JP2014011910A - Wiring member and on-vehicle electronic unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a flexible flat cable (FFC) having a small thickness and excellent in flexibility from being locally and excessively deformed due to vibration of a vehicle, without losing the flexibility of the FFC, when the FFC is used as a wiring member mounted on the vehicle.SOLUTION: A wiring member 10 comprises an FFC such as a flexible printed board 1 connected to an on-vehicle electronic unit 20, and an elastic reinforcement member 2. The elastic reinforcement member 2 is a series of members which can be elastically deformed from a basic shape in which a longitudinal shape is along a straight line into a shape in which the longitudinal shape is along a curved line. The elastic reinforcement member 2 is adhered to a region extending from a part closer to one end to a part closer to the other end on a surface of the FFC.

Description

  The present invention relates to a wiring material having a flexible flat cable and an in-vehicle electronic unit including the wiring material.

  A plurality of electronic units (in-vehicle electronic units) mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile are connected by a cable. Patent Document 1 shows that a flexible flat cable (tape wire) can be used as a cable for connecting two in-vehicle electronic units. A flexible flat cable (FFC) is a wiring material having a flexible sheet-like insulator and a flat conductor formed in the insulator.

  The FFC may further comprise an electronic circuit that includes a thin electronic device embedded in an insulator along with the conductor. An FFC including an electronic circuit is called a flexible printed circuit board or a flexible printed circuit (FPC). In this specification, the flexible printed board is described as a kind of FFC.

  Since the FFC is very thin and excellent in flexibility and light weight, it is a wiring material suitable for connecting a plurality of electronic units in a narrow space.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-155312

  However, when the FFC having excellent flexibility is applied to connection of a plurality of electronic units mounted on a vehicle, there is a possibility that the FFC may be excessively deformed locally by vibration of the vehicle. Further, excessive deformation of the FFC in such a manner is not preferable because it leads to deterioration of the FFC.

  The present invention prevents the FFC from being locally deformed excessively by the vibration of the vehicle without impairing the flexibility of the FFC when a thin FFC having excellent flexibility is used as a wiring material mounted on the vehicle. For the purpose.

  The on-vehicle wiring material according to the first aspect of the present invention includes the following components. The first component includes a sheet-like insulator having flexibility and a flat conductor formed in the insulator, and each of the first end and the second end opposite to the first end is 2 This is a flexible flat cable connected to each of the two in-vehicle electronic units. The second component is a series of members whose longitudinal shape is elastically deformable from a basic shape along a straight line to a shape along a curved line, and a portion near the first end on the surface of the flexible flat cable. To an elastic reinforcing member adhered to a region extending from the second end portion to the second end portion.

  The in-vehicle wiring material according to the second aspect of the present invention is an aspect of the in-vehicle wiring material according to the first aspect. In the on-vehicle wiring material according to the second aspect, the elastic reinforcing member is a metal plate member having a cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction formed along a curved line, and the flexible flat cable is formed at a portion forming a ridge line in the longitudinal direction It is glued to the surface.

  The in-vehicle wiring material according to the third aspect of the present invention is an aspect of the in-vehicle wiring material according to the first aspect or the second aspect. In the in-vehicle wiring material according to the third aspect, the flexible flat cable is a flexible printed board including a circuit formed in the sheet-like insulator and shared by the two in-vehicle electronic units.

  Moreover, this invention may be grasped | ascertained as invention of a vehicle-mounted electronic unit provided with the vehicle-mounted wiring material which concerns on either of said several aspects. An in-vehicle electronic unit according to a fourth aspect of the present invention includes a housing that houses a circuit board on which an electronic circuit is mounted, and a wiring that is connected to the circuit board at one end and extends from the housing. Material. The wiring material is an in-vehicle wiring material according to any one of the above aspects.

  If the in-vehicle wiring material according to each of the above aspects is employed, the elastic reinforcing member bonded to the FFC (flexible flat cable) prevents the FFC from being excessively deformed locally by the vibration of the vehicle. Further, since the elastic reinforcing member itself can be elastically deformed into a curved shape, the flexibility of the FFC is not impaired.

  Moreover, according to the 2nd aspect, the metal board member of a very thin and simple structure is employable as an elastic reinforcement member. As a result, the elastic reinforcing member can be reduced in weight and simplified.

  Moreover, according to the 3rd aspect, the circuit required in each of two vehicle-mounted electronic units is provided in the said wiring material, and is shared by each of several electronic units. As a result, the circuit in the entire plurality of in-vehicle electronic units is simplified.

1 is a schematic plan view of a wiring material 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a perspective view of a part of the wiring member 10. FIG. It is a perspective view of the elastic reinforcement member 2 with which the wiring material 10 is provided. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an elastic reinforcing member 2. FIG. It is the side view and front view of the curved elastic reinforcement member 2. It is a perspective view of the electronic unit 20 which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is the 1st perspective view of the electronic unit 20 connected by the wiring material 10, and another electronic unit. It is the 2nd perspective view of the electronic unit 20 connected by the wiring material 10, and another electronic unit. It is a schematic plan view of the wiring member 10A according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiment is an example embodying the present invention, and is not an example of limiting the technical scope of the present invention.

<First Embodiment>
<Wiring material>
First, the configuration of the wiring member 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The wiring member 10 is an example of an in-vehicle wiring member that electrically connects a plurality of electronic units (in-vehicle electronic units) mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile. As shown in FIG. 1, the wiring member 10 includes a flexible printed circuit board 1 and an elastic reinforcing member 2 bonded thereto. Hereinafter, the flexible printed circuit board 1 is referred to as FPC 1 (Flexible Printed Circuits).

  Further, in the example shown in FIG. 1, the wiring member 10 also includes two connectors 3 provided at each of one end portion in the longitudinal direction of the FPC 1 and the other end portion on the opposite side.

<FPC>
The FPC 1 includes a flexible sheet-like insulator 11 and a flat conductor 12 formed in the insulator 11, and is a kind of flexible flat cable. The conductor 12 of the FPC 1 is made of, for example, a thin flat copper foil plated with tin. The insulator 11 of the FPC 1 is made of, for example, two thin insulating films that sandwich a plurality of conductors 12 arranged in parallel from both sides. In this case, the insulating film has a two-layer structure including a synthetic resin film such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and an adhesive layer for embedding the conductor 12.

  The thickness of the synthetic resin film constituting the insulator 11 of the FPC 1 is, for example, about 10 to 50 micrometers. Similarly, the thickness of the foil-like conductor 12 is, for example, about 10 to 50 micrometers.

  The FPC 1 is connected to the two in-vehicle electronic units by the connectors 3 at both ends in the longitudinal direction, whereby the conductor 12 of the FPC 1 electrically connects the two in-vehicle electronic units.

  Further, the FPC 1 also includes a shared circuit 13 formed in the sheet-like insulator 11. The shared circuit 13 is a circuit shared by two electronic units to which the FPC 1 is connected, and is electrically connected to the conductor 12 in the insulator 11. In each drawing, the drawing of the conductor 12 and the shared circuit 13 is simplified.

  For example, it is conceivable that the shared circuit 13 includes a power supply control circuit that controls a constant voltage power supply circuit included in each of two electronic units to which the FPC 1 is connected. Further, when each of the two electronic units to which the FPC 1 is connected is an electronic control unit that communicates with each other through a wire harness 6 (see FIGS. 7 and 8) described later, the shared circuit 13 passes through the wire harness 6. It is conceivable to include a communication control circuit for controlling communication.

<Elastic reinforcement member>
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the elastic reinforcing member 2 is a thin metal plate member whose cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction is formed along the curve line CL. That is, the elastic reinforcing member 2 is a metal plate member having a uniform thickness and is curved in the width direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. Therefore, the first main surface 21 forming the curved concave surface forms a shallow groove, and the top 220 of the second main surface 22 forming the curved convex surface forms a ridge line in the longitudinal direction of the elastic reinforcing member 2. ing. The elastic reinforcing member 2 is a metal plate member whose main component is, for example, iron or stainless steel.

  The elastic reinforcing member 2 having the above-described structure constitutes a series of members that can be elastically deformed from a basic shape whose longitudinal direction is along a straight line to a shape along a curved line, similar to a winding metal measure. ing. FIG. 3 shows an elastic reinforcing member 2 having a basic shape in a natural state where no external force is applied. On the other hand, FIG. 5 shows the elastic reinforcing member 2 in a state of being deformed into a shape along the curved line by elastic deformation.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the elastic reinforcing member 2 is located on the surface of the FPC 1 from the first portion 101 near the one end (one connector 3) to the other end (the other connector 3). The second adhesive layer 14 is bonded to a region extending over the second portion 102 of the first portion 102.

  More specifically, the elastic reinforcing member 2 has an adhesive 14 in a region extending from the first portion 101 to the second portion 102 on the surface of the FPC 1 at the top 220 of the second main surface 22 that forms a ridge line in the longitudinal direction. It is adhered by.

  FIG. 5 is a view of the elastic reinforcing member 2 curved by being bent along two orthogonal directions. FIG. 5A is a side view and FIG. 5B is a front view. As shown in FIG. 5, when the elastic reinforcing member 2 is bent with the second main surface 22 inward in the longitudinal direction, the shape in the width direction is elastic so that the curvature of the curve in the width direction gradually changes. Deforms and thereby bends with a relatively small curvature in the longitudinal direction.

  Further, in the curved elastic reinforcing member 2, the elastic force for returning the shape in the width direction to the original curved shape maintains the shape in the longitudinal direction of the elastic reinforcing member 2 in a constant curved shape with a small curvature. Works.

  Therefore, when a bending force due to vehicle vibration or the like is applied to the FPC 1 bonded to the second main surface 22 of the elastic reinforcing member 2, the FPC 1 is curved with a relatively small curvature along the elastic reinforcing member 2. To do. Further, the elastic force of the elastic reinforcing member 2 acts to maintain the shape of the FPC 1 in a constant curved shape with a small curvature.

<Electronic unit>
Next, the electronic unit 20 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The electronic unit 20 is an electrical component mounted on the vehicle, and includes the wiring member 10 shown in FIGS.

  FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the electronic unit 20. FIG. 7 is a first perspective view of the electronic unit 20 connected by the wiring member 10 and the other electronic unit 9A. FIG. 8 is a second perspective view of the electronic unit 20 connected by the wiring member 10 and the other electronic unit 9A.

  The electronic unit 20 includes a housing 8 that houses a circuit board 7 on which an electronic circuit is mounted, and a wiring member 10 that has one end connected to the circuit board 7 in the housing 8. The wiring member 10 extends from the housing 8 and is connected to the circuit board 7 by the connector 3 at one end thereof. The housing 8 that houses the circuit board 7 constitutes a unit main body 9.

  In the examples shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, the circuit board 7 in the housing 8 is also connected to the wire harness 6. The wire harness 6 is also formed extending from the housing 8.

  For example, when the electronic unit 20 is an electronic control unit mounted on a vehicle, a microprocessor that executes control processing for the in-vehicle device and a peripheral circuit of the microprocessor are mounted on the circuit board 7. Peripheral circuits of the microprocessor include a constant voltage power supply circuit that supplies power to the microprocessor and a signal input / output circuit that inputs and outputs signals through the wire harness 6.

  7 and 8, the other connector 3 of the wiring member 10 in the electronic unit 20 is connected to another electronic unit 9A mounted on the vehicle. The example shown in FIG. 7 is an example in which the unit main body 9 of the electronic unit 20 and the other electronic unit 9A are arranged at a narrow interval because the width of the housing 8 of the electronic unit 20 is small. On the other hand, in the example shown in FIG. 8, the unit main body 9 of the electronic unit 20 and the other electronic unit 9 </ b> A are arranged with a relatively wide space because the width of the housing 8 of the electronic unit 20 is large. This is an example.

  As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, since the wiring member 10 is excellent in flexibility, even when two electronic units arranged at a short distance are connected, two electrons arranged at a relatively long distance are used. It can also be applied when connecting units. In any case, the wiring member 10 is maintained in a curved shape with a curvature as small as possible according to the positions of both ends of the FPC 1 by the action of the elastic reinforcing member 2 described above.

Second Embodiment
Next, a wiring member 10A according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This wiring member 10A is different from the wiring member 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 only in that it includes a plurality of elastic reinforcing members 2. 9, the same components as those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are given the same reference numerals. Hereinafter, only the points of the wiring member 10A different from the wiring member 10 will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the wiring member 10 </ b> A includes an FPC 1 and two elastic reinforcing members 2 bonded to the FPC 1. In the wiring member 10A, each of the two elastic reinforcing members 2 is bonded to a region extending from a portion near one end (one connector 3) to a portion near the other end (the other connector 3) on the surface of the FPC 1. It is adhered by the agent.

  Moreover, in the example shown by FIG. 9, the two elastic reinforcement members 2 are arrange | positioned in parallel along each edge of the both sides of the width direction in FPC1. In this case, the materials and shapes of the two elastic reinforcing members 2 are the same.

  In the wiring member 10 </ b> A shown in FIG. 9, the two elastic reinforcing members 2 maintain the FPC 1 in a curved state with as small a curvature as possible and prevent the FPC 1 from being twisted.

<Effect>
If the in-vehicle wiring members 10 and 10A are employed, the elastic reinforcing member 2 bonded to the FPC 1 prevents the FPC 1 from being excessively deformed locally by the vibration of the vehicle. Further, since the elastic reinforcing member 2 itself can be elastically deformed into a curved shape, the flexibility of the FPC 1 is not impaired.

  Further, the elastic reinforcing member 2 provided in the wiring members 10 and 10A is a metal plate member having a cross section orthogonal to the longitudinal direction formed in a shape along the curved line CL. It is glued to the surface. Thereby, a very thin and simple metal plate member can be employed as the elastic reinforcing member 2. As a result, the elastic reinforcing member 2 can be reduced in weight and simplified.

  In the wiring members 10 and 10A, a common circuit 13 required in each of the electronic unit 20 and the other electronic unit 9A is provided in the FPC 1 and shared by the two electronic units. As a result, the circuit in the entire plurality of in-vehicle electronic units is simplified.

<Others>
In the wiring members 10 and 10A, the elastic reinforcing member 2 may be a member having a structure different from that shown in FIG. For example, it is also conceivable that the elastic reinforcing member 2 is a coil made of a thin metal wire wound spirally.

  Further, in the wiring members 10 and 10A, a flexible flat cable having a structure in which the shared circuit 13 is removed from the FPC 1 may be employed instead of the FPC 1.

1 Flexible printed circuit board (flexible flat cable)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 Elastic reinforcement member 3 Connector 6 Wire harness 7 Circuit board 8 Case 9 Unit main-body part 9A Other electronic unit 10, 10A Wiring material 11 Insulator 12 Conductor 13 Shared circuit 14 Adhesive 20 Electronic unit (vehicle-mounted electronic unit)
21 First Main Surface of Elastic Reinforcement Member 22 Second Main Surface of Elastic Reinforcement Member 101 First Part of Flexible Printed Circuit Board 102 Second Part of Flexible Printed Circuit Board 220 Head Top of Elastic Reinforcement Member CL Curved Line

Claims (4)

It has a sheet-like insulator having flexibility and a flat conductor formed in the insulator, and the first end and the second end opposite to the first end are connected to the two on-vehicle electronic units, respectively. Flexible flat cable,
A series of members whose shape in the longitudinal direction can be elastically deformed from a basic shape along a straight line to a shape along a curved line, and from the portion near the first end on the surface of the flexible flat cable to the second end An in-vehicle wiring material comprising: an elastic reinforcing member bonded to a region extending closer to the region. The in-vehicle wiring member according to claim 1,
The elastic reinforcing member is a metal plate member whose cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction is formed in a shape along a curved line, and is bonded to the surface of the flexible flat cable at a portion forming a ridge line in the longitudinal direction. Wiring material. The in-vehicle wiring member according to claim 1 or 2,
The flexible flat cable is an in-vehicle wiring material that is a flexible printed board including a circuit formed in the sheet-like insulator and shared by the two in-vehicle electronic units. A housing for housing a circuit board on which an electronic circuit is mounted;
One end is connected to the circuit board, and a wiring material formed extending from the housing, and an in-vehicle electronic unit comprising:
The wiring material is
A flexible sheet cable having a flexible sheet-like insulator and a flat conductor formed in the insulator, one end of which is connected to the circuit board;
A series of members whose shape in the longitudinal direction can be elastically deformed from a basic shape along a straight line to a shape along a curved line, and from the portion near the first end on the surface of the flexible flat cable to the second end An in-vehicle electronic unit comprising: an elastic reinforcing member bonded to a region extending to a close part.

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