JP2012129078A - Connector and rubber plug - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a rubber plug from being detached from a housing with simple means.SOLUTION: A connector 10 comprises a housing 20, to which a terminal metal fitting 50 can be mounted; and a rubber plug 60 tightly fitted with an outer periphery of the housing 20. A lip 63 is formed on the outer periphery of the rubber plug 60 to project in a circumferential direction. Under a condition that the housing 20 is fitted with a fitted object, the rubber plug 60 is nipped between the housing 20 and the fitted object, and the lip 63 is elastically crushed to an inner periphery of the fitted object. A seal part 61 with the lip 63, and a holding part 62 without the lip part 63 are separately formed on the rubber plug 60 in an axial direction. The holding part 62 has a small diameter part 67 with an inside diameter dimension A smaller than a minimum inside diameter B of the seal part 61.

Description

  The present invention relates to a connector and a rubber plug.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a conventional connector and a rubber plug. The connector includes a block-shaped housing to which a terminal fitting can be attached. The housing can be fitted into the mating housing. The rubber stopper has an annular shape and is fitted in close contact with the inner peripheral surface of the housing. On the outer peripheral surface of the rubber plug, a plurality of lips are formed side by side in the axial direction. When the housing is fitted into the mating housing, the rubber plug is sandwiched between the housing and the mating housing, and the lip is elastically crushed by the inner peripheral surface of the mating housing.

  Here, the rubber stopper is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the housing from the front, and the front holder is attached to the front end of the housing after the rubber stopper is attached. For this reason, a front holder is located in front of the rubber plug, and the front holder prevents the rubber plug from coming off forward.

Japanese Patent No. 3968638

  By the way, in the case of a connector that does not require a front holder, instead of the front holder, it is necessary to provide a separate retaining means for preventing the rubber plug from coming out forward. If it does so, there exists a possibility that the structure of a connector may become complicated, and there exists a possibility that an assembly workability | operativity may deteriorate by the increase in a number of parts, and cost may become expensive.

  The present invention has been completed on the basis of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to realize prevention of a rubber plug from coming off from a housing by simple means.

  As means for achieving the above object, the invention of claim 1 comprises a housing to which a terminal fitting can be attached, and a rubber plug fitted in close contact with the outer peripheral surface of the housing, A lip is formed on the outer peripheral surface so as to protrude in the circumferential direction, and the housing can be fitted to a mating partner. In the fitted state, the rubber plug is sandwiched between the housing and the mating partner. And the lip is elastically crushed to the inner peripheral surface of the mating counterpart, and the rubber plug has a seal portion having the lip and a holding portion not having the lip. The holding portion has a small diameter portion having an inner diameter smaller than the minimum inner diameter of the seal portion.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the inner peripheral surface of the holding portion is a tapered surface that gradually decreases in diameter in a direction opposite to the mounting direction of the rubber plug to the housing. However, it has characteristics.

  The invention of claim 3 is closely fitted to the outer peripheral surface of the housing, and a lip is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the housing so as to protrude in the circumferential direction. A rubber plug that is sandwiched between a housing and the mating partner, and in which the lip is elastically crushed by the inner peripheral surface of the mating partner, and has a seal portion having the lip and the lip. The holding portion is formed separately in the axial direction, and the holding portion has a small diameter portion having an inner diameter smaller than the minimum inner diameter of the seal portion.

  The invention of claim 4 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 3, the inner peripheral surface of the holding portion is a tapered surface that gradually decreases in diameter in a direction opposite to the mounting direction to the housing. Have.

<Invention of Claims 1 and 3>
The rubber plug has a seal portion having a lip and a holding portion not having a lip formed separately in the axial direction, and the holding portion has a small-diameter portion whose inner diameter is smaller than the minimum inner diameter of the seal portion. A predetermined holding force (frictional force) capable of preventing the rubber stopper from coming off can be obtained by closely attaching the small diameter portion to the outer peripheral surface of the rubber plug. Therefore, it is possible to realize the stopper of the rubber stopper from the housing by simple means.

<Invention of Claims 2 and 4>
Since the inner peripheral surface of the holding portion is a tapered surface that gradually decreases in diameter in the direction opposite to the mounting direction of the rubber plug to the housing, the insertion load when the rubber plug is mounted is reduced. Therefore, the workability of attaching the rubber plug is improved.

It is a top view of the connector in connection with Embodiment 1 of this invention before fitting to a fitting other party. It is sectional drawing of a connector. It is a rear view of a connector. It is a front view of a connector. It is a rear view of a rubber stopper. It is sectional drawing of a rubber stopper. 10 is a plan view of a connector according to Reference Example 1. FIG. It is a rear view of a rubber stopper. It is an exploded top view of a housing and a rubber stopper. 6 is a plan view of a rubber plug according to Reference Example 2. FIG.

<Embodiment 1>
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The connector 10 according to the first embodiment includes a housing 20, a terminal fitting 50 that is mounted on the housing 20, and a rubber plug 60 that is fitted on the outer peripheral surface of the housing 20. The housing 20 is fitted into the device 80 to be mated, and is fitted to the mating connector on the opposite side. In the following description, in the front-rear direction, the fitting side to the device 80 is the rear, and the fitting side to the mating connector is the front.

  The housing 20 is made of synthetic resin, and includes a block-shaped housing main body 21 and a cylindrical hood portion 22 that protrudes forward from the front end of the housing main body 21. Between the housing body 21 and the hood portion 22 on the outer peripheral surface of the housing 20, a plate-like flange portion 23 is formed so as to protrude in the radial direction. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the flange portion 23 has a substantially parallelogram shape with rounded corners when viewed from the front, and a pair of mounting holes at diagonal positions of the portion that projects most radially outward. 24 is formed through. A pair of cylindrical portions 25 are formed on the front surface of the flange portion 23 so as to protrude from both the mounting holes 24.

  Bolts (not shown) are inserted into the mounting holes 24 from the front. The bolt is screwed into the device 80 and tightens the flange portion 23 between the bolt 80 and the connector 10 to fix the connector 10 to the device 80. A pair of positioning portions 26 protrude from the rear surface of the flange portion 23 at a diagonal position different from the side where the mounting holes 24 are located. When the connector 10 is attached to the device 80, the positioning portions 26 are inserted into positioning holes (not shown) on the device 80 side, whereby the connector 10 is positioned with respect to the device 80.

On the outer peripheral surface of the housing main body 21, a step portion 27 is formed so as to protrude over the entire periphery. The front surface of the stepped portion 27 is integrally connected to the rear surface of the flange portion 23. A predetermined range behind the step portion 27 in the outer peripheral surface of the housing body 21 is a rubber plug mounting surface 28 on which the rubber plug 60 is mounted.
A plurality of pin-shaped terminal fittings 50 are aligned and mounted on the housing body 21. The front end portion of each terminal fitting 50 protrudes into the hood portion 22 in two steps and is electrically connected to the mating connector side. In addition, the rear end portion of each terminal fitting 50 protrudes in one step behind the housing body 21 and is electrically connected to the device 80 side. At both ends in the width direction of the housing body 21, a pair of protective walls 29 are formed to protrude rearward on both sides in the width direction across the rear end portion of each terminal fitting 50.

  Next, the rubber plug 60 will be described. The rubber plug 60 is made of rubber such as silicon rubber, and has a cylindrical shape that is long in the width direction as shown in FIGS. In the rubber plug 60, a seal portion 61 and a holding portion 62 are separately formed in the front-rear direction (axial direction). The seal portion 61 is disposed on the front side of the rubber plug 60, and the holding portion 62 is disposed on the rear side of the rubber plug 60.

  On the outer peripheral surface of the seal portion 61, a plurality of lips 63 are formed so as to protrude over the entire periphery. A plurality of inner peripheral lips 64 are also formed on the inner peripheral surface of the seal portion 61 so as to protrude over the entire periphery. The lip 63 and the inner peripheral lip 64 are arranged with the phases in the front-rear direction shifted from each other.

  The lip 63 includes a front lip 63F positioned on the front side and a rear lip 63R positioned on the rear side. The front lip 63F has a rear surface steeper than the front surface, and the rear lip 63R has a front surface steeper than the rear surface. The front lip 63F and the rear lip 63R are symmetric with respect to each other via a valley 65 formed therebetween. The bottom of the valley 65 is located radially outward from both hems at the front and rear ends of the front lip 63F and the rear lip 63R.

  The inner end of each inner peripheral lip 64 is aligned at the same position in the radial direction. The diameter of the inner end of each inner peripheral lip 64 corresponds to the minimum inner diameter of the seal portion 61 and is slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the rubber plug mounting surface 28 of the housing body 21.

  Here, when the rubber plug 60 is attached to the housing 20, as shown in FIG. 2, the front end of the seal portion 61 is disposed at the rear end of the stepped portion 27 so as to be able to stop, and the inner peripheral lip 64 is the housing body 21 abuts elastically on the outer peripheral surface of 21. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 1, when the connector 10 is inserted into the mounting hole 81 formed in the device 80, the rubber plug 60 is sandwiched between the housing 20 and the device 80, whereby the lip 63 is connected to the device 80. The inner peripheral lip 64 is elastically crushed by the outer peripheral surface of the housing main body 21 while being in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the mounting hole 81 of 80 and being elastically crushed.

  The holding part 62 does not have the lip 63 and the inner peripheral lip 64 but has a substantially constant thickness in the length direction. In the case of this embodiment, the thickness of the holding part 62 is made thinner than the thickness of the seal part 61. Further, the entire holding portion 62 is configured to be reduced in diameter radially inward over the entire circumference from the rear end of the seal portion 61 toward the rear. That is, the inner peripheral surface of the holding portion 62 is a tapered surface 66 that gradually decreases in diameter toward the rear. The rear end of the tapered surface 66 of the holding portion 62 corresponds to the rear end of the rubber plug 60, and is smaller than the minimum inner diameter B of the seal portion 61 and has the smallest inner diameter dimension A in the entire rubber plug 60. The small diameter portion 67 is used. The inner diameter A of the small diameter portion 67 is sufficiently smaller than the outer diameter of the rubber plug mounting surface 28 of the housing body 21. Note that the front end of the tapered surface 66 of the holding portion 62 is larger than the outer diameter of the rubber plug mounting surface 28 of the housing body 21.

The configurations of the connector 10 and the rubber plug 60 according to the present embodiment are as described above, and the operation and effect will be described.
A rubber plug 60 is attached to the housing 20 from the rear. In the process of attaching the rubber plug 60, the inner peripheral lip 64 of the seal portion 61 slides on the outer peripheral surface of the housing main body 21, and the outer peripheral surface of the housing main body 21 is slid in a state where the small diameter portion 67 of the holding portion 62 is expanded. Move. On the other hand, the front end of the tapered surface 66 of the holding portion 62 is kept substantially in non-contact with the outer peripheral surface of the housing body 21.

  When the rubber plug 60 is properly attached to the housing 20, the front end of the rubber plug 60 comes into contact with the stepped portion 27, and further pushing of the rubber plug 60 forward is restricted. The small diameter portion 67 of the rubber plug 60 tightly tightens the rubber plug mounting surface 28 of the housing body 21 by its elastic restoring force. As a result, a predetermined holding force (frictional force) is obtained between the small diameter portion 67 of the rubber plug 60 and the rubber plug mounting surface 28 of the housing main body 21, and the rubber plug 60 is prevented from being pulled backward.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the rubber plug 60 is formed with the seal part 61 having the lip 63 and the holding part 62 not having the lip 63 separately in the front and rear, and the holding part 62 is Since the small-diameter portion 67 having an inner diameter dimension A smaller than the minimum inner diameter B of the seal portion 61 is provided, the small-diameter portion 67 is in close contact with the rubber plug mounting surface 28 of the housing 20 to prevent the rubber plug 60 from coming off. A predetermined holding force can be obtained. Therefore, the rubber plug 60 can be prevented from being detached from the housing 20 by simple means without using a separate retaining means or the like.

  In addition, since the inner peripheral surface of the holding portion 62 is a tapered surface 66 that gradually decreases in diameter in the direction opposite to the mounting direction of the rubber plug 60 to the housing 20, the insertion load when the rubber plug 60 is mounted is reduced. The Therefore, the mounting workability of the rubber plug 60 is improved.

<Reference Example 1>
7 to 9 show the rubber plug 60A and the housing 20A of the connector 10A according to the first reference example.

  In Reference Example 1, the seal portion 61A having the lip 63A is disposed on the rear side of the rubber plug 60A, and the holding portion 62A not having the lip 63A is disposed on the front side of the rubber plug 60A. 62 A of holding parts are arrange | positioned along the front-back direction, and unlike Embodiment 1, it is not a taper shape and does not have the small diameter part 67. As shown in FIG. The holding portion 62A has a plurality of holding grooves 68 at intervals in the circumferential direction.

  The holding grooves 68 are formed in pairs on both sides in the width direction of the upper and lower walls of the rubber plug 60A, and extend in the front-rear direction to open at the front end of the rubber plug 60A. The holding groove 68 has a dovetail shape that gradually expands from the opening end side (front end side) toward the back end side (rear end side). Therefore, the width E of the opening end of the holding groove 68 is made smaller than the width F of the back end.

A plurality of holding projections 33 are formed on the housing body 21 at positions corresponding to the holding grooves 68. Each holding protrusion 33 has a rib shape extending in the front-rear direction with a substantially constant width, and is integrally connected to the rear surface of the flange portion 23A.
The width dimension G of each holding projection 33 is larger than the width dimension E of the opening end of the holding groove 68 and is substantially the same as the width dimension F of the back end of the holding groove 68. In addition, the other structure of the reference example 1 is substantially the same as Embodiment 1, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

  According to Reference Example 1, when the rubber plug 60A is attached to the housing 20A, the holding projection 33 is inserted into the holding groove 68 from the front, and the opening end of the holding groove 68 is expanded. At this time, the holding projection 33 is tightly tightened by the elastic restoring force of the rubber plug 60A at the opening end of the holding groove 68, and a predetermined holding force (frictional force) that can prevent the rubber plug 60A from coming off is obtained. Therefore, according to the reference example 1, it is possible to prevent the rubber plug 60A from being detached from the housing 20A by a simple means.

<Reference Example 2>
FIG. 10 shows a rubber plug 60B according to Reference Example 2. The reference example 2 has substantially the same configuration as the reference example 1 except that the shape of the holding groove 68B is different from that of the reference example 1.

  A plurality of locking ribs 69 are formed side by side in the front-rear direction on both side edges in the width direction of the holding groove 68B. For this reason, the width dimension H between the valleys of the holding groove 68 </ b> B is larger than the width dimension I between the locking ribs 69. When the rubber plug 60B is attached to the housing 20A, the holding projection 33 is inserted into the holding groove 68B from the front. At this time, each locking rib 69 firmly contacts both side edges of the holding projection 33 in the width direction, and a predetermined holding force (friction force) is obtained. Therefore, according to the reference example 2, it becomes possible to prevent the rubber plug 60B from coming off from the housing 20A by a simple means.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described with reference to the above description and drawings. For example, the following embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.
(1) The rubber plug may be configured to be sandwiched between a mating housing as a mating partner and the housing.
(2) The thickness of the holding part may be larger than the thickness of the seal part.
(3) The inner peripheral surface of the holding portion may not be a tapered surface, and the small diameter portion may be formed in a stepped shape on the inner peripheral surface of the holding portion.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Connector 20 ... Housing 50 ... Terminal metal fitting 60 ... Rubber stopper 61 ... Seal part 62 ... Holding part 63 ... Lip 67 ... Small diameter part 80 ... Equipment (fitting partner)

Claims (4)

A housing that can be fitted with terminal fittings;
A rubber stopper fitted in close contact with the outer peripheral surface of the housing;
On the outer peripheral surface of the rubber plug, a lip is formed protruding in the circumferential direction,
The housing can be fitted to a mating partner, and in a fitted state, the rubber plug is sandwiched between the housing and the mating partner, and the lip is on the inner peripheral surface of the mating partner. An elastically crushed connector,
In the rubber plug, a seal portion having the lip and a holding portion not having the lip are formed separately in the axial direction, and the holding portion has a small diameter smaller than the minimum inner diameter of the seal portion. A connector characterized by having a portion.   The connector according to claim 1, wherein an inner peripheral surface of the holding portion is a tapered surface that gradually decreases in diameter in a direction opposite to a mounting direction of the rubber plug to the housing. The housing and the mating partner are fitted in close contact with the outer peripheral surface of the housing, and a lip is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the housing so as to project in the circumferential direction. A rubber plug that is sandwiched between and elastically crushed on the inner peripheral surface of the mating counterpart,
The seal portion having the lip and the holding portion not having the lip are formed separately in the axial direction, and the holding portion has a small diameter portion having an inner diameter smaller than the minimum inner diameter of the seal portion. A rubber stopper characterized by that.   The rubber plug according to claim 3, wherein an inner peripheral surface of the holding portion is a tapered surface that gradually decreases in diameter in a direction opposite to a mounting direction to the housing.

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