JP2003203707A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector capable of certainly maintaining an engagement state of mutual terminals even if vibration is applied, to hardly cause deterioration. <P>SOLUTION: In this connector, the inside of a connector housing 1 is formed with cavities 2a, 2b wherein both ends are opened, respective female terminals 10 are inserted into the respective cavities 2a, 2b toward the engagement side to opposite terminals and are installed, and a retainer 7 is inserted and installed toward the inside from a bottom face 3 side of the connector housing 1 in an engagement state of the retainer 7 with the respective female terminals 10 to prevent detachment of the female terminals 10. Each the female terminal 10 has a retainer engagement part 12 engaging with the retainer 7, and is formed with an elastic piece 15 bent toward a retainer insertion direction on the engagement face side of the retainer 7 of the retainer engagement part 12 such that the elastic piece 15 receives force pressing the female terminal 10 from the retainer 7 to the engagement face side. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector mounted on, for example, a vehicle and capable of firmly establishing a connection state of an electric connection portion against vibration from a vehicle body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various electronic parts and electric parts mounted on an automobile are electrically connected to a battery through a connector.

The electrical connection by such a connector is performed by fitting a male terminal provided on one of the two connectors and a female terminal provided on the other.

[0004]

By the way, in recent years, the weight reduction of automobiles has been promoted, and the weight reduction and high rigidity of the engine have been attempted, and along with this, the vibration which is more violent than in the conventional case. Tend to be transmitted to the connector.

On the other hand, the terminals are mounted in the connector housing with some looseness, so that even if the male and female housings are firmly fitted to each other, the connection between the terminals can be surely maintained. It's getting harder. That is, in the conventional art, since there is some play between the connector housing and the terminal assembled to the connector housing, even if the housings of both connectors are fitted together, there is a possibility that both of the terminals will shift due to the play. In particular, when violent vibration is applied, the contact load connecting the terminals cannot be increased due to the miniaturization of the connector, and this displacement cannot be prevented only by the contact load between the terminals. .
Therefore, there is a possibility that deterioration due to wear is likely to occur due to sliding or movement of the connecting portions of both terminals.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, and suppresses the movement of the terminals within the housing even when subjected to vibration, and reliably holds the fitted state of the terminals. It is an object of the present invention to provide a connector that can be made less likely to deteriorate.

[0007]

According to the connector of the present invention, one or two or more cavities whose both ends are open are formed in the inside of the connector housing, and each of the cavities has a terminal on the side of the mating surface with the mating terminal. Is a connector that is inserted toward the inside of the connector housing and that is inserted and attached in a state in which the retainer engages with each terminal from the side surface side of the connector housing to prevent the terminal from coming off. Has an engaging portion with a retainer, and an elastic piece is formed so as to receive a force pressed from the retainer to the fitting surface side.

In this connector, since the elastic piece of the terminal receives a force from the retainer to be pushed toward the fitting surface side, the terminal is fixed to the connector housing while being pushed to the fitting surface side. There is less play in the mating direction. Therefore, even if the connector receives a vibration from the vehicle body side, the movement of the terminals in the housing is suppressed, the fitted state of the terminals is more reliably maintained, and deterioration is less likely to occur.

In the connector of the present invention, a second elastic piece is provided at the tip of the elastic piece so as to extend in a direction substantially orthogonal to the retainer insertion direction so as to receive a force in the retainer insertion direction from the retainer. Preferably.

According to this structure, in addition to the reduction in play in the terminal fitting direction, the play in the direction substantially perpendicular to the terminal fitting direction (retainer insertion direction) is also reduced. Therefore, the fitted state of the terminals is more surely maintained.

The terminal may be either a male terminal or a female terminal fitted with each other, but preferably both.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below.

1 and 2 are front sectional views showing the structure of a connector according to the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a state before the retainer is completely inserted, and FIG. 2 shows a state after the retainer is completely inserted. ing.

In the connector of this embodiment, the cavities 2a and 2b having open ends are provided inside the connector housing 1.
2 are formed above and below, the bottom surface 3 is below the lower cavity 2a, and the partition wall 4 is above the cavity 2a.
A ceiling surface 5 is formed on the upper cavity 2b. The bottom surface 3 and the ceiling surface 5 form a part of the side surface of the connector housing 1. Further, on the bottom surface 3 and the partition wall 4, retainer insertion holes 3a, 4a are formed in substantially the same shape at the same position in the left-right direction. The retainer insertion holes 3a, 4
The retainer 7 is inserted into a in the upward direction (retainer insertion direction A) from the bottom surface 3 side toward the inside.

Inside each of the cavities 2a and 2b, for example, a female terminal 10 is provided, and a mating male terminal (not shown) is provided.
It is inserted and attached toward the fitting surface side (left side in the figure) of and. The female terminals 10 in this mounted state are prevented from coming off to the fitting surface side by the terminal coming-off prevention portion 1a formed by making the openings on the fitting surface side of the cavities 2a and 2b small, and The lances 6a and 6b formed on the upper sides of the cavities 2a and 2b are engaged for temporary locking and are prevented from coming off to the terminal insertion side (right side in the drawing).

Each female terminal 10 is made of metal and has a terminal box portion 11 on which a male terminal (not shown) is fitted on the front side (fitting surface side) and a retainer 7 on the rear side. The retainer locking portion 12 to be locked and the electric wire locking portion 14 to lock the electric wire 13 are provided on the rear side of the retainer locking portion 12 and extend from the terminal box portion 11 toward the rear side. An elastic piece 15 bent at an angle θ (<90 °) toward the insertion direction A is formed (see FIG. 1).

Each of the cavities 2a,
Through holes 7a and 7b corresponding to 2b and wall surfaces 7c and 7d corresponding to the bottom surface 3 and the partition wall 4 are formed. Before attaching the female terminal 10 to the cavity, the retainer 7 is inserted into the state before complete insertion shown in FIG. 1, and in this state, the female terminals 10 are inserted into the through holes 7a and 7b. Each female terminal 10 is attached, and after the female terminal 10 is attached, the retainer 7 is further inserted in the retainer insertion direction A to obtain the state after the complete insertion shown in FIG.

Next, the procedure for assembling the connector thus constructed will be described.

First, the retainer 7 is inserted into the retainer insertion holes 3a, 4a in the connector housing 1 in a state before being completely inserted, and the cavities 2a, 2b and the through holes 7a,
The female terminal 10 is inserted and attached toward the fitting surface side (left side in the drawing) so as to pass through 7b. Along with this, the lances 6a, 6
b is engaged with the female terminal 10 for temporary locking.

Subsequently, the retainer 7 is inserted in a state after being completely inserted. Then, the retainer 7 has its wall surfaces 7c and 7d.
The end on the fitting surface side of the elastic piece 15 is attached so that the elastic piece 15 provided on each female terminal 10 is bent so that θ becomes large.
Receives a force from the retainer 7 that is pressed against the fitting surface side.

Therefore, in the connector thus assembled, the elastic piece 15 receives a force from the retainer 7 to the fitting surface side, and each female terminal 10 is in contact with the terminal disconnection preventing portion 1a. Connector housing 1
Fixed to. Therefore, the backlash in the fitting direction of each female terminal 10 (the left-right direction in the drawing) is reduced. Therefore, even if a male terminal (not shown) is fitted to each female terminal 10 so as to be electrically connected, the fitted state of both terminals is such that the connector housing 1 has By suppressing the movement of the terminal in the above, the terminal is securely held and deterioration is less likely to occur.

FIG. 3 is a front sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention. The left side of FIG. 3 is the fitting surface side.

In this embodiment, the second elastic piece 15a, which is substantially orthogonal to the retainer insertion direction A, is provided at the tip of the elastic piece 15 of the female terminal 10.

In the case of this construction, the second elastic piece 15
Since a receives the force in the retainer insertion direction from the wall surfaces 7c and 7d of the retainer 7, the backlash in the fitting direction of the female terminal 10 is reduced, and in addition, a direction substantially orthogonal to the fitting direction of the female terminal 10 ( There is less play in the retainer insertion direction A). Therefore, the fitted state of the female terminal and the male terminal is more surely maintained, and deterioration is extremely unlikely to occur.

Although the above-described embodiment is applied to the case where the female terminal is attached to the connector housing, the present invention is not limited to this, and is similarly applicable to the case where the male terminal is attached to the connector housing. it can. Further, the connector of the present invention is preferably applied to both the female terminal and the male terminal in terms of preventing deterioration due to vibration. However, when the present invention is applied to the male terminal, the formation of the terminal box portion 11 is omitted, but the elastic piece 15, or the elastic piece 15 and the second elastic piece 15a are provided at appropriate portions that engage with the retainer. It may be formed.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the connector housing is provided with two cavities, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the connector housing is provided with one or three or more cavities. Can also be applied to the connector.

[0027]

As described above in detail, in the case of the present invention, the elastic piece of the terminal receives the force from the retainer to be pressed against the mating surface side, so that the connector is kept pressed against the mating surface side. Since it is fixed to the housing, there is less play in the fitting direction of the terminals, and even if the connector receives vibration from the vehicle body side, the movement of the terminals in the connector housing is suppressed and the terminals fit together. The state is maintained more reliably, and deterioration can be made less likely to occur. In particular,
A second elastic piece extending in a direction substantially orthogonal to the retainer insertion direction is provided at the tip of the elastic piece so as to receive a force from the retainer in the retainer insertion direction. In addition to reducing the backlash, the backlash in the direction (retainer insertion direction) substantially orthogonal to the fitting direction of the terminals can be reduced, and the fitted state of the terminals can be more reliably maintained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front sectional view showing the configuration of a connector according to the present invention, showing a state before a retainer is completely inserted.

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view showing the configuration of the connector according to the present invention, showing a state after the retainer is completely inserted.

FIG. 3 is a front sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Connector housing 2a, 2b cavity 7 retainer 10 female terminals 12 Retainer locking part 15 Elastic piece 15a Second elastic piece

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Saito Nei             1-7-10 Kikuzumi, Minami-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi             Auto Network Technical Laboratory Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5E087 EE02 EE06 EE07 FF06 GG15                       GG26 GG31 GG32 MM05 QQ04                       RR15

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A connector housing is formed with one or two or more cavities whose both ends are open, and terminals are inserted into and attached to respective cavities toward a mating surface of a mating terminal. In order to prevent the terminals from coming off, a connector is inserted and attached from the side surface side of the connector housing toward the inside so that the retainer engages with each terminal, and each of the terminals has an engaging portion with the retainer. Then, the connector is characterized in that the elastic piece is formed so as to receive the force pressed from the retainer to the fitting surface side. 2. A second elastic piece extending in a direction substantially orthogonal to the retainer insertion direction so as to receive a force from the retainer in the retainer insertion direction at the tip of the elastic piece. The connector according to Item 1.