JP2010067459A - Receptacle connector and method of manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent breakage of a fitting protrusion caused when a plug connector is obliquely inserted into a receptacle connector. <P>SOLUTION: In the receptacle connector, a metallic protection part 4 is arranged which covers both right and left side faces of the fitting protrusion 11 along the fitting direction (forward direction) to a fitting recess as well as the front end face of the fitting protrusion 11 opposite to an opening face of the fitting recess. Both right and left side faces and the front end face of the fitting protrusion 11 are covered with the metallic protection part 4 (protective frame 40), thereby a synthetic resin fitting protrusion 11 can be prevented from being abraded and damaged by a plug shell of the plug connector, even when the plug connector is obliquely inserted into the receptacle connector. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a receptacle connector to which a plug connector is detachably connected and a method for manufacturing the same.

  As a conventional receptacle connector and plug connector, there are a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector described in Patent Document 1 and a connector described in Patent Document 2. The plug connector P ′ of the USB connector described in Patent Document 1 includes a plug body 100 made of synthetic resin formed in a flat rectangular parallelepiped shape as shown in FIG. 8 and a plug body 100 formed in a rectangular tube shape. And a metal plug shell 101 that covers the outer peripheral surface. The plug body 100 is provided with a fitting recess 102 having a square hole shape opened to the front surface, and a plurality of plug contacts (not shown) are provided in parallel in the fitting recess 102.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the receptacle connector R ′ includes a receptacle body 200 made of synthetic resin in which a fitting protrusion 201 that fits into the fitting recess 102 of the plug connector P ′ protrudes from the front surface, and a receptacle. And a metal receptacle shell 201 that covers the outer peripheral surface of the body 200. A plurality (five in the illustrated example) of receptacle contacts 203 that are in contact with and electrically connected to the plug contacts of the plug connector P ′ are arranged side by side on the side surface (the lower surface in FIG. 7) of the fitting recess 102.

Thus, if the plug shell 101 is housed inside the receptacle shell 201 and connected to each other, the fitting protrusion 201 of the receptacle shell 201 is fitted into the fitting recess 102 of the plug connector P ′. The plug contact and the receptacle contact 203 are electrically connected along the vertical direction in FIG. 7 so that they are electrically connected.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-40271 JP 2002-75510 A

  By the way, in the above-described conventional example, the plug body 100 of the plug connector P ′ is covered with the metal plug shell 101. Therefore, when the plug connector P ′ is inserted obliquely with respect to the receptacle connector R ′, the plug The tip of the shell 101 may be in sliding contact with the fitting protrusion 201 of the receptacle connector R ′ (see FIGS. 8B to 8D). At this time, the fitting protrusion 201 made of synthetic resin is cut into the metal plug shell 101, and the receptacle contact 203 embedded in the fitting protrusion 201 may be exposed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a receptacle connector capable of preventing the fitting protrusion from being damaged when the plug connector is inserted obliquely, and a method for manufacturing the same. There is to do.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 includes a plug body provided with a fitting recess opening in the front surface, and a peripheral surface formed of a metal material in a cylindrical shape excluding the front surface of the plug body. A receptacle connector to which a plug connector having a covering plug shell and a plurality of plug contacts arranged in parallel in a fitting recess is detachably connected, and the plug shell of the plug connector is inserted from the front to the rear A cylindrical receptacle shell, a synthetic resin receptacle body housed inside the receptacle shell, a strip-shaped conductor held by the receptacle body, and a plug body fitting projecting forward from the front surface of the receptacle body A mating protrusion that fits into the mating recess and supports the receptacle contact provided on the front end side of the conductor, and mating Characterized in that a metallic protective portion covering the front surface of the fitting projection to the opening surface facing the side surface and the fitting recess of the fitting projection along the fitting direction of the parts.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, even when the plug connector is inserted obliquely, it faces the side surface of the fitting projection and the opening surface of the fitting recess along the fitting direction to the fitting recess. Since the metal protective part which covers the front end surface of the fitting protrusion to be provided is provided, it is possible to prevent the fitting protrusion made of synthetic resin from being scraped and damaged by the plug shell of the plug connector.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the fitting protrusion is characterized in that a corner portion where the side surface and the front end surface intersect is covered with the protective portion.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to more reliably prevent the fitting protrusion from being damaged.

  The invention of claim 3 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1 or 2, the portion of the fitting projection covered by the protective portion and the portion not covered by the protective portion are flush with each other.

  According to invention of Claim 3, a fitting protrusion and a fitting recessed part can be smoothly fitted as much as the conventional example which does not have a protection part.

  According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, a terminal piece for board mounting provided on the rear end side of the conductor protrudes from the rear end portion of the receptacle body, and is protected. The portion has a fixing piece that is held by the receptacle body and protrudes from the rear end portion of the receptacle body and is fixed to the substrate together with the terminal piece of the conductor.

  According to invention of Claim 4, the external force added to the terminal piece of a conductor can be relieve | moderated by fixing the fixing piece of a protection part to a board | substrate.

  The invention of claim 5 is a method of manufacturing the receptacle connector according to claims 1 to 4, wherein a plurality of receptacle contacts and a protective portion are formed by punching a metal hoop material, and the plurality of receptacles. And forming a receptacle body by insert-molding the contact and the protective portion.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to form a protective portion that protects the fitting protrusion without increasing the number of steps.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the fitting protrusion from being damaged when the plug connector is inserted obliquely.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the connector to which the technical idea of the present invention can be applied is not limited to a connector conforming to a specific standard, and can be applied to all connectors conforming to an arbitrary standard (for example, USB standard or IEEE 1394 standard). is there. The plug connector that is detachably connected to the receptacle connector R of this embodiment is the same as the plug connector P ′ of the conventional example shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the receptacle connector R of the present embodiment includes a plurality of (5 in the illustrated example) conductors 2 and a receptacle body (hereinafter abbreviated as a body) that supports the plurality of conductors 2. ) 1 and a receptacle shell (not shown) in which a plurality of conductors 2 and the body 1 are housed. In the following description, the directions of up, down, left, and right are defined in FIG. 1, and the direction from the front (front) to the rear (back) is called the insertion direction, and the direction from the rear to the front is called the anti-insertion direction.

  The body 1 is made of a synthetic resin molded product having insulating properties, and has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped main portion 10 and a rectangular plate-like fitting protrusion 11 protruding forward from the front surface of the main portion 10. A plurality (five) of conductors 2 are insert-molded in the main portion 10 and the fitting protrusion 11. The conductor 2 is formed by bending a strip-shaped metal plate into a bowl shape, and as shown in FIG. 3D, the main piece 20 inserted in the main portion 10 and the front end of the main piece 20 forward. It has a receptacle contact (hereinafter abbreviated as a contact) 21 that extends and a terminal piece 22 that extends rearward from the rear end of the main piece 20. Further, in these five conductors 2, a contact 21 is exposed on the lower surface side of the fitting projection 11. Furthermore, on the lower surface side of the fitting protrusion 11, the contacts 21 are juxtaposed at equal intervals (equal pitch) in the left-right direction (see FIGS. 2 and 3C). The terminal pieces 22 of the conductor 2 are juxtaposed at equal intervals (equal pitch) in the left-right direction at the lower rear portion of the main portion 10 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3C. The structures of the body 1 and the conductor 2 described above are almost the same as those of the conventional example shown in FIGS.

  Next, the gist of the present embodiment will be described.

  As described in the prior art, when the plug connector P ′ is inserted obliquely with respect to the receptacle connector R ′, the distal end portion of the plug shell 101 is slidably contacted with the fitting protrusion 201 of the receptacle connector R ′ (see FIG. 8 (b) to (d)), as a result, the synthetic resin fitting projection 11 may be scraped and damaged by the metal plug shell 101.

  In contrast, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the left and right side surfaces of the fitting projection 11 along the fitting direction (forward) to the fitting recess and the opening surface of the fitting recess are opposed. It is characterized in that a metal protection part 4 is provided to cover the front end face of the fitting protrusion 11 to be engaged.

  The protection part 4 includes a protection frame 40 that is insert-molded on the fitting protrusion 11 so as to be exposed on the surface of the fitting protrusion 11, a pair of support pieces 41 that are insert-molded on the body 1, and each support piece 41. And a fixed piece 42 extending rearward from the rear end (see FIG. 5C). Further, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3C, the pair of fixed pieces 42 are juxtaposed in the lower rear portion of the main portion 10 so as to sandwich the terminal pieces 22 of the conductor 2 therebetween.

  Thus, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, both the left and right side surfaces and the front end surface of the fitting projection 11 are covered with the metal protection portion 4 (protection frame 40) (FIGS. 1 and 2). In this case, the protective frame 40 and the fixing piece 42 are hatched.) Even when the plug connector is inserted obliquely, the synthetic resin fitting protrusion 11 is scraped and damaged by the plug shell of the plug connector. Can be prevented. Here, as shown in FIG. 4, if the corner portion where the left and right side surfaces and the front end surface of the fitting protrusion 11 intersect is covered with the protection part 4 (protection frame 40), the fitting protrusion 11 is damaged. It can prevent more reliably.

  Further, in the present embodiment, insert molding is performed so that the portion of the fitting protrusion 11 that is covered by the protective portion 4 (protective frame 40) and the portion that is not covered by the protective portion 4 (protective frame 40) are flush with each other. Therefore, the fitting protrusion 11 and the fitting recess can be smoothly fitted to the same extent as in the conventional example that does not have the protection part 4.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the fixing member 42 protrudes from the rear end portion of the body 1 (main portion 10) and is fixed to the substrate together with the terminal piece 22 of the conductor 2, so that the fixing piece 42 of the protection portion 4 is provided. By fixing to the substrate, the external force applied to the terminal piece 22 of the conductor 2 can be relaxed.

  Here, the manufacturing method of this embodiment is demonstrated easily. As shown in FIG. 5, a hoop material F made of a strip-shaped metal plate is punched, and thereafter, a portion corresponding to the conductor 2 and the protective portion 4 is bent as shown in FIG. The conductor 2 and the protection part 4 are formed simultaneously. More specifically, the five conductors 2 are connected to the hoop material F at the rear end portion serving as the terminal pieces 22, and the protective portion 4 is formed in a substantially U shape surrounding the five conductors 2 and fixed. It connects with the hoop material F in the rear end part used as the piece 42 (refer FIG. 5). Then, the conductor 2 and the protective portion 4 that are still connected to the hoop material F are insert-molded in the body 1, and then the joints (the terminal pieces 22 and the fixing pieces 42 of the hoop material F, the conductor 2, and the protective portion 4 are connected. The receptacle connector R is formed by cutting the rear end portion.

  As described above, the process of punching and bending the hoop material F and the process of insert-molding the conductor 2 into the body 1 are the same as those in the conventional manufacturing method having no protective part 4, and the protective part. In the manufacturing method of the present embodiment in which 4 is added, the protective portion 4 can be formed simultaneously with the conductor 2 in the punching process and the bending process. That is, there is an advantage that the protection part 4 that protects the fitting protrusion 11 can be formed without increasing the number of steps from the conventional manufacturing method.

1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention and omitting a receptacle shell. It is the perspective view which abbreviate | omitted the receptacle shell same as the above. The same as above, (a) is a front view, (b) is a right side view, (c) is a bottom view, and (d) is a right side sectional view. It is the side view which abbreviate | omitted the receptacle shell same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of a manufacturing method same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of a manufacturing method same as the above. It is a front view which shows the conventional receptacle connector. (A)-(d) is explanatory drawing explaining the conventional connection process.

Explanation of symbols

R Receptacle connector 1 Receptacle body 2 Conductor 4 Protective part 11 Fitting protrusion 21 Receptacle contact

Claims (5)

A plug body having a fitting recess opened in the front surface, a plug shell formed in a cylindrical shape by a metal material and covering a peripheral surface excluding the front surface of the plug body, and a plurality of juxtaposed in the fitting recess A plug connector having a plug contact and a receptacle connector to be removably connected,
A cylindrical receptacle shell into which the plug shell of the plug connector is inserted from the front to the rear, a synthetic resin receptacle body housed inside the receptacle shell, and a strip-shaped conductor held by the receptacle body , Projecting forward from the front surface of the receptacle body and mating with the mating recess of the plug body, and supporting the receptacle contact provided on the leading end side of the conductor, and in the fitting direction to the mating recess A receptacle connector comprising a side face of the fitting protrusion along the opening and a metal protection portion covering the front end face of the fitting protrusion facing the opening surface of the fitting recess.   The receptacle connector according to claim 1, wherein the fitting protrusion is covered with a protective portion at a corner where the side surface and the front end surface intersect.   The receptacle connector according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a portion of the fitting protrusion covered with the protective portion and a portion not covered with the protective portion are flush with each other. A board mounting terminal piece provided on the rear end side of the conductor protrudes from the rear end portion of the receptacle body,
4. The protection part according to claim 1, further comprising a fixing piece that is held by the receptacle body and protrudes from a rear end portion of the receptacle body and is fixed to the substrate together with a terminal piece of the conductor. Receptacle connector as described in 1.   5. The method of manufacturing a receptacle connector according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of receptacle contacts and a protective portion are formed by punching a metal hoop material, and the plurality of receptacle contacts and the protective portion are insert-molded. And forming a receptacle body. A method for manufacturing a receptacle connector, comprising:

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