JP3226267B2 - Zero insertion force connector - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a zero insertion force connector having an actuator for driving a contact and configured to be fixed to a panel or a circuit board.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional example of this type of zero insertion force connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,538. The disclosed zero insertion force connector has a plurality of contacts in opposing rows, and a means for driving the contacts is provided with a pivotable actuator and a slidable cam member cooperating therewith. . According to this means, by rotating the actuator, the cam means slides a separate cam member, and the cam member can displace the opposing contact row in the opening and closing direction. . The actuator includes an operating portion protruding from one end wall of the connector housing.

[0003]

The zero insertion force connector disclosed in the above publication is fixed to a circuit board on which the connector is mounted by fixing means. The fixing means is provided outside the side wall, avoiding the end wall where the operation unit exists. Therefore, the connector becomes large in the width direction. Therefore, the area required for fixing the connector becomes large, and particularly when a plurality of connectors are arranged close to each other, the interval between the fitting portions of the connectors becomes relatively wide.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a zero insertion force connector in which the area required for fixing is relatively small, and the fitting portion can be fixed at a relatively high density.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an elongated housing body in which a plurality of contacts are arranged, cam means positioned in the housing body for driving the contacts, and at least one side of the housing body. In a zero insertion force connector having an actuator including an operation portion extending from an end, and fixing means for fastening and fixing the housing body to a plate-shaped member to be fixed, the fixing means is provided at the side end position on the one side and at another position. And a spacer member that is provided at the one side end position, is located near the actuator at the one side end position, and is formed of a material harder than the housing body.

[0006] Preferably, the spacer member is secured to the housing body or for orientation.
An engagement means is provided for engaging the housing in a concave and convex manner.

Preferably, the side surface of the spacer member is
A part of the cavity accommodating the actuator is formed in cooperation with the housing body.

Preferably, one end of the spacer member is substantially coplanar with the one side end of the housing body.

Preferably, the spacer member has the same or larger height dimension as the actuator.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A zero insertion force connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view showing a zero insertion force connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view and (b).
3 is a front view, and FIG. 3C is a cross-sectional view taken along line CC in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, the zero insertion force connector 10 comprises:
The outer shape is determined by the metal housing body 50. The housing body 50 is composed of a pair of halves 60a and 60b that are divided into two in the width direction, a plurality of contacts 20 arranged in two rows therein, a support 30 that is an insulator that supports the contacts 20, and a fitting. A cap body 40 including a partition wall 41 covering the vicinity of the tip of each contact 20 on the mating end 15 side
including. The contact 20 is supported by insert molding on a support 30. As shown, the cap body 4
The reference numeral 0 denotes a position at the fitting end 15 side, and the support 30 engages with the housing body 50 at the opposite end 16 side to be positioned.
Therefore, the plurality of contacts 20 are maintained at a predetermined pitch by the cap body 40 and the support body 30.

The zero insertion force connector 10 further includes a driving means for driving the contact piece 21 of the contact 20 for displacement. The driving means is constituted by an actuator 70. The actuator 70 is received in the cavity 51 inside the housing body 50, and the cam part 71 and the housing body 5 that intersect and contact the contact pieces 21 of the plurality of contacts 20.
0 includes an operation portion 72 extending from one side end 52a.
The surface of the cam portion 71 in contact with the contact 20 is made of an insulating material 7
7 The actuator 70 is configured to be able to displace and drive the contact piece 21 by being rotated. That is, the cam portion 71 is rotated by rotating the operation portion 72, and the cam portion 71 having a non-circular cross section can push the contact piece 21 inward and move it to the closed position. As a result, zero insertion force (ZIF) fitting with a connector (not shown) received in the fitting recess 53 in advance is realized. The disengagement operation may be performed in the reverse direction, that is, the actuator 70 may be rotated in the reverse direction. Thereby, the contact piece 21 returns to the original open position by the elastic force.

According to FIGS. 1A and 1B, both ends 52a, 52b of the housing body 50 are formed with projecting portions 54a, 5b.
4b. The protruding portions 54a, 54b include holes 55a, 55b penetrating in the height direction. These holes 55
Reference numerals a and 55b denote fixing means for fixing the zero insertion force connector 10 to a panel or the like, and receive screws or the like for fixing. The present invention mainly relates to the internal structure of the protruding portion 54a, and the details thereof will be described below with reference to other drawings.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are views showing a half of the housing body. FIG. 2A is a plan view, FIG. 2B is a front view, and FIG. 2C is a partial cross-section along line BB in FIG. The figure and (d) are the enlarged views of the part D. In FIG. 2C, a part of the accommodated spacer member and the actuator are virtually shown.
FIG. 3 is a front view of the actuator. 4A and 4B are diagrams showing a spacer housed in the housing body, wherein FIG. 4A is a plan view, FIG. 4B is a front view, and FIG. 4C is a side view.

As described above, the housing body 50 is composed of a pair of halves 60a and 60b. Since these have a mirror image shape, only one half 60a will be described here. According to FIG. 2, a cap receiving portion 61, a cavity 51 for receiving an actuator 70, and a support engaging portion 62 are formed on the inner surface of the half body 60a in this order from the top. These configurations can be better understood with reference to FIG. Further, a plurality of through holes 64 are formed in the end wall 63. These are for receiving fixing screws when the half body 60a and the half body 60b are combined and fixed.

The actuator 70 shown in FIG.
5A, the cavity 5 from the inner surface 65 side of the half body 60a.
1 accepted. At this time, the shaft portion 73 at the tip of the actuator 70 is rotatably received in the small-diameter hole 56 provided in the protruding portion 54b, the cam portion 71 is disposed at a predetermined position in the cavity 51, and the operating portion 72 is It is arranged to extend from 50. The hole 56 is formed apart from the hole 55b penetrating in the height direction. Since the actuator 70 is configured to enter the inside of the projecting portion 54a beyond the hole 55a, a means for pivotally supporting the actuator 70 at an appropriate position not overlapping the hole 55a is required. The means for that is provided by the spacer member 80 shown in FIG.

As can be understood from FIGS. 2B to 2D, the hole 55a and the cavity 51 communicate with each other via the substantially rectangular spacer receiving cavity 57 on the protruding portion 54a side. The spacer member 80 shown in FIG. 4 is received in the spacer receiving cavity 57. According to FIG.
The spacer member 80 has a substantially rectangular plate-shaped base 81 and a pair of protrusions 82 projecting from opposing positions on both surfaces thereof. The base 81 is provided with a hole 83 having a relatively large diameter. An arcuate concave surface 84 is formed on the side surface of the base 81. The spacer member 80 is maintained in the spacer receiving cavity 57 sandwiched between the halves 60a, 60b when the halves 60a or 60b are combined.

The spacer receiving cavity 57 for receiving the spacer member 80 has a complementary shape for receiving the spacer.
The manner in which the spacer member 80 is housed can be understood with reference to FIGS. 2C and 2D. The spacer receiving cavity 57 has a rectangular groove 58 extending in the width direction of the half body 60a in a part thereof. When the spacer member 80 is received,
The rectangular groove 58 engages with the ridge 82. Since the spacer receiving cavity 57 is open at the side end 52a, the engagement prevents the spacer member 80 from coming off toward the side end 52a. Also, this engagement can be used as an orientation means for determining the mounting direction of the spacer member 80.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2C and FIG.
When the spacer member 80 is housed in place, the arcuate concave surface 84 forms part of the cavity 51 that receives the actuator 70 in cooperation with the inner surface 66 of the half 60a. Accordingly, it is understood that the actuator 70 is rotatably supported also on the protruding portion 54a side. The hole 83 provided in the base 81 is a hole 55a of the housing body 50.
And a fixing member such as a screw can be received at this position. That is, the diameter of the hole 83 is made substantially equal to the diameter of the hole 55a. Further, the length of the spacer member 80 is selected to be coplanar with the side end 52a when it is received within the housing body 50. This makes it possible to easily confirm that the spacer member 80 has been mounted after assembly.

The spacer member 80 is made of a relatively hard material such as stainless steel, at least a material harder than a material such as a zinc alloy forming the housing body 50. This relates to another important function of the spacer member 80. This function relates to the fixing means relating to the holes 55a and 83. Hole 5
5a and 83, through which a fastening means such as a screw or the like is received, and the housing body 50
Are fixed to a panel or a circuit board (not shown). If the spacer member 80 is soft or absent, the protruding portion 54a of the housing body 50 is deformed in the height direction when the fixing means is tightened, and the size of the cavity 51 is reduced. This makes it impossible to rotate the actuator 70 or causes a large frictional force. The relatively hard spacer 80 acts to secure a predetermined size of the cavity 51 even when tightened and fixed in order to prevent such adverse effects.

As described above, the preferred embodiment of the zero insertion force connector according to the present invention has been described. However, this is merely an example, and does not limit the present invention. It is possible.

[0023]

According to the zero insertion force connector of the present invention, the fixing means is provided at one side end position and the other side end position, and is placed close to the actuator at one side end position. Since it further comprises a spacer member formed of a material harder than the housing body, the area required for fixing the connector can be minimized, and reliable operation of the actuator can be guaranteed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a zero insertion force connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein (a) is a plan view, (b) is a front view, and (c) is a line CC in (b). FIG.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a half constituting a housing body;
(A) is a plan view, (b) is a front view, (c) is a partial cross-sectional view along line BB in (d), virtually showing a part of a spacer member and an actuator to be accommodated, (D) is an enlarged view of a portion D.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the actuator.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are views showing a spacer housed in a housing body, wherein FIG. 4A is a plan view, FIG. 4B is a front view, and FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Zero insertion force connector 20 Contact 50 Housing body 70 Actuator 71 Cam part (cam means) 72 Operating part 80 Spacer member

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01R 13/629 H01R 24/10

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An elongated housing body in which a plurality of contacts are arranged, a cam means located in the housing body for driving the contacts to be displaced, and an operation part extending from at least one side end of the housing body. A zero-insertion-force connector having an actuator including the actuator and fixing means for tightening and fixing the housing body to a plate-shaped fixed member, wherein the fixing means is provided at the one side end position and the other side end position. A zero-insertion-force connector, further comprising a spacer member that is placed close to the actuator at the one side end position and is formed of a material harder than the housing body.