JP2016046175A - Female terminal and wiring harness having the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a female terminal, etc. that enable easy check of an arrangement state of an elastic contact piece achieving a desired contact pressure to a tab of a male terminal in quality check of products when the products are shipped.SOLUTION: A female terminal 1 has a connector part 20 which is configured in a substantially square cylindrical shape to have a bottom wall 26, side walls 28, 30 and an upper wall 32. An elastic contact piece 34 is provided on the upper surface 26a of the bottom wall 26 of the connector portion 20. One end portion of the elastic contact piece 34 is folded at a rear end 36 side position of the connector portion 20 and serves as a joint end portion 38, and the other end portion is located at a tab insertion port 40 side of the connector portion 20, and deformed in a mount-like shape, and serves as a free end portion 42. A fulcrum bead portion 46 which contacts the elastic contact piece 34 is provided at an upper surface 26a position of the bottom wall 26 confronting the lower surface portion of the elastic contact piece 34 between the free end portion 42 and the joint end portion 38. A window hole 50 for checking the contact state between the fulcrum bead portion 46 and the elastic contact piece 34 is formed in at least one side wall 30.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a female terminal used for, for example, connection of an automobile wire harness and a wire harness having the same.

In general, a connector used for connecting a wire harness for an automobile is composed of at least a pair of male terminals and female terminals, both of which are detachably connected to the distal end portion for electrical connection with a mating terminal. For example, the rear end portion has a crimping portion for crimping and attaching to the tip portion including the exposed core wire (conductor) of the covered electric wire.

  The female terminal makes contact with the tab of the male terminal inserted into the connector part for a long period of time, and uses the spring property of the elastic contact piece of the female terminal to ensure electrical connection. Contact pressure with the terminal tab is secured. In recent years, this type of terminal has become more demanding for miniaturization (low profile) as the number of poles provided in one connector increases.

  As a means for meeting such a demand, for example, a conductive metal plate made of, for example, copper alloy having excellent spring properties and electrical characteristics is punched into a predetermined shape, and then bent, for example, the connector portion is box-shaped. A method of manufacturing a female terminal by forming into a (square tube shape) is mentioned.

  A typical example of this type of female terminal is described in Patent Document 1, for example. The female terminal described in Patent Document 1 has a locking edge projecting sideways from the base end (connecting end) of the elastic contact piece formed by bending, and is formed on the side wall and the bottom wall. , Employing a configuration in which the locking edge is fitted and a locking hole for positioning the base end portion of the elastic contact piece is provided, and by this configuration, the base end portion of the elastic contact piece is lifted Disclose that it can be regulated.

Japanese Patent No. 4078564

  However, the female terminal described in Patent Document 1 is intended to regulate the lifting of the base end portion (connection end portion) of the elastic contact piece. For example, after the female terminal is manufactured, the connector Check that the elastic contact pieces that make up the part are in an appropriate arrangement so that the desired contact pressure can be obtained against the tab of the male terminal inserted during electrical connection. As a result, during the quality inspection before shipping the female terminal product, defective products of the female terminal manufactured with improper arrangement of the elastic contact pieces are selected so as not to be mixed with the product shipment. There was a problem that could not be done.

  An object of the present invention is to optimize the shape of the connector part, for example, at the time of quality inspection performed before product shipment, a female terminal that allows easy confirmation of the arrangement state of the elastic contact pieces in the connector part, and a wire harness having the female terminal Is to provide.

In order to achieve the above object, the gist of the present invention is as follows.
(1) By forming at least a punching process and a bending process on the workpiece plate material, the tab plate of the male terminal, which is a mating terminal, is formed into a substantially rectangular tube shape having a bottom wall, a pair of side walls, and an upper wall. It has a connector part that can be inserted, and has an elastic contact piece that is overlapped on the upper surface of the bottom wall of the connector part by bending and elastically contacts the inserted tab for electrical connection, The elastic contact piece has one end portion which is a connecting end portion bent at the rear end side position of the connector portion, the other end portion is located on the tab insertion port side of the connector portion, and is deformed into a mountain shape. A free end portion that is in contact with the lower surface portion of the elastic contact piece at the upper surface position of the bottom wall facing the lower surface portion of the elastic contact piece between the free end portion and the connecting end portion. And a fulcrum bead portion raised on the Of at least 1-way side wall of one of the side walls, the female terminal, characterized in that by forming a window hole for confirming the state of contact between the the fulcrum bead elastic contact piece.

(2) The female terminal further includes a pressure-bonding portion that is formed integrally with the connector portion and is formed by bending the two edge portions into a tubular shape so that the two edge portions are close to each other. The female terminal according to (1).

(3) The female terminal according to (2), further including a liquid-tight sealing portion formed by crushing and welding at one end portion of the crimp portion on the connector portion side.

(4) A wire harness having one or more covered electric wires, wherein the female terminal according to (1), (2) or (3) is provided at an end of the covered electric wire. Wire harness.

(5) The wire harness according to (4), wherein the conductor portion of the covered electric wire is made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy.

  According to the present invention, a male terminal, which is a mating terminal, is formed into a substantially rectangular tube shape having a bottom wall, a pair of side walls, and an upper wall by at least punching and bending the processed plate material. A connector portion capable of inserting a tab, and having an elastic contact piece that is overlapped on the upper surface of the bottom wall of the connector portion by bending and elastically contacts the inserted tab for electrical connection, The elastic contact piece is a connecting end that is bent at the rear end side position of the connector part, and the other end part is located on the tab insertion port side of the connector part and is deformed into a mountain shape. A fulcrum bead portion which is an end portion and is raised so as to be in contact with the lower surface portion of the elastic contact piece at the upper surface position of the bottom wall facing the lower surface portion of the elastic contact piece between the free end portion and the connecting end portion. Having at least one of a pair of side walls By forming a window hole in the wall for confirming the contact state between the fulcrum bead part and the elastic contact piece, the arrangement state of the elastic contact piece in the connector part can be determined, for example, during quality inspection before product shipment. As a result of being able to check easily from the outer surface side of the product with visual inspection or a camera etc., it is possible to sort out defective products of female terminals manufactured with improper arrangement of elastic contact pieces so that they are not mixed with product shipments. As a result, it has become possible to ship only good female terminals (products) capable of ensuring a desired contact pressure against the tabs of the male terminals inserted for electrical connection.

FIG. 1 is a side view of a female terminal according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the female terminal of FIG. FIG. 3 is a front view of the female terminal of FIG. 4 is a development view of the female terminal of FIG. FIG. 5 is a side view of a conventional female terminal.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a female terminal according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an external appearance of a typical female terminal according to the present invention, FIG. 2 shows a longitudinal section of the female terminal of FIG. 1, and FIG. 1 shows the external appearance of the female terminal 1 from the front, and FIG. 4 shows the female terminal of FIG. 1 in a developed state by punching the workpiece plate. It is a top view of the formed punching board material.

  The illustrated female terminal 1 is integrally formed with a connector portion 20 into which a tab (not shown) of a male terminal, which is a mating terminal, can be inserted, and a rear end side of the connector portion 20. A crimping portion 22 is provided for constituting an electrical connection portion by crimping by caulking or the like in a state where a conductor portion exposed by peeling off a coating at a tip portion (not shown) is inserted.

  The connector part 20 is formed by at least punching and bending a processed plate material (not shown). The female terminal shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 is manufactured by using a punched plate material 24 formed by punching a processed plate material and bending the punched plate material 24.

  In the present embodiment, the plate material made of a copper alloy is used as the plate material to be processed. However, the material of the plate material to be processed is not limited to the copper alloy. For example, an aluminum-based material is used as the plate material to be processed. May be. Examples of the plate thickness of the plate to be processed include 0.25 mm and 0.32 mm, but are not limited to the plate thickness.

  The connector part 20 has a bottom wall 26, a pair of side walls 28, 30 and an upper wall 32, and has a substantially rectangular cross-sectional shape as a whole.

  Further, on the upper surface 26a of the bottom wall 26 of the connector portion 20, there is an elastic contact piece 34 which is overlapped by bending and elastically contacts the inserted tab of the male terminal for electrical connection. .

  One end portion of the elastic contact piece 34 is a connecting end portion 38 that is bent at a position on the rear end 36 side of the connector portion 20, and the other end portion is located on the tab insertion port 40 side of the connector portion 20. The free end portion 42 is deformed into a mountain shape, and is formed in a cantilever shape as a whole. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the elastic contact piece 34 is connected to the plate portion 32S constituting the upper wall 32 of the connector portion 20 corresponding to the rear end 36 side portion of the connector portion 20 with a narrow width. The case where it comprises with the board | plate material part 34S connected via the board | plate material part 42S is shown. In addition, the dashed-dotted line shown in FIG. 4 has shown the bending position for convenience of explanation.

  Further, at the position of the upper surface 26 a of the bottom wall 26 facing the lower surface portion of the extending portion 44 of the elastic contact piece 34 positioned between the free end portion 42 and the connecting end portion 38, the lower surface portion of the elastic contact piece 34 is arranged. It has a fulcrum bead 46 that is raised so as to come into contact.

  The fulcrum bead portion 46 can be formed, for example, by subjecting the plate material portion 26 </ b> S constituting the bottom wall 26 to a protruding process or the like. In addition, instead of providing the fulcrum bead portion 46, it may be possible to perform an extrusion process in which the elastic contact piece 34 protrudes toward the upper surface 26a of the bottom wall 26. However, when such a configuration is employed, This is not preferable because the possibility of distortion increases and the variation in contact pressure may increase. Further, the fulcrum bead 46 part 46 is provided at the upper surface position of the bottom wall 26, and the confirmation window 50 is formed on the side of the fulcrum bead part 46, thereby preventing the rectangular tubular connector part 20 from bulging when forming the fulcrum bead part 46. There is also an effect.

Further, in the present embodiment, a pair of auxiliary bead portions 48, 48 that are linearly raised in the longitudinal direction are formed on the inner surface of the upper wall 32 facing the top of the free end portion 42 of the elastic contact piece 34. Displacement width when the elastic contact piece 34 is elastically deformed downward at the position of the bottom wall 26 facing the tip of the free end portion 42 of the elastic contact piece 34 is arranged with the top portion of the portion 42 being spaced apart. A case where the tip insertion opening 52 (see FIG. 4) is formed to increase the size is shown. The auxiliary bead portion 48 can be formed by subjecting the plate material portion 32S constituting the upper wall 32 to a protruding process or the like, and the distal end insertion opening 52 is simultaneously performed in the punching process of forming the punched plate material 24 from the processed plate material. Can be formed.

  Further, in the female terminal 1 of the present invention, the bottom wall 26, the pair of side walls 28, 30, the upper wall 32, and the elastic contact piece 34 constituting the connector portion 20 are all formed by the same punched plate member 24. It is an integrally molded product.

  And in this invention, the window hole 50 for confirming the contact state of the fulcrum bead part 46 and the elastic contact piece 34 is formed in at least one side wall 30 of a pair of side walls 28 and 30. This is an indispensable invention-specifying item, and by this, an inspection (confirmation) is made as to whether or not the elastic contact pieces are arranged to obtain a desired contact pressure with respect to the tab of the male terminal inserted at the time of electrical connection. It can be done easily.

  The shape of the window hole 50 may be any shape as long as the contact state between the fulcrum bead portion 46 and the elastic contact piece 34 can be confirmed from the outer surface of the side wall 30. In addition to the rectangular shape shown in FIGS. It can be changed to various shapes such as a polygonal shape.

  The window hole 50 can be formed at the same time as the punching step of forming the punched plate material 24 from the processed plate material.

  It is sufficient that the window hole 50 is formed on at least one side wall of the pair of side walls. FIG. 1 shows a case where the window hole 50 is formed only on one side wall 30. When the position of the window hole 50 formed in the above is not in the viewable range (angle) that can be confirmed, it may be formed in both the side walls 28 and 30. In addition, the size of the window hole 50 is not particularly limited. For example, in the case of a female terminal in which the cross-sectional size of the connector portion 20 is height: 1.75 mm and width: 2.4 mm, As seen from the development of the female terminal shown in FIG. 4, the dimension (length dimension) when measured along the bending direction is 1.0 mm, and the dimension (width) when measured in the direction perpendicular to the bending direction. (Dimension) is 1.1 mm, and the bending position may be formed so as to be at a position that divides the width dimension into almost equal parts. The cross-sectional dimension of the connector portion 20 is height: 2.0 mm, width: 1 In the case of a female terminal of .5 mm, the dimension (length dimension) when measured along the folding direction is 0.8 mm when viewed in the development view of the female terminal shown in FIG. 4 and is orthogonal to the folding direction. The dimension (width dimension) when measured in the direction to Ri bending position may be formed to come to a position substantially bisecting a width dimension.

  In the present invention, by forming the window hole 50, the arrangement state of the elastic contact pieces 34 constituting the connector portion 20 can be confirmed by visual inspection or only simple inspection by an imaging means such as a CCD camera. For example, at the time of electrical connection when the elastic contact piece 34 visible from the window hole 50 is separated from the fulcrum bead portion 46 and is in a non-contact arrangement state during quality inspection performed before product shipment of the female terminal, It is possible to determine that a defective product cannot obtain a desired contact pressure with respect to the tab of the male terminal inserted into the connector, and select the defective product of the female terminal so as not to be mixed with the product shipment.

Furthermore, the female terminal 1 according to the present invention is further integrated with a connector portion, and is further formed with a crimping portion 22 formed by bending the two edges into a tubular shape so that the two edges are close to each other. It is preferable to provide, in particular, the insulation coating layer of the end of the covered electric wire is peeled off to expose the core wire (conductor), and the crimp portion 22 of the terminal 1 is crimped and crimped to the exposed portion of the core wire. In addition to forming an electrical connection portion with the terminal 1, crushing and welding are performed on one end portion of the crimping portion 22 on the connector portion 20 side in order to prevent corrosion of the core wire due to moisture intrusion into the electrical connection portion. It is more preferable to have a liquid-tight sealing part formed by applying.

  FIG. 5 shows a female terminal 100 (comparative example) having the same structure as the female terminal (invention example) of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 except that the window hole 50 is not formed. 2 is a side view of a mold terminal 100. FIG. When the product shipment was inspected for the female terminal 100 of the comparative example and the female terminal 1 of the example of the present invention, the female terminal 100 of the comparative example was formed in the connector portion 120 during the quality inspection performed before product shipment. Since it is not possible to confirm the arrangement state of the elastic contact pieces arranged inside, it is sometimes seen that defective products for which a desired contact pressure cannot be obtained are included in the product shipment, but the female terminal 1 of the present invention example is In the quality inspection performed before product shipment, the arrangement state of the elastic contact piece 34 can be easily confirmed, so that there is no case where a defective product in which a desired contact pressure cannot be obtained is included in the product shipment.

  In addition, the place mentioned above only showed the example of embodiment of this invention, and can change a various change in a claim. For example, the female terminal of the present invention can be used as a wire harness having one or a plurality of covered electric wires, for example, a covered electric wire whose conductor portion is made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy.

  According to the present invention, for example, at the time of quality inspection performed before product shipment, the arrangement state of the elastic contact pieces in the connector portion can be easily confirmed visually or with a camera from the outer surface side of the connector portion. Defective female terminal manufactured in proper arrangement can be sorted out so as not to be mixed with the product shipment, so that the desired tab of the male terminal inserted for electrical connection can be selected. Only good quality female terminals (products) that can ensure contact pressure can be shipped.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Female terminal 20 Connector part 22 Crimp part 24 Punching board material 26 Bottom wall 28, 30 Side wall 32 Top wall 34 Elastic contact piece 36 Rear end of connector part 38 Connection end part 40 Tab insertion port of connector part 42 Free end part 44 Elasticity Contact piece extension part 46 Support point bead part 48 Auxiliary bead part 50 Window hole 52 Tip insertion opening 100 Female terminal 120 Connector part 122 Crimp part

Claims (5)

By forming at least punching and bending on the workpiece plate, it is formed into a substantially rectangular tube shape with a bottom wall, a pair of side walls, and a top wall, and the tab of the male terminal that is the mating terminal can be inserted. Equipped with a connector part,
On the upper surface of the bottom wall of the connector part, there is an elastic contact piece that is overlapped by bending and elastically contacted for electrical connection with the inserted tab,
The elastic contact piece has one end portion which is a connecting end portion bent at the rear end side position of the connector portion, the other end portion is located on the tab insertion port side of the connector portion, and is deformed into a mountain shape. Free end,
A fulcrum bead portion raised so as to contact the lower surface portion of the elastic contact piece at the upper surface position of the bottom wall facing the lower surface portion of the elastic contact piece between the free end portion and the connecting end portion. Have
A female terminal, wherein a window hole for confirming a contact state between the fulcrum bead portion and the elastic contact piece is formed on at least one of the pair of side walls.   The female terminal further includes a crimping part that is formed integrally with the connector part and is formed by bending the two edge parts after being bent into a tubular shape so that the two edge parts are close to each other. Female terminal as described.   The female terminal according to claim 2, further comprising a liquid-tight sealing portion formed by crushing and welding at one end of the crimping portion on the connector portion side. A wire harness having one or more covered electric wires,
A wire harness comprising the female terminal according to claim 1, 2 or 3 at an end of the covered electric wire.   The wire harness according to claim 4, wherein a conductor portion of the covered electric wire is made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy.