end wall halves 20a may be folded down from the top wall halves 14a in the steps of figures 6 or 7. After forming of the contact section 6, the transition and connection sections 4, 8 may be formed, the transition section 8 partially capturing the lower end 45 of the connection end wall 20 as best seen in figure 1.
  • connection end wall 20 may serve to prevent matter from entering into the contact area from a rear end of the terminal for example during over-molding of the terminal with plastic or elastomeric material (for example for sealing purposes or assembly in insulative housing components).
  • connection end wall provides a further support for the box-shape contact section 6 to further enhance the robustness thereof.
  • the mating end side wall portions 30 are further provided with a recessed portion 48 in the upper edge 47 that receives a complementary extension 50 of the top wall 14 to form an interleaving extension arrangement as best seen in figures 1 and 7.
  • the interleaving extensions 47, 50 assist in securely holding the mating end wall 18 to the top wall as well as securing the mating end side wall portions 30 to the top wall to form a mating end box-shaped portion that is securely interlocked and held together.
  • the contact section is further provided with secondary locking shoulders 52 directed towards the connection section 4 and provided on extensions 54 of the side walls 12, for engaging a secondary locking member of a connector housing thereagainst.
  • the secondary locking shoulders 52 are provided in a region (with respect to the insertion direction (I)) above the transition section 8 which is of a relatively small width compared to the contact section 6, such that a secondary locking member can be positioned behind the secondary locking shoulder 52.
  • a cutout 56 is stamped out for the base wall of the contact section transition section.

Landscapes

  • Connector Housings Or Holding Contact Members (AREA)
  • Details Of Indoor Wiring (AREA)

Claims (10)

  1. Borne de prise électrique d'une seule pièce (2) destinée à être accouplée avec une borne à patte ou à broche complémentaire, la borne comprenant une section de connexion (4), une section de transition (8) et une section de contact (6), comportant un corps de contact avec des parois supérieures, latérales et inférieure (14, 12, 10) établissant une forme en boîte définissant une zone de cavité interne (16) destinée à recevoir la borne d'accouplement, la section de contact (6) englobant en outre des bras de contact (24) s'étendant à partir des parois latérales opposées (12), et des parties de contact (29) agencées près d'une paroi de l'extrémité d'accouplement (18), au niveau d'une extrémité d'accouplement de la borne, la paroi de l'extrémité d'accouplement (18) comportant une entaille pour guider et positionner la borne à patte ou à broche d'accouplement dans la zone de cavité interne et entre les bras de contact (24), les parois latérales (12) comportant des parties de l'extrémité d'accouplement (30) fixées sur les bords latéraux opposés (32) de la paroi de l'extrémité d'accouplement (18) et s'étendant à partir de ceux-ci, et repliées de manière pratiquement orthogonale à partir de ceux-ci en vue d'un agencement le long des côtés de la section de contact (6), caractérisée en ce que les parties de paroi latérale de l'extrémité d'accouplement (30) englobent des épaulements de verrouillage (34) destinés à verrouiller la borne (2) dans un boîtier de connecteur, les épaulements de verrouillage étant positionnés environ au-dessus des parties de contact (29) des bras de contact (24).
  2. Borne selon la revendication 1, dans laquelle les parties de paroi latérale de l'extrémité d'accouplement (30) et la paroi supérieure (14) comportent des extensions de verrouillage mutuel (47, 50).
  3. Borne selon les revendications 1 ou 2, dans laquelle les parties de paroi latérale de l'extrémité d'accouplement (30) sont soudées sur la paroi supérieure (14).
  4. Borne selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans laquelle la section de contact (6) comprend une paroi de l'extrémité de connexion (20) s'étendant de manière pratiquement perpendiculaire à la direction d'insertion (I) près de la section de connexion.
  5. Borne selon la revendication 4, dans laquelle la paroi de l'extrémité de connexion (20) comporte une extrémité (45) piégée dans une section de transition en U (8) assurant l'interconnexion des sections de connexion et de contact.
  6. Borne selon les revendications 4 ou 5, dans laquelle la paroi de l'extrémité de connexion (20) est pliée à partir de la paroi supérieure (14).
  7. Borne selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans laquelle la paroi de l'extrémité d'accouplement (18) comprend des nervures estampées vers l'intérieur (22) contre lesquelles les extrémités libres (28) des bras de contact (24) butent de manière élastique en vue de les soumettre à une précontrainte.
  8. Borne selon la revendication 7, dans laquelle les extrémités libres (28) des bras de contact (24) sont forgées en vue d'étendre la longueur des bras de contact et d'entraîner un engagement correspondant dans les nervures (22).
  9. Borne selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans laquelle la paroi de l'extrémité d'accouplement (18) est pliée de manière pratiquement orthogonale à partir de la paroi inférieure (10).
  10. Borne selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans laquelle la paroi inférieure (10) comporte une entaille (56) proche de la section de transition pour faciliter le rétrécissement vers l'intérieur des parois latérales de la section de transition, à partir des parois latérales de la section de contact (12).
EP19990109536 1998-05-18 1999-05-12 Borne électrique femelle d'un seul tenant Expired - Lifetime EP0959531B1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP19990109536 EP0959531B1 (fr) 1998-05-18 1999-05-12 Borne électrique femelle d'un seul tenant

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP98401196 1998-05-18
EP98401196 1998-05-18
EP19990109536 EP0959531B1 (fr) 1998-05-18 1999-05-12 Borne électrique femelle d'un seul tenant

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0959531A2 EP0959531A2 (fr) 1999-11-24
EP0959531A3 EP0959531A3 (fr) 2001-03-07
EP0959531B1 true EP0959531B1 (fr) 2006-07-26

Family

ID=26151638

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19990109536 Expired - Lifetime EP0959531B1 (fr) 1998-05-18 1999-05-12 Borne électrique femelle d'un seul tenant

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EP (1) EP0959531B1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR2840736B1 (fr) 2002-06-11 2004-08-27 Framatome Connectors Int Borne de contact electrique femelle d'une seule piece ayant une partie de transition renforcee
JP3885190B2 (ja) * 2002-11-05 2007-02-21 矢崎総業株式会社 雌端子
JP2007184171A (ja) 2006-01-06 2007-07-19 Jst Mfg Co Ltd 案内片付き雌端子
US7717759B2 (en) 2006-01-06 2010-05-18 J.S.T. Mfg. Co., Ltd. Female terminal with guiding piece
DE102008041726A1 (de) * 2008-08-29 2010-03-04 Robert Bosch Gmbh Kunststoff-Gehäuseteil und Verfahren zu seiner Herstellung
CN103811904B (zh) * 2014-02-14 2017-03-01 萧至仁 中空端子结构

Family Cites Families (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
FR2054846A5 (fr) * 1969-07-29 1971-05-07 Ferriere Rene
JPS5222593U (fr) * 1975-08-06 1977-02-17
FR2730864B3 (fr) * 1995-02-17 1997-04-30 Amp France Borne femelle electrique d'une seule piece
DE19612630C2 (de) * 1995-03-30 2001-09-20 Yazaki Corp Steckbuchse und Verfahren zu deren Herstellung
FR2751793B1 (fr) * 1996-07-26 2001-10-12 Whitaker Corp Borne electrique femelle d'une seule piece

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP0959531A3 (fr) 2001-03-07
EP0959531A2 (fr) 1999-11-24

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