JP2002352906A - Electrical connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electrical connector where a rotational fitting into and a rotational removal between a socket connector and a plug connector are made possible, and thereby insertion-removal operability in the fitting and in the removal can be improved. SOLUTION: A cusp part 15b is formed on a tip end side of a sidewall part 15 of the socket connector 12, and a corner removed part 17c is formed on the tip end side of a retaining wall part 17 of the plug connector 13; and between the socket connector 12 and the plug connector 13, a guiding gap 19 for allowing at least either rotational fitting or rotational removal, by enlarging a receiving gap 6f to receive the sidewall part 15 of the socket connector 12 is installed between the opposing sidewall part 15 of the socket connector 12 and the retaining wall part 17 of the plug connector 13.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrical connector having a socket connector and a plug connector, and more particularly, to an improvement in a housing structure for facilitating fitting and removal of the two connectors.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A so-called board-to-board connector for conductively connecting two printed circuit boards has been used due to a demand for multifunctional and high performance electronic devices. FIG.
The electrical connector 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an example of such a connector, and includes a socket connector 2 to be soldered to one printed circuit board (not shown) and a plug connector 3 to be soldered to the other printed circuit board.

The insulating housing 4 of the socket connector 2 has a back wall 4a for press-fitting and fixing the socket terminal 5a and a fitting wall 4b having a U-shaped cross section. Inside the fitting wall 4b, a holding wall portion 4c that divides the inside into upper and lower parts and supports a terminal 5a fixed to the back wall portion 4a is formed. Therefore, in this socket connector 2, the fitting wall 4b
The socket terminal 5a is supported on a total of four surfaces including the upper and lower inner surfaces and the upper and lower surfaces of the holding wall portion 4c.

A similar back wall 6a and a fitting wall 6b are formed on the insulating housing 6 of the plug connector 3, but the plug connector 3 is further provided with holding walls 6c, 6c inside the fitting wall 6b. The plug terminals 7 are formed on the upper and lower surfaces of each of the holding wall portions 6c, 6c in a total of four stages.
a is supported. A receiving gap 6f substantially corresponding to the thickness d1 of the side wall 4d of the socket connector 2 is provided between the side edges 6d of the holding walls 6c, 6c and the side wall 6e of the fitting wall 6b. (See FIGS. 7 and 8).

In the electrical connector 1 as described above, the fitting wall 4b of the socket connector 2 is straightened along the inner surface of the fitting wall 6b of the plug connector 3 along the fitting direction x shown in FIG. The socket terminal row 5 and the plug terminal row 7 are electrically conductively connected to each other by performing the fitting operation while inserting, so that the interconnection between the printed circuit boards which contributes to the multifunction and high performance of the electronic device is realized. You. On the other hand, in order to remove the socket connector 2 from the plug connector 3, a removal operation of pulling out the socket connector 2 straight from the plug connector 3 along the removal direction y shown in FIG.

[0006]

By the way, as electronic devices have become smaller, the space inside the housing has also become smaller. For this reason, it is increasingly difficult to insert and pull out the connectors 2 and 3 straight in the fitting / removing directions x and y by inserting a hand in a narrow working space while taking into consideration interference with peripheral components. Therefore, there has been a demand for an improvement in the insertion / extraction operability.

Further, in the above-described electric connector 1, the socket terminal 5a and the plug terminal 7a make conductive contact with spring. For this reason, the insertion force / extraction force per pair of terminals 5a and 7a that are in contact with each other is small, but the entire electric connector 1, that is, the terminal rows 5 and 7, has a very large insertion force / extraction force.
Removal force is required. This applies not only to the multi-pole type electrical connector 1 as shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 but also to the case where the mutually contacting terminals are connected with a very large spring force with respect to the type of electrical connector having a small number of poles. is there.

When the insertion / extraction operation is difficult as described above, or when a large insertion force or pull-out force is required, for example, the socket connector 2 is inserted alternately into one end and the other end. By applying a force / pull-out force, the fitting wall 4b (side wall 4d) of the socket connector 3 with respect to the fitting wall 6b (receiving gap 6f) of the plug connector 3.
If the insertion and withdrawal amounts are gradually increased, the fitting walls 4b and 6b of the connectors 2 and 3 can be slightly more easily inserted and removed than when they are straightly inserted as described above. However,
When such an insertion / extraction operation is performed, for example, when an excessive insertion force / extraction force is applied to the left end portion and the right end portion of the socket connector 2 due to the trouble of insertion / extraction, the side wall of the socket connector 2 forcibly inserted / extracted. The portion 4d may be damaged by strong pressing contact with the holding wall 6c and the side wall 6e of the plug connector 3. Therefore, there is a demand for an electrical connector that can be easily inserted and removed with a small insertion force and a small extraction force.

The present invention has been made in the background of the prior art as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electric connector capable of improving the operability of insertion and extraction during fitting and removal.

[0010]

In order to achieve this object, in the electric connector of the present invention, a portion of the side of the side wall of the socket connector opposite to the holding wall of the plug connector is cut off. At the same time as forming a pointed head, a notch-shaped cutout is formed at the tip end side of the holding wall of the plug connector by cutting out a side edge portion facing the side wall of the socket connector. An induction gap is provided between the side wall portion of the socket connector and the holding wall portion of the plug connector so as to expand the receiving gap and allow at least one of rotational fitting and rotational removal of the socket connector and the plug connector. It is characterized by that.

[0011] In this electric connector, a pointed portion is formed at the end of the side wall of the socket connector, the portion facing away from the holding wall of the plug connector is cut out, and the holding wall of the plug connector is formed. A notch-shaped cut-out portion is formed at the front end side, the portion facing the side wall portion of the socket connector being lightened, so that a portion between the side wall portion of the opposed socket connector and the holding wall portion of the plug connector is formed. In addition, a guide gap is provided for enlarging a receiving gap for receiving the side wall portion of the socket connector and allowing at least one of rotational fitting and rotational removal of the socket connector and the plug connector. Therefore, even when the working space inside the housing of the electronic device is narrow, the socket connector and the plug connector can be smoothly rotated and fitted or rotationally removed.
Insertion / extraction operability at the time of fitting or removal can be improved. Even for multi-pole type electrical connectors and small-pole type electrical connectors with large terminal springs, multiple socket terminals and multiple plugs are formed by rotational fitting and removal of the socket connector and plug connector. The terminals are sequentially contacted with a time difference along the pitch direction. for that reason,
The insertion and withdrawal forces are smaller than in a conventional electrical connector in which a plurality of socket terminals and a plurality of plug terminals are simultaneously contacted in the pitch direction, so that the insertion / extraction operation can be performed easily.

Further, in the electric connector of the present invention, the tip of the pointed head of the socket connector and the cut-out portion of the plug connector are formed as inclined surfaces whose inclination directions substantially coincide with each other.

Therefore, when the socket connector and the plug connector are inserted / extracted, the insertion / extraction can be guided between the inclined surfaces having substantially the same inclination direction, and the rotational fitting or the rotational removal can be smoothly performed.

Further, in the electrical connector according to the present invention, the width of the guiding gap when only one side wall of the socket connector is inserted into the receiving gap of the plug connector is larger than the thickness of the pointed portion of the side wall. The pointed head and the cut-off portion were formed so as to be small.

In the electric connector, since an induction gap is provided between the side wall of the socket connector and the holding wall of the plug connector, for example, only one side wall of the socket connector is connected to the side wall of the plug connector. When a half-fitted state is obliquely inserted between the terminal and the holding wall, one of the inserted side walls can freely move in the pitch direction of the terminals within the range of the induction gap. If the guiding gap is too large, the one inserted side wall moves in the large guiding gap in the pitch direction in contact with the side edge of the holding wall of the plug connector, and a lateral displacement occurs in a semi-fitted state. If the socket connector continues to be rotationally fitted in this laterally displaced state, the other side wall may completely ride on the side wall of the plug connector on the way, and the rotational fitting may not be possible. Even when the socket terminals are fitted, there is a problem that the socket terminal does not come into contact with the tip end of the plug terminal to be contacted but contacts the intermediate portion thereof. However, in the electrical connector of the present invention, the width of the guiding gap when only one side wall of the socket connector is inserted into the receiving gap of the plug connector is smaller than the thickness of the pointed portion of the side wall. Since the pointed head and the cornerless part are formed, the amount of movement of the one side wall part within the guiding gap can be made equal to or less than the thickness of the pointed head. Does not completely ride on the side wall of the plug connector, and the socket terminal can be brought into accurate contact with the plug terminal to be connected. Can be prevented.

Further, in the electric connector of the present invention, the tip side of the side wall of the plug connector facing the side wall of the socket connector is formed as a tapered surface that gradually expands in the withdrawal direction.

Therefore, if the rotary connector is rotated and removed along the tapered surface (side wall) of the plug connector along with the side wall of the socket connector, abnormal noise may occur due to the detachment of the terminals, and the insertion and extraction may become hard. And smooth rotation fitting and removal can be performed smoothly.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of an electric connector according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the same parts as those in the conventional example are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

The electrical connector 11 according to this embodiment also includes a socket connector 12 and a plug connector 13 similar to the above-described conventional example. However, in comparison with the conventional example, the socket connector 12 has a side wall 15 of an insulating housing 14. In the plug connector 13, the side edge portion 17a of the holding wall portion 17 of the insulating housing 16 and the side wall portion 18 are different.

As shown in FIG. 1, the socket connector 12
The side wall 15 has the same thickness d1 as the side wall 4d of the conventional example.
Of the plug connector 13 and a thin-pointed head 15b whose portion facing the side edge portion 17a of the holding wall portion 17 of the plug connector 13 at the time of fitting is formed. Of these, point 1
5b includes a distal end 15c having an outer small inclined surface and an inner large inclined surface, an intermediate portion 15d having a constant thickness, and a base end 1c.
An inclined portion 15e connected to 5a is formed.

On the other hand, the holding wall portion 17 of the plug connector 13
A base end portion 17b and a cutout cutout portion 17c formed by cutting out a portion facing the side wall portion 15 of the socket connector 12 from the base end portion 17b to the distal end side are formed in the side edge portion 17a. . The angled portion 17c has an inclination direction substantially matching the inclination direction of the tip portion 15c of the pointed head 15b of the socket connector 12 and the inclination direction of the inclined portion 15e. The side wall 18 of the plug connector 13 has a side wall 6e of a conventional example.
And bets like thickness of the base end portion 18a, tapered surface portion 18b which gradually expand with an inclination angle theta ₁ is formed with respect to the base end portion 18a. The inner edge portion 18c at the tip of the tapered surface portion 18b is slightly larger than the outer edge portion 18d.

As described above, the cut-out pointed portion 15b is formed in the side wall portion 15 of the socket connector 12, and the side edge portion 17 of the holding wall portion 17 of the plug connector 13 is formed.
As a result of forming a corner-removed portion 17c that is lightened for a,
Side wall portion 15 of socket connector 12 and plug connector 1
A guide gap 19 for enlarging the receiving gap 6f (d1) for receiving the side wall 15 of the socket connector 12 is formed between the holding gap 17 and the holding wall 17 of FIG. The electrical connector 11 of the present embodiment is configured such that the socket connector 12 and the plug connector 13 can be rotationally fitted and removed by utilizing the guiding gap 19.

Next, a description will be given of the operation of the rotational fitting and the rotational removal by the socket connector 12 and the plug connector 13.
Note that the electrical connector 11 of this example can be both rotationally fitted and rotationally removed, and both have the same operation.

In order to fit the socket connector 12 and the plug connector 13 as shown in FIG. 1, for example, the socket connector 12 and the plug connector 13 may be positioned as shown by a solid line in FIG. Even in this state, the electric connector 11 of the present embodiment can be rotationally fitted. First, the socket connector 12 is rotated in the arrow direction R from this state. Then, the socket connector 12 is connected to the outer edge 18 d of the side wall 18 of the plug connector 13 and the inner edge 18.
While continuing to rotate while being in contact with c, it finally fits with the plug connector 13 as shown in FIG.

In the process of the rotational fitting, the side wall portion 15 of the socket connector 12 becomes the side edge portion 17a of the holding wall portion 17 of the plug connector 13 as shown in an enlarged manner in FIG.
The part facing the connector is lightened, and the plug connector 13
Side wall 18 is removed in the removal direction y by the tapered surface 18b.
The side edges 17a of the holding wall 17 are cut out by the cornering portions 17c, so that the front wall 17d of the holding wall 17 is smooth without being caught. And between the side wall portion 18 and the side edge portion 17a of the holding wall portion 17.

Then, the socket connector 1 which has entered the rotation
The side wall 15 of the plug 2 has a pointed head 15b
The rotation is continued in a contact state or a non-contact state with the corner cutting portion 17c of the holding wall portion 17 of the holding wall portion 17.
When the tip 5b rotates, the tip 15d thereof and the slanted direction of the cornered portion 17c substantially coincide with each other.
, Can be smoothly rotated and fitted.

Furthermore, in the process of rotational fitting, the plurality of socket terminals 5a come into contact with the plug terminals 7a to be contacted with a time lag, so that the socket connector 2 is fitted to the plug connector 3 with a small insertion force. Can be done. Note that the socket connector 2 is connected to the plug connector 3
Similarly, when the plug connector 3 is removed from the plug connector 3, the plug connector 3 can be pulled out with a small pulling force.

Further, in the process of the rotational fitting, as shown in FIG.
In the semi-fitted state with only the plugs 13 inserted, the side wall 15 moves within the guide gap 19 and the holding wall 1
7 may rotate in a state of being substantially in contact with the side edge portion 17a. Even in this case, a small inclined surface is formed outside the tip portion 15d of the other pointed head 15b, and the inner edge portion 18c of the side wall portion 18 of the plug connector 13 is largely chamfered. The side wall 15 on the other side of the socket connector 12 has a pointed head 15 as shown in FIG.
Since the front end 15d (small outer inclined surface) of b is brought into the inside of the plug connector 13 by the abutment of the inner edge portion 18, the smooth rotational fitting can be continued as it is.

Even if one of the side walls 15 rotates in contact with the side edge 17a of the holding wall 17 as shown in FIG. 4A, as shown in FIG. Side wall 1
Since the connector 5 does not completely ride on the side wall portion 18 of the plug connector 13, the rotation fitting does not become impossible. this is,
The width of the guiding gap 19 when only one side wall 15 of the socket connector 12 is inserted into the receiving gap 6f of the plug connector 13 is smaller than the thickness of the pointed portion 15b of the one side wall 15. The pointed head 15b and the plug connector 13
This is due to the formation of the corner blanking portion 17c. If the position of the socket connector 12 in the half-fitted state with respect to the plug connector 13 is small, the terminal 5a of the socket connector 12 with respect to the terminal 7a of the plug connector 13 "drops off" even in the process of rotational fitting. In other words, the terminal 5a of the socket connector 12 does not start to come into contact with the tip of the terminal 7a of the plug connector 13 during the rotation fitting process, but starts to contact the terminal 7a of the plug connector 13 so as to ride up from an intermediate portion in the longitudinal direction of the terminal 7a. Since the phenomenon (see FIG. 5) can be prevented, abnormal noise does not occur and the insertion operation does not become hard.

Further, the side wall portion 18 of the plug connector 13
Since the inner edge 18c is chamfered with a large roundness, the socket connector 12 can be smoothly rotated and fitted along the inner edge 18c from any rotation fitting start angle indicated by a solid line or a two-dot chain line in FIG. Can be done. Therefore, the rotation fitting start angle can be freely changed according to the limited working space inside the electronic device.

The plug connector 13 of the present embodiment described above
For example, as shown by a solid line in FIG.
With a large inclination angle theta ₂ 8 'of the base end portion 18a' tapered surface portion 18b with respect to it is conceivable to form to expand in removing direction y by. In this case, since the side wall portion 15 of the socket connector 12 and the tapered surface portion 18b are in surface contact with each other with a large area, the positioning stability of the socket connector 12 with respect to the plug connector 13 at the start of the rotational fitting is excellent. However, in this case, since the socket terminal 5a "drops", there is a problem that abnormal noise is generated and insertion becomes hard. In contrast, since the taper surface 18b of the plug connector 13 of the present example it is gradually enlarged at a small inclination angle theta ₁ a has been removing direction y with respect to base portion 18a, as shown by two-dot chain line in FIG. 5 When the side wall portion 15 of the socket connector 12 is made to follow the tapered surface portion 18b, the socket terminal 5a does not "drop off" with respect to the plug terminal 7a, and the above-described problem does not occur.

[0032]

According to the electric connector of the present invention, the socket connector and the plug connector can be rotationally fitted / removed. This greatly reduces the large insertion force and pull-out force required for conventional mating and unmating, and allows the mating between the socket connector and the plug connector to be performed smoothly. Can be improved. Therefore, even if the electronic device has a small working space inside the housing, it is relatively easy to insert and remove the socket connector and plug connector, and the insertion force and pullout force can be small. The socket connector and the plug connector are not damaged, and both connectors do not come off the printed circuit board.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a fitted state of an electrical connector (board-to-board connector) according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory view schematically showing a process example of a rotational fitting between the socket connector and the plug connector shown in FIG. 1;

3 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of the operation explanatory view of FIG. 2; FIG. 3 (a) is a partial cross-sectional view corresponding to an enlarged area A of FIG. 2; FIG.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory view schematically showing a cross-sectional example of another process of the rotational fitting of the socket connector and the plug connector of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3A is a partial cross-sectional view corresponding to the enlarged area A in FIG. 2, and FIG.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory view showing, in a schematic cross section, still another example of the process of rotational fitting between the socket connector and the plug connector of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an external perspective view of an electric connector (board-to-board connector) according to a conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view showing a fitted state of the electric connector of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a partially enlarged view of the electrical connector of FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Socket Terminal Row 5a Socket Terminal 7 Plug Terminal Row 7a Plug Terminal 11 Electrical Connector 12 Socket Connector 13 Plug Connector 14 Insulating Housing 15 Sidewall 15b Pointed Head 16 Insulating Housing 17 Holding Wall 17a Side Edge 17c Corner Opening 18 Sidewall Part 18b Tapered surface part 19 Induction gap

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5E021 FA05 FA14 FA16 FB02 FB14 FC06 FC07 FC25 HA07 HB15 HB20 HC17 HC35 KA05 KA20 5E023 AA04 AA08 AA16 BB22 CC18 CC22 DD07 DD28 EE03 HH06 HH19 HH22

Claims (4)

[Claims] A socket having a socket terminal row in which a plurality of socket terminals are arranged in the row direction, and an insulating housing having side walls surrounding the socket terminal row formed on both outer sides in the pitch direction of the socket terminal row. A plug having a plug terminal row in which a plurality of plug terminals are arranged in the row direction, and surrounding the plug terminal row on both outer sides in the pitch direction of the plug terminal row; and a plug extending between the side wall sections A plug connector having an insulating housing formed with a holding wall portion for holding the terminal row, and having a receiving gap corresponding to the thickness of the side wall portion of the socket connector between the side wall portion and the holding wall portion; An electrical connector in which a socket terminal row and a plug terminal row are conductively connected by inserting a side wall portion of a socket connector into a receiving gap of the plug connector. At the tip of the side wall of the socket connector, a pointed portion is formed by cutting off a portion facing the holding wall of the plug connector, and the socket connector is provided at the tip of the holding wall of the plug connector. A notch-shaped cut-out portion is formed by cutting off a side edge portion facing the side wall portion of the plug connector, and the receiving gap is formed between the side wall portion of the opposed socket connector and the holding wall portion of the plug connector. An electrical connector, characterized in that a guide gap is provided which is enlarged to allow at least one of rotational fitting and rotational removal of a socket connector and a plug connector. 2. The electrical connector according to claim 1, wherein the tip of the pointed head of the socket connector and the cut-out portion of the plug connector are formed as inclined surfaces whose inclination directions substantially coincide with each other. 3. The width of the guiding gap when only one side wall of the socket connector is inserted into the receiving gap of the plug connector is smaller than the thickness of the pointed part of the side wall.
3. The electrical connector according to claim 1, wherein said pointed head and said cornered portion are formed. 4. The plug connector according to claim 1, wherein a front end of the side wall of the plug connector facing the side wall of the socket connector is formed as a tapered surface that gradually expands in a removal direction.
The electrical connector according to claim 1.