FR2771555A1 - LINGUET TO BE CRIMPED AT THE END OF AN ELECTRIC WIRE - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a latch intended to be crimped at the end of an electric wire, characterized in that it is constituted by at least one blade of electrically conductive material having at least one proximal end (1) provided with at least a set of crimping fins (2, 3) able to cooperate with said wire, and at least one distal end (4) forming a connection designed to cooperate directly with an element to be supplied with electricity. Thanks to the invention, it is possible to dispense with the use of connection boxes and thus to simplify the electrical connection operation.

Description

Linguet intended to be crimped at the end of an electric wire.

  The invention relates to the electrical field.

  More specifically, the invention relates to the field of devices used

  to connect an electric wire to an element intended to be supplied with electricity.

  The electrical connections conventionally used to connect an electric wire or cable to an element to be supplied with electricity are conventionally constituted: - on the one hand, of a clip made of an electrically conductive material, crimped at the end of the wire or electric power cable, and; - on the other hand, a housing made of insulating plastic material and provided with a strip of electrically conductive material (conventionally designated in the state of the art by the term "latch"), one end of which is provided at the inside the case and the other end of which is provided outside the case, is intended to

  cooperate with the element to be supplied with electricity.

  To establish the electrical connection using such devices, the following operations must be carried out: - install the box near the element to be supplied with electricity; - connect the element to be supplied with electricity to the box; - insert the clip fitted to the end of the electric wire or cable to

inside of it.

  Such devices have many drawbacks.

  First of all, they involve a relatively high manufacturing cost insofar as they consist of two distinct structural elements, namely the clip and the connection box which, moreover, use materials

separate (metal and plastic).

  Secondly, they also entail a relatively high implementation cost since their use requires several operations (installation of the housing near the element to be supplied with electricity, connection of the element to this housing, connection of the wire or the power supply cable to the housing) which increases the time required to complete

the connection.

  Finally, it will also be noted that the electrical connection which they authorize requires two electrical connections: a first between the element to be supplied with electricity and the outer end of the latch of the housing, and a second between the clip equipping the wire or the cable. and the other end of this latch, inside the housing. However, the more the number of electrical connections implemented in a

  electrical connection is important, the less this connection is reliable.

  The objective of the present invention is to present a device for the electrical connection of a wire or an electrical supply cable to an element to be supplied with electricity which does not have the drawbacks of the devices of the state

  of the technique mentioned above.

  In particular, an objective of the present invention is to describe such a device having a lower cost price since it uses only one

  single structural element and single manufacturing material.

  Also an objective of the present invention is to provide such a connection device which can be installed more quickly than the connection devices.

prior art.

  Yet another object of the present invention is to disclose such

  device for increasing the reliability of the connection made.

  These various objectives are achieved thanks to the invention which relates to a latch intended to be crimped at the end of an electric wire characterized in that it consists of at least one blade of electrically conductive material having at least one proximal end provided with at least one set of crimping fins capable of cooperating with said wire, and at least one distal end forming a connection designed to cooperate directly with an element to be supplied with electricity. (It should be noted that, in this definition of the invention, the terms "electric wires" are understood to refer to wires, but also electric cables.) The invention therefore proposes a connection device making it possible to directly connect an electric wire supply to an element to be supplied with electricity

  without having to use an annex piece consisting of a connection box.

  Such a design has many advantages.

  First, the cost of manufacturing a latch according to the invention is much lower than that of the connection devices of the prior art described above. Indeed, this latch consists of a single structural element made from a single electrically conductive material (in practice it will most often be copper or copper products. Its manufacture is therefore greatly simplified and involves the use of manufacturing equipment

cheaper.

  Secondly, the latch according to the invention makes it possible to directly connect the supply wire to the element to be supplied, without having to install any connection box beforehand near this element. The use of this

  latch is therefore simpler and faster than that of the devices of the prior art.

  Finally, the connection established thanks to this latch requires only one electrical connection, between the latch and the element to be supplied, and not two as in

  the prior art, which increases its reliability.

  The crimpable latch according to the invention may be designed to cooperate with any type of element to be supplied with electricity. By way of non-exhaustive examples,

  may include in particular on this subject bulbs, switches, motors, etc ...

  It will therefore be understood that the shape of the strip of electrically conductive material constituting such a latch may vary depending on the nature of this element and

the environment of it.

  Preferably, said proximal end of the latch according to the invention is provided with a first set of two crimping fins capable of cooperating with the insulation of said wire and a second set of two crimping fins capable of cooperating with the strands of copper of said wire. Such a preferred characteristic is intended to adapt the invention to standard electrical wires which are conventionally formed of two strands linked together, each strand consisting of a bundle of copper wires covered by an insulating plastic sheath. When the latch according to the invention must be crimped onto such a wire, the copper at the end of the latter is stripped by removing its plastic sheath over a small portion. During crimping, the two fins of the first set of fins are crimped to the core on the insulation, while the two fins of the second set of fins are crimped to the core

directly on the copper.

  Also preferably, the distal end of the latch according to the invention has at least one hole or a positioning embossment of at least a part of said element to be supplied with electricity. Such a hole or such an embossment makes it possible to wedge an adequate part of the element to be supplied with electricity, for example the base of a bulb, and thus to secure the established electrical connection.

thanks to the latch.

  Advantageously, said distal end also has at least one gutter making it possible to facilitate the positioning of said part of said element to be supplied with electricity in said hole or in said positioning embossing. Preferably, said distal end is designed to be able to withstand elastic deformation. Such a characteristic will make it possible to operate a latching, that is to say a reversible secure positioning, of the latch on

  the element to be supplied with electricity.

  According to a variant of the invention, said proximal end and said distal end form an angle α between them. It is thus possible to reduce the size of the device according to the invention. Depending on the applications, this angle may obviously vary. According to a variant of the invention, this angle oc

could be around 90.

  Also according to a variant according to the invention, the latch has at least one positioning lug on a support. Such a support could be constituted by any element, integrated or not to the element to be supplied with electricity,

  to keep the latch in a fixed position.

  The latch according to the invention may advantageously be manufactured by stamping, said fins then being formed by cutting from said blade in

  electrically conductive material.

  The invention, as well as the various advantages which it presents, will be more

  easily understood thanks to the description which follows in a non-limiting manner of

  embodiment thereof with reference to the drawings in which: - Figure 1 shows a front view of a crimpable latch according to the present invention; - Figure 2 shows a side view of the latch shown in Figure 1;

  - Figure 3 shows a top view of the latch shown in Figure 1.

  The latch shown with reference to Figures 1 to 3 was specially designed to establish an electrical connection between an electric power wire and the lamp intended to illuminate the license plate of a vehicle. This is obviously only a simple illustrative example of the invention which has by no means

  the purpose of which is to reduce its scope.

  According to the state of the art, the connection devices used included a box to be previously mounted on the part of the vehicle (for example a bumper) carrying the license plate. The power supply wire and the bulb then had to be connected to this box. The invention has made it possible to simplify the making of the connection and to reduce the cost of such an operation. Referring to Figures 1 to 3, the latch shown is formed by a

  copper strip with a thickness of about 1 mm and is produced by stamping.

  In the figures, this latch is shown, for the sake of clarity of the description

  before crimping on an electric wire.

  This latch has two parts forming between them an angle a of 900, namely a first part forming a so-called proximal end 1 and a second part forming a so-called distal end 4. The part 4 forming the distal end 4 has a sufficient length allowing some elastic deformation which

the interest will be explained below.

  The proximal end 1 is provided with two sets of crimping fins 2,3 on an electric wire (not shown), namely a first set of two fins 3 intended to be crimped on a part of the non-stripped electric wire, these fins then cooperating with the insulator of the electric wire and a second set of two fins 2 intended to be crimped onto part of the exposed electric wire, these fins then cooperating directly with the copper of this wire. The diameter of the stripped electric wire being smaller than that of the non-stripped wire, the size of the fins 2 is smaller than the

fin size 3.

  The distal end 4 of the latch according to the invention, has a hole 5 for accommodating the base of a bulb (not shown) and a

  gutter 6 facilitating the positioning of said base in this hole 5.

  This distal end 4 also has two lugs 7 making it possible to

  attach the latch to the part of the vehicle receiving the license plate.

  The use of the embodiment of the latch shown is as follows.

  During a preliminary operation, the latch is crimped on an electric wire.

  For this purpose, this wire is stripped over a small portion of its end by removing its insulating plastic sheath. The end of this wire is then positioned between the fins 2 and the fins of 3 so that the stripped portion cooperates with the fins 2 and that the non-stripped portion cooperates with the fins 3. The fins 2 and 3 are then crimped on the said wire by folding the fins on it using a suitable tool. Once the latch has been crimped onto the electrical wire, the electrical connection with the bulb can be established by positioning the distal end 4 so that it comes into contact with the support accommodating the bulb. During this positioning, the distal end 4 deforms elastically to allow the base of the bulb

  to snap into the hole 5. This operation is facilitated by the gutter 6.

  When establishing the connection, the pins 7 cooperate with notches

  provided in the support to maintain the positioning thus achieved.

  The present invention therefore makes it possible to reduce the time required to make the electrical connection while reducing the cost of obtaining the

connection device.

  The present exemplary embodiment is not intended to reduce the scope of the invention. Many modifications can therefore be made without leaving

of the framework of this one.

Claims (9)

  1. Linguet intended to be crimped at the end of an electric wire characterized in that it consists of at least one blade of electrically conductive material having at least one proximal end (1) provided with at least one set of 'crimping fins (2,3) capable of cooperating with said wire, and at least one distal end (4) forming a connection designed to cooperate directly with a   element to be supplied with electricity.   2. Linguet according to claim 1 characterized in that said proximal end (1) is provided with a first set of two crimping fins (3) able to cooperate with the insulator of said wire and with a second set of two fins crimping (2)   able to cooperate with the copper strands of said wire.   3. Linguet according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that said distal end (4) has at least one hole or a positioning embossment (5)   at least part of said element to be supplied with electricity.   4. Linguet according to claim 3 characterized in that said distal end (4) has at least one gutter (6) making it possible to facilitate the positioning of said part of said element to be supplied with electricity in said hole or in said positioning embossing (5).   5. Linguet according to any one of claims 1 to 4 characterized in that   that said distal end (4) is designed to be able to withstand elastic deformation.   6. Linguet according to any one of claims 1 to 5 characterized in that   that said proximal end (1) and said distal end (4) form an angle oc between them.   7. Linguet according to claim 6 characterized in that said angle oc is about 90.   8. Linguet according to any one of claims 1 to 7 characterized in that   that it has at least one lug (7) for positioning on a support.   9. Linguet according to any one of claims 1 to 8 characterized in that   said fins (2,3) are formed by cutting from said blade.