JP2574785Y2 - Lever connector - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement in a lever-type connector in which a connector is connected by leverage.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A connector of this kind is connected with a small force.
It has an advantage that it can be detached, and is particularly applied to a multi-pole connector having 20 or more poles. The basic principle is based on the leverage of the lever.
What is publicly known in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 62772 is a configuration schematically shown in FIG.

[0003] In the figure, a female connector housing 1 in which a female terminal is incorporated is shown on the upper side, and a male connector housing 2 in which a male terminal is incorporated is shown on the lower side. It can be inserted into the male connector housing 2. A lever 3 having a cam groove 3a for performing "lever action" is provided on the male connector housing 2 so as to be rotatable about a support shaft 2a, and on the female connector housing 1 side, a cover 4 is provided. A cam receiving projection 4a is provided.

When the connectors 1 and 2 are connected, as shown in FIG. 1B, the cam receiving projection 4a of the cover 4 attached to the female connector housing 2 is first inserted into the cam groove 3a of the lever 3, and Thereafter, the lever 3 is turned in the direction of the arrow to change the state shown in FIG. As a result, the cam receiving projection 4a and thus the cover 4 are pushed downward in the drawing by the cam action of the cam groove 3a, and as a result, the female connector housing 1 is completely inserted into the male connector housing 2, whereby the terminal groups of both connectors are brought. The connection is made.

[0005]

In order to perform this type of connector connection operation, as described above, first, the cam receiving projection 4a is inserted into the cam groove 3a, and the lever 3 is rotated in this state. As a result, the cam receiving projection 4a is pushed down. Therefore, when rotating the lever 3, it is necessary that the cam receiving projection 4a surely enters the cam groove 3a.

However, simply inserting the female connector housing 1 into the male connector housing 2 does not always ensure that the cam receiving projection 4a enters the cam groove 3a. However, the cam receiving projection 4a may be separated from the cam groove 3a before the rotation operation of the lever 3 is performed.

Therefore, in connecting the two connectors, first, the female connector housing 1 is inserted into the male connector housing 2, and then the female connector housing 1 is pressed with the other hand while the fingers are being held on the lever 3. Then, the cam receiving projection 4a is surely inserted into the cam groove 3a, and after confirming this, there is a problem that a troublesome operation of raising the lever 3 while lightly pressing the female connector housing 1 must be performed. Was.

In order to avoid such troublesome work, it is preferable that the female connector housing 1 once inserted into the male connector housing 2 be temporarily locked at that position.

For this purpose, a configuration generally recalled is a structure in which engaging claws are formed on both connector housings 1 and 2 to engage with each other. However, if such a structure is adopted, an engagement claw having an undercut shape is molded,
The mold structure of the mold for molding the connector housing is complicated, and the cost of the mold is increased. In addition, the number of punched holes provided in the connector housing is increased and the strength of the connector housing is reduced. In addition, since the amount of engagement of the engagement claws changes due to a clearance provided between the two connector housings, a molding error, and the like, a stable temporary locking state may not be obtained.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to stably hold both connector housings in a temporarily locked state so that the connecting operation can be performed efficiently. An object of the present invention is to provide a lever-type connector which can eliminate adverse effects such as a decrease in strength of the lever.

[0011]

According to the lever type connector of the present invention, a lever is rotatably provided in one connector housing of the connectors to be connected to each other, and a lever is formed in a cam groove formed in the lever on the other side. A cam receiving projection to be engaged is provided, and the cam receiving projection is displaced by rotating the lever to connect and disconnect the two connectors. The cam receiving projection is formed in a closed shape, and the thickness of the entrance portion is allowed by elastically deforming a lever of the cam receiving projection. The other connector is set so as to engage with the protrusion and prevent the detachment.
It is located near the cam receiving protrusion and projects toward the lever side.
Protruding regulating projections, and
The lever receives the cam receiving protrusion in the cam groove.
When in the rotating position, it contacts the peripheral edge of the cam groove,
The lever is turned from the rotation position in the connecting direction of the two connectors.
When moved, it comes off the periphery of the cam groove and
It is characterized in that it is set at a location located in the groove .

[0012]

In the lever-type connector of the above-mentioned means, when one connector housing is inserted into the other connector housing on which the lever is mounted in order to connect the two connectors, the cam receiving projection deforms the lever elastically, whereby The receiving projection enters into the closed cam groove. Here, the thickness dimension of the entry portion of the cam groove is set so that the cam receiving projection can enter when the lever is elastically deformed, and after the entry, the lever elastically returns and engages with the cam receiving projection. Therefore, once the cam receiving protrusion enters the cam groove, the connector housing is temporarily locked at that position, and the hand can be released.

In addition, since the connector housing can be temporarily locked by using the lever, it is not necessary to provide a locking structure in the connector housing itself.

In addition, since the regulating projection is provided near the cam receiving projection and between the lever, even if there is a molding variation on the lever or the connector housing side, the gap between the cam receiving projection and the entering portion is not increased. The engagement margin is made constant, and a stable temporary locking state is obtained.

[0015]

As described above, according to the lever-type connector of the present invention, one of the connector housings can be temporarily locked to the lever. Since there is no need to provide a locking structure in the connector housing, problems such as reduced strength and mold costs do not occur. This provides an excellent effect that the allowance for engagement between the two is fixed, and a stable temporary locking state can be obtained.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The overall structure is as shown in FIG. 1, in which a male connector housing 11 to which a male terminal (not shown) is mounted is drawn on the lower side, and a female connector housing 12 to which a female terminal (not shown) is mounted is drawn on the upper side. I have.

A cover 13 is provided on the upper portion of the female connector housing 12 so as to cover the entire upper surface thereof. The cover 13 is engaged with the female connector housing 12 by an engagement mechanism (not shown), and a cam receiving projection 17 that engages with a cam groove 16 of a lever 15 described later projects laterally at the center of the side wall. .

On the other hand, the male connector housing 11 has a rectangular hood portion 18 whose upper surface is open, and a pair of lever support shafts 19 is provided on a side wall portion of the hood portion 18 to project sideways. Is attached. The lever 15 has a bipodal shape, and each leg 15a is
b. Each leg 15a has a cam groove 16 which engages with a cam receiving protrusion 17 provided on the cover 13.
When the cam receiving projection 17 and the cam groove 16 are engaged with each other, the lever 15 is moved from the "open position" shown in FIG.
The cover 13 and, consequently, the female connector housing 12 are forcibly pushed into the hood portion 18 of the male connector housing 11 by a cam action by being rotated to the "coupled position" shown in FIG. Has a well-known function of performing the connection. In addition,
On both side walls of the male connector housing 11, outer walls 21 for integrally covering the lower half of the lever 15 attached thereto from the side are provided.

The cam groove 16 of the lever 15 is shown in FIG.
The bearing hole 22 into which the lever support shaft 19 is fitted as shown in FIG.
Is formed so as to form a smooth arc around the periphery thereof, and one end thereof is closest to the bearing hole 22, and the other end is farthest from the bearing hole 22, and the thin-walled approach is closest to the outer peripheral edge of the lever 15. It is closed by the part 23. When the female connector housing 12 is mounted on the male connector housing 11 when the lever 15 is in the “open position” shown in FIG. 7, the entrance portion 23 is configured such that the cam receiving projection 17 of the cover 13 gets over the female connector housing 12. Cam groove 16
It is an entrance to enter. The thickness of the lever 1
5 is set to be thinner than the other portions of the legs 15a, but the cam receiving projection 17 is allowed to enter by elastically deforming the legs 15a of the lever 15 in the expanding direction. When the leg 15a elastically returns and deforms,
The value is set such that the entry portion 23 is engaged with the cam receiving projection 17 to prevent the cam receiving projection 17 from being detached. In addition, this approach part 2
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the taper 3 has a tapered shape in which the thickness dimension becomes thinner toward the outer peripheral edge side (upper side in the figure) of the lever 15, thereby facilitating entry of the cam receiving projection 17.

As shown in FIG. 3 in an enlarged manner, the regulating projection 24 is formed integrally with the cover 13 in the vicinity of each of the cam receiving projections 17, for example, right next to the cam receiving projections 17 (right side in FIG. 3).
Are protruded from each other. These are the cam receiving projections 17
The cover 13 and the lever 1 are engaged with the cam groove 16.
5 and both legs 15a of the lever 15 are protruded in the expanding direction by an amount corresponding to the protruding dimension.

In the above configuration, the operation of connecting the two connector housings 11 and 12 is performed as follows. Lever 1
5 is set to the "open position" as shown in FIG.
Hold the female connector housing 12 and the male connector housing 11 to which the cover 13 is attached by right and left hands,
The lower part of the female connector housing 12 is directed to the opening of the hood part 18. Then, each cam receiving projection 17 of the cover 13
Correspond to the entry portion 23 of the cam groove 16 of the lever 15.

Therefore, if the female connector housing 12 is strongly pushed into the hood portion 18, the cam receiving projection 17 abuts on the entry portion 23 to elastically deform the legs 15a of the lever 15 so as to expand. As a result, the cam receiving projections 17 get over the entry portions 23, and the respective cam receiving projections 1
7 enter each cam groove 16. When the cam receiving projection 17 has entered the cam groove 16, the lever 15 which has been
6, the cam receiving projection 17 and the entry portion 23 of the cam groove 16 are engaged with each other to prevent the legs 15a from being detached from each other, as shown in FIG.

In the above state, both connector housings 1
Since the connectors 1 and 12 are locked, they do not fall off the male connector housing 11 even if the hands are released from the female connector housing 12. Then, this time, the hand is released from the female connector housing 12 and the hand is put on the bridging portion 15b of the lever 15, and the lever is rotated so as to cause this, so that the cam receiving projection 17 is formed by the cam groove 16 of the lever 15 as shown in FIG. 7, the cover 13 provided with the cover 13 and the female connector housing 12 are
8, when the lever 15 reaches the "joining position" shown in FIG.
Twelve male and female terminals are completely connected.

In order to remove both connectors from the connection state shown in FIG. 8, the lever 15 is turned in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 7 to the "open position" shown in FIG. Then, in this state, the male connector housing 11 and the cover 13 are gripped by hand and are swung right and left to pull the lever 15.
The cam receiving projection 17 is pulled out from the cam groove 16 by elastically expanding and deforming the leg portion 15a of the second connector housing 11, so that the two connector housings 11 and 12 are separated.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the lever 15
The cam groove 16 is formed in a closed shape and the cam groove 1 is formed.
6 is set to a value that allows the cam receiving projection 17 to be elastically temporarily locked, so that the cam receiving projection 17 enters the female connector housing 12 using the lever 15. Can be temporarily locked to the male connector housing 11. Therefore, when connecting the connectors, first, the female connector housing 12 is inserted into the hood portion 18 of the male connector housing 11 to be in a temporarily locked state,
Thereafter, the connection of the connector can be performed by a simple operation of raising the lever 15 with one hand. With this, when connecting the connector, compared to the conventional lever type connector, which had to operate the lever while holding with both hands so that the female connector housing once inserted did not come out of the hood part of the male connector housing
The connector connection work is significantly simplified, and the work can be efficiently performed.

In addition, since the female connector housing 12 is temporarily locked by using the lever 15 while obtaining the excellent effects as described above, a locking structure using engaging claws is provided on both connector housings. Unlike the configuration provided, there is no need to form an engagement claw having an undercut shape on the connector housing. For this reason, the mold structure of the mold for molding the connector housing is simplified, so that the cost of the mold can be reduced, and the number of the punched holes provided in the connector housing is not increased, so that the strength of the connector housing is increased. Can be maintained.

By the way, the cam receiving projection 17 and the entrance 23
2A, the restricting protrusions 24 are provided immediately beside the respective cam receiving protrusions 17 as shown in the enlarged view of FIG. Only lever 15
Are spread in the expanding direction. Therefore, the cam receiving projection 17 and the entrance 2 of the lever 15
The margin x for engagement with No. 3 is expressed by the following equation.

X = p + L “L” corresponds to a value obtained by subtracting the maximum thickness of the entrance portion 23 from the thickness of the leg 15 a of the lever 15. This "L"
Can be formed with high precision by the forming die of the lever 15, the engagement margin x is also determined to a constant value with high precision.

Here, assuming that the regulating protrusion 24 is not provided, the engagement allowance varies for the following reason. That is, the dimensions L, p, and the like can be molded with high accuracy, but the dimension of the lever 15 between the two legs 15a does not always have high molding accuracy. This is because, since the lever 15 has a two-leg shape, the crossing dimension between the two leg portions 15a easily fluctuates due to warpage deformation during molding. Assuming that the restricting projection 24 is not provided, if the warpage during molding is small, the leg 15a of the lever 15 comes into close contact with the cover 13 as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. However, when the warp deformation is large, as shown in FIG.
Is separated from the cover 13 and the engagement margin is reduced to x2 (x2 <x1). Such a variation in the engagement allowance means that the temporary locking force of the female connector housing 12 based on the engagement between the cam receiving projection 17 and the entry portion 23 of the lever 15 varies, and sometimes the temporary locking state. Since the female connector housing 12 cannot be formed, the connector connecting operation cannot be efficiently performed.

On the other hand, in the configuration of the present embodiment in which the regulating projection 24 is provided, since the two legs 15a of the lever 15 are pushed out by the regulating projection 24, as described above, the cam receiving projection is provided. The engagement margin x between the lever 17 and the entry portion 23 of the lever 15 can be set to a constant value with high accuracy, and the temporary locking force of the female connector housing 12 can be stably set at a constant value. Thus, the efficiency of the connector connection operation can be greatly improved.

Further, in this embodiment, since the cam groove 16 is formed in a closed shape, the strength of the leg 15a of the lever 15 is increased, and the work of connecting the two connectors can be performed stably. This contributes to weight reduction and cost reduction by making the entire lever 15 thinner.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and for example, the following modifications are possible.

[0033]

(B) The cam receiving projection 17 is provided on the cover 13 attached to the female connector housing 12 side. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the cam receiving projection may be provided on the female connector housing itself. It may be.

(C) Contrary to the above embodiment, the female connector housing may be provided with a lever and the male connector housing may be provided with a cam receiving portion.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, but can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the scope of the invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view of a main part.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the back side of the leg of the lever;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view before a connector is connected.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of the connector after connection.

FIG. 7 is a side view when the lever is in an “open position”.

FIG. 8 is a side view when the lever is at a “coupling position”.

FIG. 9 is a schematic side view showing a conventional lever-type connector.

[Description of Signs] 11 ... Male connector housing 12 ... Female connector housing 15 ... Lever 16 ... Cam groove 17 ... Cam receiving protrusion 18 ... Hood portion 19 ... Lever support shaft 23 ... Entry part 24 ... Regulation protrusion

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Nakata 1-114, Nishisuehiro-cho, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie Sumitomo Wiring Systems Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-U 5-36773 (JP, U) (58) Survey Field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H01R 13/62-13/639

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] A lever is rotatably provided on one connector housing of the connectors to be coupled to each other, and a cam receiving projection is provided on the other side for engaging a cam groove formed in the lever. By rotating the cam receiving protrusion to disengage and connect the two connectors, the cam groove is formed in a closed shape which is closed at an entry portion of the cam receiving protrusion, The thickness of the entrance portion is allowed by elastically deforming the lever to allow the cam receiving protrusion to enter, and after the cam receiving protrusion enters, the cam receiving protrusion engages with the cam receiving protrusion to prevent the cam receiving protrusion from being detached. So that the other connector is located near the cam receiving projection.
And a regulating projection projecting toward the lever side is provided.
At the same time, the lever projects forward with the cam groove.
When it is in the pivot position to receive the cam
The lever comes into contact with the peripheral edge of the
When rotated in the connector coupling direction, the cam groove
Set at a position that is off the peripheral edge and located in the cam groove.
Lever-type connector, characterized in that the.