JP2002216900A - Cable connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cable connector which aims improvement in reliability by providing lock means at two spot, and also enables to perform high-density mounting by thinning the lock means. SOLUTION: It has the connector 10 prepared in an end of a cable 1, a partner connector 20 connecting to the connector, and the lock means of the connector to the partner connector. The lock means is constituted of a lever 30 having a pair of plate-like arms 31 and 31 prolonged respectively, along both the countered side faces of the housing 11 of the connector 10, a fulcrum part 12 to which the lever 30 is arranged in rotating-free movement to the housing 11 so that a base end sides of both the arm 31 may serve as acting point portions in their tip end sides at an operating part, jointing pieces 33 and 33 prepared in the acting point portion of both the arms 31, jointing dent parts 21 and 21 prepared in the partner connector 20 side, and making the jointing pieces 33 joint, and a spring piece 34 which biases the jointing pieces 33 to the direction where the jointing with the jointing dent parts 21 becomes deep.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cable connector, and more particularly, to a high-density mounting cable connector connected to a motherboard of a large computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Large computer motherboards include:
Many cable connectors are connected in a plug-in manner. In recent years, as the processing speed of large computers has been improved, the size of motherboards has been rapidly reduced.
In order to reduce the size of the motherboard itself, it is necessary to increase the mounting density of the cable connector on the motherboard.

[0003] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-208866 describes a technique for increasing the mounting density of cable connectors. In this technique, a connector locking means (retaining mechanism) for a connector guide of a mating connector mounted on a motherboard is made thinner, so that the size of the connector itself can be reduced. Thereby, the mounting density of the cable connector can be increased.

[0004]

By the way, in such a connector for high-density mounting, a locking means for retaining the connector is often provided only at one place in the housing portion of the connector. The reason is that by providing the locking means at any one position rather than at the left and right sides of the housing, the size of the connector can be easily reduced.

[0005] However, there is a problem with this. When there is only one locking means, there is a problem that the connector is weak against a force acting on the connector itself, such as twisting or pulling out. Such a force acts when the locking means functions in a state where the cable is bent or twisted. Such forces often occur during operations such as maintenance and inspection of computer hardware, maintenance, and replacement of parts. Therefore, it is desirable to provide two locking means as much as possible in order to improve the reliability of the connection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a cable connector technology which improves reliability by providing two locking means and further enables high-density mounting by reducing the thickness of the locking means. .

[0007]

A cable connector according to the present invention comprises a connector provided at an end of a cable, a mating connector for connecting the connector, and a locking means for locking the connector to the mating connector. A lever having a pair of plate-shaped arms extending respectively along opposing side surfaces of the connector housing, and the housing with respect to the housing such that a base end side of the arm is an operating portion and a distal end side is an action point portion. A fulcrum provided with a lever rotatably; an engagement piece provided at an action point portion of the arm; an engagement recess provided on the mating connector side for engaging the engagement piece; And a spring piece for urging the piece in a direction to deepen the engagement with the engagement recess.

According to the present invention, a lever having a pair of plate-like arms extending along both opposing side surfaces of the housing is provided rotatably with respect to the housing of the connector. Since both arms are plate-shaped and attached to the side surface of the housing, the locking means can be made thinner, and the thickness of the connector in the width direction can be suppressed. Thereby, the reliability can be improved by providing two locking means, and the thinning of the locking means enables high-density mounting.

It is desirable that the base ends of the pair of arms be connected by the operating portion, and the operating portion keeps a space between the two arms. By doing so, both arms can be integrated while maintaining the interval between the pair of arms. Furthermore, a simple configuration can be achieved while securing the strength of the entire lever.

[0010] It is preferable that the operation portion protrudes rearward from a rear end of the housing. By positioning the operation unit behind the rear end of the housing,
This is because the width of the housing can be prevented from being affected. Further, the operability of the operation unit can be improved.

The side surfaces of the housing are formed in planes extending parallel to each other, and the lever is rotatably provided such that the surfaces of both arms come into surface contact with the corresponding side surfaces of the housing. desirable. By making the surfaces of both arms face-to-face with the corresponding side surfaces of the housing, it is possible to reduce the width dimension of the connector so that almost no gap is formed between them.

The fulcrum of the lever is preferably constituted by a fitting port provided in the arm and a boss protruding from a side surface of the housing and entering the fitting port. This is because the fulcrum of the lever can be made simple and thin.

It is preferable that the mating connector includes a plurality of connector guides for connecting the connectors in a grid-like arrangement vertically and horizontally. Multiple connector guides facilitate connector connection operations, and
This is because after connection, the function to protect each connector can be given.

The connector guide includes a side support plate for supporting both side surfaces of a housing of the connector when the connector is connected to the mating connector, and the engagement recess is provided on an inner wall portion of the side support plate. Is desirable. With this configuration, the side support plate has a function of supporting both side surfaces of the connector housing and stabilizing the connection state of the connector. Further, by providing the engagement recesses on the inner wall portion of the side support plate, the space for providing the engagement recesses can be saved, and the interval between the side support plates can be reduced.

[0015] A guide portion is provided at an opening of the engaging recess of the mating connector to reduce a distance between the engaging piece and the spring piece as the engaging piece enters the engaging recess. Is desirable. By reducing the distance between the engagement piece and the spring piece, a repulsive force is generated in the spring piece. Thereby, the force with which the engagement piece engages with the engagement recess can be increased.

The mating connector includes a plurality of pin contacts that penetrate the motherboard of the electronic device and protrude into each of the connector guides, and socket contacts connected to the pin contacts are provided in a housing of the connector. Configuration. With this configuration, the mating connector can be integrated with the motherboard.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The embodiment shows an example in which the present invention is applied to a cable connector for connecting to a motherboard M of a large-sized computer.

The cable connector shown in these figures comprises a connector 10 provided at the end of a cable 1 and a connector 1
0 and its mating connector 2
0 for locking the connector 10 to the connector.

The connector 10 has a rectangular parallelepiped overall shape, a housing 11 having a front opening serving as a connection port, a plurality of socket contacts (not shown) provided in the housing 11, and a fulcrum for the housing 11. Part 1
And a lever 30 rotatable around the lever 2. The lever 30 includes a pair of plate-shaped arms 31, 31 extending along both opposing side surfaces of the housing 11.

The position of the fulcrum portion 12 of the lever 30 is set such that the operation portion 32 is on the base end side of the arms 31 and the action point portion is on the front end side. Engagement pieces 33, 33 with projections 33a are provided at the action point portions of both arms, respectively. On the mating connector 20 side, engagement recesses 21 and 21 that engage with the engagement pieces 33 and 33 (projections 33a and 33a) are provided, respectively. Spring pieces 34, 34 for urging the engagement pieces 33 in the direction of the engagement recesses 21 are provided at the action points of both arms, respectively.

Therefore, the locking means is provided by the connector 10
Lever 30 having a pair of plate-shaped arms 31 extending respectively along opposing sides of the housing 11
The lever 3 is moved with respect to the housing 11 so that the base end of the arms 31 is the operation part 32 and the tip end is the action point.
0 is rotatably provided, engagement pieces 33 provided on the action point portion of both arms 31, and engagement provided on the mating connector 20 side to engage the engagement piece 33. It is composed of recesses 21 and 21 and a spring piece 34 for urging the engagement piece 33 in a direction in which the engagement with the engagement recess 21 is deepened.

The base ends of the pair of arms 31, 31 are connected by an operation part 32, and the operation part 32
The space between 1 and 31 is maintained. The operating portion 32 projects rearward from the rear end of the housing 11 so that the turning operation of the lever 30 can be easily performed.

The side surfaces of the housing 11 are formed as flat surfaces (flat surfaces) extending parallel to each other. Lever 30
Are rotatably provided in such a manner that the surfaces of both arms 31, 31 are in surface contact with the corresponding side surfaces of the housing 11, respectively. As described above, by making the surfaces of the arms 31 and 31 come into surface contact with the corresponding side surfaces of the housing 11, the width dimension D of the connector 10 can be reduced so that there is almost no gap between the two. We are careful about.

The fulcrum 12 of the lever 30 is constituted by a fitting port 35 provided in the arm 31 and a boss 15 projecting from the side surface of the housing 11 and entering the fitting port 35. As shown in FIG.
It is provided near. The boss 1 is inserted into the fitting port 35.
A notch 35a is provided for facilitating the fitting with the fifth member 5.

The notch 35a is formed by cutting the lower edge of the arm 31. The opening formed by the notch 35a opens obliquely downward and forward.
Therefore, the bosses 15 can be fitted into the fitting openings 35 by moving the arms 31 from above to below the housing 11. In the fitted state, the surfaces of the arms 31, 31 are
Care is taken so as to make surface contact with one side surface and not to form a gap between the two.

The mating connector 20 is provided with a plurality of connector guides 22 for connecting the connectors 10 in a grid-like arrangement vertically and horizontally. The plurality of connector guides 22
This facilitates the connection operation of the connectors 10 and also provides a function of protecting each connector 10 after the connection.

The connector guide 22 is connected to the mating connector 20.
Connector 10 is connected to
Side support plate 23 that supports both side surfaces of housing 11
23. Then, the side support plates 23, 23
Is provided with an engagement recess 21 in the inner wall portion. The side support plates 23 are provided for supporting both side surfaces of the housing 11 of the connector 10 and stabilizing the connection state of the connector 10. The reason why the engaging recess 21 is provided on the inner wall portion of the side support plate 23 is to save space for providing the engagement recess 21 and to reduce the interval between the side support plates 23.

At the opening of the engagement recess 21 of the mating connector 20, the engagement piece 33 enters the engagement recess 21 with
A guide portion 24 for reducing the distance between the engagement piece 33 and the spring piece 34 is provided. Engagement piece 33 and spring piece 3
By reducing the distance from the spring piece 4, a repulsive force is generated in the spring piece 34. Utilizing this repulsive force, the force with which the engagement piece 33 engages with the engagement recess 21 can be increased.

L for adjusting the vertical height and depth of the engaging recess 21 is provided in the engaging recesses 21 and 21.
The shape adjusting plates 25, 25 are mounted by fixing means such as bonding. Of course, instead of using the L-shaped adjustment plate 25 as a mounting type, it may be integrally formed with the side support plate 23 from the beginning.
However, in some cases, it is better to separate the L-shaped adjustment plate 25 as described above from the viewpoint of manufacturing a die including a die.

In the illustrated example, the mating connector 20 has a plurality of pin contacts (not shown) that penetrate the motherboard M of the electronic device and protrude between the side support plates 23 of each connector guide 22. Therefore, socket contacts connected to those pin contacts are provided in the housing 11 of the connector 10. Thus, the mating connector 20 is mounted on the motherboard M in a configuration integrated with the motherboard M.

In the cable connector having such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 1, the connector 10 is simply inserted between the side support plates 23 of the mating connector 20, and the engaging piece 33 is inserted into the engaging recess 21. The locking means functions when engaged. At this time, the projection 33a of the engagement piece 33 is
With the step 21a.

Next, the operation of the locking means L will be described in detail. While the connector 10 is being inserted into the mating connector 20, the guide slope 33 b at the tip of the engagement piece 33 comes into contact with the guide portion 24 of the engagement recess 21, and acts to push the engagement piece 33 down. At this time, since the lower end of the spring piece 34 is in contact with the upper edge of the L-shaped adjustment plate 25, the engagement piece 3
3 and the distance between the L-shaped adjustment plate 34 are reduced, and the spring piece 34
Repulsive force is generated.

When the insertion of the connector 10 approaches the final stage, the resilient force of the spring piece 34 causes the engagement piece 33 to move away from the spring piece 34 in the engagement recess 21, and
a and the step 21a are engaged. Thereby, the connector 1
0 is locked.

When releasing the locked state, as shown in FIG. 3, the operating portion 32 of the lever 30 is lifted upward to release the engagement between the projection 33a and the step portion 21a, and as shown in FIG. The connector 10 may be pulled backward (see FIG. 6). When the operating portion 32 of the lever 30 is lifted upward, the lever 30 slightly rotates about the fulcrum 12 as shown in FIG. At this time, the engagement between the projection 33a and the step 21a is released by the pressing of the spring piece 34 and the lower end of the engagement piece 33.

In the present embodiment, a pair of plate-like arms 3 respectively extending along opposite side surfaces of the housing 11 are provided.
A lever 30 having 1 and 31 is provided rotatably with respect to the housing 11 of the connector 10. Both arms 31,
Since 31 is plate-shaped and attached to the side surface of the housing 11, the locking means becomes thin, and the dimension D in the width direction of the connector can be suppressed. Thereby, the reliability can be improved by providing two locking means, and the thinning of the locking means enables high-density mounting.

In the above-described embodiment, an example is shown in which the present invention is applied to a cable connector connected to a motherboard. However, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to other connectors that require locking means.

[0037]

As described above, according to the cable connector according to the present invention, the locking means is provided at two places to improve the reliability, and moreover, the locking means can be thinned to enable high-density mounting. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a cable connector according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a lever of the cable connector according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view for explaining the operation of the cable connector according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining the operation of the cable connector according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the cable connector according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view for explaining the operation of the cable connector according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 cable 10 connector 11 housing 12 fulcrum 15 boss 20 mating connector 21 engaging recess 21a step 22 connector guide 23 side support plate 24 guide portion 25 L-shaped adjustment plate 30 lever 31 arm 32 operating portion 33 engaging piece 33a projection 33b Guide slope 34 Spring piece 35 Fitting port 35a Opening

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5E021 FA05 FA09 FB02 FB07 FB17 FC29 FC31 FC36 HA07 HC12 HC31 HC35 5E023 AA04 AA13 AA16 AA30 BB22 CC22 DD18 GG10 HH03 HH18

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A connector provided at an end of a cable, a mating connector for connecting the connector, and locking means for locking the connector to the mating connector, wherein the locking means is provided on opposite side surfaces of a housing of the connector. A lever having a pair of plate-like arms extending along with each other; and a fulcrum provided with the lever rotatably with respect to the housing so that a base end side of the arm is an operation portion and a distal end side is an action point portion. An engagement piece provided at an action point portion of the arm; an engagement recess provided on the mating connector side for engaging the engagement piece; and engagement of the engagement piece with the engagement recess. A cable connector comprising: a spring piece biasing in a deepening direction. 2. The cable connector according to claim 1, wherein the base ends of the pair of arms are connected by the operation unit, and the operation unit maintains a space between the two arms. 3. The cable connector according to claim 2, wherein the operation portion projects rearward from a rear end of the housing. 4. A side surface of the housing is formed in a plane extending parallel to each other, and the lever is rotatably provided such that surfaces of both arms are in surface contact with corresponding side surfaces of the housing. The cable connector according to any one of claims 1 to 3. 5. The cable connector according to claim 1, wherein the fulcrum of the lever is constituted by a fitting port provided in the arm and a boss protruding from a side surface of the housing and entering the fitting port. 6. The cable connector according to claim 1, wherein said mating connector includes a plurality of connector guides for connecting said connectors vertically and horizontally in a lattice arrangement. 7. The connector guide includes a side support plate that supports both side surfaces of a housing of the connector when the connector is connected to the mating connector, and the engagement recess is provided on an inner wall portion of the side support plate. The cable connector according to claim 6, wherein the cable connector is provided. 8. A guide portion for adjusting an interval between the engaging piece and the spring piece in the opening of the engaging recess of the mating connector as the engaging piece enters the engaging recess. The cable connector according to claim 1, wherein a cable connector is provided. 9. The mating connector includes a plurality of pin contacts that penetrate a mother board of an electronic device and protrude into each of the connector guides, and a socket contact connected to the pin contact is provided in a housing of the connector. The cable connector according to claim 1, wherein the cable connector is provided.