JP3101203B2 - Electrical connector with retainer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an electrical connector having a retainer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As this kind of electrical connector, for example, the one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-213973 is known. In this known connector, as shown in FIG. 7 of the accompanying drawings, a housing 51 includes a housing main body 52 and a retainer 53 mounted on the housing main body 52.

In the housing body 52, terminal holding holes 54 that penetrate left and right are arranged and formed at a plurality of positions in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface. The terminal holding hole 54 is provided with the connected terminal 5.
5 is inserted from the right end as shown in FIG. 8, and the connector 50 is completed. Also, the housing body 52
The left end of the terminal holding hole 54 is
A portion 57 projecting into the second concave portion 56 is formed, and a retainer 53 is mounted on the portion 57 of the plurality of terminal holding holes 54. A lance portion 58 capable of elastic deformation is provided on the upper portion of the portion 57. The lance portion 58 is provided with a protruding portion 58A directed toward the inside of the terminal holding hole 54, and as shown in FIG.
Of the terminal 55 to prevent the terminal 55 from coming off. Thus, as shown in FIG. 8, the retainer 53 is attached to the portion 57, the lance portion 58 is held upward so as not to bend upward due to external force or the like, and the terminal is pulled out. Done. The retainer 53 is formed with a terminal entry hole 53A, and the terminal of the mating connector enters here and is connected to the terminal 55.

In the connector, if the terminal 55 is not half-inserted into the terminal holding hole 54, that is, if the terminal 55 is not completely inserted, the lance 58 is connected to the terminal 55 as shown in FIG.
As a result, the retainer 53 is pushed outward (upward in the drawing) and elastically deforms, and the retainer 53 contacts the lance portion 58 and does not move any further. Since the retainer 53 cannot move to the predetermined position, the assembly operator knows that the terminal is half-inserted.

[0005]

The above-mentioned lance is very convenient for finding half-insertion of the terminal. However, the above-mentioned lance portion is thin in relation to each of the terminal holding holes, and is therefore flexible so that it is not high in strength. On the other hand, since the retainer extends over the entirety of the plurality of terminal holding holes, it is made relatively robust. The semi-insertion of the terminal occurs exceptionally for a few of the plurality of terminals, and if the retainer is strongly contacted with the bent lance during the semi-insertion, the lance may be damaged. If the user does not notice that the lance has been damaged, half insertion of the terminal can no longer be found. When the damage is found, the housing body must be replaced with a good one.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an electric connector having a retainer which can solve the problems of the conventional electric connector and can extremely reduce the possibility of breakage of the lance. .

[0007]

An electrical connector according to the present invention has a housing made of an insulating material having a housing body and a retainer mounted on the housing body, and the retainer is attached to the housing body from the front end side. After being fitted into the housing main body and temporarily mounted at an intermediate position, terminals are inserted from the rear end side of the housing main body into terminal holding holes formed through the housing main body and faced toward the front end side. The retainer is guided from the temporary mounting position of the main body to a predetermined position and mounted on the housing main body.
The housing main body has a lance portion which is pressed by the terminal when the terminal is half-inserted, that is, when the terminal is incompletely inserted, and is elastically deformed to prevent the retainer from moving to a predetermined position. In such an electrical connector, in the present invention, the retainer has an elastic arm portion that is pressed by the lance portion and elastically deforms when the lance portion is elastically deformed at the temporary mounting position. On the other hand, the housing body includes a contact portion that abuts on the elastically deformed elastic arm portion when moving the retainer to the predetermined mounting position and prevents the retainer from moving to the predetermined position on the way. I have.

In the electrical connector of the present invention as described above, first, the retainer is temporarily mounted on the housing body. Next, the terminal is inserted into the terminal holding hole of the housing main body. When the terminal is inserted in a half-inserted state, the lance portion is pressed laterally by the terminal and elastically deforms.
In such a case, the elastic arm portion of the retainer that has been temporarily mounted is pressed by the elastically deformed lance portion and elastically deformed. When the retainer moves from the temporary mounting position to the predetermined mounting position in such a state, the elastic arm portion comes into contact with the contact portion of the housing, and the movement is prevented halfway. That is, the retainer cannot be moved to the predetermined mounting position, resulting in incomplete mounting, whereby it can be known that the terminal is half-inserted.

Since the elastic arm portion of the retainer is already on the lance portion when the retainer is temporarily mounted, even if the lance portion is elastically deformed when the terminal is half-inserted, it only receives the sliding guide movement with respect to the lance portion. Therefore, the lance portion does not receive the contact impact force from the elastic arm portion, and the lance portion having relatively low strength is not damaged. On the other hand, the contact portion can be made larger, for example, wider than the lance portion, and can have sufficient strength against the contact force of the elastic arm portion.

[0010]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 to FIG.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the above. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electric connector according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1, in which a housing body and a retainer are separated from each other.

As shown, a housing 1 of an electrical connector has a housing body 2 and a retainer 3 obtained by molding an insulating material. The housing body 2
The outer shape is substantially a rectangular parallelepiped, and a plurality of terminal holding holes 4 penetrating back and forth are formed in rows in upper and lower stages.
In the upper stage, as can be seen in FIG. 1, the cantilever lock arm 5 having a claw 5A for locking and unlocking at the time of coupling with the mating connector at the center portion extends rearward. A space corresponding to some (three in the figure) terminal holding holes is occupied by the lock arm 5, and no terminal holding holes are formed therein.

On the upper wall and the bottom wall of the housing body 2, a horizontal groove 6 is formed at an intermediate portion, and a vertical groove 7 is formed so as to intersect a boundary portion of the adjacent terminal holding hole 4. A cantilevered lance portion 8 is formed at a rear portion so as to form one wall surface of each terminal holding hole 4. The lance part 8
Has an engaging portion 8A that projects forward and tilts toward the inside of the terminal holding hole 4. Similarly to the above-mentioned engaging portion 8A, a sub-engaging portion 9A which projects forward and tilts to the partition wall 9 facing the engaging portion 8A.
Is provided. The partition 9 has a concave groove 9B formed at a tip end thereof, and gives the sub-engaging portion 9A bending elasticity.

The side wall of the housing body 2 has a projecting wall portion 27A projecting up and down. The projecting wall portion 27A is formed with a step-like locking portion 27B at a position behind the lateral groove 6. The top and bottom surfaces of the housing body 2 are
A temporary mounting portion for temporarily mounting elastic arms 16, 18 of the retainer 3, which will be described later, to a portion beyond the position corresponding to B, that is, a portion extending from the front end of the housing body 2 to the position extending to the lance portion 8. 27.

A terminal 10 to which the cable C is connected is inserted into each of the terminal holding holes 4 from behind.
In the present embodiment, this terminal is a crimp terminal, the cable C is crimped at the rear, and the female contact 10A at the front.
Faces the front end of the housing body 2 and has an elastic contact piece 10B.

At the rear of the housing main body 2, a contact wall 11 is provided on the upper and lower outer sides in parallel with the outer surface of the housing main body 2 at a predetermined interval. In the present embodiment, two groove portions 12 are formed in the corresponding contact wall portion 11 so as to extend forward in respective left and right portions.
Elasticity is provided so that the portion between the two cantilever. A locking window 13 is provided in this portion. The front edge of the contact wall portion 11 is inclined to form a blade,
The leading edge forms the contact portion 14.

On the other hand, the retainer 3 has a substantially U-shape when viewed from the side so that it can be attached to the housing main body 2 from the front of the housing main body 2. As shown in FIG. 1, the portion of the retainer 3 corresponding to the lock arm 5 of the housing 2 is a cutout 15. Therefore, the retainer 3 has two elastic arms 16 on both sides of the notch 15 at the upper part.
The lower part is divided by a slit 17 and
6, a plurality of, for example, four elastic arms 18
have. The lower elastic arm 18 is the upper elastic arm 1
6, the principle is the same, so that the upper elastic arm portion 16 will be described here. The elastic arm portion 16 which is elastically deformable and elastic has a thin rib portion 16A extending back and forth, and has a thickened reinforcement at the front end to increase the strength and secure the front end area. A part 19 is formed. A locking portion 20 is formed in the front end surface of the reinforcing portion 19 in a V-groove shape over the entire width of the outer reinforcing portion 19. Also, the reinforcing portion 19
Is provided with a mountain-shaped lock projection 21 on its upper surface, and a projection 25 for temporary mounting is provided on a side surface of the elastic arm portion 16.

The upper and lower elastic arms 16, 1 of the retainer 3
In the connecting wall portion 22 connecting the terminals 8, a terminal contact portion holding hole 26 and a square terminal introduction hole 23 are formed at positions corresponding to the respective terminal connection portion holding holes 4 of the housing body 2. When the connector of the present embodiment is connected to a mating connector, the male terminal of the mating connector reaches the female contact portion 10A of the terminal 10 in the terminal contact portion holding hole 26 via the terminal introduction hole 23. I have. A plate-shaped support portion 24 having a V-shaped tip extends from the back side of the connection wall portion 22. When the retainer 3 is mounted on the housing main body 2 at a predetermined position, the support portion 24 locks the V-shaped tip portion with the concave groove 9B formed in the partition wall 9 of the housing main body 2 so that the support portion 24 is mounted. It is intended to ensure that time is maintained.

The retainer 3 of this embodiment is attached to the housing body 2 in the following manner.

The retainer is temporarily fixed to the housing body 2. Projecting wall 27 formed on the side wall of housing body 2
A, the projections 25 provided on the elastic arms 16, 18 of the retainer 3 cause the elastic arms 16, 18 to elastically bend and deform in a direction in which the elastic arms 16, 18 are separated from each other. To lock. Thus, the elastic arms 16, 1
Reference numeral 8 denotes a temporary mounting portion 27, and the retainer 3 is temporarily mounted on the housing main body 2 as shown in FIG.

The terminal 10 to which the cable C is connected is inserted into the terminal holding hole 4 of the housing body 2 from behind. When the terminal 10 is inserted into the terminal holding hole 4, the female contact portion 1
0A is the engaging portion 8A of the lance portion 8 of the housing main body 2, the sub-engaging portion 9A of the partition 9 and the elastic arm portions 16 and 1 of the retainer 3.
8 gets over a predetermined position while being elastically deformed. When inserted to this predetermined position, the notch engagement portion 1 of the terminal
OCC and 10D are hooked on the engaging portion 8A and the sub-engaging portion 9A, respectively, to prevent them from falling off (see FIG. 2).

When the retainer 3 is further moved, the lock projections 2 provided on the elastic arms 16 and 18 of the retainer 3 are moved.
1 abuts on the locking window 13 as shown in FIG. 4 while elastically deforming the contact portion 14 of the housing main body 2. Thus, the retainer 3 is attached to the housing main body 2 at a predetermined position, and prepares for coupling with the mating connector.

The above-mentioned is a case where the terminal 10 is inserted to the predetermined position in the above, but the situation is different when this is a so-called half-insertion. If the terminal 10 is half-inserted, as shown in FIG.
Notch engaging portions 10C and 10D of the lance portion 8
And the sub-engagement portion 9A of the partition 9 is no longer located, and the engagement portion 8A and the sub-engagement portion 9A are pressed by the terminal 10, and the lance portion 8 and the partition 9 are separated in a direction in which the two are separated from each other. It elastically deforms.

When the lance 8 is elastically bent and deformed as shown in FIG. 5, the elastic arm 16 of the retainer 3 at the temporary mounting position is provided.
Is elastically deformed so as to be lifted up by the lance portion 8.

When the retainer 3 advances from the temporary mounting position to a predetermined mounting position with the elastic arm portion 16 elastically deformed and deformed, as shown in FIG. Abuts against the contact portion 14 of the housing body 2, and the retainer 3 is prevented from further moving.
Assuming that the terminal is not completely inserted but is completely inserted to a predetermined position on the lower side of the housing main body 2, the lower elastic arm portion 18 deforms the abutting portion 14 so that the lower end of the elastic arm portion 18 can enter a position where the terminal is to enter. Stop at Thus, the retainer 3
Is prevented from moving halfway, so that it is found that the terminal 10 inserted into the terminal holding hole 4 corresponding to the elastic arm 16 abutting on the contact portion 14 is half-inserted.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the retainer is provided with the elastic arm portion, and the elastic arm portion of the retainer temporarily attached to the housing body is pushed by the lance portion deformed by the half insertion of the terminal. Since the elastic arm deforms elastically, and when the retainer advances toward the predetermined mounting position, the elastic arm portion abuts on the contact portion of the housing body halfway,
The dimensions can be set so that the elastic arm portion and the contact portion have greater strength than the lance portion, and as a result, an effect is obtained that damage during contact is less likely to occur.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of a connector of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the housing body and the retainer shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in the process of being assembled at the time of predetermined insertion of the terminal.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the housing body and the retainer of FIG. 3 when assembly is completed.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the housing body and the retainer shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in the process of being assembled when the terminal is half-inserted;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the housing body and the retainer of FIG. 4 at the time of contact.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional connector before terminal insertion.

8 is a cross-sectional view of the connector of FIG. 7 when a terminal is inserted to a predetermined position.

9 is a cross-sectional view of the connector of FIG. 8 when a terminal is half inserted.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Housing 2 Housing main body 3 Retainer 4 Terminal holding hole 8 Lance part 10 Terminal 14 Contact part 16, 18 Elastic arm part

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A housing made of an insulating material has a housing main body and a retainer mounted on the housing main body. After the retainer is fitted into the housing main body from a front end side of the housing main body and temporarily mounted at an intermediate position, the housing main body is mounted. The terminal is mounted from the rear end side of the housing main body to the terminal holding hole formed through the front side, facing the front end side, and the retainer is guided from the temporary mounting position of the housing main body to a predetermined position to guide the retainer. An electrical connector mounted on a housing body and having a lance for preventing the movement of the retainer to a predetermined position when the housing body is pressed by the terminal when the terminal is half-inserted and elastically deforms to prevent the retainer from being temporarily mounted; An elastic arm portion that is pressed by the lance portion when the lance portion is elastically deformed and deformed at the position; The body is provided with a contact portion that abuts the elastically deformed elastic arm portion when moving the retainer to a predetermined mounting position and prevents the retainer from moving to the predetermined position on the way. An electrical connector having a featured retainer.