JP2019079735A - Electric connector terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an electric connector terminal capable of preventing galvanic corrosion over a long period of time.SOLUTION: An electric connector terminal 1 is formed by a metal plate 10 to which an aluminum wire having an aluminum core wire is crimped. The metal plate 10 is made of copper or a copper alloy having the entire surface plated with a plating material 20. The metal plate 10 includes a groove-like crimp part 11 and a groove-like connection part 12 having irregularities 13 formed at least on their outer faces. The aluminum core wire is crimped to the inner face of the crimp part 11 by caulking. The plating material 20 is made of metal such as tin (Sn) having a corrosion potential closer to that of the aluminum core wire than that of the metal plate 10.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an electrical connector terminal, in particular, an electrical connector terminal to which an aluminum wire is joined.

In recent years, examples of using aluminum or aluminum alloy (hereinafter referred to as “aluminum”) for the core wire of a covered wire constituting a wire harness are increasing from the viewpoint of improving fuel consumption by reducing the weight of the vehicle (hereinafter, aluminum core wire is provided) Coated wires are called “aluminum wires”). The metal terminal connected to such an aluminum electric wire is generally formed of copper or a copper alloy excellent in electrical characteristics. Then, since the corrosion potential is different between the aluminum core wire and the metal terminal, elution (hereinafter referred to as “galvanic corrosion”) of the aluminum core wire occurs at the contact portion between the two (accurately, the conductive portion through water).
For this reason, the invention for preventing such galvanic corrosion is disclosed (for example, refer to patent documents 1).

JP, 2013-149598, A (page 6-8, FIG. 4)

In the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 (a wire with a terminal), an aluminum wire whose outer periphery of an aluminum core wire is covered with an insulation coating is crimped to a metal terminal formed of a copper plate or the like. A coating film such as tin plating is formed on the end of the crimped piece.
For this reason, in the state where the aluminum core wire is crimped (crimped) to the crimping piece, the boundary between the aluminum core and the edge of the crimping piece is separated by the coating film, and the contact between the aluminum core and the crimping piece is prevented at the boundary. Be done. In particular, since the above-mentioned boundary is a portion where salt or moisture invading from the outside is most likely to be attached, and salt and water are easily retained, the aluminum core wire in such a boundary becomes conductive when the aluminum core and the crimped piece (base metal) conduct. It is said that galvanic corrosion such as may occur is effectively suppressed.

  However, the coating film is also eluted simultaneously with the elution of the aluminum core (galvanic corrosion). Then, in the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1, since the coating film such as tin plating is formed by being limited to the boundary, the amount of tin plating or the like is small, so the coating film disappears at the boundary, There is a problem that galvanic corrosion of the aluminum core wire may be accelerated by conduction between the aluminum core wire and the crimped piece (base metal).

  The present invention is to solve such a problem, and to provide an electrical connector terminal capable of preventing the occurrence of galvanic corrosion over a long period of time.

The electrical connector terminal according to the present invention is an electrical connector terminal comprising a metal plate to which an aluminum wire having an aluminum core wire formed of aluminum or an aluminum alloy is crimped,
The metal plate is formed of copper or a copper alloy plated with a plating material on the entire surface, and has at least a grooved portion or a cylindrical portion having an uneven surface.
The aluminum core wire is crimped to a part of the inner surface of the grooved portion or the cylindrical portion by caulking.
Moreover, the said unevenness | corrugation is characterized by being sawtooth shape or wavelike formed by press work.
Further, the plating material is characterized in that nickel (Ni), tin (Sn) or zinc (Zn) whose corrosion potential is closer to aluminum (Al) than copper (Cu), or an alloy containing at least one of them. I assume.

In the electrical connector terminal according to the present invention, since the plating material is plated on the metal plate having irregularities on the outer surface, the surface area of the outer surface is increased compared to a plate having a flat outer surface. The amount of plating material adhering to the surface is greater than the amount of plating material adhering to a plate whose outer surface is flat.
Therefore, for example, even if the electrical connector terminal is submerged, even if the aluminum core wire and the plating material are conducted through water through water and elution (carbanic corrosion) occurs in both the aluminum core wire and the plating material, Since the adhesion amount of the plating material is abundant, the possibility that the plating material disappears and the metal plate is exposed is prevented. That is, since the conduction between the aluminum core wire and the metal plate through water is prevented, it is possible to prevent the galvanic corrosion of the aluminum core wire accelerated by the conduction between the aluminum core wire and the metal plate.

It is a side view explaining the electrical connector terminal concerning Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is a front view explaining the electrical connector terminal concerning Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an A-A cross section in FIG. 2, for explaining the electrical connector terminal according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is a sectional view of the 1st example which expands and shows a part of Drawing 3 in order to explain the electric connector terminal concerning Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is a sectional view of the 2nd example which expands and shows a modification of the electric connector terminal concerning Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and which is shown expanding a part.

  Hereinafter, a mode for carrying out the invention (hereinafter, referred to as “first embodiment”) will be described with reference to the drawings. The respective drawings are schematically illustrated, and the present invention is not limited to the illustrated form (the shape of a part, etc.).

First Embodiment
1 to 5 illustrate the electrical connector terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a side view, FIG. 2 is a front view, and FIG. 3 is an AA cross section in FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a first embodiment showing a part of FIG. 3 in an enlarged manner, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment showing a part of FIG.
In FIGS. 1 to 3, the electrical connector terminal 1 is formed by crimping an aluminum wire (not shown), and is made of a metal plate (same as a base metal) 10 plated with a plating material 20 on the entire surface.
The metal plate 10 has a crimped portion 11 and a connecting portion 12 which are formed in a groove shape or a cylindrical shape, and an aluminum electric wire (not shown) is crimped to a part of the inner surface of the crimped portion 11. Connected
Then, the unevenness 13 is formed at least on the outer surface, and the plating material 20 adheres from the top to the valley bottom of the unevenness 13 (see FIGS. 4 and 5). As described later, the cross-sectional shape of the unevenness 13 is sawtooth or wavy, and the peak and the valley bottom are slipped, but in order to make it easy to understand, the peak and the valley bottom are shown in a straight line in FIG.

  The crimped portion 11 has a substantially U-shaped cross section and includes a pair of crimped pieces 11b and a crimped bottom 11a connecting the pair of crimped pieces 11b. The connecting portion 12 has a substantially U-shaped cross section and a pair of connections A side surface 12b and a connection top surface 12a connecting the pair of connection side surfaces 12b are provided. The present invention does not limit the shape of the metal plate 10. Moreover, the unevenness 13 may be formed on the inner surface. Moreover, although the unevenness | corrugation 13 is formed in the whole area | region of an outer surface, this invention is not limited to this, You may form in the whole area or one part of the crimping piece 11b and the connection side 12b.

And the aluminum core wire which the aluminum electric wire which is not illustrated comprises is formed by aluminum or aluminum alloy, and the metal plate 10 is formed by copper or copper alloy.
Therefore, the plating material 20 is not limited, but a metal having a corrosion potential closer to that of aluminum (-0.71 V) than that of copper (for example, -0.22 V at 3 wt% of NaCl), for example It is formed of tin (Sn: -0.4 V) or the like.

As described above, since the electrical connector terminal 1 is obtained by plating the plated material 20 on the metal plate 10 having the concavoconvex 13 at least on the outer surface, the surface area of the outer surface is increased more than a plate having a flat outer surface. Because of this, the amount of plating material 20 attached is greater than the amount of plating material that adheres to a plate whose outer surface is flat.
Therefore, for example, when electrical connector terminal 1 is submerged, it is conducted that water between aluminum core wire and plating material 20 (not shown) is conducted via water, and galvanic corrosion occurs in both aluminum core wire and plating material 20. Also, since the adhesion amount of the plating material 20 is abundant, the possibility that the plating material 20 disappears and the base material of the metal plate 10 is exposed is prevented. That is, galvanic corrosion of the aluminum core wire accelerated by conduction between the aluminum core wire and the base material of the metal plate 10 can be prevented. Therefore, since the electrical connector terminal 1 is compatible with various long-term use environments, excellent reliability can be obtained.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, the cross-sectional shape of the unevenness 13 is a sawtooth shape in the first embodiment and a wave shape in the second embodiment, both of which are main embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to this. In addition, since it is thought that the amount of plating per unit area will become larger than the sawtooth shape, the wavy shape is considered to be advantageous from the viewpoint of plating reduction.
In addition, the unevenness 13 is not a parallel straight line having substantially equal intervals as in the plane form shown in FIG. 1, but uneven linear lines, curved lines, intersecting or intermittent linear or point shapes (precisely small) It may be circular or rectangular.

The present invention has been described above based on the first embodiment. It is understood by those skilled in the art that this first embodiment is an exemplification, and that various modifications can be made to the respective constituent elements and their combinations, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention.
For example, even in the case of replacing the aluminum-based electric wire or the copper-based metal plate, it can be made of the plating material having the relationship of the corrosion potential as described above.

  Since this invention is the above, it can be widely utilized as various electric connector terminals of various forms.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1: Electrical connector terminal 10: Metal plate 11: Crimping part 11a: Crimping bottom part 11b: Crimping piece 12: Connection part 12a: Connection top 12b: Connection side 13: Irregularity 20: Plating material

Claims (3)

An electrical connector terminal comprising a metal plate to which an aluminum wire having an aluminum core wire formed of aluminum or aluminum alloy is crimped,
The metal plate is formed of copper or a copper alloy plated with a plating material on the entire surface, and has at least a grooved portion or a cylindrical portion having an uneven surface.
An electrical connector terminal characterized in that the aluminum core wire is crimped to a part of the inner surface of the grooved portion or the cylindrical portion by caulking.   The electrical connector terminal according to claim 1, wherein the unevenness is a sawtooth shape or a wave shape formed by pressing.   The plating material is characterized in that nickel (Ni), tin (Sn), zinc (Zn), or an alloy containing at least one of these is closer to aluminum (Al) in corrosion potential than copper (Cu). The electrical connector terminal according to claim 1.

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