JP2012150890A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector which hardly deforms before and after being mounted on a board.SOLUTION: A connector comprises: a contact; a body made of an insulator for housing the contact; and a shell made of a conductor which is formed into a cylindrical shape so as to cover an outer periphery of the body. The shell comprises: a main body part having a mating connector insertion opening and a body insertion opening; and a reversely folded back part which is folded back at a front end or a rear end of the main body part, and which is formed to cover an outer periphery of the main body part. By forming the shell into a double structure made up of the main body part and the reversely folded back part, the fracture strength of the shell is enhanced to thereby prevent its deformation.

Description

  The present invention relates to a connector used in an electric / electronic device, and more particularly to a connector mounted on a substrate disposed in a narrow space.

  Patent document 1 is known as a prior art. The connector described in Patent Document 1 improves the mounting strength with respect to the substrate while realizing miniaturization of the connector.

JP 2008-258016 A

  However, since the conventional shell is formed by bending a single metal plate into a cylindrical shape, it is easily deformed when an external force is applied before mounting the substrate. Further, even after the board is mounted, the shell is easily opened and deformed due to the load stress applied when the mating connector is inserted. For example, when inserting the mating connector into the own connector, the mating connectors do not coincide with each other, the mating connector hits the inner surface of the shell of the own connector, and attempts to open and deform the shell of the own connector in the outer circumferential direction. Force may be applied and the connector may be deformed. The shell is not only deformed by one insertion, but may be gradually deformed by many insertions. These deformations may make it difficult to insert the mating connector, make it difficult to insert, cause rattling or poor contact at the time of insertion, and may easily come off.

  An object of this invention is to provide the connector which cannot change easily before and after board | substrate attachment.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the connector is formed in a cylindrical shape so as to cover the contact, the body made of an insulator that accommodates the contact, and the outer periphery of the body. A conductor shell. The shell includes a main body portion including a counterpart connector insertion port and a body insertion port, and an inverted folding portion formed so as to be folded at the front end or the rear end of the main body portion so as to cover the outer periphery of the main body portion.

  The present invention has an effect that the shell has a double structure by the main body portion and the inverted folding portion, thereby increasing the breaking strength of the shell and preventing its deformation.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the front, right side, and plane of the connector 100. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing a back surface, a left side surface, and a bottom surface of the connector 100. FIG. The bottom view of the connector 100. FIG. The perspective view which shows the XX cross section of FIG. The figure which shows the relationship between the connector 100 and the board | substrate 90. FIG. The figure which shows the state which mounted the connector 100 in the board | substrate 90. FIG.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the technical idea of the present invention is applied to a connector conforming to the MicroUSB standard 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, but is applicable to any connector conforming to an arbitrary standard (for example, USB standard, miniUSB standard, IEEE1394 standard, etc.). Applicable.

<First embodiment>
<Connector 100>
A connector 100 according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The connector 100 includes a conductor contact 110, a body 120 made of an insulator that accommodates the contact 110, and a conductor shell 130 formed in a rectangular tube shape so as to cover the outer periphery of the body.

<Shell 130>
The shell 130 is folded at the rear end of the main body 132 having the mating connector insertion port 132f and the body insertion port 132g (see FIG. 2), and the upper wall 132k of the main body 132,
And an inverted folding part 134 formed to cover the outer periphery of the main body part. The surface into which the mating connector is inserted is the front surface of the connector 100, the surface that becomes the mounting surface when mounted on the board is the bottom surface, the front direction when viewed from the center of the connector 100 is the front, and the bottom surface direction is the bottom. To do.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the cylindrical shell 130 has a double structure of a main body portion 132 (inner side) and an inverted folded portion 134 (outer side). The main body part 132 and the reverse folding part 134 are both cylindrical and have seams. The position of the seam 132b of the main body part 132 and the position of the seam 134b of the reverse folding part 134 are shifted in the left-right direction. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the reverse folding portion 134 includes first mounting legs 134 a and 134 a that extend downward from both front end portions thereof and second mounting leg portions 134 c and 134 c that extend downward from both rear end portions thereof. Prepare.

(Main body 132)
FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the shell 130 before folding. The shell 130 is obtained by punching a thin metal plate with a press. In FIG. 3, a region sandwiched by adjacent two-dot chain lines indicates a bending region. In each bending region between the upper wall 132k of the main body part 132, the side walls 132m, 132m, and the bottom walls 132p, 132p, the main body part 132 is formed in a rectangular tube shape. The term “square tube shape” includes a substantially square tube shape. The main body 132 is bent into a shape along the outer periphery of the body 120, and the entire body 120 is accommodated in the shell 130. Then, the edges formed on the bottom walls 132p and 132p of the shell 130 come into contact with each other to form a seam 132b (see FIGS. 1 and 3). Since the seam 132b is formed in a relationship of “present” and “present groove”, the edges are difficult to separate from each other.

  At the rear ends of the side walls 132m and 132m of the main body 132, notches 132n and 132n are formed toward the front.

  Convex portions 132t and 132t are formed on both sides of the upper wall 132k of the main body 132 on the rear side. The convex portions 132t and 132t are each formed by projecting inward from the upper wall 132k, and slightly protrude inward from the upper wall 132k.

  On both front sides of the upper wall 132k of the main body 132, there are formed locking pieces 132u, 132u that are cut up and protrude slightly upward with the fixed end as the front. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to prevent the mating connector from being disconnected from the connector 100 by locking the stopper of the mating connector (not shown) and the locking pieces 132u and 132u.

  4 is a bottom view of the connector 100, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XX of FIG. The front wall 132k, the bottom walls 132p and 132p, the side walls 132m and 132m, and the front ends of the respective bending regions between the portions are provided with inclined surfaces that increase in thickness toward the rear before bending. (See FIGS. 1 and 5). With such a shape, the inclined surface can guide the mating connector at the time of insertion, and the mating connector can be smoothly inserted.

(Reverse folding part 134)
The reverse folding part 134 is formed so as to be folded at the front end of the upper wall 132 k of the main body part 132 and cover the outer periphery of the main body part 132. The reverse folding part 134 is bent into a shape along the outer periphery of the main body part 132, and the entire main body part 132 is covered with the reverse folding part 134. For example, in each bending region between the upper wall 134k and the side walls 134m, 134m and the bottom walls 134p, 134p, the inverted folded portion 134 is folded in a mountain shape, and the inverted folded portion 134 is slightly larger than the main body portion 132. It is formed in a shape. The reverse folding part 134 is formed so that the outer peripheral surface of the main body part 132 and the inner peripheral surface of the reverse folding part 134 are in contact with each other or facing each other with a slight gap. With such a configuration, the deformation of the main body portion 132 can be restricted by the reverse folding portion 134. And the edge formed in the bottom walls 134p and 134p of the inversion folding part 134 contact | abuts, and the joint line 134b is formed (refer FIGS. 1-3). Since the seam 134b is formed in the relationship of “present” and “present groove”, the edges are difficult to separate from each other. By adopting such a configuration, the shell 130 has a double structure, its breaking strength is improved, and deformation is prevented.

  At this time, the breaking strength can be further improved by shifting the position of the seam 132b of the main body part 132 and the position of the seam 134b of the reversal folding part 134 in the left-right direction. A general shell (for example, a shell described in Patent Document 1) has the weakest strength at the cylindrical seam portion. For example, when inserting the mating connector into the own connector, the mating connectors do not coincide with each other, the mating connector hits the inner surface of the shell of the own connector, and attempts to open and deform the shell of the own connector in the outer circumferential direction. When a force is applied, the force is finally applied to the seam and is likely to deform from the seam. Even when the positions of the seam 132b and the seam 134b in the circumferential direction are the same, since the seam portion is doubled, the strength is improved, but when the positions of the seam 132b and the seam 134b in the circumferential direction are different. Can further improve its strength. When the inner seam 132b tries to open and deform, the force that the inner seam tries to open and deform is not directly applied to the outer seam 134b, so the strength of the seam of the shell combining the seam 132b and the seam 134b is This is because the overall strength is improved and the breaking strength of the shell 130 is improved.

  Further, the reverse folding portion 134 includes first mounting legs 134a and 134a extending downward from both front end portions thereof and second mounting leg portions 134c and 134c extending downward from both rear end portions thereof. Valley folding is performed in a bending region between the upper wall 134k and the first mounting legs 134a and 134a and a bending region between the upper wall 134k and the second mounting legs 134c and 134c. The first mounting legs 134a and 134a and the second mounting legs 134c and 134c extend outward from the bending region, and are further folded in the bending region on the distal end side and extended downward, and have an inverted L-shaped cross section. is doing.

  Rectangular openings 134u and 134u are formed on both front sides of the upper wall 134k of the inverted folding portion 134. When the inverted folding portion 134 is bent back, the locking pieces 132u and 132u cut and raised upward are accommodated in the openings 134u and 134u, respectively, or penetrate the openings 134u and 134u, respectively. With such a configuration, it is possible to prevent interference between the cut and raised locking piece 132u and the upper wall 134k of the inverted folding portion 134.

  Stoppers 134s and 134s, which are cantilever-like tongue pieces, are formed at the rear ends of the bottom walls 134p and 134p of the inverted folding portion 134, respectively. The stopper 134s is folded in the bent region on the fixed end side after the body 120 is accommodated, and protrudes inward.

<Insert and fix body 120>
When the body 120 is inserted from the body insertion port 132g behind the square cylindrical shell 130, the front surface of the body 120 and the back surface of the shell 130 (more specifically, the upper wall 132k, side walls 132m, 132m, and bottom wall 132p of the main body 132). , 132p, etc.). For example, the back surface of the convex portions 132t and 132t of the shell 130 and the front surface of the second concave portions 120t and 120t of the body 120 abut (see FIGS. 1 and 2). The notches 132n and 132n of the shell 130 and the protrusions 120n and 120n of the body 120 are fitted to fix the shell 130 and the body 120 in the vertical direction and the front. Further, the upper wall 132k, the side walls 132m and 132m of the main body 132, the rear end surface of the bending region between the upper wall 132k and the side walls 132m and 132m, and the front surfaces of the first flange portions 120k and 120k provided on the body 120 are provided. Abut. Furthermore, the bottom walls 132p and 132p of the main body part 132, the side walls 132m and 132m, the rear end face of the bending region between the bottom walls 132p and 132p and the side walls 132m and 132m, and the second flanges 120p and 120p provided on the body 120 (The second flange 120p on the left side is not shown). Furthermore, the inner peripheral surface of the rectangular tubular main body 132 and the outer peripheral surface of the body 120 abut (see FIG. 5). Furthermore, the stoppers 134s and 134s are mountain-folded in the bending region on the fixed end side, and the front surfaces of the stoppers 134s and 134s and the first recesses 120s and 120s provided on the back surface of the body 120 come into contact with each other. To do. With these structures, the shell 130 is fixed to the body 120 (see FIG. 6).

<Contact 110 and body 120>
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the body 120 is in contact with the square cylindrical inner peripheral surface formed by the shell 130 and the outer peripheral surface of the body 120, and with the square cylindrical rear end surface formed by the main body 132. It is a shape having a front surface in contact.

  The body 120 has a contact support plate 120c protruding forward. Five contact receiving grooves are formed at predetermined intervals on the bottom surface of the contact support plate 120c. The contact 110 is press-fitted into these contact receiving grooves, and as shown in FIG. 5, the contact portion 110b is disposed on the bottom surface of the contact support plate 120c. The contact 110 has a terminal portion 110d that extends to the rear of the body 120 and is connected to the conductive pad 93 (see FIG. 6) of the substrate 90 at the rear end.

  A support portion 120b is provided at the tip of the contact receiving groove. At the tip of the contact portion 110b of the contact 110, a tip portion 110a that is slightly biased upward and extends further forward is formed. The support part 120b and the tip part 110a are locked, and the contact part 110b of the contact 110 is fixed in the vertical direction. The contact portion 110b is fixed in the left-right direction by the inner wall of the contact receiving groove.

<Attachment of Connector 100 to Board 90>
As shown in FIG. 6, a notch 90 b having a width slightly larger than the width of the connector 100 is formed at the edge of the substrate 90 to which the connector 100 is attached. The connector 100 is disposed in the cutout 90b from above. In the vicinity of the notch 90b, through holes 90a, 90a, 90c, 90c are formed at positions corresponding to the first mounting legs 134a, 134a and the second mounting legs 134c, 134c, respectively. Further, first lands 91, 91 and second lands 92, 92 are formed on the peripheral portions of the upper surface of the substrate 90 of the through holes 90b, 90b, 90c, 90c, respectively. Further, in the vicinity of the notch 90b, conductive pads 93 are formed at positions corresponding to the respective terminal portions 110d.

  With such a configuration, mounting with a mid-mount structure (structure in which the connector 100 is disposed in the substrate 90) type is possible, and the mounting height of the connector 100 can be reduced (see FIG. 7). Further, a solder paste is printed on the first lands 91 and 91, the second lands 92 and 92, and the conductive pads 93 of the substrate 90, the connector 100 is disposed from above, and heat is applied to melt the solder. Automatic mounting (reflow method) with a mount structure is possible. The first mounting legs 134a and 134a and the second mounting legs 134c and 134c pass through the through holes 90a, 90a and 90c, 90c provided in the substrate, respectively, and the first lands 91, 91, and the second lands 92, respectively. , 92, and the terminal portions 110 d are arranged so as to contact the respective conductive pads 93.

<Effect>
With such a configuration, the shell is formed in a double structure by the main body portion and the inverted folding portion, thereby providing an effect that the breaking strength of the shell can be increased and the deformation thereof can be prevented. In particular, in the case where the connector 100 has a mid-mount structure as in this embodiment, there is no regulation by the substrate with respect to the load stress of the plug twist, and there is a concern about strength against the load, so such a double structure is particularly effective. is there. By bringing the main body part 132 and the inverted folding part 134 into close contact, the deformation of the main body part 132 can be regulated by the inverted folding part 134.

  At this time, by providing the seam 132b of the main body part 132 and the seam 134b of the reversal folding part 134 so as to be shifted in the left-right direction, the strength of the seam as a whole can be improved.

  In addition, when the main body 132 and the inverted folding part 134 are separate members, complicated processing is required to connect the members. In this embodiment, the main body 132 is processed from a single metal plate. The complicated process and process for couple | bonding 132 and the inversion folding part 134 can be omitted.

  Further, the shell of Patent Document 1 is formed by bending a single metal plate into a cylindrical shape, and a plurality of attachment legs are cut and raised from both side walls thereof, so that the fracture strength of the shell itself is low. Further, since the size of each mounting leg portion is reduced, the mounting strength with respect to the substrate is also low. On the other hand, in the first embodiment, by providing the inverted folding portion 134, it is possible to provide a large number of mounting legs having a sufficient size without reducing the breaking strength of the shell, and soldering the mounting legs. By doing so, the mounting strength (fixed strength) with respect to a board | substrate can be improved.

<Modification>
In the first embodiment, the point is that a large number of mounting leg portions having a sufficient size can be provided without reducing the breaking strength of the shell by providing the inverted folding portion 134, and the number and size thereof. The position may be changed as appropriate.

  Further, the positions of the seam 132b and the seam 134b are not limited to the bottom walls 132p and 132p of the main body part 132 and the bottom walls 134p and 134p of the inverted folding part 134, respectively. You may provide the seam 132b and the seam 134b in the side wall 132m, 132m, 134m, 134m, and each bending area. Further, if the position of the seam 132b of the main body part and the position of the seam 134b of the inverted folding part are different in the circumferential direction, the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

  The connecting portion between the main body part 132 and the inverted folding part 134 may be the front end. Further, the connecting portion may be a side wall other than the top wall, a bottom wall, each bending region, or the like. However, considering the ease of processing and the breaking strength of the connector, the connecting portion between the main body portion 132 and the inverted folded portion 134 may be provided on the upper wall or the bottom wall of the front end or the rear end, and a seam may be provided on the opposing surface. desirable.

  Further, the seams 132b and 134b are formed in a relationship of “with” and “with-groove”. You may make it difficult to isolate | separate the edges formed in 134p and 134p.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and modifications, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

90 board 100 connector 110 contact 120 body 130 shell 132 body portion 132b joint 132f mating connector insertion port 132g body insertion port 134 reverse folding portion 134a first attachment leg 134b joint 134c second attachment leg

Claims (3)

Contacts,
A body made of an insulator for accommodating the contact;
A conductor shell formed in a cylindrical shape so as to cover the outer periphery of the body,
The shell includes a main body portion including a counterpart connector insertion port and the body insertion port, and an inverted folding portion formed to be folded at the front end or rear end of the main body portion so as to cover the outer periphery of the main body portion.
connector. The connector according to claim 1,
The seam position of the main body part and the seam position of the inverted folding part are different in the circumferential direction,
connector. The connector according to claim 1 or 2, wherein
The inverted folding portion further includes one or more mounting legs.
connector.

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