JP2000150086A - Electric connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To smoothly fit to a mating female connector by weak insertion force with simple constitution by installing a thin fitting guide part having a plurality of contacts on the fitting end side, and an engaging part held in fitting projection on the tip side than the fitting guide part. SOLUTION: An insertion groove 27 extending in the length direction is formed on the inside of a cavity 26 into which a contact 50 is put by applying pressure, and a barrier plate 28 is installed on the inside of a pair of insertion grooves 27. The insertion groove 27 is capable of passing a thin beam 57 of the contact 50 to be fit to a housing 20 and a hook part 61, a guide surface 29 sloped outside is formed on the top side of the barrier plate 28, and an engaging groove 91 of the hook part 61 of the contact 50 is installed at the tip of the guide surface 29. When the contact 50 is put into the housing 20 by applying pressure, the thin beam 57 is enlarged outside with the guide surface 29, and when the contact reached a specified position, the thin beam 57 is returned by elastic force and engaged with the engaging groove 91. Since a tip wall part 92 is wider than the top end of the guide surface 29, engagement is surely conducted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plug type or male type electrical connector in which contacts are arranged in a pair of rows along both side surfaces of a fitting projection provided on a housing. The present invention relates to an electrical connector that can be fitted with a low insertion force.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This type of electrical connector is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No.
No. 7,785. The disclosed male electrical connector forms a pair of contact rows along the fitting projection of the housing, and engages with a mating female connector with a low insertion force to achieve a mating. A warhead-shaped portion covered with a metal surface is provided at the tip of the protrusion. As a result, the contact between the contact of the mating connector and the contact on the side surface of the fitting projection is smoothly performed.

[0003]

However, according to the above-mentioned structure, the structure of the electrical connector is relatively complicated and the number of parts is large, so that the manufacturing is troublesome. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to realize an electric connector that can be smoothly mated with a mating female connector with a low insertion force with a relatively simple configuration.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a plug-type electrical connector in which a plurality of contacts are arranged back-to-back along a pair of rows along opposing side surfaces of a fitting projection provided on a housing. , Each of the plurality of contacts, a thin fitting guide portion provided on the fitting end side,
And an engaging portion which is held by the fitting protrusion on the distal end side of the fitting guide portion.

Preferably, the fitting guide portion is formed by thinning a metal plate by coining or the like and bending the metal plate to be curved.

Preferably, the fitting projection has an engagement groove capable of receiving the engagement portion.

[0007] Preferably, the plurality of contacts are received in respective cavities formed in the housing from a side opposite to a fitting side.

Preferably, the fitting guide portion and the engaging portion have a relatively narrow width so that the fitting guide portion and the engaging portion can be inserted when the plurality of contacts are inserted. A groove is formed in communication with each of the cavities.

Preferably, a guide surface which is inclined outward is formed in the insertion groove so as to smoothly guide the engagement portion into the engagement groove.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view showing an electric connector according to the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view and (b) is a front view. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing a cross section of the electrical connector of FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 2A is a cross sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 1A, and FIG. 2B is a line in FIG. It is sectional drawing which follows BB.

Referring to FIG. 1, an electric connector 10 is a male connector received in a housing of a mating connector (not shown), and has an elongated housing 20, a plurality of contacts 50 fixed thereto, and a plurality of fixing members. And a metal fitting 30. The electrical connector 10 is mounted on a circuit board (not shown). The fixing bracket 30 includes a compliant portion 31. By engaging the compliant portion 31 with a through hole formed in the circuit board, the electrical connector 10 can be firmly fixed to the circuit board. The housing 20 includes a base 23 located on the circuit board mounting side,
And a fitting projection 21 that protrudes from the base 23 so as to be received by the mating connector. Each contact 50
A contact portion 51 for elastically contacting the circuit board, and contact portions 5 located along both side surfaces 22 of the fitting protrusion 21.
2 A fitting receiving groove 25 is formed on a side surface 24 of the base 23. A metal plate 40 is mounted in the fitting receiving groove 25 for reinforcing the housing 20.

Referring to FIG. 2A, the internal structure of the electrical connector 10 is shown in more detail. The contact 50 is received in the cavity 26 formed in the housing 20 and is pressed and fixed. The details of the shape of the contact 50 will be described later.
It can be seen that they are arranged to be in the same row as the zero compliant section 31. Also, as shown in FIG. 2B, since the fixing fitting 30 is engaged so as to press down the metal plate 40, it is understood that the electric connector 10 can be firmly fixed to the circuit board.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are views showing the contacts used in the electric connector of FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 3A is a front view and FIG. 3B is a side view.

As shown in FIG. 3, the contact 50 is formed by processing a metal plate and has a relatively wide and relatively thick contact base 5 located at the center.
3 and a substrate contact portion 51 located on the bottom side thereof.
The contact base 53 has a contact portion 52 on its top side,
It has a press-fit projection 81 on the bottom side. The substrate contact portion 51 is thinner and narrower than the contact base portion 53, is formed to have an angle at an intermediate position, and defines first and second beams 54 and 55 that extend linearly, respectively. The end of the first beam 54 located on the free end side is bent so as to form a contact point 56.

The contact 50 further includes a contact base 53.
A thin beam (fitting guide) 57 narrower than the contact base 53 is provided on the top side. The thin beam 57 has an outer surface 59 that is continuous with the surface 58 of the contact portion 52, is curved and extends to the top side, and has a hook portion (engaging portion) 61 protruding in the horizontal direction at the tip thereof. Having.

As can be understood from FIG. 2A, the contact 50 is pressed into the cavity 26 of the housing 20 from the bottom side. An insertion groove 27 extending in the length direction is formed inside the cavity 26, and a partition wall 28 is formed inside the pair of opposed insertion grooves 27. Insertion groove 2
7 shows a thin beam 57 and a hook portion 61 of the contact 50 when the contact 50 is mounted on the housing 20.
Is allowed. The upper end side of the insertion groove 27,
That is, a guide surface 29 extending outward and inclined is formed on the upper end side of the partition wall 28, and further provided with an engagement groove 91 which can receive the hook portion 61 of the contact 50. When the contact 50 is pressed into the housing 20, the thin beam 57 passes through the insertion groove 27 and is spread outward by the guide surface 29. The hook 61 at the tip is returned by the elastic force of the thin beam 57 itself and is engaged in the engagement groove 91. Since the distal end wall 92 is formed to have a wide width that protrudes sufficiently outward from the upper end of the guide surface 29, the hook 6
1 is reliably engaged with the engaging groove 91.

An advantage of the electrical connector 10 according to the present embodiment is that it can be smoothly fitted to a mating female connector, particularly that it can be fitted with a low insertion force. . More specifically, even when the female contact of the mating connector is a connector preloaded in order to obtain a high contact pressure, the fitting can be performed smoothly with a relatively low insertion force. This is because the thin beam 57 of the contact 50 located near the tip of the fitting projection 21 can smoothly guide the mating female contact to the contact surface 58 of the contact portion 51. In particular, it should be noted that the thin beam 57 is separated from the resin part of the housing 20 and constitutes a resiliently deformable doubly supported beam, so that it can be slightly deformed when the mating female contact is brought into contact. As a result, the mating contact is gradually elastically deformed when the mating with the mating female contact progresses, so that a large peak is not generated in the insertion force in the process of the mating, so that the mating contact is necessary for mating the connectors. The resulting insertion force is relatively low.

[0019]

According to the electrical connector of the present invention, each of the plurality of contacts is held by the thin fitting guide portion provided on the fitting end side and the fitting projection at the tip end side of the fitting guide portion. Since it is configured to have an engaging portion or a hook portion,
Since the acting force received from the mating contact (or received by the mating contact) at the time of mating with the mating connector gradually increases with the progress of the engagement, the mating with a relatively low insertion force is possible with a simple structure.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an electrical connector according to the invention;
(A) is a plan view, and (b) is a front view.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a cross section of the electrical connector of FIG. 1,
1A is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 1A, and FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 1A.

3A and 3B are diagrams showing contacts used in the electrical connector shown in FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 3A is a front view and FIG. 3B is a side view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Electric connector 20 Housing 21 Fitting projection 22 Side face of fitting projection 50 Contact 57 Fitting guide part (thin beam) 61 Engaging part (hook part)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plug-type electrical connector in which a plurality of contacts are arranged back-to-back along a side surface of a fitting projection provided on a housing to form a pair of rows, wherein each of the plurality of contacts is An electrical connector comprising: a thin fitting guide portion provided on a fitting end side; and an engaging portion held by the fitting protruding portion on the distal end side from the fitting guide portion.