JP2000294341A - Lock mechanism of connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly and surely execute the unplugging work by mounting a sliding member capable of sliding in the insertion and withdrawal direction of a plug connector on a plug, providing a part of the sliding member with the repulsion in the sliding direction, and mounting the operating pieces capable of operating to unlock and lock the lock mechanism of the connector, on both sides of a side end as an engagement port with a receptacle, of the sliding member. SOLUTION: A click piece 11 as an operating piece is pivotted on a projecting member 8 of a sliding member 7 through a pivot shaft 10, and the clicking operation is executed on a surface opposite to a connector, of a plug. The operating pieces 9, 9 of the sliding member 7 move the lock levers 6, 6 mounted at both ends of the plug in the direction perpendicular to the insertion and withdrawal direction of the plug inside of the plug, demount the same from the locking pieces 5, 5 mounted at a receptacle side, and unlock the lock mechanism of the connector. On this occasion, a projection mounted on a point of the click piece 11 is fitted in a recess of a fixed part 13, so that the click piece 11 is retained in parallel with the insertion and withdrawal direction of the plug.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector locking mechanism in which a plug of a multiconductor cable is detachably attached to a plug connector of an electric wire connector attached to a housing of an electronic device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a plug and a plug connector are usually provided with a locking mechanism so that this kind of connector is not accidentally disconnected during use of electronic equipment. In order to make the locking and removing operations of this lock mechanism simple and reliable, the lock levers provided at both ends of the plug are engaged with the locking pieces on the plug connector side in the direction perpendicular to the plug insertion / removal direction in recent years. When releasing the lock, push buttons provided on both ends of the plug
2. Description of the Related Art A lock mechanism has been widely used in which a lock lever is moved in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which a plug is inserted and removed by pressing the plug at right angles to a plug insertion direction with a fingertip of a hand to remove the lock lever from an engagement piece on a receptacle side.

[0003]

Such a lock mechanism is convenient because the lock mechanism is automatically unlocked when both ends of the plug are picked with fingers of a hand and pulled out from the receptacle of the plug connector. However, when the fingers of the hand are difficult to enter around the connector, or when multiple plugs are connected side by side, the finger of the hand does not reach the push buttons provided at both ends of the plug. Without locking, it would be extremely difficult to pick these plugs with the fingers of the hand and pull them out of the plug connector. Therefore, the present invention provides a mechanism for unlocking a connector locking mechanism by pivoting an operation piece hanging from a finger with a fingertip or the like when a plug is inserted into a plug connector, and removing the plug from the plug connector. It is an object of the present invention to operate the unlocking mechanism and to grasp the operation piece with a finger or the like so that the plug can be quickly and reliably pulled out.
If necessary, when the operation piece is released from a finger or the like, the operation piece automatically returns, and the lock mechanism operates.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, lock levers provided at both ends of a plug are moved in a direction perpendicular to the insertion / removal direction of a plug connector, and the lock levers are detached from or engaged with the engagement pieces provided on the receptacle side. In a plug connector in which a plug is fitted in a pluggable manner in a pluggable manner, the plug is provided with a sliding member which slides in the plugging and unplugging direction, and at least a part of the sliding member has a repulsive force in the sliding direction. And an operating piece that operates to unlock or lock the locking mechanism of the connector is formed on both sides of the side end portion of the sliding member that serves as a fitting opening for the receptacle. Features. The sliding member is provided with a spring strip that urges the sliding member in the plug insertion direction against the stress in the plug withdrawal direction. Also, on the surface opposite to the fitting opening of the sliding member to the receptacle,
An operation of providing a projecting piece having one end of the sliding member protruding, and operating the sliding member to slide the sliding member against the plug body against a repulsive force of the sliding member. It is characterized by the piece being pivoted.

[0005] As an embodiment of the operation piece, the operation piece comprises a click piece which performs a click operation between the plug body and the sliding member, and the click piece is raised in the plug insertion / removal direction to unlock the connector locking mechanism. The sliding member is slid in the plug connector insertion / removal direction inside the plug. A finger hook is provided at the free end of the click piece, and the finger piece is picked and moved to facilitate the pivotal movement of the click piece or the movement of the sliding member connected thereto. To lock the connector lock mechanism, move the click piece in the direction perpendicular to the
Fold it down so that it is parallel to the surface of the sliding member. The click piece can be tilted to the left or right depending on the space inside the device.

[0006] The sliding member is provided with a spring strip which urges the sliding member in the plug insertion direction against the stress in the plug pull-out direction. The lock levers provided at both ends are kept from being unlocked from the inside. The spring strip can be formed integrally with the sliding member using a plastic material.

The click piece is pivotally attached to a protruding piece provided at one end of the sliding member, and stops the click in the inserting / removing direction of the sliding member, a direction perpendicular thereto, and, if necessary, an intermediate position therebetween. When the click piece is set up in the inserting / removing direction of the sliding member, the lock lever is moved in a direction perpendicular to the inserting / removing direction, and stops at a position separated from the locking piece provided on the receptacle side. After inserting the plug into the receptacle,
The lock lever will not lock unless the click piece is tilted in the direction perpendicular to the insertion / extraction direction.

Therefore, as another embodiment of the present invention, instead of the click piece as the operation piece, the tip has a surface that slides on the plug body surface, and the base is pivotally attached to the protruding piece via a pivot. Equipped with an insertion / extraction lever. Only when the insertion / extraction lever is raised in the insertion / extraction direction, the locking mechanism of the connector is unlocked and held in a state parallel to the insertion / extraction direction of the plug, but in the free state, the tip slides on the plug body, It automatically returns to the right angle position with the plug insertion / extraction direction, and locks the connector locking mechanism. The surface that slides on the plug main body surface has an edge of a cross section that draws approximately a quarter of an elliptical shape whose major axis is an axis parallel to the plug main body surface. Also,
As another embodiment, the surface that slides over the plug body surface is:
The edge of the cross section draws a polygon.

[0009]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, a lock mechanism for a connector in which lock levers provided on both ends of a plug are engaged with locking pieces on the receptacle side in a direction perpendicular to the plug insertion / removal direction. When the plug is pulled out of the receptacle, it is not necessary to pinch both side ends of the plug with fingers or the like to pull out the plug from the receptacle. By simply pivoting the operating piece against the repulsive force of the spring strip of the sliding member, the sliding member inside the plug causes the lock levers provided at both ends of the plug to move in the direction perpendicular to the plug insertion and removal direction. It moves and removes from the locking piece provided on the receptacle side and operates to unlock the locking mechanism of the connector. Thereafter, if the operation piece of the plug is grasped with a finger or the like and the plug is pulled in the pulling-out direction, the plug can be easily pulled out from the receptacle.

Conversely, when the plug is inserted into and engaged with the receptacle, the operation piece is first set up in the insertion / removal direction, the lock lever is unlocked, the plug is fitted into the receptacle, and then the operation piece is inserted. The lock lever is locked, that is, engaged with the locking piece of the receptacle by tilting the lock lever in a direction perpendicular to the insertion / extraction direction. The operation piece uses a click piece that stops the click during the pivoting. When using an insertion / extraction lever with a side that slides on the plug body surface at the tip instead of this click piece, when pulling out and inserting the plug, hold this lever upright in the insertion / extraction direction with your fingers. When the finger is released later, the lever slides on the fixed plane due to the repulsive force of the spring strip of the sliding member, and the insertion / extraction lever automatically falls in a direction perpendicular to the insertion / extraction direction, and the lock lever Automatically returns to the locked state.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a connector locking mechanism according to the present invention is shown in FIG. FIG. 1 shows a general view of the connector, in which a connector locking mechanism 1 includes a plug 3 of a flat cable 2.
Is detachably attached to the receptacle 4 of the electric wire connector attached to the housing of the electronic device. Lock levers 6, 6 are provided on both sides of the electric wire connection portion of the plug 3 so as to move in a direction orthogonal to the plug insertion / removal direction to be engaged with and disengaged from the locking pieces 5, 5 on the receptacle 4 side.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the plug 3 shown in FIG. 1 along the line AA. A sliding member 7 that slides in the plug insertion / removal direction is provided on the plug 3. This sliding member 7
As shown in FIG. 1, the surface of the plug connector opposite to the fitting opening to the receptacle may be exposed to the outside, or not shown, but may be completely inside the plug. Further, on the surface of the plug connector opposite to the fitting opening to the receptacle, a protruding piece 8 is provided, which protrudes one end of the sliding member 7. Actuating pieces 9 and 9 are formed so as to abut against the side surfaces of the lock levers 6 and 6. The projecting piece 8 may be located at any position on the surface opposite to the fitting opening of the plug connector to the receptacle, but ideally the central portion is good.

A click piece 11 is pivotally mounted on the projecting piece 8 of the sliding member 7 as an operating piece via a pivot 10 so that the click piece 11 can be easily accessed from the outside of the plug on the surface opposite to the connector of the plug. At a position where the click piece can be easily operated by hand). In FIG. 2, click piece 1
1 is tilted to the right, but can be tilted to the left depending on the space in the device. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the sliding member 7 inside the plug 3 is slid in the pull-out direction of the plug 3 by pivoting the click piece 11 on the outer surface of the plug 3. As a result, the operating pieces 9, 9 of the sliding member 7
Moves the lock levers 6, 6 provided at both ends of the plug inside the plug in a direction perpendicular to the plug insertion / removal direction, removes them from the locking pieces 5, 5 provided on the receptacle side, and unlocks the lock mechanism of the connector. Works as follows. At this time, the click piece 11 has the protrusion 14 provided at the tip thereof fitted into the recess 15 of the fixing portion 13, and the click piece 11 is held in a state parallel to the plug insertion / extraction direction.

The sliding member 7 is provided with a spring strip 12,
It is engaged with the fixed part 13 inside the plug 3. Spring strip 1
When the sliding member 7 inside the plug 3 is slid in the pulling-out direction of the plug 3, the sliding member 7 urges the sliding member in the plug inserting direction against the stress in the plug pulling-out direction. The spring strip 12 can be formed integrally with the sliding member using, for example, a plastic material made of polyacetal resin. When the click piece 11 is changed from the state shown in FIG. 3 to the state shown in FIG. 2, the spring member 12 can slide the sliding member 7 in the direction of the fitting opening of the plug connector into the receptacle of the plug connector. Instead of being integrated with the sliding member 7, another component made of a springy metal material such as phosphor bronze or beryllium copper may be used.

As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG.
Denotes a plastic member integrally formed with the sliding member 7. However, if the lock lever can be released by sliding the operation piece 9, the operation piece 9 may be a separate part such as a springy metal material such as phosphor bronze or beryllium copper.

As another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, instead of the click piece 11 as an operation piece, an insertion / extraction lever 17 having a surface 16 which slides on the plug body surface at the tip is slid. The moving member 7 is pivotally connected to the projecting piece 8 via the pivot 10. The insertion / extraction lever 17 is held in a state parallel to the insertion / extraction direction of the plug only when the user raises the finger, but when the finger is released, the pulling force of the spring strip 12 causes the insertion / extraction direction to be perpendicular to the insertion / extraction direction of the plug. Automatically return to position,
The lock lever 9 is fitted into the side recess of the operation piece 6 to automatically lock the lock mechanism.

As shown in FIG. 5, the surface of the insertion / extraction lever 17 that slides on the plug main body surface is formed in a substantially quarter of an elliptical shape whose major edge is an axis whose cross section is parallel to the plug main body surface. This constitutes an elliptical surface 18 to be drawn. The specifications of one embodiment of the insertion / extraction lever 17 are as follows. The ellipse used for the side surface of the tip of the insertion / extraction lever 17 has a major axis α of 17.2 mm and a minor axis β of 13.0 m
m, the width γ of the insertion / extraction lever is 11.2 mm, the distance δ between the pivot 10 of the insertion / extraction lever and the minor axis of the ellipse is 3.0 mm, the distance ε between the pivot and the major axis of the ellipse is 2.0 mm, The distance ζ between the pivot and the lower end of the ellipse (the tip of the insertion / extraction lever 17) is 8.5 mm.

As still another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the surface that slides on the plug body surface forms a polygonal surface 19 whose section has a polygonal shape.
In any case, the insertion / extraction lever 17 has a function such that the distal end thereof slides on the plug body surface so that the plug is automatically returned to the position perpendicular to the insertion / extraction direction of the plug by the tensile force of the spring strip 12. Any shape may be provided as long as it is provided. FIG. 7 shows an example of a conventionally used connector with a lock mechanism for comparison with the lock mechanism of the connector of the present invention.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the plug is inserted into the receptacle, a mechanism for unlocking the locking mechanism of the connector is attached to a position where it is most easily accessible from the outside, and when the plug is pulled out from the receptacle. Since the unlocking mechanism is actuated at a position where the fingers of the hand did not reach the position where the plug body was gripped and it was difficult to pull out the plug from the receptacle, just operating the operation piece, The plug can be pulled out quickly and reliably.

When the connector is inserted into the mating connector, the click piece is raised, the insertion is performed with the lock open, and after the insertion, the click piece is tilted to activate the lock mechanism of the connector. There is a feature that the click piece can be tilted to the left or right depending on the space in the device. In addition, since the lock mechanism does not operate at any time after insertion if the operator does not forget the tilting operation, in the present invention, instead of using the operation piece as a click piece, the tip side slides on the plug body surface. An insertion / extraction lever with a surface is pivotally attached to the protruding piece of the sliding member, and the insertion / extraction lever is held in a state parallel to the plug insertion / extraction direction only when raised with a finger, but when the finger is released. , Due to the tensile force of the spring strip
It is also possible to automatically return to the position perpendicular to the plug insertion / extraction direction and to automatically lock the lock mechanism.

Further, since the locking mechanism of the connector can be integrally manufactured using a plastic material or the like including the spring strip, the manufacturing cost is lower than that of the conventional metal.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a plug and a receptacle provided with a lock mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the lock mechanism shown in FIG. 1 along the line AA.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 2, but showing a state in which a lock lever is moved in a lateral direction and a lock mechanism is unlocked.

FIG. 4 shows, as another embodiment of the present invention, a lock mechanism in which an insertion / extraction lever having a surface that slides on the plug body surface at the distal end portion is pivotally attached to the protruding piece.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the insertion / extraction lever in which the surface that slides on the plug main body surface is formed so that the edge of the cross section draws approximately a quarter of an elliptical shape whose major axis is the axis parallel to the plug main body surface. .

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of an insertion / extraction lever in which a surface that slides on the plug body surface has a polygonal cross section.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a connector with a lock mechanism that is conventionally used.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Lock mechanism 2 Flat cable 3 Plug 4 Receptacle 5 Locking piece 6 Lock lever 7 Sliding member 8 Projection piece 9 Actuation piece 10 Axis 11 Click piece 12 Spring strip 13 Fixing part 14 Protrusion 15 Recess 16 Curved surface 17 Insertion / extraction Lever 18 Oval surface 19 Polygonal surface

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Morio Suzuki 1st Horiyamashita, Hadano-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Hitachi, Ltd. Enterprise Server Division (72) Inventor Takayuki Ono 1st Horiyamashita, Hadano-shi, Kanagawa, Hitachi, Ltd. Within the Enterprise Server Division of the Works (72) Inventor Takeshi Hirose 1st Horiyamashita, Hadano-shi, Kanagawa Within the Enterprise Server Division of Hitachi, Ltd. Inside Electronic Industries Co., Ltd. (72) Yasushi Uehara, Inventor 2-11-20, Nishigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Dai-ichi Electronics Industry Co., Ltd. (72) Kazuhiro Miyata 2-11-20, Nishigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan F-term in Dai-ichi Electronics Co., Ltd. (reference) 5E021 FA05 FA11 FB08 FB14 FC31 FC36 HB02 HB11 HB17 HC17 HC31 HC35 5E023 AA04 AA13 BB02 BB06 DD11 DD19 GG02 GG05 GG10 GG15 GG17 HH17

Claims (10)

[Claims] Claims 1. A lock lever provided at both ends of a plug is moved in a direction perpendicular to a plug connector insertion / removal direction, and is removed from a locking piece provided on a receptacle side or is engaged with the locking piece to insert / remove a plug into / from a receptacle. In the plug connector which fits freely, a sliding member which slides in the plug connector inserting / removing direction is provided on the plug, and at least a part of the sliding member is configured to have a repulsive force in the sliding direction. In addition, an operation piece that operates to unlock or lock the connector locking mechanism is formed on both sides of a side end portion of the sliding member that serves as a fitting opening to the receptacle, wherein the connector lock is provided. mechanism. 2. The sliding member is provided with a spring strip for biasing the sliding member in the plug insertion direction against the stress in the plug withdrawal direction.
3. A locking mechanism for a connector according to claim 1. 3. The connector locking mechanism according to claim 2, wherein the spring strip is made of a plastic material and is integrally formed with the sliding member. 4. A projecting piece having one end protruding from the sliding member is provided on a surface of the sliding member opposite to a fitting opening of the sliding member into a receptacle, and the sliding member is provided with a plug. 2. The connector locking mechanism according to claim 1, wherein an operation piece that operates to slide against a repulsive force is pivotally attached to the main body. 5. The operation piece includes a click piece that performs a click operation between a plug body and a sliding member, and raises the click piece in a plug insertion / removal direction against a repulsive force of the sliding member. 5. The connector locking mechanism according to claim 4, wherein the locking mechanism of the connector is unlocked, and the sliding member is slid inside the plug in the direction of insertion and removal of the plug connector. 6. The operation piece has a surface which slides on a plug body surface at a tip portion, and a base portion is an insertion / extraction lever pivotally connected to the projecting piece via a pivot. Only when raised, the locking mechanism of the connector is unlocked and held in a state parallel to the plug insertion / removal direction, but in the free state, the tip slides on the plug body due to the repulsive force of the sliding member. 5. The connector locking mechanism according to claim 4, wherein the connector automatically returns to a position perpendicular to the plug insertion / removal direction to lock the connector locking mechanism. 7. A surface that slides on the plug body surface,
7. The connector locking mechanism according to claim 6, wherein an edge of the cross section draws a quadratic curve. 8. The surface that slides on the plug body surface,
8. The connector locking mechanism according to claim 7, wherein the edge of the cross section draws substantially an quarter of an elliptical shape whose major axis is an axis parallel to the plug body surface. 9. A surface that slides on the plug body surface,
7. The connector locking mechanism according to claim 6, wherein an edge of the cross section draws a polygon. 10. The connector locking mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the operating piece is formed of a plastic material so as to be integral with the sliding member.