JP2000164289A - Module connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a module connector fittable with low inserting force with ease of manufacturing and assembly and sufficient mechanical strength to ensure electric connection between a contact and another member. SOLUTION: A connector 10 uses a metal plate 50 arranged along the outer face to connect a plurality of connectors 11. The metal plate 50 operates for reinforcing the module type connector 10 when connecting the connectors 11. Stress applied to a housing via a contact 15 at fitting or when previous load is effectively controlled to ensure highly reliable electric contact.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a modular connector for realizing a multi-pole electrical connection, and more particularly to a modular connector comprising connectors having female contacts.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It has been known to form a modular connector by mutually connecting housings of connectors. One example is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 59-110983. According to the connectors disclosed in these publications, engagement structures for engaging the respective housings with each other are provided on both end surfaces in the longitudinal direction of the housings.

[0003]

In this type of modular connector, there is an application that requires one or more mating connectors to be mated together. Normally, for multi-pole fitting, zero insertion force fitting as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 59-110990 or low insertion force fitting as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 5-57785 is used. Can be used,
The latter has a simpler structure and is easier to manufacture. The present invention provides a modular connector which can be used for such low insertion force fitting, which is easy to manufacture and assemble, has sufficient mechanical strength, and further ensures a reliable electrical connection between a contact and a mating member. The purpose is to provide in such a way that it can be done.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a modular connector in which a plurality of connectors having female contacts supported in a housing are connectable in a longitudinal direction. The female contacts contained include resilient contact pieces oriented inward in opposing rows, and the plurality of connectors are positioned to extend longitudinally along opposite sides and are engaged with each other by metal. It is characterized by being fixed and connected by being sandwiched between support plates.

Preferably, the opposing elastic contact pieces extend from the bottom side to the top side of the housing, and are preloaded at the top end in the opposing direction.

[0006] Preferably, at least some of said plurality of connectors are selected to have a common geometry.

[0007] Preferably, the metal support plate is made of an aluminum alloy or duralumin.

Preferably, the metal support plate is mounted at least in a position corresponding to a bottom side of the housing where the elastic contact piece is supported.

Preferably, the pair of metal support plates disposed opposite to each other engage the plurality of connectors so as to sandwich the connectors by screw means.

A module type connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a modular connector according to the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view, (b) is a front view,
And (c) is a bottom view. 2 is a partially enlarged view of the modular connector of FIG. 1, (a) is an enlarged front view,
And (b) is an enlarged bottom view. FIG. 3 corresponds to FIG. 1 or FIG.
It is sectional drawing which follows the line AA of FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, a modular connector 10
Is formed by connecting a plurality of housings 20 including contacts 15 connected to a circuit board in a length direction, and collectively connecting a plurality of connectors arranged side by side in a length direction to another circuit board (not shown). What is connected. According to the present embodiment, the same number of connector structures 11 are set by the five housings 20 along the length direction of the modular connector 10 to be connected to the five mating connectors.

It should be noted that the five housings 20 are mechanically meshed with each other at their end positions, and are fixed so as to be sandwiched between elongated metal plates 50 from both sides. . According to FIG. 2, the housing 20 has an engagement end 3 which is shaped to engage with each other when viewed from the top.
It is understood that the metal plate 50 is disposed along both side surfaces of the metal plate 50. The metal plates 50 on both sides are joined together with the housing 20 by screws received in the holes 51. The details of the structure will be described in order below.

The arrangement of the metal plate 50 is shown in more detail in FIG. According to FIG. 3, it can be seen that the housing 20 has a first housing 30 located on the top side and a second housing 70 located on the bottom side. The metal plate 50 is disposed on both sides of the housing 20 and has an engagement wall 52 along the top edge thereof.
Are engaged with the engagement grooves 31 formed in the first housing 30. The contact 15 is supported by a resin base 16.
The contact 15 is inserted into the base 16 by insert molding.
Can be supported. The base 16 is accommodated and held in a cavity 71 formed in the second housing 70.
The vicinity of the top end of the base 16 is positioned and supported by a metal plate 25 which penetrates and receives the base. Thereby, the base 16 is fixed so that the contact 15 is accurately positioned.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show an example of the first housing, wherein FIG. 4A is a front view and FIG. 4B is a bottom view. FIG.
Is a view showing a second housing, (a) is a plan view,
(B) is a front view, and (c) is a bottom view. The first and second housings shown here correspond to the three inner housings. Although the two housings located at both ends have special shapes on both ends of the modular connector, their basic configuration is similar to that of the inner housing shown here, and a description thereof will be omitted.

Next, assembly of the modular connector 10 and further details of the structure will be described with reference to other drawings.
In the first step of assembly, the base 16 of the contact assembly (see FIG. 3) is assembled to the second housing 70, and the second housings 70 are assembled to each other. These two assembling steps may be performed in any order.

The second housing 70 is, as shown in FIG.
It has a number of partially penetrating cavities 71, in each of which a small base 16 is received. Cavity 71 is 2
The bases 16 arranged in a staggered position in a row and placed in each other as shown in FIG. 3 at least partially contact each other. Further, as described above, the metal plate 25 that receives the penetrating portions of the bases 16 from above the arranged bases 16 and positions them is disposed. Especially this metal plate 2
It should be noted that 5 acts to prevent displacement of the base 16 when the contact 15 is elastically deformed.

Extension portions 7 are provided at both ends of the second housing 70.
2, 73 are provided. A protrusion 74 protruding toward the bottom side, a protrusion 75 protruding to both sides,
In addition, a through hole 76 penetrating in the height direction is formed. The extension 73 on the other side has a recess 77 for receiving the protrusion 74 of the extension 72 of the second housing 70 located adjacent to the top side.
Is formed, and a nut receiving portion 78 for receiving a nut member (not shown) is formed on the opposite side, that is, the bottom side. The nut receiving portion 78 has a through hole 79 penetrating the extension 73 in the height direction.
Communicate with The second housings 70 adjacent to each other are connected by mechanically connecting the extension portions 72 and 73 to each other. That is, one side extension 7 of the second housing 70
The second protrusion 74 is located on the other second housing 70 located next to the second housing 70.
Is engaged with the concave portion 77 of the other side extension 73. Thereafter, the through-hole 7 extends from the top side of the extension 72 (the side indicated by (a) in FIG. 5).
6, a flat head screw (not shown) is received, and the flat head screw extends through the extension 73 of the adjacent second housing 70. The countersunk screw engages a nut (not shown) arranged in the nut receiving portion 78, thereby extending the extension portions 72, 73.
Are tightened and fixed, whereby the adjacent second housings are connected and fixed.

In the second step of assembly, metal plates 50 are arranged along both side surfaces of the connected second housing 70.
At this time, the protrusion 75 formed on the extension 72 of the second housing 70 is received in the through hole 53 provided on the relatively bottom side of the metal plate 50 shown in FIG. Thus, the metal plate 50 is accurately positioned at a predetermined position. Protrusion 7
The metal plate 50 can be configured to be tightly fitted and fixed by optimizing the dimensions of the through hole 5 and the through hole 53.

In the third step of assembly, the second housing 70
And the first housing 3 shown in FIG.
0 is attached. At this time, the wall 32 of the first housing 30 enters the inside of the metal plate 50 as shown in FIG. In particular, it should be noted that the thin portion 33 at the bottom end of the wall 32 enters between the second housing 70 and the metal plate 50, and the shoulder 34 is arranged to hold down the edge of the metal plate 25. Also, in a third step, the ends 17 of the contacts 15 engage the holes 35 in the first housing 30 to provide a pre-loaded configuration to the resilient contact pieces 18 of the contacts 16. Further, as described above, when the first housing 30 is mounted, the engagement groove 31 defined inside by the engagement wall 34 formed to have a substantially L-shaped cross section outside the side wall 32. It engages with the engagement wall 52 of the metal plate 50. Further, as described above, the engagement ends 36 and 37 formed on the first housing 30 are mutually engaged between the adjacent first housings 30.

In the fourth step of assembly, the facing metal plate 50
Are fixed together with the first housing 30 by screws (not shown). As can be understood with reference to FIGS. 2 and 4, the screw (not shown) has two holes 51 and the first hole 51 provided at a relatively top position of the metal plate 50 corresponding to the boundary position of the housing 20. It is arranged so as to pass through two holes 38 provided on the top side of the housing 30. Both metal plates 50 are fixed to the first housing 30 by tightening screws.
Is fixed so that it can be attached so as to be sandwiched inside. In particular, by minimizing the components required for the screw fixing means by forming the holes 51 of the metal plate 50 on one side to receive countersunk screws and forming the screw grooves in the holes 51 of the other metal plate 50. Is also possible.

A first advantage of the configuration of the present embodiment is that a connector reinforcement structure is provided while connecting a large number of housings. This is mainly due to the presence of the metal plate 50. The assembling work for that can be performed relatively easily. The metal plate 50 is made of an aluminum alloy or duralumin in order to make the weight relatively light while providing sufficient mechanical strength. A second advantage is that a modular connector having various numbers of fitting portions 11 can be manufactured only by preparing a metal plate 50 having a predetermined length. Since the housing can be shared, a modular connector having a required number of fitting portions can be provided relatively easily and at low cost. A third advantage is that the contacts 1 are fixed by the metal plates 50 which are fixed to each other by screws.
5 is effectively prevented from moving in the opening direction of the base 16 supporting the base 5. In particular, the stress applied inward to the first housing 30 by the preload applied to the contact 15 can be suppressed by the engagement between the engagement groove 31 and the engagement wall 52. Therefore, the modular connector 10
It should be noted that the movement of the base 16 in the opening direction at the time of mating with the mating connector is effectively suppressed by the metal plate 50 located on the outside, and stable electrical connection is guaranteed.

As described above, the module type connector according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described. However, this is merely an example and does not limit the present invention.

[0024]

According to the modular connector of the present invention, the female contacts of each of the plurality of connectors include resilient contact pieces which are opposed to each other in a row and face each other. The structure is characterized by being fixed and connected by being sandwiched between metal support plates which are placed so as to extend in the longitudinal direction and are engaged with each other, so that a structure for connecting a number of housings and reinforcing the connector is provided. In particular, it is possible to effectively suppress the stress in the opening direction on the housing that acts on the contact when the connector is fitted with the mating member, and thus it is possible to ensure a reliable electrical connection of the contact.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a modular connector according to the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view, (b) is a front view, and (c) is a bottom view.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are partial enlarged views of the modular connector of FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 2A is an enlarged front view and FIG. 2B is an enlarged bottom view.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2;

4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating an example of a first housing, wherein FIG. 4A is a front view, and FIG. 4B is a bottom view.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a second housing, (a) is a plan view,
(B) is a front view, and (c) is a bottom view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Module type connector 11 Connector 15 Contact 18 Elastic contact piece 20 Housing 50 Metal support plate

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5E087 EE14 FF06 FF19 FF27 HH06 JJ08 JJ09 MM02 MM12 RR02 RR06 RR25

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A modular connector in which a plurality of connectors having female contacts supported in a housing can be connected to each other in a longitudinal direction. The female contacts accommodated in each of the plurality of connectors are: The plurality of connectors are fixed to be sandwiched by mutually engaged metal support plates which are arranged to extend lengthwise along both side surfaces and include resilient contact pieces which are inwardly facing in an opposing row. A modular connector characterized by being connected.