JP2003036916A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector, which can aim at miniaturization while securing stopping power of a lance to a terminal metallic parts. SOLUTION: The one pair of left and right of the lances 29 of a cross-section of approximately L-character shape, which are equipped with an upper wall 29A in alignment along with a transverse direction of a female side connector housing 20 and a side wall 29B, which is along with the vertical direction, is formed in a front part of a cavity 23. Since the section of the pair of lances 29 has approximately L-character shape in the alignment direction and its perpendicular direction, that is, in the vertical direction and the transverse direction of the cavity 23, the whole rigidity against bending of each the lances 29 increases. Therefore, even when the wall surface of the vertical direction or the transverse direction is made thin, the stopping power is secured, and the miniaturization can be attained about the vertical direction and the transverse direction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector having a lance.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an example of a connector provided with a lance inside a connector housing, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-325814 is known.
The one described in Japanese Patent Publication is known. This is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, there are a plurality of cavities 3 in which the terminal fittings 2 can be inserted in the connector housing 1 in the horizontal direction and 2 in the vertical direction.
The cavities 3 are arranged in a stepwise manner, a lance 4 is provided on the upper surface side of each cavity 3, and can be flexibly deformed into a flexure space 5 provided above the lance 4. When the terminal fitting 2 is inserted into the cavity 3, the lance 4 is bent and deformed in the bending space 5, the terminal fitting 2 is inserted to the normal position, and the lance 4 is returned and deformed and locked to the terminal fitting 2. The terminal fitting 2 is prevented from coming off.

[0003]

In recent years, there has been a demand for miniaturization of the connector, but in the case of miniaturizing the connector as described above, for example, the thickness of the lance 4 is reduced and the bending space 5 is also reduced. By making it smaller
It is conceivable to reduce the arrangement pitch of the cavities 3. However, if the thickness of the lance 4 is reduced, the lance 4
Since it becomes easy to bend, the terminal fitting 2 becomes easy to come off.
Further, when the amount of flexural deformation of the lance 4 is reduced, the engagement allowance of the lance 4 is also reduced, so that the terminal fitting 2 is also likely to come off, and there is a limit in any case. Also,
It may be possible to reduce the size in the vertical direction by providing a lance on the side surface of the cavity and bending and deforming the lance in the lateral direction. However, naturally, the lance is increased in size. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a connector that can be downsized while ensuring a locking force of a lance with respect to a terminal fitting.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the connector according to the invention of claim 1 is characterized in that a connector housing provided with a plurality of cavities into which terminal fittings can be inserted are arranged. A pair of lances having locking projections that can be locked in a retaining state are provided for each cavity, and the pair of lances extends along the inserting direction of the terminal fitting. The cross section has a substantially L-shape along the arranging direction of the cavities and the orthogonal direction thereof, and is arranged at a pair of adjacent corners of the cavity in a direction along the shape of the corners. There is a feature in that.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the locking projections are provided so as to face each other on the wall surfaces of the pair of lances facing each other. It has characteristics.

The invention of claim 3 relates to claim 1 or claim 2.
In the thing described in (1), between the pair of lances, there is provided a jig inserting portion into which a releasing jig can be inserted, and by inserting the releasing jig into the jig inserting portion, It is characterized in that the pair of lances are flexibly deformed in a direction to release the locking.

[0007]

According to the invention of claim 1, the cross section of the lance is substantially L-shaped along the arranging direction of the cavities and the orthogonal direction thereof, that is, the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction. The overall flexural rigidity is increased. Therefore, even if the wall in the vertical or horizontal direction is made thin, the locking force is secured,
It is possible to reduce the size in the vertical and horizontal directions.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the pair of locking projections are provided so as to face each other, the locking force is secured. For example, when the clearance between the cavity and the terminal fitting is large and the terminal fitting is loose, if the lance is engaged with the terminal fitting from one side as in the conventional case, the locking is easily released. In the present invention, the pair of locking projections locks the terminal fitting so as to sandwich the terminal fitting from both sides, so that the locking force can be secured even in such a case.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the locking of the pair of lances can be released at once by inserting the releasing jig into the jig inserting portion provided between the pair of lances. Therefore, the release operation of the lance is easy.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The connector of the present embodiment is a female connector that can be fitted with a male connector housing (not shown) equipped with male terminal fittings. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a total of four connectors are provided. A female connector housing 20 to which the female terminal fitting 10 is mounted, and a retainer 40 for double locking the female terminal fitting 10 are provided.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the female terminal fitting 10 is formed by punching a single conductive metal plate into a predetermined shape and then bending it. A square tube portion 11 connected to the male tab of the terminal fitting is provided, and an electric wire connection portion 12 to which the end of the electric wire W is connected is provided on the rear end side. The wire connecting portion 12 is provided with a wire barrel 13 and an insulation barrel 14 at the front and rear, and the wire barrel 13 is provided with a pair of caulking pieces extending from the left and right ends of the bottom plate, by which the core portion of the electric wire W is caulked. It is attached. Also, insulation barrel 14
Is also provided with a pair of caulking pieces extending from both left and right ends of the bottom plate, and the covering portion of the electric wire W and the rubber plug 15 fitted around the caulking piece are caulked by these.

The rectangular tube portion 11 is provided with an elastic contact piece (not shown) inside, and when the male tab is inserted from the opening on the front surface, the elastic contact piece elastically comes into contact with the male side terminal fitting. It is designed to be electrically connected to. On the upper surface of the rectangular tube portion 11, a stabilizer 16 for insertion guide is provided at the rear end in the center in the width direction. Further, as schematically shown in FIG. 3, the outer peripheral wall of the rectangular tube portion 11 is cut away from the upper left and right upper corners in the vicinity of the center in the front-rear direction and the upper half of the left and right side walls. As a result, a pair of locked portions 17 that can lock a pair of lances 29 described later are formed.

The female connector housing 20 is made of a synthetic resin material, and as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, the male connector housing is fitted around the front half of the terminal mounting portion 21 elongated in the front-rear direction. Hood 22 having a substantially rectangular tube shape
Are formed. Inside the terminal mounting portion 21, the cavity 2 into which the female terminal fitting 10 can be inserted along the front-rear direction
3 are arranged in two rows in the horizontal direction and in two rows in the vertical direction. At the rear end of each cavity 23, the female-side terminal fitting 10 is provided.
The terminal insertion port 24 for inserting is opened. In the description of the female connector housing 20 and the retainer 40 in this embodiment, the front-back direction is the direction in which the female-side terminal fitting 10 is inserted into the cavity 23 (right side in FIG. 1), and the vertical direction (vertical direction). For the bottom plate of the wire connecting portion 12 of the female terminal fitting 10,
The side facing the wall surface (downward in FIG. 1) is the downward direction, and the lateral direction is the direction orthogonal to the front-back direction and the vertical direction (FIG. 1).
Direction perpendicular to the paper surface of).

The terminal mounting portion 21 is a rectangular portion 25 having a substantially square cross-section in the outer shape from the back surface of the hood portion 22 to the vicinity of the center in the front-rear direction. A protrusion 26 is provided for each 23 so as to project forward. These protrusions 26 are shaped so as to cover substantially the lower half of the front end portion of the female-side terminal fitting 10 that is inserted into each cavity 23, and the front wall that serves as the front stop of the female-side terminal fitting 10 at its front end. 27 is formed, and the front wall 27 constitutes the lower half of the hole edge portion of the tab insertion port into which the male tab of the male terminal fitting can be inserted.
Each of the cavities 23 has a circular cross section at the latter half thereof, and the rear side of the cavities 23 is closed in a watertight manner by the rubber plug 15 being in close contact with the inner peripheral surface thereof. Further, the front half of the cavity 23 has a substantially rectangular cross section corresponding to the outer shape of the rectangular tube portion 11, and a guide groove 28 is formed on the ceiling surface thereof along the front-rear direction to insert the female terminal fitting 10. Sometimes, the stabilizer 16 enters the guide groove 28 to stabilize the insertion posture.

From the front end of the rectangular portion 25, a pair of lances 29 is provided above each protruding portion 26 for each cavity 23 so as to prevent the female terminal fitting 10 from coming off. Each lance 29 extends forward by about half the length of the protrusion 26, and has a cross section including an upper wall 29A along the lateral direction of the female connector housing 20 and a side wall 29B along the longitudinal direction. It has a substantially L shape. Further, both lances 29 are arranged at a pair of adjacent upper corners of the cavity 23 (upper right corner and upper left corner when viewed from the front) in a direction along the shape of the corners. Locking protrusions 31 are provided so as to be opposed to each other on the side walls 29B of the lances 29, which face each other. The locking projections 31 are adapted to lock the female terminal fitting 10 of the female terminal fitting 10 from both sides so as to prevent the female terminal fitting 10 from being pulled out. In addition, a gentle inclined surface is formed on the rear surface side of each locking projection 31. The upper wall 29A and the side wall 29B of the lance 29 are formed in a thin shape except for the portion where the locking projection 31 is provided, and the pair of lances 29 can be bent and deformed obliquely upward so as to be separated from each other. (See also the arrow in FIG. 7). A fixed gap is provided between the upper walls 29A of both lances 29 to form a jig insertion portion 32. By inserting a releasing jig J, which will be described later, both lances 29 are connected to the female side terminals. Metal fittings 10
It can be flexibly deformed so as to release the lock with respect to.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 5, the retainer 40 is also formed of a synthetic resin material into a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a through hole penetrating forward and backward at a position corresponding to each cavity 23. 41 are provided, and the protrusions 26 are fitted in the respective through holes 41 so that they can be attached. A front wall 42 is formed above the front end of each through hole 41,
The front wall 42 is aligned with the front wall 27 of the protruding portion 26 and constitutes the upper half of the hole edge portion of the tab insertion port into which the male tab can be inserted. Further, a part of the left and right inner side walls of each through hole 41 is arranged along the outer side surface of the side wall 29B of the lance 29 to serve as a bending regulation portion 44 capable of regulating the bending deformation of the lance 29. The retainer 40 has a main locking position (see FIG. 11) in which the bending restricting portion 44 restricts the bending of the lance 29 with respect to the female connector housing 20 by a positioning means (not shown) and a bending restricting portion 44 is in the main locking position. It can be held at two positions including a temporary locking position (see FIG. 8) that retracts further forward and allows the lance 29 to bend. Further, on the front surface of the retainer 40, a jig insertion for inserting the release jig J of the lance 29 at a position corresponding to each jig insertion portion 32 on the housing 20 side above each front wall 42. The mouth 45 is formed so as to penetrate therethrough.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described. To attach the female terminal fitting 10 to the female connector housing 20, first, as shown in FIG. 6, the retainer 40 is assembled to the front surface of the rectangular portion 25 and held in the temporary locking position, and then the female retainer 40 is held. The side terminal fitting 10 is inserted into the cavity 23 through the terminal insertion opening 24. When the tip end of the rectangular tube portion 11 hits the locking projection 31 of the lance 29, the side wall 29B of the lance 29 is laterally pressed by the inclined surface thereof, while the side wall 29 is pressed.
Since the upper wall 29A is continuously formed at the upper end of B, the pair of lances 29 are bent and deformed obliquely upward so as to be separated from each other, as shown by the arrows in FIGS. 8 and 7.

When the female side terminal fitting 10 reaches the normal position where it abuts against the front wall 27, the lance 29 is deformed back and the locking projection 31 enters into the locked portion 17 as shown in FIG. The female terminal fitting 10 is locked, and the female terminal fitting 10 is in a state of being primarily locked.

After mounting the female side terminal fittings 10 in all the cavities 23 in this manner, the retainer 40 is then pushed rearward, and as shown in FIGS.
When 0 is held in the main locking position, the bending restricting portion 44 is positioned along the outer side surface of the side wall 29B of each lance 29 and its bending is restricted, whereby the female terminal fitting 10 is double locked. It will be in the locked state. By the above, the assembling of the female connector is completed. In the process of the above work, if any of the female terminal fittings 10 is in a half-inserted state where it does not reach the proper position by mistake, when the retainer 40 is moved to the main locking position. Since the movement of the retainer 40 is restricted by the opening edge portion of the through hole 41 hitting the tip of the lance 29, the worker can know that the retainer 40 is in the half-inserted state.

When removing the female-side terminal fitting 10, first, the retainer 40 is returned to the temporary locking position, and then the releasing jig J is inserted from the jig insertion opening 45 of the retainer 40 into a pair of lances. The tip is inserted into the jig insertion part 32 between 29. Then, as shown in FIG. 12, both lances 29 are pressed laterally away from each other and flexibly deformed in an obliquely upward direction, and the locking between the locking projection 31 and the locked portion 17 is released. To be done. Then, when the electric wire W is pulled backward, the female-side terminal fitting 10 is pulled out from the cavity 23.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the cross section of the pair of lances 29 is substantially L-shaped along the arranging direction of the cavities 23 and the direction orthogonal thereto, that is, the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. Therefore, the flexural rigidity of each lance 29 is increased. Therefore, even when the wall surface in the vertical or horizontal direction is thinned, the locking force is secured, and the size can be reduced in the vertical and horizontal directions. Further, since the lance 29 is bent in an oblique direction with respect to the arranging direction (vertical direction or horizontal direction) of the cavities 23, the vertical length of the female connector housing 20 is larger than the bending deformation amount of the lance 29 along the bending direction. It is possible to reduce the required size of the bending space in the lateral and lateral directions. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the array pitch of the cavities 23 and to downsize the connector while securing the locking force with respect to the female-side terminal fitting 10.

Further, generally, a dead space is apt to occur in a region of the peripheral wall surrounding the cavity in a direction diagonal to the cavity, but in this embodiment, a lance 29 having a substantially L-shaped cross section is provided at the corner of the cavity 23. By arranging the lance 29 in the direction of the shape, the lance 29 can be bent in the diagonal direction region, and the space can be efficiently used.

Further, since the pair of locking projections 31 are provided so as to face each other, the locking force is secured. For example, when the clearance between the cavity 23 and the female-side terminal fitting 10 is large and the female-side terminal fitting 10 rattles, the lance is locked from one side with respect to the terminal fitting as in the conventional case. Although the locking is likely to be released, in the present embodiment, the pair of locking projections 31 is formed by the female terminal fitting 10.
Even in such a case, the locking force can be ensured by locking so as to be sandwiched from both sides.

Further, by inserting the releasing jig J into the jig inserting portion 32 provided between the pair of lances 29, the locking of the pair of lances 29 can be released at once. Therefore, Lance 2
The release operation of 9 is easy.

The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the following technical scope is also included in the technical scope of the present invention. (1) The present invention can also be applied to a male connector provided with a male terminal fitting. (2) In the above embodiment, the locking projections of both lances are provided on the side walls facing each other, but according to the present invention, the locking projections may be provided on the upper wall of each lance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded side sectional view of a connector according to this embodiment.

[Fig.2] The plane sectional view

[Fig. 3] Front sectional view of female terminal fitting

FIG. 4 is a front view of the connector housing.

FIG. 5 is a front view of the retainer.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing a state in which a retainer is attached to the connector housing.

FIG. 7 is a partially enlarged front view of the connector housing for explaining the operation of the lance.

FIG. 8 is a plan sectional view showing a state in which the lance is flexibly deformed.

FIG. 9 is a plan sectional view showing a state in which the lance is locked to the female-side terminal fitting.

FIG. 10 is a side sectional view showing a state in which assembly is completed.

FIG. 11 is a plan sectional view thereof

FIG. 12 is a plan cross-sectional view showing the process of pulling out the female-side terminal fitting by a jig.

FIG. 13 is a side sectional view showing a conventional connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Female terminal fitting (terminal fitting) 20 ... Female side connector housing (connector housing) 23 ... Cavity 29 ... Lance 31 ... Locking protrusion 32 ... Jig insertion part J ... Release jig

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Ryotaro Ishikawa             Sumitomo Den 1-14 Nishi-Suehiro-cho, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie Prefecture             Sozo Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Osamu Kawase             Sumitomo Den 1-14 Nishi-Suehiro-cho, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie Prefecture             Sozo Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5E087 EE02 EE14 FF08 FF13 GG15                       GG24 RR04

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A connector housing provided with a plurality of cavities into which terminal fittings can be inserted and arranged, has a locking lance having a locking projection capable of locking the terminal fittings in a retaining state for each cavity. And a pair of these lances are extended in the insertion direction of the terminal fitting, and have a cross section of a substantially L shape along the arranging direction of the cavities and the orthogonal direction thereof. And a connector disposed at a pair of corners of the cavity adjacent to each other in a direction along the shape of the corners. 2. The connector according to claim 1, wherein the locking projections are provided so as to face each other on wall surfaces of the pair of lances facing each other. 3. A jig insertion portion, into which a releasing jig can be inserted, is provided between the pair of lances, and the releasing jig is inserted into the jig insertion portion, The connector according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the pair of lances are flexibly deformed in a direction of releasing the locking.