JP2531970Y2 - Connector holding structure for vehicle lighting - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector holding structure, and more particularly to a structure for holding a connector used for a vehicle lamp on a lamp or a vehicle body panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, in a lamp for an automobile or the like, it is necessary to attach the lamp itself to a vehicle body panel and electrically connect a cord connected to the lamp to a vehicle body. Conventionally, a connector has been used to facilitate this electrical connection. The connector connected to the lamp and the vehicle body (battery side)
The electrical connection is made by fitting with the connector. In the work of assembling a lamp using such a connector to a vehicle body, a step of inserting a connector connected to the lamp into a hole previously formed in a vehicle body panel, and fitting a connector on a vehicle body side (battery side) into this connector. The steps are as follows: a mating step, a step of holding the fitted connector on the vehicle body panel or another part, and a step of attaching the lamp to the vehicle body panel using means such as bolts.

[0003]

In such a conventional vehicle lamp, of the total man-hours of the assembling process of attaching the lamp to the vehicle body panel, the connector is more used than the process required for attaching the lamp. The ratio of the connecting process is increasing, and this connector connecting process has a problem that the assembling work of the lamp becomes complicated. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a connector holding structure capable of reducing the number of connector connection steps when assembling a lamp.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A connector holding structure of the present invention holds a connector connected to a vehicle lamp on a lamp body, holds a connector on the vehicle body connected to the connector on a vehicle body panel, and When the lamp is mounted on the vehicle body, the two connectors are directly opposed to each other so as to be directly engaged with each other, and one connector is movably held with respect to the other connector in a plane perpendicular to the connector fitting direction. . or,
Rubber packing is fitted and attached to the outer peripheral surface of the connector located inside when fitted, and the rubber packing elastically contacts a part of the other connector to ensure waterproofness between the two connectors.

[0005]

When the lamp is attached to the vehicle body panel, both the lamp-side connector and the vehicle-side connector are simultaneously fitted. At this time, one connector is moved with respect to the other, and the center alignment of the two connectors is performed to enable good fitting.
Further, the rubber packing seals between the two connectors, thereby preventing moisture from entering the connectors.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a connector holding structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially exploded perspective view of a part thereof, and FIG.
1 is a plan view showing an overall configuration of a vehicular lamp provided with the connector holding structure of FIG. In these figures, 1 is a lamp, and 2 is a vehicle body panel to which the lamp is attached. Here, the lamp 1 shows an example in which the stud bolt 3 is attached to the vehicle body panel 2 with the stud bolt 3. The stud bolt 3 protruding from the rear surface of the body 11 of the lamp 1 is inserted into a hole of the vehicle body panel 2, By assembling, the assembly becomes possible.

A connector, here a male connector 5, is mounted on the back of the lamp body of the lamp 1. A paired connector, here a female connector 6, is held at the body panel position corresponding to the male connector 5. The male connector 5 has a male terminal 5 in a connector housing 51.
The connector housing 5 is disposed such that the male terminal 52 is oriented vertically with respect to the vehicle body panel 2.
1 is inserted into a rectangular cylindrical support tube 12 provided in the lamp body 11, and is integrally fixed to the support tube 12 by a screw or the like (not shown). A rubber packing 53 is fitted to a flange 54 provided at the distal end of the connector housing 51, and has a function of waterproofing between the male connector 5 and the vehicle body panel 2 when fitted to the female connector 6.

On the other hand, the female connector 6 has a female terminal 62 corresponding to the male terminal 52 in a connector housing 61.
And is movably held in a rectangular connector holding hole 21 provided in the vehicle body panel 2. That is, the movable holder 7 made of resin or the like is fitted and supported in the connector holding hole 21 provided in the vehicle body panel 2.
The movable connector 7 allows the female connector 6 to slightly move in the vertical and horizontal directions along the surface of the vehicle body panel 2, that is, in the vertical and horizontal directions of FIG. Is held.

As shown in FIG. 2, the movable holder 7 has a rectangular frame 71 corresponding to the connector holding hole 21 (see FIG. 1). The lance piece 73 is elastically deformed and inserted into the connector holding hole 21, and then is engaged with the inner edge of the connector holding hole 21. The vehicle body panel 2 is sandwiched by the pressing pieces 72 located on the back side of the vehicle body panel 2, and the movable holder 7 itself is fixed to the vehicle body panel 2 by this sandwiching force.

On the four sides of the frame 71, elastic pieces 74, 75 curved inward are provided integrally on the four sides, respectively, and the elastic pieces 74, 75 are inserted into the frame 71. By being elastically contacted with the four side surfaces of the connector housing 61 of the mold connector 6 and being engaged between the flange 63 provided on the connector housing 61 and the protruding piece 64, the female mold is formed by the elastic pieces 74 and 75. Connect connector 6 to frame 71
Holding in.

For this reason, the female connector 6 has elastic pieces 74,
By elastically deforming 75, it is possible to move the frame with a small dimension in the vertical and horizontal directions of FIG. 2, and as a result, the above-described movement with respect to the vehicle body panel 2 becomes possible. The connector housing 51 of the male connector 5 is formed so that the tip thereof has a funnel surface 55, and the connector housing 61 of the female connector 6 is formed so that the tip thereof has a wedge surface 65. 55 and the wedge surface 65 make it easy to fit the two. Each connector is not provided with a lock mechanism or the like.

According to this configuration, when assembling the lamp 1, the lamp 1 is pushed in from the front of the vehicle body panel 2 while the lamp 1 is aligned with the vehicle body panel 2, and the stud bolt 3 is attached to the vehicle body panel 2. When the male connector 5 is inserted into the hole, the male connector 5 is simultaneously fitted with the female connector 6 held on the vehicle body panel 2. Then, by screwing and fastening the nut 4 to the stud bolt 3, the lamp 1 can be attached to the vehicle body panel 2, and at the same time, the electrical connection by the two connectors 5, 6 is completed. Therefore, the mounting of the lamp and the fitting of the connector can be performed by a so-called one-touch operation, and the assembling work of the lamp can be simplified.

At this time, even if a displacement occurs between the male connector 5 and the female connector 6, the funnel surface 55 and the wedge surface 6
The female connector 6 on the vehicle body is moved up, down, left and right by the elastic deformation of the elastic pieces 74 and 75 of the movable holder 7 so that the center is aligned with the male connector 5 on the lamp side. Is done. Therefore, both connectors 5, 6
There is no interference due to alignment errors between them, and the connector is not damaged. In this movement, the connector is moved in a parallel state along the surface of the vehicle body panel because the elastic piece in the other direction guides the side surface of the connector housing when it is moved in one direction. It is also possible to always keep the axis of the connector perpendicular to the panel surface of the vehicle body.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, elastically deformable elastic lances 66 protruding outward are integrally formed on four sides of a connector housing 61 of the female connector 6 attached to the vehicle body panel 2, respectively. The female connector 6 is engaged with the inner edge of the connector holding hole 21 of the panel 2.
Is held in the connector holding hole 21. Therefore, the female connector 6 can be moved up and down and left and right while elastically deforming the elastic lance 66, center alignment with respect to the male connector on the lamp side is performed, and the two connectors can be fitted.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the male connector 5 on the lamp side is movably held by the lamp body 11, and the female connector is fixedly supported on the vehicle body panel. The rectangular support tube 12 provided on the lamp body 11 is formed slightly larger than the outer shape of the connector housing 51, and has elastic pieces 13 curved inward on four sides thereof. The male connector 5 is inserted into the support tube 12 by engaging the four elastic pieces 13 with the engagement flanges 56 provided on each surface of the connector housing 51. It is supported so that it can move up, down, left and right.

Also in this configuration, when the lamp is attached to the vehicle body panel, the two connectors are fitted together, so that the connector can be connected simultaneously with the assembling of the lamp. In this case,
When the male connector 5 is moved with respect to the lamp body 11, the center position is adjusted with respect to the female connector fixed to the vehicle body panel, so that the two connectors can be fitted.
The movable holder of the first embodiment can be formed of an elastic material such as rubber. However, if the rubber material is too soft, the movable holder may be detached from the connector support hole due to the force when the connector is fitted. Therefore, it is preferable to use a rubber material having appropriate hardness.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of an embodiment in which the waterproofness is improved by improving the embodiment of FIG. In this embodiment, an annular rubber packing 67 is fitted on the outer peripheral surface of the base of the connector housing 61 of the female connector 6 so as to surround the connector housing 61. According to this configuration, when the male connector 5 is fitted to the female connector 6 as shown in the drawing by the rubber packing 53 already provided, the rubber packing 53 provided on the male connector 5 is attached to the vehicle body panel. 2 is elastically contacted with the surface of the vehicle body 2 to ensure waterproofness of the portion, thereby preventing moisture from entering from the outer surface side of the vehicle body panel 2. At the same time, the newly provided rubber packing 6
7, the funnel surface 55 at the distal end of the male connector 5 elastically contacts the rubber packing 67, and waterproofness between the distal end 56 of the male connector 5 and the peripheral surface of the connector housing 61 of the female connector 6 is ensured. In addition, intrusion of moisture from between the back side of the vehicle body panel 2 and the space between the elastic lances 66 of the female connector 6 is prevented.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing an embodiment in which the waterproofness is improved by improving the embodiment of FIG. 4, and a rubber packing 68 is fitted on the outer peripheral surface of the female connector 6 similarly to the embodiment of FIG. I'm attached. Therefore, when the two connectors 5 and 6 are fitted, the funnel surface 55 of the male connector 5 is elastically contacted with the rubber packing 68 to seal between them, thereby improving the waterproofness of the connector. Note that, in this example, the funnel surface 55 of the male connector 5 is protruded long forward to increase the close contact force with the rubber packing 68 and enhance the waterproofness.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the connector of the lamp held by the lamp body and the connector of the vehicle body held by the vehicle body panel are arranged to face each other, and one connector is connected to the other connector. On the other hand, since it is movably held in a plane perpendicular to the connector fitting direction, if the lamp is attached to the vehicle body panel, both the lamp side connector and the vehicle body side connector can be fitted at the same time, In addition to simplifying the operation of assembling the lamp, one of the connectors is moved with respect to the other when the connectors are fitted, and the center position of the two connectors is adjusted so that good fitting can be achieved. In addition, rubber packing is fitted to and attached to the outer peripheral surface of one connector, and the other connector is elastically contacted to ensure waterproofness between the two connectors. It is possible to improve reliability such as improvement of performance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a connector portion of the connector holding structure of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially exploded perspective view of a main part of the connector holding structure of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the vehicle lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing an improved structure of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing an improved structure of the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 lamp 2 body panel 5 male connector (lamp side connector) 6 female connector (vehicle side connector) 7 movable holder 13 elastic piece 53 rubber packing 66 elastic lance 67,68 rubber packing 74,75 elastic piece

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Agency reference number FI Technical display location H01R 13/74 H01R 13/74 C

Claims (2)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A connector connected to a vehicle lamp is held by a lamp body, a connector on the vehicle body side connected to the connector is held by a vehicle body panel, and both connectors are mounted when the lamp is mounted on a vehicle body. A connector for a vehicular lamp, wherein the connector is disposed so as to be directly fitted and movably holds one connector with respect to the other connector in a plane perpendicular to the fitting direction of the connector. Retention structure. 2. A rubber packing is fitted and attached to an outer peripheral surface of a connector positioned inside when fitted, and the rubber packing elastically contacts a part of the other connector to be fitted, so that both connectors are fitted. The connector holding structure for a vehicle lamp according to claim 1, wherein waterproofness between the connectors is ensured.