JP2009199753A - Electrical connector device and electric connector used for it - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric connector device in which when an electric connector preventing coming-off by a latch member is installed in two stages vertically, an operation space for releasing latch engagement is not required and compactness of the connectors is realized with space-saving realized, and an electric connector used for the same. <P>SOLUTION: The electric connector device includes a base connector having a first connecting terminal and an electric connector which is installed removably to the base connector, and equipped with a vertically pair of a first and a second electric connectors in which second connecting terminals to be connected to the first connecting terminal in insertion into the base connector are installed respectively in many numbers, a pair of latch members which are installed on both sides of the first electric connector and are latched and engaged with the base connector in insertion into the base connector, a terminal cover which is supported rotatably to the first electric connector and releases latch engagement by biasing the latch member by pushing operation, and a coupling means to couple the first electric connector and the second electric connector detachably. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to an electrical connector device incorporated in a functional unit of a control center that performs start-up control and protection of a motor used in, for example, an electric power plant and the like, and an electrical connector used therefor.

This type of electrical connector device is provided in each of a plurality of functional units arranged in the vertical direction of the box of the control center, and can be inserted into and removed from the fixed-side electrical connector on the functional unit side and the fixed-side electrical connector. The control circuit wiring side of the movable side electrical connector inserted into the control unit is electrically connected to the device inside the functional unit and the control circuit wiring.
In a conventional electrical connector device, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, latching engagement is provided with a fixed-side electrical connector by latch members provided on both side surfaces of the movable-side electrical connector so that the movable-side electrical connector is disconnected. Is preventing. Then, by pressing the upper surface of the cover that is rotatably provided on the movable electrical connector with a finger, the two latch members are released simultaneously, and the movable electrical connector can be easily removed from the fixed electrical connector. It can be inserted and removed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP-A-53-122794 (2nd page, FIG. 3)

In the conventional electrical connector device as described above, when inserting and removing the movable electrical connector from the fixed electrical connector, it is necessary to release the latch engagement by pressing the upper surface of the lid with a finger. When the electrical connectors are installed in two stages in the vertical direction corresponding to the increase in the number of wires, an operation space for releasing the latch engagement is required between the electrical connectors, and there is a problem that the exclusive area increases. Further, when the area occupied by the electrical connector increases, the area occupied by the electrical connector device using the electrical connector also increases, which hinders space saving.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and even if the two upper and lower stages are arranged, an operation space for releasing the latch engagement of the second electrical connector between them becomes unnecessary. The electrical connector can be made compact, and the electrical connector device can be made compact. Thus, an electrical connector device that can realize space saving and an electrical connector used in the electrical connector device are obtained.

An electrical connector device according to the present invention includes a base connector having a first connection terminal and an electrical connector that is detachably attached to the base connector, and is connected to the first connection terminal when inserted into the base connector. A pair of upper and lower first and second electrical connectors each having a large number of two connection terminals, and a pair of latches that are provided on both sides of the first electrical connector and latch-engaged with the base connector when inserted into the base connector A member, a terminal cover that is supported by the first electrical connector in a rotating manner and biases the latch member by a pressing operation to release the latch engagement, and the first electrical connector and the second electrical connector are attached and detached. Connecting means for connecting to white.

According to the present invention, there is no need for an operation space between the electrical connectors arranged in the upper and lower stages, and an electrical connector device capable of saving space and an electrical connector used therefor can be obtained.

Embodiment 1.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a control center according to Embodiment 1 for carrying out the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a functional unit of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a partially extracted electrical connector device of FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a side view showing the electrical connector device in FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which the electrical connector is extracted from the base connector. 7 is an exploded view showing a state where the first electrical connector and the second electrical connector of FIG. 5 are separated. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

In FIG. 1, the control center 1 divides the inside of the box 3 into a plurality of stages and constitutes a plurality of unit chambers with front doors 3a for each stage, and main circuits such as circuit breakers and electromagnetic contactors not shown in these unit chambers. A functional unit 2 in which appliances, control circuit appliances such as thermal relays, auxiliary relays, etc. are grouped for each unit circuit is housed so as to be drawable. As shown in FIG. 2, the functional unit 2 includes an electrical connector device 4 and a circuit breaker operation handle 5 on the front side, an operation display device 6 for performing status display, motor control, and the like in addition to the main circuit device described above. It is arranged. The electrical connector device 4 includes a base connector 26 fixed to the front surface of the functional unit 2 as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, and a pair of upper and lower first electrical connectors 11 that can be inserted into and removed from the base connector 26. And an electrical connector 25 comprising the second electrical connector 24. Each of the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 includes a cylindrical portion 17 that houses a second connection terminal 16 that is connected to a first connection terminal 23 provided in parallel inside the base connector 26. The control wires 18 are arranged in parallel at the front, and the control wires 18 are fastened by set screws 19 at the rear. The second connection terminals 16 and the control wires 18 are provided inside the first electric connector 11 and the second electric connector 24. Electrically connected.

The first electrical connector 11 is provided with a substantially U-shaped terminal cover 13 formed over the second connection terminal 16 at the top. Further, the side surface of the first electrical connector 11 includes a pair of support members 12 extending upward, and a pair of elastic bodies extending forward and having a rear end fixed to the first electrical connector 11 and a front end swingable up and down. And a connecting groove 14 that extends in the insertion / extraction direction of the electrical connector 25 and opens at the rear and closes at the front.
The support member 12 has a protrusion 12a facing the inner surface at the top. The latch member 15 has a latch 15a at the front end, and a locking portion 15b at a substantially central portion. The terminal cover 13 has a hole 13b that is rotatably supported by a protrusion 12a provided on the support member 12, and a latch member driving portion 13a that pushes down the latch member 15 when the terminal cover 13 is pressed. It has on the inner surface. Further, due to the bias of the latch member 15 when the terminal cover 13 is pressed, the locking portion 15b is also pushed down.
The first electrical connector 11 is formed in the same manner as the second electrical connector 24 except for the terminal cover 13 and the latch member 15. The first electrical connector 11 is placed on the upper stage, the second electrical connector 24 is placed on the lower stage, and the protrusion 12a of the second electrical connector 24 is inserted into the connecting groove 14 of the first electrical connector 11. By sliding, the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 are connected to form an electrical connector 25.

8 is a view showing the connecting operation of the base connector 26 in FIG. 6, FIG. 9 is a front view showing the first base connector 20 in FIG. 8, and FIG. 10 is a bottom view showing the first base connector 20 in FIG. is there.
In FIG. 8, the base connector 26 is configured by connecting a first base connector 20 and a second base connector 28 that is formed in the same manner as the first base connector 20 and is inverted upside down with the bottom surfaces aligned. The For this connection, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the first base connector 20 and the second base connector 28 are connected to a pair of hook claws 21 that protrude downward downward diagonally to the bottom face. Has a hook 27 for hooks, and the hooks of the hooks 21 prevent the first base connector 20 and the second base connector 28 from being separated. In addition, a position correction recess 20b is provided in which the position correction protrusion 20a is fitted when the position correction protrusion 20a is slightly shorter than half of the length in the longitudinal direction at a substantially central portion in the short direction of the bottom surface. is doing. By this fitting, the first base connector 20 and the second base connector 28 can be easily and accurately aligned.

Next, the operation will be described. In FIG. 7, the first electrical connector 11, the second electrical connector 24, and the first electrical connector 11 are slid in a state where the protrusion 12 a of the second electrical connector 24 is inserted into the connection groove 14 of the first electrical connector 11. Form an electrical connector 25 connected in the vertical direction. In this connection state, since the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 only fit the protrusion 12a into the connection groove 14, separation can be easily performed.

Next, when the electrical connector 25 connected as described above is inserted into the base connector 26, as shown in FIG. 6, the terminal cover 13 of the first electrical connector 11 is pressed to center on the protrusion 12a. As the latch member 15 is biased by the latch member driving portion 13a provided on the inner surface of the terminal cover 13, the locking portion 15b is pushed down together with the latch 15a. As a result, the locking portion 15b engages with the support member 12 of the second electrical connector 24 to prevent the second electrical connector 24 from being pulled out, so the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector In the state where 24 is integrated, both the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 are securely inserted into the base connector 26. Thereafter, when the pressing operation of the terminal cover 13 is stopped, the latch member 15 returns to the position shown in FIG. 5, so that the latch 15 a is engaged with the shoulder portion 22 and the electrical connector 25 is prevented from being pulled out. In this case, the latch 15a does not return to the initial position due to the position of the shoulder portion 22 in the height direction, so the locking portion 15b does not return to the original position, and the support member for the second electrical connector 24. 12 is also maintained, and the second electrical connector 24 is prevented from coming off. As a result, the electrical connector device 4 in which the electrical connector 25 is inserted into the base connector 26 is obtained.
In addition, since the latch member drive part 13a is provided in the inner surface side of the terminal cover 13, it can arrange | position so that the latch member 15 may pass the inner side of the terminal cover 13. FIG. As a result, the latch 15a is not sufficiently pushed down during the above insertion, and the latch 15a contacts the shoulder 22 and the latch member 15 is deformed outwardly and is damaged in this state. Since the inner surface of the cover 13 is on the outside, it can be prevented.

On the other hand, an operation for extracting the electrical connector 25 from the base connector 26 will be described.
First, in FIG. 5, the pressing operation of the terminal cover 13 of the electrical connector 25 causes the latch member 15 to be biased in the same manner as described above, and the engagement between the latch 15a and the shoulder portion 22 is released. Thus, the electrical connector 25 and the base connector 26 are obtained by extracting the base connector 26 from the electrical connector 25.
Thereafter, when the pressing operation of the terminal cover 13 is stopped, the pressing of the latch 15a is also released. Accordingly, the pressing of the locking portion 15b provided in the middle of the latch member 15 is also released at the same time, and the engagement between the locking portion 15b and the shoulder portion 22 of the second electrical connector 24 is also released. Finally, the second electrical connector 24 is slid from the first electrical connector 11 and pulled out and separated, whereby the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 are obtained.

According to the above-described embodiment, the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 are connected in the vertical direction so that the first electrical connector is simultaneously operated by operating the terminal cover 13 provided on the first electrical connector 11. 11 and the second electrical connector 24 can be inserted / removed, an operation space for releasing the latch engagement of the second electrical connector 24 becomes unnecessary, and the space of the electrical connector device 4 can be saved.
Further, since the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 are connected in the vertical direction, the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 11 are simultaneously operated by operating the terminal cover 13 provided on the first electrical connector 11. Since the connector 24 can be inserted / removed, an operation space for releasing the latch engagement of the second electrical connector 24 is not required, and the space can be saved.
Furthermore, since the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 can be inserted / removed simultaneously by operating the terminal cover 13 provided on the first electrical connector 11, the insertion / removal operation is simplified. The terminal cover 13 and the latch member 15 are not required, the number of parts can be reduced, and the operation can be simplified without the need to insert and remove the first electrical connector 11 and the second electrical connector 24 one by one.
Furthermore, since the second electrical connector 24 is formed in the same manner as the first electrical connector 11 excluding the terminal cover 13 and the latch member 15, the parts can be shared and mass production can be achieved, and the cost can be reduced. be able to.
In addition, since the first and second base connectors are formed in the same manner in the base connector, parts can be shared, mass production can be achieved, and cost can be reduced.

In the above-described embodiment, the base connector is configured by dividing the first base connector and the second base connector each having a large number of first connection terminals side by side into the first base connector. And the second base connector may be formed as an integral unit.
In addition, the electrical connector device in which the first and second electrical connectors are connected is inserted into the base connector in which the first and second base connectors are connected to form an electrical connector device. It is good also as an electrical connector apparatus inserted in one base connector.
By the way, although it demonstrated as an electrical connector and a base connector of the functional unit for control centers in the said description, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention can be utilized besides the functional unit for control centers.

It is a perspective view which shows the control center by Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is an expansion perspective view which shows the functional unit of FIG. FIG. 3 is an enlarged top view in which the electrical connector device of FIG. 2 is extracted and partly cut away. It is AA sectional drawing of FIG. It is a side view which shows the electrical connector apparatus of FIG. It is a side view which shows the state which extracted the electric connector of FIG. 5 from the base connector. It is an exploded view which shows the state which isolate | separated the 1st electrical connector and 2nd electrical connector of FIG. FIG. 6 is a side view showing a connecting operation of the first base connector and the second base connector of FIG. 5. It is a front view which shows the 1st base connector of FIG. FIG. 10 is a bottom view showing the first base connector of FIG. 9.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control center 2 Functional unit 3 Box 3a Front door 4 Electric connector device 5 Circuit breaker operation handle 6 Operation display device 11 First electric connector 12 Support member 12a Projection portion 13 Terminal cover 13a Latch member drive portion 13b Hole 14 Connecting groove 15 Latch member 15a Latch 15b Locking portion 16 Second connection terminal 17 Tube portion 18 Control line 19 Set screw 20 First base connector 20a Position correction protrusion 20b Position correction recess 21 Claw 22 Shoulder portion 23 First connection terminal 24 Second electrical connector 25 Electrical connector 26 Base connector 27 Claw recess 28 Second base connector

Claims (7)

In an electrical connector device comprising a base connector having a first connection terminal and an electrical connector that is detachably attached to the base connector, a second connector connected to the first connection terminal when inserted into the base connector. A pair of upper and lower first and second electrical connectors each having a large number of connection terminals arranged side by side, and a pair provided on both sides of the first electrical connector and latch-engaged with the base connector when inserted into the base connector. A latch cover, a terminal cover that is supported by the first electrical connector in a rotating manner and biases the latch member by a pressing operation to release the latch engagement, the first electrical connector, and the first electrical connector. An electrical connector device comprising a connecting means for detachably connecting the two electrical connectors. The electrical connector device according to claim 1, wherein the second electrical connector is detachable with respect to the first electrical connector in the insertion / removal direction of the electrical connector. The electrical connector device according to claim 2, wherein the latch member has a locking portion that engages with the second electrical connector when biased. 4. The electrical connector device according to claim 1, wherein the second electrical connector is formed in the same manner as the first electrical connector excluding the terminal cover and the latch member. 5. The base connector according to claim 1, wherein the base connector includes first and second base connectors that are vertically arranged corresponding to the first and second electrical connectors and that are detachable from each other. The electrical connector device according to the description. 6. The electrical connector device according to claim 5, wherein the first and second base connectors are formed in the same manner. In the electrical connector inserted into and removed from the base connector having the first connection terminal, a pair of upper and lower first terminals each provided with a large number of second connection terminals connected in parallel to the first connection terminal when inserted into the base connector. And a second electrical connector, a pair of latch members provided on both sides of the first electrical connector and latch-engaged with the base connector when inserted into the base connector, and a rotating white on the first electrical connector. And a terminal cover for biasing the latch member by a pressing operation to release the latch engagement, and a connecting means for detachably connecting the first electrical connector and the second electrical connector. An electrical connector characterized by that.

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