JP2003059572A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector enables to miniaturize while securing a locking force of a lance against terminal fittings. SOLUTION: A lance 29 with L-shaped cross section, having an upper wall 29A extending along the lateral direction of a female connector housing 20 and a side wall 29B extended along the vertical direction thereof, is formed at the front part of a cavity 23. A locking part 31, enabled to lock in a locking part 17 of a female side metal fitting 10, is protrusively formed at the top end side of the lance 29. Precisely, the locking part 31 is formed so as to protrude from an area including a corner part 29C of the lance 29 to the inside of the cavity 23, and a protrusion 31A protruding downward from the upper wall 29A of the lance 29 and a protrusion 31B protruding leftward from the side wall 29B are integrally formed so as to have an L-shaped cross section. The locking force is improved by locating the locking part 31 at the area including the corner part 29C where the rigidity is high.

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 for retaining a terminal fitting.

[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. In the connector in which a lance capable of being locked in a retaining state is flexibly deformable, the lance is cantilevered along the insertion direction of the terminal fitting and along the arranging direction of the cavities. Section L having a curved wall surface and a wall surface extending in a direction substantially orthogonal thereto
It is characterized in that it has a letter-like shape and that a locking portion that can be locked with the terminal fitting is provided in a region including its corner.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the locking portion has an L-shaped cross section protruding from both sides of the both wall surfaces and is substantially orthogonal to the terminal fitting. The feature is that it can be locked from two directions.

The invention of claim 3 relates to claim 1 or claim 2.
In the above-mentioned one, a pair of the lances is provided for each of the cavities, and the lances are arranged at a pair of adjacent corners of each of the cavities in a direction along the corners.

[0007]

According to the invention of claim 1, since the lance has an L-shaped cross section along the arranging direction of the cavities and the direction orthogonal thereto, that is, the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction, the bending of the entire lance is performed. Increases rigidity. Therefore, even when the wall surface in the vertical or horizontal direction is made thin, the locking force with respect to the terminal fitting can be secured, and the connector housing can be miniaturized in the vertical and horizontal directions. Further, since the locking portion is provided in the region including the corner portion having high rigidity, the locking force is improved as compared with the case where the locking portion is provided only in the other portion of the lance,
Further, it can be made thinner.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the engaging portion is engaged with the terminal fitting from two directions orthogonal to each other, so that the engaging force is improved. For example, even when the clearance between the cavity and the terminal fitting is large and the terminal fitting is rattled, a locking force is secured compared to the conventional lance that locks the terminal fitting from one side. it can.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the pair of lances are locked to one terminal fitting, the locking force is improved.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION <First Embodiment> Next, a first 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. As shown schematically in FIG. 3, the rectangular tube portion 11 is formed by double-folding a metal plate on the upper wall portion, and on the outer peripheral wall, the upper right corner near the center in the front-rear direction is formed. By cutting off a part of the upper wall and the side wall from the corner portion, a locked portion 17 capable of locking a lance 29 described later is formed to be recessed.

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 lance 29 for preventing the female-side terminal fitting 10 from coming off is provided in a cantilever shape above each protruding portion 26, one for each cavity 23. . Each of the lances 29 extends forward by about half the length of the protrusion 26, and the female connector housing 2
It has a substantially L-shaped cross section with an upper wall 29A extending along the horizontal direction of 0 and a side wall 29B extending along the vertical direction. Also,
Both lances 29 are arranged at an upper corner (upper right corner when viewed from the front) of the cavity 23 in a direction along the shape of the corner. A locking portion 31 that can be locked to the locked portion 17 of the female terminal fitting 10 is provided on the tip side of the lance 29 so as to project. More specifically, the locking portion 31 is provided so as to project from the region including the corner portion 29C of the lance 29 (see the upper right position in FIG. 6) toward the inside of the cavity 23 and extends downward from the upper wall 29A of the lance 29. It has a downward L-shaped cross section that integrally includes a downward protrusion 31A that protrudes toward and a lateral protrusion 31B that protrudes leftward from the side wall 29B. Both protrusions 31A,
A gently sloping surface is formed on the rear surface side of 31B, and the front surface side coincides with the front end surface of the lance 29. Further, the lance 29 is formed in a thin shape as a whole, and can be bent and deformed obliquely to the upper right when viewed from the front (the direction shown by the arrow in FIG. 6).

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. In addition, a part of the inner wall of each through hole 41 is arranged along the outer surface of the side wall 29B of the lance 29 so that the bending deformation of the lance 29 can be restricted.
It is supposed to be 4. The retainer 40 has a main locking position (see FIG. 10) 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 final locking position. It can be held in two positions, a temporary locking position (see FIG. 7) that retracts further forward and allows the lance 29 to bend.
Further, a jig insertion opening 45 is formed on the front surface of the retainer 40 at the upper side of each front wall 42 so that a jig (not shown) for releasing the lance 29 can be inserted therein. Has been done.

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. 7, 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 connector metal fitting 10 is attached. 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 portion 31 of the lance 29, the lance 29 is pressed upward and rightward according to the inclined surfaces of the downward protrusion 31A and the lateral protrusion 31B, and the lance 29 is moved as shown in FIG. As shown by the arrow in FIG. 6, the elastic member is bent and deformed obliquely upward to the right.

When the female terminal fitting 10 reaches the normal position where it abuts against the front wall 27, the lance 29 is returned and deformed and the locking portion 31 is locked as shown in the lower right position of FIGS. 17 is inserted and locked, and the female-side terminal fitting 10 is temporarily locked in a state where it is not pulled out.

After mounting the female terminal fittings 10 in all the cavities 23 in this manner, the retainer 40 is then pushed rearward, and as shown in FIGS.
Is held in the main locking position, the bending restricting portion 44 moves the lance 2
It is positioned along the outer surface of the side wall 29B of 9 and its bending is restricted, whereby the female-side terminal fitting 10 is double-locked. 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.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the lance 29 has an L-shaped cross section along the arranging direction of the cavities 23 and the orthogonal direction thereof, that is, the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction. The flexural rigidity of is increased. Therefore, even when the wall surfaces (29A, 29B) in the vertical or horizontal direction are made thin, the locking force with respect to the female terminal fitting 10 can be secured, and the female connector housing 20 can be miniaturized in the vertical and horizontal directions. Further, the locking portion 31 has the corner portion 2 having high rigidity.
Since it is provided in the area including 9C, the lance 29
The locking force is improved compared to the case where the locking portion 31 is provided only at another portion (for example, the side edge portion of the upper wall 29A opposite to the corner portion 29C), and the thickness can be further reduced.

Further, since the lance 29 is bent in a direction oblique to the direction in which the cavities 23 are arranged (longitudinal direction or horizontal direction), the female side connector housing is larger than the bending deformation amount along the bending direction of the lance 29. It is possible to reduce the required size of the bending space in the vertical and horizontal directions of 20. 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 diagonal direction with respect to the cavity. In the present embodiment, however, a lance 29 having a substantially L-shaped cross section is provided at the corner of the cavity 23. By arranging the lances 29 along the same direction, the lance 29 can be bent in the diagonal direction region, and the space can be efficiently used.

Further, since the engaging portion 31 engages with the female-side terminal fitting 10 from two directions orthogonal to each other, the engaging force is improved. For example, the cavity 23 and the female terminal fitting 10
Even when the clearance between the terminal metal fitting and the female terminal fitting 10 is large, the locking force can be secured as compared with the conventional one in which the lance locks the terminal fitting from one side.

<Second Embodiment> Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 to 15. Since most of the configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, in the following description, the same components as those of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is partially omitted. .

The female connector housing 50 is shown in FIG.
Further, as shown in FIG. 12, a pair of left and right lances 51 is provided in a cantilever manner from the front end of the rectangular portion 25 for each cavity 23. Each lance 51 has a substantially L-shaped cross section including an upper wall 51A along the lateral direction of the female connector housing 20 and a side wall 51B along the longitudinal direction. Further, the pair of lances 51 are arranged at a pair of adjacent corners of each cavity 23 (upper right corner and upper left corner when viewed from the front) in a direction along the shape of the corners. A locking portion 52 that can be locked to the female terminal fitting 60 is provided on the tip side of the lance 51 so as to project. More specifically, the locking portion 5
2 is a downwardly projecting portion 52A which projects from the region including the corner 51C of the lance 51 (see the upper right position in FIG. 12) toward the inside of the cavity 23 and which projects downward from the upper wall 51A of the lance 51. A lateral projection 52B that projects laterally from the side wall 51B has an L-shaped cross section. The pair of lances 51 are formed in a thin shape as a whole, and can be bent and deformed in an obliquely upward direction so as to be separated from each other (see arrow lines in FIG. 12).

On the other hand, in the female-side terminal fitting 60, as shown in FIGS. 11 and 13, of the outer peripheral wall of the rectangular tubular portion 11, a part of the upper wall and the side wall near the center in the front-rear direction is cut off. As a result, the locked portion 61 capable of locking the locking portion 52 of the lance 51 is formed to be recessed.

In order to mount the female terminal fitting 60 on the female connector housing 50, the retainer 40 is first attached to the front surface of the rectangular portion 25 and held at the temporary locking position as shown in FIG. Then, the female-side terminal fitting 60 is inserted into the cavity 23 from the terminal insertion port 24. When the tip of the rectangular tube portion 11 hits the locking portions 52 of the pair of lances 51, the lances 51 are pressed upward and sideways according to the inclined surfaces of the downward projections 52A and the lateral projections 52B, so that the pair of lances 51 , And as shown by the arrows in FIGS. 14 and 12, they are bent and deformed obliquely upward so as to be separated from each other.

When the female terminal fitting 60 reaches the normal position, the lance 51 is returned and deformed and the locking portion 52 enters the locked portion 61 as shown in the lower right position of FIGS. 15 and 12. The female-side terminal fitting 60 is temporarily locked in a state where it is retained. In this way, after the female-side terminal fittings 60 are mounted in all the cavities 23, when the retainer 40 is subsequently pushed rearward to hold the retainer 40 in the main locking position, the bending restriction portion 44 causes the side wall 51B of each lance 51 to move. It is positioned along the outer surface and its bending is restricted, whereby the female-side terminal fitting 60 is double-locked. From the above,
Assembly of the female connector is complete.

According to this embodiment, in addition to the same effect as that of the first embodiment, the pair of lances 51 are locked to one female terminal fitting 60, so that the locking force is improved. In particular, in the present embodiment, the pair of lances 51 are locked to the female side terminal fitting 60 from both left and right sides, so that they can be locked in a well-balanced manner. Further, since the lance 51 is locked to the female-side terminal fitting 60 from the three directions by the pair of left and right downward projections 52A and the pair of left and right lateral projections 52B, that of the first embodiment. The locking force is even better than that.

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 each of the above embodiments, the locking portion has an L-shaped cross-section protruding from both the vertical and horizontal wall surfaces of the lance.
According to the present invention, the locking portion may be provided in a region including the corner portion, for example, may be projected obliquely from the corner portion of the lance, and one of the wall surfaces including the corner portion. You may make it project from.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded side sectional view of a connector according to a first 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 partially enlarged front view of the connector housing for explaining the operation of the lance.

FIG. 7 is a horizontal cross-sectional view showing the insertion of the female terminal fitting.

FIG. 8 is a plan sectional view showing a state in which the lance is locked to the female terminal fitting.

FIG. 9 is a side cross-sectional view showing a state in which the retainer is assembled in the main locking position.

FIG. 10 is a plan sectional view thereof

FIG. 11 is an exploded plan sectional view of the connector according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a partially enlarged front view of the connector housing for explaining the operation of the lance.

FIG. 13 is a front sectional view of a female-side terminal fitting.

FIG. 14 is a plan cross-sectional view showing the insertion of the female terminal fitting.

FIG. 15 is a plan cross-sectional view showing a state in which the retainer is assembled in the main locking position.

FIG. 16 is a side sectional view showing a conventional connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 60 ... Female terminal fitting (terminal fitting) 20, 50 ... Female connector housing (connector housing) 23 ... Cavity 29, 51 ... Lance 29A, 51A ... Upper wall (wall surface) 29B, 51B ... Side wall (wall surface) 29C , 51C ... Corner part 31, 52 ... Locking part

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── 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 GG14 GG25 MM14 MM15 RR04                       RR06 RR49

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A connector housing provided with a plurality of cavities into which terminal fittings can be inserted and arranged, is provided with a lance capable of being flexibly deformed, which is locked to the terminal fittings in a retaining state. The lance is cantilevered along the insertion direction of the terminal fitting, and has an L-shaped cross section having a wall surface along the arranging direction of the cavities and a wall surface along a substantially orthogonal direction thereof, and A connector, wherein a locking portion capable of locking the terminal fitting is provided in a region including the corner portion. 2. The locking portion has an L-shaped cross section protruding from both sides of the both wall surfaces, and can be locked with respect to the terminal fitting from two directions substantially orthogonal to each other. The connector according to claim 1. 3. The pair of lances is provided for each of the cavities, and the lances are arranged at a pair of adjacent corners of each cavity in a direction along the corners, respectively. The connector according to claim 2.