JP2953314B2 - Electrical junction box - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric connection box for automobiles, and more particularly, to an electric connection box for arbitrarily arranging electric circuits including a large number of fuses, relays, and the like to branch connection of a wire harness. It is about a connection box.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, electric junction boxes for automobiles have been replaced with conventional bus bars (formed by punching a conductive metal plate) in order to flexibly respond to changes in the design of internal circuits.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-120627, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-96820, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-166419 discloses a method in which external input / output terminals and electric wires are connected to each other by press-fitting terminals while the electric wires are wired. Etc.).

That is, in this type of electric junction box, a crimp terminal is integrated at a predetermined position of a case or an insulating plate housed in the case, and an electric wire laid in a predetermined pattern is connected to each press-contact terminal by press-contact. It has become.

[0004]

However, in the electric junction box, a press-connecting of an electric wire to a press-connecting terminal is performed.
A wiring mold is required. This mold has wiring grooves in accordance with the wiring pattern, and the more complicated the wiring pattern, the more expensive it becomes. Further, in the above wiring work, it is necessary to temporarily wire the electric wires in wiring grooves formed in the mold according to the wiring pattern, and then transfer the wires from the mold to the case or the insulating plate. Cost and production cost.

[0005] Further, when wiring the case or the insulating plate, it is necessary to prevent the electric wires from overlapping each other, so that there is a problem that the wiring pattern must be complicated.
In this case, there is a limit in terms of strength and the like in bending the electric wire, and the problem becomes more remarkable as the number of electric wires to be wired increases. In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive electrical junction box that can easily perform wiring and can simplify a wiring pattern with a simple configuration.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, in a first aspect, a case and a wiring groove mounted in the case and for inserting a thick electric wire on a surface side are formed on a circuit pattern. In addition, wiring grooves for inserting a thin object wire are formed on the back side according to the circuit pattern, and press-fitting terminal driving portions having a large groove width are formed at required locations of these wiring grooves. And the load circuit side thin wire inserted and held in the power supply circuit side thick wire and the thin wire thin wire inserted and held in the thick wire insertion wire groove of the insulating plate. A wire press-fitting portion is provided on one end side, and an input / output terminal portion is provided on the other end side, and the wire inserted and held in the wiring groove of the insulating plate is driven into the press-fitting terminal driving portion with the wire. Press-connect, and the input / output terminal protrudes from the terminal hole provided on the outer wall of the case Joint having a pressure contact terminal connected to an external circuit through the wiring board, and an electrical connection portion fixed to the insulating plate, protruding into wiring grooves on both front and rear surfaces of the insulating plate, and connecting the thick wire and the thin wire by pressure. The present invention provides an electric connection box, comprising: a terminal; and a power supply circuit and a load circuit are electrically connected to each other by the joint terminal.

In the invention according to claim 2, the joint terminal has a structure in which an electric connection portion projects into two or more different wiring grooves on at least one surface of the insulating plate.

It is preferable that the electric connection portion of the press contact terminal is constituted by a contact portion having substantially the same diameter as the outer diameter of the core wire, and an inclined portion gradually expanding from the contact portion toward the edge. .

[0009]

According to the structure of the present invention, the thick electric wire of the power supply circuit laid in the wiring groove on the front surface side of the insulating plate and the thin electric wire of the load circuit laid in the wiring groove on the rear surface side are as follows: Each of the joint terminals is electrically connected to an electric connection portion.

According to the configuration of the present invention, if the electric wires are laid in the plurality of wiring grooves formed on at least one surface of the insulating plate, these electric wires are connected to the respective electric connection portions of the joint terminal. Connected.

Further, when the electric connection portion of the press contact terminal is constituted by a contact portion having substantially the same diameter as the outer diameter of the core wire and an inclined portion gradually expanding from the connection portion toward the edge, If an electric wire is laid in the wiring groove, the electric wire is held at the inclined portion of the electric wire connection portion. Thereafter, when the electric wire is press-fitted, the electric wire is gradually cut off the insulating coating from the inclined portion toward the contact portion, and is electrically connected to the core wire at the contact portion.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 7 show an electric connection box of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the electric connection box has a single thick insulating plate 1 inside an upper case 10 and a lower case 11.
2 is sandwiched. First and second wiring grooves 13 and 14 for inserting and holding electric wires are provided on both upper and lower surfaces of the insulating plate 12 in accordance with a wiring pattern. 16 is directly inserted by a wire feeder (not shown). This wiring groove 13, 1
The press-contact portions 17a, 18a at one ends of the press-contact terminals 17, 18 are press-fitted and connected to the electric wires 15, 16 held inside the press-fit terminal 4, and the input / output terminal portions at the other ends of the press-contact terminals 17, 18 are connected. 17b and 18b protrude from terminal holes 19 and 20 formed in the outer walls of the upper case 10 and the lower case 11, respectively.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, the upper case 10 is provided with a step in the upper wall portion 10a at the lower end surface opening.
The fuse fitting portion 21 on the power supply side is formed one step higher, and the connector portion 22 for fitting the connector connected to the electric wire on the load side is formed at a lower position.
1. The terminal holes 19 are respectively formed in the inner surface surrounded by the peripheral wall of the connector portion 22.

On the other hand, the lower case 11 has an opening at the upper end surface, and a connector portion 23 for fitting a connector connected to an electric wire on the load side is protruded from a lower wall portion 11a thereof.
The terminal hole 20 is formed in an inner surface surrounded by a peripheral wall of the terminal. The distal end surfaces of the outer peripheral walls 10b, 11b of the upper case 10 and the lower case 11 are in contact with each other to form an electric connection box.

As shown in FIG. 1, the insulating plate 12 is formed into a shape which can be closely fitted to an internal space formed when the upper case 10 and the lower case 11 are in contact with each other. That is, the insulating plate 12 is provided on the upper wall 10 a of the upper case 10.
A step-like protruding portion 12a is provided in a portion sandwiched between the fuse fitting portion 21 and the lower case 11, which is one step higher, and this portion is thicker than other portions.

As shown in FIGS. 4B and 5, a first wiring groove 13 is provided on the lower surface 12b of the insulating plate 12 in contact with the inner surface of the lower case 11, corresponding to the wiring pattern. The wiring groove 13 is for inserting a small electric wire through which a small current flows. As shown in FIG. 5, the relationship between the diameter W1 of the thin electric wire 15 and the width W2 of the first wiring groove 13 is set to W1 ≧ W2. ,
In addition, the relationship between the depth H of the first wiring groove 13 and the wire diameter W1 is set to H ≧ W1 × 2. In addition, the depth H of the wiring groove 13 is not limited to the above relationship, and may be larger than the wire diameter W1, but is preferably twice or more as described above.

The electric wire 15 inserted into the wiring groove 13
In the portion where the wiring groove 13 is connected, the side walls 13a, 13b of the wiring groove 13 are widened to form a pressing terminal driving portion 24 having a lower surface opening with a wiring groove width of W3. FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1A, a part of the first wiring groove 13 penetrates from the bottom surface to the upper surface 12c of the insulating plate 12, and has a press-contact terminal driving portion 25 having an upper surface opening. The press contact terminal driving portion 25 does not extend to the lower surface 12b of the insulating plate 12, but extends from the upper surface 12c to an intermediate portion between the side walls 13a and 13b of the wiring groove 13. The press contact terminal driving portion 24 is
The first terminal hole 20 and the press contact terminal driving portion 25 are provided at positions corresponding to the terminal holes 19 of the upper case 10.

As shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 5, on the upper surface of the step-like projection 12a of the insulating plate 12 corresponding to the fuse fitting portion 21, the wiring pattern connected to the fuse is formed. The second wiring groove 14 is provided. The second wiring groove 14 is for inserting a thick electric wire through which a large current flows, has a width W4 larger than that of the first wiring groove 13 for inserting a thin electric wire, and
The depth of the second wiring groove 14 is also deeper than the first wiring groove 13. At the portion where the thick electric wire 16 inserted into the second wiring groove 14 and the press contact terminal 18 are connected, the width of the side walls 14 a and 14 b of the second wiring groove 14 is increased to provide the press contact terminal driving portion 26.

As shown in FIG. 6, the second wiring groove 14 formed in the step-like protrusion 12a of the insulating plate 12 has a portion formed at a position corresponding to the first wiring groove 13, and A joint terminal 27 is integrally formed or press-fitted into the boss. The joint terminal 27 is made of a rectangular conductive plate, and both ends are cut out to form substantially U-shaped electric connection portions 28a and 28b, respectively. One end of the electric connection portion 28a is for a thick electric wire, and the other end of the electric connection portion 28b is for a thin electric wire, and is formed to have substantially the same width as the core wire outer diameter of each of the electric wires 15 and 16.

A press contact terminal 1 for press contact with the thick electric wire 16
8. The press-contact terminal 17 for press-contacting the thin wire 15 has the same shape as that of the related art, is made of a conductive metal plate, has male input / output terminal portions 17b and 18b on one side, and has a fork on the other side. And has wire press-contact portions 17a and 18a having slots 17c and 18c at the center. The wire press-contact portions 17a, 18a of the press-contact terminals 17, 18 are press-fitted into the press-contact terminal driving portions 24, 25, 26.

Next, a method of assembling the electric junction box comprising the above members will be described. First, with the lower surface of the insulating plate 12 facing upward, the thin wire 15 sent from the wire feeder is directly laid in the first wiring groove 13. At this time, the depth H of the first wiring groove 13 is set to be twice or more the depth of the electric wire 15, and the width W2 of the first wiring groove 13 is set slightly smaller than the diameter W1 of the electric wire 15. The first wiring groove 1
Even if the wire 15 inserted in the inside of the wire 3 is bent, the wire 15 can be securely held without being lifted from the first wiring groove 13. When the thin wire 15 is wired, the insulating coating 15a is cut off by the electric connection portion 28a of the joint terminal 27 integrated with the insulating plate 12, and the core wire 15b contacts the joint terminal 27. In this wiring work, since the insulating plate 12 has few irregularities, the wire feeder can be smoothly moved at the same height, and the working state is stabilized.

Next, with the upper surface of the insulating plate 12 facing upward,
In the same manner as described above, the thick wire 16 is laid directly in the second wiring groove 14 by the wire feeder. In the case of the thick electric wire 16 as well, since the depth of the second wiring groove 14 is increased and the width of the wiring groove is reduced to press-fit the electric wire, the electric wire 16 can be inserted and held while preventing the electric wire 16 from floating. At this time, the thick wire 16
Is cut off the insulating coating 16a at the electrical connection portion 28b of the joint terminal 27 projecting into the second wiring groove 14, and
b makes contact with the thick wire 16 and the thin wire 15
Are electrically connected to each other.

Subsequently, the press contact terminal 17 is pressed into the press contact terminal driving portion 24 with the lower surface 12b of the insulating plate 12 facing upward. At this time, the insulation coating is cut by sandwiching the thin wire 15 in the slot 17c of the wire pressure contact portion 17a of the pressure contact terminal 17, thereby electrically connecting the pressure contact terminal 17 to the electric wire 15 and simultaneously connecting the pressure contact terminal 17 to the insulating plate 12. Attach.

Similarly, the upper surface 12 of the insulating plate 12 is
c is directed upward, and the press contact terminal 17 is press-fitted into the press contact terminal driving portion 25 to be connected to the thin electric wire 15.
Is pressed into the press-contact terminal driving portion 26 to connect the thick wire 16, and at the same time, the press-connect terminals 17 and 18 are attached to the insulating plate 12.

As described above, the wiring grooves 13, 1 of the insulating plate 12 are provided.
4, the insulation displacement terminals 17, 16
The upper case 10 and the lower case 11 are connected to the upper and lower surfaces of the insulating plate 12 by pressing the upper and lower surfaces of the upper and lower surfaces, respectively.
Is not attached, it is possible to confirm whether the electric wires 16 and 15 are in the pressed state.

Thereafter, the upper case 10 and the lower case 11 are assembled with the insulating plate 12 interposed therebetween. At this time,
Terminal hole 19 of fuse fitting portion 21 of upper case 10
Of the press contact terminal 18 connected to the thick wire 16 and the input / output terminal portion 17b of the press contact terminal 17 connected to the thin wire 15 from the terminal hole 19 of the connector portion 22. Further, the input / output terminal portion 17b of the press contact terminal 17 connected to the thin object wire 15 is projected from the terminal hole 20 of the connector portion 23 of the lower case 11.

In the electric junction box assembled as described above, the internal circuit is composed of a power supply circuit and a load circuit, and is composed of a thin electric wire 15 and a thick electric wire 16 and press-connecting electric wires 17 and 18 connected thereto. It is configured. That is, in the power supply circuit, a thick electric wire 16 and a press contact terminal 18 press-connected to the thick electric wire 16 are provided.
b denotes a fuse 30 attached to the fuse fitting portion 21.
(Shown in FIG. 2A).

On the other hand, the load circuit comprises a thin electric wire 15 and a press contact terminal 17 which is connected to the thin electric wire 15 by press contact.
The terminal portion 17b of the press contact terminal 17 is connected to the connector portions 22, 23.
Is connected to a load-side connector (not shown) that is fitted to the connector. The power supply circuit and the load circuit are connected to the thin electric wire 15.
And the joint wires 27 that are in contact with the core wires 15a, 16a of the thick electric wire 16, respectively.

As described above, in the internal circuit of the electric junction box, the wiring of the electric wires 15 and 16 can be performed on the upper and lower surfaces of the insulating plate 12 by the joint terminals 27, respectively. Structures 13 and 14, that is, wiring patterns can be simplified.

Further, since the electric connection box does not use a bus bar but is composed entirely of electric wires and press-connecting terminals, it can easily cope with a circuit change. In particular, in the case of a circuit for small current in which the circuit is frequently changed, it is possible to easily cope with this by changing the wiring of the thin object wire 15 or changing the mounting position of the press contact terminal 17. Also, even when a change occurs in the circuit for large current, the wiring of the thick wire 16 is changed,
Alternatively, it is possible to easily cope with this by changing the mounting position of the press contact terminal 18.

The structure of the joint terminal 27 is the same as that shown in FIG.
While the conductive plate material remains in the planar shape, the electric connection portions 28a are formed at two places on one end side, or as shown in FIG.
One end side may be bent so as to be orthogonal (in this case, even one electrical connection portion 28a includes a portion indicated by a two-dot chain line).
Location. (C), one end is bent so as to have a substantially U-shape (in this case, the electric connection portion 28a may be provided at two places or at three places including a part shown by a two-dot chain line). (D) as shown in FIG.
Various structures can be adopted, for example, the bending directions are different from each other. Further, the electric connection portions 28a may be provided not only on one end side but also on both sides.

Further, the electric connection portions 28a, 28b
Although the opposed edges are made parallel by notching in a substantially U-shape, as shown in FIG. 8, a configuration may be adopted in which the edges gradually widen at one end side. According to this, the wiring grooves 13,
Even if the wires 15 and 16 are laid on the wires 14, the wires 15 and 16 do not protrude from the wiring grooves 13 and 14 at the electrical connection portions 28a and 28b, and the insulation coatings 15a and 16a Can be cut smoothly.

[0033]

As is clear from the above description, according to the first aspect of the present invention, wiring grooves are formed on both front and back surfaces of the insulating plate, and the wires laid in both wiring grooves are electrically connected to each other by the joint terminals. Since the connection can be made, the wiring pattern formed on the insulating plate can be simplified, and the wires can be easily wired. Also, when the press contact terminal is driven into the insulating plate, electrical connection with the wired electric wire can be achieved, so that a conventional wiring mold is not required, and the press contact between the wire and the press contact terminal / wire is performed. Can be performed at the same time, so that wiring can be performed at low cost while reducing the number of work steps.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the electrical connection portions of the joint terminals projecting into the wiring groove on at least one side of the insulating plate are provided at a plurality of locations, it is possible to electrically connect a plurality of electric wires at a time. it can.

Further, when the electric connection portion of the joint terminal is constituted by the contact portion and the inclined portion extending from the contact portion to the edge portion, it is possible to prevent the electric wire from protruding from the insulating plate when laying the electric wire and to prevent the insulation from being caused. The coating can be cut smoothly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an electric junction box of the present invention.

2A and 2B show an upper case constituting the electric connection box, wherein FIG. 2A is a plan view and FIG. 2B is a perspective view.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view showing a lower case constituting the electric connection box;

FIG. 4 shows an insulating plate constituting an electric junction box, and FIG.
Is a plan view, and (B) is a bottom view.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state where the electric wires and the press contact terminals are inserted into the insulating plate.

FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view showing a state where an electric wire and a press contact terminal are inserted into an insulating plate.

7 (a), (b), (c) and (d) are perspective views showing another embodiment of the joint terminal.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the electrical connection part of the joint terminal.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing an internal circuit of a conventional electric junction box.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Upper case 11 Lower case 12 Insulating plate 12a Step-like projection part 12b Lower surface (one surface) 13 First wiring groove 14 Second wiring groove 15 Thin electric wire 16 Thick electric wire 17, 18 Pressure contact terminal 17a, 18a Wire pressure contact portion 17b, 18b Input / output terminal portion 19, 20 Terminal hole 24, 25, 26 Pressure contact terminal driving portion 27 Joint terminal 28a, 28b Electrical connection portion W2 Width of first wiring groove W4 Width of second wiring groove

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Seimi Kobayashi 1-14 Nishisuehirocho, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd. (72) Inventor Nori Inoue 1-114 Nishisuehirocho, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie Sumitomo Wiring Systems Incorporated (56) References JP-A-3-22358 (JP, U) JP-A 1-1103167 (JP, U) JP-A 5-55718 (JP, U) (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H02G 3/08-3/20

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A case, which is mounted in the case and has a surface for inserting a thick electric wire.
While the wiring groove is formed according to the circuit pattern,
Wiring grooves on the back side for inserting thin wires according to the circuit pattern
An insulating plate formed with press-fitting terminal driving portions having a large groove width at required positions of these wiring grooves , and an electric wire inserted and held in the wiring groove for inserting a thick wire in the insulating plate.
Insert and secure wiring grooves for thick and thin wires on the source circuit side
The thin wire on the load circuit side to be held , and a wire press contact portion on one end side, an input / output terminal portion on the other end side, and the wire inserted and held in the wiring groove of the insulating plate, A press-connecting terminal for driving the input / output terminal portion into a press-connecting terminal to be connected to an external circuit by projecting from a terminal hole provided in an outer wall of the case and being fixed to the insulating plate; respectively protrude on both both both surfaces of the wiring groove, and a joint terminal having an electrical connection section for insulation displacement connection to the Futomono wire and Hosobutsu wire, the
Power supply circuit and load circuit are electrically connected by joint terminals
An electric connection box, which is connected. 2. The electric connection box according to claim 1, wherein the joint terminal has a structure in which an electric connection portion projects into two or more different wiring grooves on at least one surface of the insulating plate.