JP2003102119A - Junction block - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a junction block capable of improving arrangement efficiency of a bus-bar and also capable of miniaturizing the junction block. SOLUTION: A bus-bar is provided only with a caulking hole 21, with no hole to align the bus-bar 19 with a work set table 25 of a bus-bar automatic attaching device. Thus, the area opened on the bus-bar 19 is reduced so that the area of a projecting part 19b of the bus-bar 19 reduces. Thus, the bus-bar 19 is miniaturized, and the bus-bar 19 is not required to assume a complex shape, to detour the projecting part 19b of the bus-bar 19.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a junction block mounted on, for example, an automobile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Inside a junction block of this type, there is housed an insulating plate on which a conductive material called a bus bar is mounted and a circuit is formed on the insulating plate. Conventionally,
The step of mounting the bus bar on the insulating plate is performed by the bus bar automatic mounting device.

As shown in FIG. 9, a busbar automatic mounting device 50 includes a fixed die 51 arranged on the lower side and a movable die 52 arranged on the upper side and movable in the vertical direction. In this device 50, first, a bus bar plate 53,
The insulating plate 54 is set in parallel with the work set table 55. Here, the bus bar plate 53 is shown in FIG.
As shown in, the plurality of bus bars 56 are joined by a bridge 57 that can be cut. After that, the two molds 51, 5 with the work set table 55 in the mold open state
The mold 52 is moved between the two and the movable mold 52 approaches the fixed mold 51 to close the mold. Then, the cutting punches provided in the movable die 52 divide the bridges 57 of the bus bar plate 53, and the bus bars 56 are separated. At the same time, the insulating plate holding plate provided on the movable die 52 descends to clamp the insulating plate 54 on the work set table 55.

Next, when the movable die 52 is separated from the fixed die 51 and the die is opened, the insulating plate 54 is lifted upward and held at that position. Then, when the mold is closed again, as shown in FIG. 11, each bus bar 56 is fitted in a position corresponding to the insulating plate 54, and the caulking hole 58 formed in each bus bar 56 is fitted to the insulating plate 54. The formed caulking projection 59 is inserted. Then, the caulking means 59 provided on the fixed die 51 crushes the caulking projections 59, and as shown in FIG.
And are integrated. The diagrams shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 are
For convenience of explanation, the upper and lower positional relationships are reversed.

In short, as long as the bus bar plate 53 and the insulating plate 54 are set on the work set table 55, the bridge 57 is divided, the insulating plate 54 is transferred, and the insulating plate 54 and the bus bar 56 are caulked. The series of steps described below automatically proceed. As a result, the work of mounting the bus bar 56 on the insulating plate 54 can be efficiently advanced.

In the conventional bus bar automatic mounting apparatus 50, the work set table 55 is used in the series of work steps.
The bus bar 56 (bus bar plate 53) is positioned at. As shown in FIG. 13, a positioning locking hole 61 is formed in the bus bar 56 in addition to the caulking hole 58. This positioning locking hole 61 is provided with a positioning locking projection 62 provided on the upper surface of the work set table 55.
Locked in. As a result, the work set table 55
Positioning of each bus bar 56 is performed above.

By the way, in the recent junction blocks, the electric circuit configuration tends to be complicated and the density thereof to be high due to the rapid increase of vehicle load devices mounted on automobiles. Moreover, from the viewpoint of automobile comfort, safety, environmental measures, etc., there is a tendency to mount many electric parts such as electric power steering, electric brakes, solenoid valves for engines, electric motors for running assistance or electric motors for hybrids. It is transitioning. Along with that, the bus bar 56 also tends to become thinner. By the way,
A thin bus bar 56 of about 1.5 mm has already been proposed.

[0008]

As shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, the width (1.5 mm) of the bus bar 56 is very narrow. Therefore, in order to fix the bus bar 56, the caulking hole 58 of 2 mm in diameter and the positioning member. If there is a perforated portion such as the stop projection 62, an overhanging portion 56a is formed in the vicinity thereof. Moreover, if the positioning locking projection 62 is provided in addition to the caulking hole 58, the area of the overhanging portion 56a becomes even larger. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14, the bus bar 56 must be bent and largely detoured so as to avoid the overhanging portion 56a, and the bus bar 56 becomes large. This means that the higher the density of the circuit formed by the bus bar 56, the lower the routing efficiency of the bus bar 56, and the larger the size of the junction block. In addition, since the shape of the bus bar 56 becomes complicated, it becomes difficult to design the wiring of the bus bar 56, which also contributes to cost increase.

The present invention has been made by paying attention to the problems existing in such conventional techniques. Its purpose is
It is intended to reduce the size of the junction block by improving the routing efficiency of the bus bar.

[0010]

According to the present invention, a busbar and an insulating plate made of synthetic resin are housed in a first case in an overlapping manner, and a caulking hole formed in the busbar is provided with: The bus bar and the insulating plate are integrated by penetrating the crimping protrusion formed on the insulating plate and crushing the tip portion of the crimping protrusion, and a connecting terminal is formed on a part of the bus bar. A junction block, which is inserted and arranged in an electrical component mounting portion provided in a second case to be assembled in the first case, and electrically connects the electrical component mounted in the electrical component mounting portion and the connection terminal,
A non-penetrating recess that is engageable with a locking protrusion provided on the work set table when the bus bar is installed on the work set table provided on the bus bar automatic mounting device for assembling the insulating plate and the bus bar. Is provided on the surface of the bus bar.

With the above structure, the engagement bar provided on the work set table is engaged with the non-penetrating recess provided on the bus bar to position the bus bar with respect to the work set table. Therefore, since only a caulking hole is formed by punching a part of the bus bar, the area of the portion where the bus bar projects laterally becomes small. This makes it possible to reduce the size of the bus bar. Therefore, the routing efficiency of the bus bar can be improved. Moreover, even if the density of the busbars is increased, the busbars can be easily routed and the cost can be reduced.

(Invention of Claim 2) Since the non-penetrating recess according to Claim 1 is a positioning locking groove linearly extended, it is easy to process.

(Invention of Claim 3) A plurality of the positioning engaging grooves according to claim 2 are provided. Further, since the extending direction of the positioning locking groove is set to at least two directions or more, it is possible to reliably prevent the positional deviation.

(Invention of Claim 4) Since the inner surface of the positioning locking groove according to claim 2 or 3 is formed in a semicircular shape, the stress applied to the positioning locking groove can be appropriately dispersed. You can Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the bus bar from being deformed at the position where the positioning locking groove is provided.

(Invention of Claim 5) Since the positioning locking groove according to any one of claims 2 to 4 is provided along the width direction of the bus bar, the bus bar can be easily processed.
Moreover, it is possible to reliably prevent the bus bar from being deformed due to the processing.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the junction block 11 is composed of a lower case (first case) 14 whose upper surface is opened and an upper case (second case) 15 whose lower surface is opened. A plurality of electrical component mounting portions 16 for mounting electrical components such as fuses and connectors are formed on the upper surface of the upper case 15.

In the junction block 11, the FP
The C12, the PCB 13, the bus bar laminated body 17 and the like are housed. The bus bar laminated body 17 is configured by alternately laminating synthetic resin insulating plates 18 and metal bus bars 19. Each bus bar 19 is a plate-shaped material punched by a press device. A bifurcated connection terminal 19 a inserted into the electrical component mounting portion 16 is bent at a right angle at the end or in the middle of each bus bar 19. Then, the terminal of the electrical component mounted on the electrical component mounting portion 16 is connected to the connection terminal 19a.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, each insulating plate 18
The caulking projection 20 is integrally formed with the caulking projection 20, and the caulking projection 20 is inserted into the caulking hole 21 formed in the projecting portion 19b of the bus bar 19. The bus bar 19 is fixed to the insulating plate 18 by crushing the tip of the caulking projection 20.

As shown in FIG. 4, the bus bar 19 is bent along the X and Y directions which are orthogonal to each other on the same plane. On the surface of the bus bar 19 opposite to the surface on which the caulking projection 20 is crushed, a plurality of positioning locking grooves 23 as non-penetrating recesses are provided. The positioning locking groove 23 is forged when the bus bar 19 is bent. Positioning locking groove 23
Are linearly extended along the width direction of the bus bar 19 (direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction). The positioning locking groove 23 is roughly classified into one extending along the X direction of the bus bar 19 and one extending along the Y direction, and these are mixed in one bus bar 19. A plurality of positioning locking grooves 23 extending in each direction are provided with two as a set. One set of positioning locking grooves 23 extending in the X direction is provided, and two sets of positioning locking grooves 23 extending in the Y direction are provided.

As shown in FIG. 5, each positioning locking groove 2
3 is recessed so that the inner surface thereof has a semicircular shape.
This shape is adopted in order to prevent stress from concentrating on a specific portion of the positioning locking groove 23 even if the bus bar 19 is thin. In this embodiment, the bus bar 19 has a thickness of 0.64 mm and a width of 1.5 mm. The positioning locking groove 23 has a length of 1.5 mm, which is the same as the width of the bus bar 19, and a depth of 0.3 mm. Bus bar 1 at a location where positioning locking groove 23 is provided
The thickness of 9 is 0.34 mm. These numerical values can be changed arbitrarily.

The bus bar 19 is mounted on the insulating plate 18 by the bus bar automatic mounting device 50 already described in the prior art. Since the automatic busbar mounting device has almost the same structure as that of the conventional technique, only the different structure will be described here.
As shown in FIG. 6, a plurality of positioning locking projections 26 are formed on the upper surface of the work set table 25 of the automatic bus bar mounting device.

Each of the positioning locking projections 26 is formed so that the outer surface thereof has a semicircular shape. Among the plurality of positioning locking projections 26, one extending along the X direction and one extending along the Y direction are mixed.
In this embodiment, the length of the positioning locking projection 26 is 1.5 mm, which is the same as the positioning locking groove 23, and the thickness is 0.3 mm.
It is set to mm. Then, each positioning locking projection 2
6 is arranged at a position corresponding to each of the positioning locking grooves 23. Therefore, when the bus bar 19 is arranged on the work set table 25, the positioning locking groove 23 is engaged with the positioning locking projection 26. Due to this engagement, displacement of the bus bar 19 is prevented.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. (1) Work set table 2 of the busbar automatic mounting device
The bus bar 19 is not provided with a hole for positioning at 5, but only the caulking hole 21 is formed in the bus bar 19. The area of the portion pierced by the bus bar 19 can be reduced, and the area of the protruding portion 19b of the bus bar 19 can be reduced. As a result, the size of the bus bar 19 can be reduced. Therefore, in order to bypass the protruding portion 19b of the bus bar 1, the bus bar 1
9 does not have to have a complicated shape. Therefore, the bus bar 19
It is possible to improve the installation efficiency. Moreover, bus bar 1
Even if the wiring of 9 is densified, the wiring of the bus bar 19 can be easily designed, and as a result, the cost can be reduced.

(2) For example, assuming that the positioning locking groove 23 and the positioning locking projection 26 are exchanged, and comparing this with the present embodiment, the following effects are obtained. Play. That is, assuming that the bus bar 19 has the positioning locking projection 26, the work set table 2
In the state where the bus bar 19 is set to 5, the function as positioning can be achieved, and the same effect as the effect described in (1) above can be obtained. However, if the positioning locking projection 26 is provided on the bus bar 19, the positioning locking projection 26 projects from the surface thereof. Therefore, in the state where the bus bar 19 is attached to the insulating plate 18, a recess for letting the positioning locking projection 26 escape must be formed in the insulating plate 18. Therefore, in the type in which the positioning locking groove 23 is provided on the bus bar 19 as in the present embodiment,
Since it is not necessary to additionally form the concave portion in the insulating plate 18, there is no need to change the mold for forming the insulating plate 18.
Therefore, it is possible to prevent the initial cost from increasing.

(3) Since the positioning locking groove 23 formed in the bus bar 19 extends along the X direction and the Y direction, it is possible to reliably prevent the positional displacement in the horizontal direction.

(4) The positioning locking groove 23 formed in the bus bar 19 has a semicircular inner surface.
This is because there is no angular portion on the inner surface of the positioning locking groove 23, so that the stress applied to the positioning locking groove 23 can be dispersed. Therefore, the positioning locking groove 23
By virtue of this, it is possible to prevent the strength of the bus bar 19 from being greatly reduced even though the thickness of the bus bar 19 is thin. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the bus bar 19 from being deformed due to insufficient strength.

(Another Embodiment) The embodiment of the present invention may be modified as follows. -In the above embodiment, the inner surface of each positioning locking groove 23 is formed in a semi-circular shape, but it can be changed to any shape. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the inner surface of each positioning locking groove 23 may be formed in a V shape. When this structure is adopted, the shape of the positioning locking projection 26 provided on the work set table 25 is also the positioning locking groove 23.
It is preferable to change it so as to engage with.

[0028]

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, the routing efficiency of the bus bar can be improved, so that the size of the junction block can be reduced.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the extending direction of the plurality of positioning locking grooves is set to be at least two directions or more, the position of the bus bar when the bus bar is installed on the work set table. It is possible to reliably prevent the deviation.

According to the invention described in claim 4, it is possible to prevent an extreme decrease in strength due to the provision of the positioning engaging groove. According to the invention described in claim 5, the processing can be easily performed, so that the cost can be further reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the inside of a junction block.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an insulating plate and a bus bar separated from each other.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view in which a bus bar is attached to an insulating plate.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view showing a bus bar.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a further enlarged main part.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the bus bar separated from the work set table.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part where a bus bar is set on a work set table.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view showing a main part of a bus bar according to another embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing a busbar automatic mounting device according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a conventional bus bar plate.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing the insulating plate and the bus bar separated from each other in the related art.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view in which a bus bar is attached to an insulating plate in the related art.

FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing the bus bar separated from the work set table in the conventional technique.

FIG. 14 is an enlarged schematic view showing the arrangement of a bus bar in the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Junction block, 14 ... Lower case (first case), 15 ... Upper case (second case), 1
6 ... Electrical component mounting portion, 17 ... Busbar laminated body, 18 ... Insulation plate, 19 ... Busbar, 19a ... Connection terminal, 20 ... Caulking protrusion, 21 ... Caulking hole, 23 ... Positioning locking groove (non-penetrating recess) ), 25 ... Workset table, 26 ...
Positioning locking projection (locking projection).

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A busbar and an insulating plate made of synthetic resin are stacked and accommodated in a first case, and a caulking hole formed in the busbar is penetrated by a caulking protrusion formed in the insulating plate, and the caulking is performed. The electrical component provided in the second case in which the bus bar and the insulating plate are integrated by crushing the tip end of the protrusion, and the connection terminal is formed in a part of the bus bar, and the connection terminal is assembled to the first case. In a junction block that is inserted and arranged in a mounting portion and electrically connected to an electrical component to be mounted in an electrical component mounting portion and the connection terminal, the junction block is provided in a busbar automatic mounting device for assembling the insulating plate and the busbar. When the bus bar is installed on the work set table, a non-penetrating recess that can be engaged with the locking projection provided on the work set table is provided on the surface of the bus bar. Junction block to be. 2. The junction block according to claim 1, wherein the non-penetrating recess is a positioning locking groove extending linearly. 3. A plurality of the positioning engaging grooves are provided, and the extending direction of the positioning engaging grooves is at least 2.
The junction block according to claim 2, wherein the junction block is set to have more than one direction. 4. The junction block according to claim 2, wherein an inner surface of the positioning locking groove is formed in a semicircular shape. 5. The positioning locking groove extends along the width direction of the bus bar.
Junction block according to any one of 4.