EP3304651B1 - Electrical plug connector - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to an electrical connector according to the preamble of claim 1.

Electrical connectors are used to produce electrical contacts between an electrical device or a printed circuit board (for example a PCB, printed circuit board) and an external connection means, such as a plug. For this purpose, the connector is often assigned a large number of pins that form electrical connections. An individual contact on the circuit board can be controlled via a conductor via each individual pin of the connector.

Electrical plug-in connectors are known in which the installation of the plurality of pins is difficult and therefore time-consuming due to the limited space. Out DE 10 2006 062 313 it is known, for example, that an arrangement of connector pins, which are assigned to a connection side via conductor tracks, is pushed into a connector strip. This pushing the arrangement of connector pins into a potting tub requires a lot of effort and is therefore time-consuming and cost-intensive.

The documents US 2010/203746 A1 , US 2015/038013 A1 , and WO 2009/055684 A1 also disclose plug connectors each with a connector to which a corresponding plurality of pins is assigned.

Another disadvantage of the plug connectors known from the prior art is that the pins of the plug connectors are very susceptible to vibrations and extreme temperatures. For example, in devices that are exposed to increased vibrations, there is a pin in the connector triggers and there is a faulty contact or short circuit in the connector. There is a similar risk at high or low temperatures. Local tension in the material can cause individual pins in the connector to loosen, which, in addition to the disadvantage mentioned above, allows moisture and dirt to penetrate the connector.

Proceeding from this, the invention is based on the object of creating an electrical connector that is easy to manufacture and very robust with respect to mechanical and thermal environmental influences.

An electrical connector for solving this problem has the features of claim 1. Accordingly, it is provided that in the electrical connector according to the invention a plurality of pins are arranged in a connection part, the pins being electrically connectable by a conductor with contacts of a contact strip which is arranged in a housing and assigned on a circuit board. According to the invention, at least one conductor is arranged in a lead frame and the lead frame is fixed in a holder. This arrangement of the lead frame, which has at least one conductor, in a holder makes the conductor arrangement very compact and robust. Mechanical vibrations on the conductor are absorbed by the holder. From a production point of view, the holder can also be referred to as a semi-finished product.

Another possible embodiment of the invention can provide that the at least one leadframe is firmly cast, preferably encapsulated, in the holder, in particular the leadframe is mounted in the holder before it is poured or encapsulated. The holder can thus form a frame-like body or cuboid in which the conductors are arranged. This pouring in of the lead frame results in a very compact and easy-to-use arrangement of the conductors. After the conductors have been cast in the holder, a stamped bridge of the lead frame connecting the pins and / or the conductors can be removed.

The present invention can further provide that at least one pin and / or at least one conductor and / or at least one contact are formed from the at least one leadframe, in particular one pin each with a conductor and a contact are formed in one piece from the at least one leadframe. Thus, a one-piece conductor piece consisting of a pin, a conductor and a contact is punched out of the lead frame and arranged in the holder. According to the invention, it can be provided that the pins are firmly connected to the holder, in particular cast or injected into the holder. Due to this one-piece construction of the conductor section and the embedding in the holder, the manufacture of the connector is extremely simple.

The invention also provides that a plurality of stamped grids, each having pins and conductors and contacts arranged next to one another, are arranged one above the other in the holder, in particular cast or overmolded, in order to form several rows of pins and conductors and contacts. It is also conceivable that any arrangement of the pins can be implemented using the stamped grids. If the individual stamped grids are arranged on top of one another, they are each spaced a sufficiently large distance from one another so that the pins or the lines or the contacts do not interfere with one another or that no breakdowns occur.

Preferably, the present invention can further provide that the holder with the at least one stamped grid can be connected to the connection part and / or the housing, in particular can be brought into a locking connection with the connection part and / or the housing, preferably with the connection part and / or the housing can be cast, in particular sprayed or glued. The holder is an integral part with the lead frame or with the permanently assigned pins, the conductors and the contacts, which can be brought together with the other parts when the connector is assembled. Thus, the holder having the pins can be plugged together with the connecting part of the connector.

Another alternative embodiment can provide that the holder is inserted into the housing of an electrical device or through the housing into the connector. Due to the fixed assignment of the pins to the holder, the pin arrangement is very compact and easy to handle.

In particular, the present invention can furthermore provide that the contact strip is assigned to the lead frame, decoupled from the housing and / or the connection part, in particular that the contact strip is assigned a circuit board or a printed circuit board. By decoupling the contact strip from the housing or from the connection part, all mechanical impacts or vibrations are decoupled from the contact strip. Thus, by decoupling the contact strip from the housing and / or the connection part, mechanical resistance to vibrations can be created. The printed circuit board can alternatively be any circuit of an electrical device that has any contacts.

A further possible embodiment according to the invention consists in that the contacts or the stamped grid are at least partially cast, in particular encapsulated or stamped, pressed in or welded in, in the contact strip. This creates a continuous, constant connection between the contact strip and the pins. Due to this one-piece nature of the pins, the conductors and the contacts, the connector or the contacting is extremely robust. The type of connection between the conductor and the pin or the contact is determined by the material of the components or the type of manufacture. Furthermore, the type of contacting can change depending on the requirements for the electrical plug connection.

According to the invention, it is provided that the lead frame in each case has a strain relief in the area of the conductor, in particular the strain reliefs are shaped like a meander, preferably that the strain reliefs are punched out of the lead frame in a meander shape. This meandering strain relief represents a type of spring element which can compensate or cushion relative movements between the pin and the contact or between the semi-finished product and the contact strip. This meandering configuration of the conductors and their attachment in the holder or on the contact strip lead to a resistant electrical connection in the connector.

The invention can provide that the meandering strain reliefs are aligned parallel to a punching plane of the lead frame. In addition, can it can be provided according to the invention that the conductors of a stamped grid are arranged parallel to one another between the pins and the contacts, in particular that the strain relief are arranged parallel to one another. The parallel arrangement of the conductors is advantageous in that it avoids contacting the individual conductors. Since the ends of all conductors are located in the holder or on the common rigid contact strip, the conductors move equally when there is a relative movement between the holder and contact strip. The formation of a short circuit through at least brief contact with conductors can thus be avoided. According to the invention, however, it is also conceivable that the conductors are not arranged parallel to one another, in particular arbitrarily.

The invention can further provide that the lead frame is bent at the transitions from the pins to the conductors and from the conductors to the contacts, in particular has deflections from the punching plane. As a result of these deflections, the pins or the conductors, which are assigned to the various stamped grids arranged one above the other, can be brought to the same level of the contact strip. Depending on the positioning of the individual stamped grids in the holder, the deflection is different. For the leadframe arranged at the top, the deflection between pin and conductor or between conductor and contact is greatest; whereas the deflection for the leadframe arranged at the lowest point is the smallest. The deflections on the individual stamped grids are produced before pouring into the holder, but can also be done after pouring into the holder.

Fig. 1

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines elektrischen Steckverbinders,

Fig. 2

eine Schnittdarstellung durch den elektrischen Steckverbinder, und

Fig. 3

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines Halters.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the drawing. In this show:

Fig. 1

a perspective view of an electrical connector,

Fig. 2

a sectional view through the electrical connector, and

Fig. 3

a perspective view of a holder.

In order to connect an electrical device or the circuits of the electrical devices to an external device or plug, the electrical device can have an electrical connector 10. The Indian Fig. 1 The electrical connector 10 shown is arranged in a housing 11 of an electrical device which is only indicated. The electrical connector 10 has a connection part 12 for receiving an external connecting means (not shown). This connection part 12 extends through a wall 13 into the housing 11 of the electrical device.

Via a large number of pins 14 arranged in a grid, the external connection means can be connected to a circuit board 18 via the conductor 15 assigned to the pins 14 ( Fig. 1, Fig. 2 ).

In the exemplary embodiment shown here, the pins 14 are arranged in several rows in the electrical connector 10. The ends of the pins 14 on the housing side each merge in one piece with a conductor 15. These conductors 15 each merge, likewise in one piece, into a contact 16 which is assigned to a contact strip 17. The electrical contact of each pin 14 with the circuit board 18 is established via this contact strip 17 ( Fig. 1 ).

The conductors 15 describe a meandering strain relief 21 between the pins 14 and the contacts 16 ( Fig. 3 ). These strain reliefs 21 run side by side for the pins 14, which are arranged in a row. Because the embodiment of an electrical connector 10 shown here has several rows of pins 14, there are several meander-shaped conductors 15 offset in parallel one above the other ( Fig. 3 ). However, the invention is not limited to the in Fig. 3 illustrated arrangement of pins 14 restricted; rather, it is also conceivable that the plug connector has only a few pins 14, or a large number in any arrangement.

The pins 14, conductors 15 and contacts 16 form a single, coherent part of a punched grid 19, ie pins 14, conductors 15 and contacts 16 are punched out coherently from one piece. A lead frame 19 forms a row of pins 14, conductors 15 and contacts arranged next to one another 16. Because the pins 14, conductors 15 and contacts 16 are made from a single, coherent piece of material, they are formed in one piece. In the embodiment of the connector 10 shown in the figures, three stamped grids 19 are arranged one above the other. So that the contacts 16 each lie in the plane of the contact strip 17, the stamped grid 19, or a “pin-conductor-contacts-triplet” has two deflections 22. These deflections 22 describe a deflection from a punching plane ( Fig. 3 ). Depending on the positioning of the individual stamped grids 19, the deflections 22 of the conductors 15 are of different strength.

The lead frame 19 or the pins 14, conductors 15 and contacts 16 are permanently assigned to a holder 20, electrically isolated from one another ( Fig. 3 ). The holder 20 forms a cuboid receptacle and is at least partially cast or injection-molded around the lead frame 19 or around the pins 14 and / or the conductors 15, preferably after the lead frame 19 has been mounted in the holder 20. A plastic is usually used for this. It can accordingly be provided that the at least one lead frame 19 is first mounted in the holder 20 and then, for example, a plastic is cast or overmolded.

The contacts 16 are cast, injected, stamped, pressed or welded into the contact strip 17. Through this fixed connection of the contacts 16 in the contact strip 17 or the pins 14 in the holder 20 and the meandering configuration of the conductors 15, the present invention creates a robust and resistant connection between a connecting means and a circuit board 18.

While the lead frame 19 together with the conductor 15, the pins 14 and the contacts 16 is being prefabricated, the holder 20 is inserted into the connection part 12 for the final assembly of the connector 10. For this purpose, the holder 20 and / or the connecting part 12 can have latching elements, for example. The holder 20 can therefore also be referred to as a semi-finished product. In addition, the connection part 12 is assigned openings which correspond exactly to the arrangement of the pins 14 and are used to receive the pins 14. To the mechanical connection in addition to reinforce it can be provided that the holder 20 is encapsulated with the connection part 12.

The contact strip 17 contacted by the contacts 16 is assigned to the circuit board 18, decoupled from the connection part 12 or from the housing 11. In this case, the contact strip 17 can be screwed or clamped or glued onto the circuit board 18, for example.

A further exemplary embodiment can provide that the connection part 12 is placed on the wall 13 from the outside and the holder 20 together with the pins 14 and the conductor 15 are pushed from the interior of the housing 11 through the wall 13 into the connection part 12 and, if necessary, encapsulated . In this way, the electrical connector 10 can be firmly connected to the electrical device or the housing 11.

It should be noted that the present invention is not restricted to the exemplary embodiment of the invention shown here; rather, it is conceivable that in particular the lead frame 19, the holder 20 and the connection part 12 can have a different shape or the number of pins 14 varies.

Claims (9)

1. Electrical plug-in connector (10) with a connection part (12) with which a multiplicity of pins (14) are associated, wherein the pins (14) can be electrically connected by in each case one conductor (15) with contacts (16) of a contact strip (17) which is arranged in a housing (11) in particular, wherein at least one leadframe (19), which has at least one of the conductors (15), is fixedly arranged in a holder (20), characterized in that the leadframe (19) has in each case one spring-action strain-relief means (21) in the region of the conductors (15), which strain-relief means (21) are of meandering shape, wherein the strain-relief means (21) are stamped out of the leadframe (19) in a meandering shape.
2. Electrical plug-in connector (10) according to Claim 1, characterized in that the at least one leadframe (19) is fixedly cast, preferably encapsulated by injection moulding, in the holder (20), in particular the leadframe (19) is mounted in the holder (20) before the casting or encapsulation by injection moulding.
3. Electrical plug-in connector (10) according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that at least one pin (14) and/or at least one conductor (15) and/or at least one contact (16) are formed from the at least one leadframe (19), in particular in each case one pin (14) with a conductor (15) and a contact (16) are integrally formed from the at least one leadframe (19).
4. Electrical plug-in connector (10) according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a plurality of leadframes (19), which each have a multiplicity of pins (14) and conductors (15) and contacts (16) which are arranged next to one another, are arranged, in particular cast or encapsulated by injection moulding, one above the other in the semi-finished product (20) in order to form a plurality of rows of pins (14) and conductors (15) and contacts (16).
5. Electrical plug-in connector (10) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the holder (20) can be connected by way of the at least one leadframe (19) to the connection part (12) and/or to the housing (11), in particular can be brought into latching connection with the connection part (12) and/or the housing (11), preferably can be cast, in particular can be sprayed or can be bonded, with the connection part (12) and/or the housing (11).
6. Electrical plug-in connector (10) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the contact strip (17) is associated with the leadframe (19) in a manner uncoupled from the housing (11) and/or the connection part (12), in particular in that a printed circuit board (18) is associated with the contact strip (17) .
7. Electrical plug-in connector (10) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the contacts (16) or the leadframe (19) are/is at least partially cast into, in particular encapsulated by injection moulding or stamped into or pressed into or welded into, the contact strip (17).
8. Electrical plug-in connector (10) according to Claim 1, characterized in that the meandering strain-relief means (21) are oriented parallel in relation to a stamping plane of the leadframe (19).
9. Electrical plug-in connector (10) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the leadframe (19) is bent at the transitions from the pins (14) to the conductors (15) and also from the conductors (15) to the contacts (16), in particular has deflections (22) of the stamping plane in each case.

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