JP3269793B2 - 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 a lever connector having a lever for realizing low insertion force fitting with a mating connector.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of a conventional lever type connector is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
No. 129048 and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 6-72173. According to the disclosed lever-type connector, the lever has a pair of arms and an operation portion for connecting the arms on one side, and is formed in a substantially U-shape. An opening is formed in each of the pair of arms. These openings are fitted to posts formed in the connector housing body, whereby the lever is rotatable about the posts.

[0003]

However, it has been difficult to mount the lever with the above-mentioned conventional lever-type connector. According to the conventional lever-type connector, it is necessary to align the opening formed in the arm with the post of the housing body and to engage the opening with the post while elastically deforming the arm by manual work. As a result, the efficiency of the assembling work was poor. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved lever-type connector capable of easily and reliably mounting a lever.

[0004]

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has a pair of arms are connected by the operation unit on one side, the lever for the low insertion force mating with a mating connector, each of said pair of arms A lever-type connector for fitting an opening or post formed in the housing body to a post or opening formed in the housing body and rotatably supporting the housing body.
When mounting the lever on the jing body, the housing
Engaging the body with the pair of arms, the pair of arms
The post of the housing body is elastically opened outward.
Or a guide provided with a guide means
In the bar-type connector , the guide means includes the pair of guides.
Projections provided on each of the arms to project inward
And a pair of inclined portions provided on the housing body.
Only, the interval between the protruding portions is equal to the outer end of the pair of inclined portions.
The inclined portion is formed to be larger than the gap,
It communicates directly with the outside of the body and extends the center of the slope.
The center of the post or opening of the housing body on the length
It is characterized by being located .

[0005] Preferably, an opening is formed in the pair of arms, and a post is formed in the housing body. At this time, the guide means includes a protrusion provided on each of the pair of arms so as to protrude inward, and a guide provided on the housing body and positioned at a position higher than a tip of the post toward a position higher than a tip of the post. Includes a slope that slopes to The protrusion engages the ramp and cooperates to guide the arm. The protrusion may be a step formed along a length direction of the pair of arms. Further, the disengagement means includes a shoulder that terminates the inclined portion on the post side. The shoulder acts to disengage the projection from the ramp when the opening of the lever reaches just above the post of the housing body.

Preferably, the guide means includes rail means for moving the arm substantially linearly. The rail means may be formed in a rib or groove shape on the housing and the arm and in a complementary shape. The rail means of the housing body may be formed on the ramp.

[0007] More preferably, the inclined portion is provided in a wire cover portion. The wire cover portion may be formed separately from the main body of the housing body, and may be later assembled to the main body, or may be formed integrally with the main body.

[0008] More preferably, the disengagement means is the one
The opening may be configured to be fitted to the post when the pair of arms is returned inward.

[0009]

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

FIG. 1 shows a housing 1 of a lever type connector.
2A and 2B are views showing the assembly of the main body 20 and the wire cover 40 constituting the main body 0, wherein FIG. 2A is a plan view, and FIG. FIG.
FIGS. 3A and 3B are views showing the completed assembly of the housing body 10 and the lever 60. FIG. 3A is a plan view, and FIG. 3B is a sectional view of the housing body 10 and a front view of the lever 60. FIG.
4 and FIG. 4 are views similar to FIG. 2 (b), showing a state in which the lever 60 is being assembled. FIG. 5 is a view showing a state where the assembly of the lever 60 is completed, similar to FIG. 2B.

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the housing body 10 is constructed by assembling a main body 20 and a wire cover 40. The wire cover 40 is attached to the rear surface 20b of the main body 20 opposite to the fitting surface 20a. Although not shown, a plurality of contacts terminated to the wire are inserted into the main body 20 from the rear surface 20b side, and the wire extends outward from the rear surface 20b. The above-described wire cover 40 is attached from the rear side of the wire, and guides the wires so as to be bundled and extended from one side 40a. Body 2
A plurality of engagement projections 21 are provided on the top and bottom ends of the rear surface 20b of the rear surface 20b, and engagement holes 41 are provided near the attachment side 40b of the wire cover 40 to the main body 20. Thereby, both are fixed as shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b).

FIGS. 2A and 2B show the completed housing body 10 and the lever 60 to be mounted from the rear side of the wire cover 40. FIG. The lever 60 has a pair of arms 65 and an operation unit 66 that connects them on one side. Each of the pair of arms 65 includes a first portion 65a connected to the operation portion 66 and a first portion 65a via a step portion 65c.
And a second portion 65b disposed further inside. The second portion 65b is provided with an opening 62 that is formed on the main body 20 as a rotation axis and engages with the post 22, and a groove 63 that extends substantially linearly in communication with the opening 62. As shown in FIG. 2, the inclined portion 4 in which the rib 43 is formed in the center at a position near the center of the wire cover 40 so as to expand from the rear end 40 c toward the mounting side 40 b on the top and bottom sides.
2 are provided. The inclined portion 42 including the rib 43 terminates on the mounting side 40b of the wire cover 40 and determines a shoulder 44 extending in a substantially arc shape as shown in FIG. FIG. 2 (a), (b)
The space 30 in which the post 22 is located is disposed on the body 20 side of the shoulder 44 as shown in FIG. The lever 60 is shown in FIGS.
Is moved in the direction of arrow P from the position
Assembled in The important thing about the dimensions is the post 22
The distance D1 from the center C1 of the lever 44 to the shoulder 44a at the center where the rib 43 of the shoulder 44 is placed is the distance D2 from the center C2 of the opening 62 of the lever 60 to the rear end 64 of the second portion 65b.
And the distance D2 or more, and the end 6 of the lever 60
4 is configured so that a part of the second portion 65b overlaps with the post 22 when the overlap with the shoulder 44a. The operation of this will be described below.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which the lever 60 is being mounted halfway. Since the lever 60 is moved in the direction of arrow P in the figure, the second portion 65b engages with the rib 43 of the wire cover 40, and is elastically spread outward. At this time, the rib 43 and the groove 63 are engaged to guide the movement of the lever 60 in the P direction, so that the lever 60 can be smoothly mounted on the housing body 10.

The state in which the pair of arms 65a are elastically extended continues until the lever 60 is further moved in the direction of arrow P and the end 64 of the second portion 65b reaches the shoulder 44a. When the end 64 reaches the shoulder portion 44a, the engagement between the second portion 65b and the rib 43 of the inclined portion 42 is released, and
The pair of arms 65 return inward and return. As a result, the second portion 65b is moved onto the post 22, and the post 22
Contact with the upper surface of the At this time, the opening 62 is located near the post 22. FIG. 4 shows a contact state between the second portion 65b and the post 22.

Thereafter, the lever 60 is moved to the opening 62 and the post 22.
Are slightly moved until the centers C1 and C2 are aligned, and they are engaged with each other to reach the assembly completed state shown in FIG. The movement at this time does not require a large operation force because the elastic return force of the lever 60 itself acts in cooperation with the lever 60 and the shoulder 44 to push the lever 60 to the fitting surface side. As described above, simply pushing the lever 60 in the direction of arrow P with the rib 43 of the inclined portion 42 engaged with the groove 63 causes the lever 60 to
It can be understood that the assembly workability is extremely good because the work can be smoothly mounted.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show the post 22 and the opening 62, respectively.
6A is a plan view of the post 22, FIG. 6B is a front view, and FIG. 7A is a partially enlarged plan view of a second portion 65b of the arm 65. (B) is a partial cross-sectional view in a direction along a groove 63 in (a). The post 22 and the opening 62 are provided with a configuration for facilitating engagement with each other, but not releasing the engagement when the lever 60 rotates. The configuration and operation will be described below.

As shown in FIG. 6, the post 22 has a substantially cylindrical shape, and has a concave portion 22a formed by cutting out a part in the circumferential direction as shown in FIG. As described above, a groove 22b is formed on the base side along the outer periphery. As shown, the recess 22a is formed so as to communicate with the groove 22b.

According to FIGS. 7A and 7B, the opening 6
2 has a substantially circular shape and has a protrusion 69. Projection 6
Reference numeral 9 denotes a shape complementary to the concave portion 22a of the post 22, and is located on the bottom side in the opening 62.

In particular, in the final stage of lever assembly in which the second portion 65b is slightly moved while being in contact with the post 22, the concave portion 22a for engaging the groove 63 and the rib 43 and the projection 69 are aligned. Is done. Therefore, when the post 22 and the opening 62 are engaged, the protrusion 69 penetrates the recess 22a and is located at the same height as the groove 22b. Thereafter, when the lever 60 is rotated with respect to the housing body 10, the protrusion 69 moves out of the position of the concave portion 22 a and moves in the groove 22 b, whereby the arm 65 of the lever 60 is securely prevented from being removed from the housing body 10. .

FIGS. 8 and 9 are plan views showing the rotation of the lever 60 and the fitting of the lever 60 to the mating connector 100. FIG. FIG. 8 is a plan view in which the lever 60 is arranged in a temporary locking position, and FIG. 9 is a plan view in which the lever 60 is arranged in a final locking position.

As shown in FIG. 5, the lever 60 attached to the housing body 10 is first turned in the direction of arrow A, and is placed in the temporary locking position shown in FIG. The lock portion 68 of the lever 60 engages with the lock portion 28 of the housing body 10 (FIG. 2A).
), The temporarily locked state is maintained. The wire cover 40 has an end wall 91a protruding along the side end. When the lever 60 is in the temporary locking position, the operating portion 66 is located in the concave portion 92a defined by the side wall 91a, so that the operating portion 66 interferes with an external member and the state of the temporary locking of the lever 60 is easily released. There is no fear of being done.

With the lever 60 in the temporary locking position shown in FIG.
After the mating connector is temporarily fixed, the engagement between the locking portion 68 and the locking portion 28 is released, and the lever 60 is rotated in the direction of arrow B, so that the mating connector can be fitted. At the end of the rotation, the lever 60 is placed at the position shown in FIG. 9 and locked by a latch 93 provided on the wire cover 40. Since the operating section 66 is located in the concave portion 92b defined by the side wall 91b even in this position, external interference is prevented.

FIGS. 10 and 11 are views showing another embodiment of a housing body composed of a housing body and a wire cover. FIG. 10 is a plan view before assembling the housing body and the wire cover, and FIG. (a) is a plan view showing a state after assembly of the two, and (b) is a schematic sectional view thereof.

A housing body 20 'and a wire cover 4 of a housing body 10' according to another embodiment shown in the figure.
0 'and two main differences between the main body 20 and the wire cover 40 will be described below. In the figures, components similar to those in the housing body 10 'are denoted by reference numerals with "" added.

The first difference lies in the means of engagement between the main body 20 'and the wire cover 40'. As shown, the wire cover 40 ′ has an engagement hole 41 ′ on the side that engages with the main body 20 ′.
And a latch 47 including The latches 47 are formed so as to form a pair at symmetric positions in the width direction.
A pair is formed. Projections 48 are formed on both outer sides of the latch 47. As shown, the front end of the latch 47 and the front end of the projection 48 substantially coincide with the front end of the wire cover 40 ', and the latch 47 and the projection 48 are formed on the same plate surface. An inclined portion 48a is formed on both sides of the front end of the projection 48. A relatively wide slot 48b is formed on both sides of the projection 48.

On the other hand, an engaging projection 21 'having a shape similar to the engaging projection 21 of the main body 20 in the previous embodiment is formed on the main body 20'. Further, a small frame-shaped guide portion 75 is provided at an outer position of the engagement projection 21 '. Guide 75
Has an opening 76 on the inside capable of receiving the projection 48 of the wire cover 40 ', and is protruded above and below the main body 21'. In addition, the guide portion 75 protrudes rearward at the rear end by a smaller dimension than the vicinity thereof.

The wire cover 40 'is moved in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 10 and engaged with the main body 20'. At the beginning of the engagement, the projection 48 is received in the guide part 75, thereby
The position of the wire cover 40 'relative to 1' is determined. Therefore, when the wire cover 40 'is further moved relatively by applying a force in the direction of arrow A to the wire cover 40', the movement is guided by the engagement of the projection 48 and the guide portion 75, and the wire cover 40 'and the main body 20' Is smoothly advanced. As shown in FIG. 11A, in the final stage of the engagement, the engagement protrusion 21 'of the main body 20' and the wire cover 4
0 'is engaged with the corresponding engagement hole 41' of the latch 47,
Thereby, both are fixed. At this time, as shown in FIG. 11B, the projection 48 is completely received by the guide portion 75, and the slot 48b receives the side wall 75a of the guide portion 75. Therefore, the wire cover 40 'is sufficiently firmly fixed to the main body 20'.

The second difference lies in the means for locking the lever 60. The wire cover 40 'has two elastic locking pieces 49a and 49b on the rear surface. These constitute a cantilever, the outer shape of which is indicated by a dashed line in FIG. The elastic locking pieces 49a and 49b are for locking the lever 60 to be mounted in a later process at the temporary locking position and the final locking position, respectively, and the concave portions 45a for accommodating the ends of the lever 60 at the respective positions. , 45b obliquely along the recesses 45a, 45b
b. Especially elastic locking piece 4
At the tip of 9b, a hooking projection 77 that engages the end of the lever 60 is provided. The end of the lever 60 is locked by these elastic locking pieces 49a and 49b at the temporary locking position and the final locking position. At this time, the ends of the lever 60 are recessed 45a, 45b
So that they do not easily come off their locked position. In particular, the elastic locking pieces 49a and 49b
5a, 45b and the lever 60 at each locking position.
It should be noted that since the lock is positioned inside the lever 60b when locked, the lock is not easily released.

As described above, the lever-type connector according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described. However, this does not limit the present invention, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the lever type connector of the preferred embodiment, the main bodies 20, 20 'constituting the housing bodies 10, 10' and the wire covers 40, 40 'are formed separately, but both are integrally formed. Is also good. Further, according to the preferred embodiment described above, the groove is formed on the lever side and the rib that engages with the groove is formed on the housing body side. However, the reverse is reversed, the rib is formed on the lever side, and the groove is formed on the housing body. It may be formed.
Further, according to the preferred embodiment described above, when the lever 60 is disengaged from the inclined portions 42 and 42 ′ and the pair of arms 65 is returned inward, the arms 65 abut on the upper surface of the post 22. However, the opening 62 may be fitted to the post 22 at the same time as the disengagement. Alternatively, the upper surface of the post is provided with a rib that engages with the groove 63 of the pair of arms 65 when the pair of arms 65 comes into contact with the upper surface of the post 22 so that the opening 62 is aligned with the post 22. The lever 60 may be configured to be guided. Further, according to the present preferred embodiment, the opening 62 is formed in the lever 60, and the post 22 is formed on the side of the housing body 10, 10 '. It may be provided.

[0030]

According to the lever-type connector of the present invention, when the lever is mounted on the housing body, the housing and the pair of arms of the lever are engaged to open the post or the opening of the housing body while being elastically opened outward. When the guide means and the lever for guiding to just above the post reach just above the post or the opening, the engagement between the housing and the lever is released to move the opening or the post of the lever to a position near the post or the opening of the housing body. Therefore, the operation of attaching the lever to the housing body can be performed more easily, reliably and quickly, and the work efficiency of connector assembly can be increased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1A and 1B are diagrams showing a main body and a wire cover constituting a housing body of a lever type connector, wherein FIG.
(B) is a diagram showing a front view of the main body and a cross-sectional view of the wire cover, respectively.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a housing body and a lever (a).
FIG. 3B is a plan view, and FIG. 4B is a sectional view of the housing body and a front view of the lever 60.

FIG. 3B shows a state in which the lever is being assembled.
Similar figure.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2, showing a state where assembly is further advanced from the state of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 2 (b) showing a completed state of assembly of the lever.

6A and 6B are views showing a post, wherein FIG. 6A is a plan view and FIG. 6B is a front view.

7A and 7B are views showing the vicinity of an opening, FIG. 7A is a partially enlarged plan view, and FIG. 7B is a partial cross-sectional view in a direction along a groove.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing the lever in a temporary locking position.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the lever in a final locking position.

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the housing body including the housing body and the wire cover, before the housing body and the wire cover are assembled.

11A and 11B are views showing a state after assembling the housing body and the wire cover, wherein FIG. 11A is a plan view and FIG. 11B is a schematic sectional view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 10 'housing body 22 post 42, 42' inclined part (guide means) 43, 43 'rib (rail means) 44, 44' shoulder (disengagement means) 44a shoulder part 60 lever 62 opening 63 groove (rail means) ) 65 arm 66 operation part

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A lever for low insertion force fitting with a mating connector to which a pair of arms are connected by an operation portion on one side, and an opening or a post formed in each of the pair of arms. A lever-type connector fitted to a post or opening formed in a housing body and rotatably supported on the housing body, wherein the lever is mounted on the housing body.
When attaching, the housing body and the pair of arms
Engaging, while elastically opening the pair of arms outward.
Guide to just above the post or opening in the housing body
A lever-type connector provided with a guiding means, the guiding means projecting inward from each of the pair of arms.
A projection provided on the housing body;
And a pair of inclined portions that are the spacing between the protrusions, the interval between the outer end of the inclined portion of said pair
Is formed larger, and the inclined portion communicates directly with the outside of the housing body.
Both, the extension of the housing body on the extension of the center of the inclined portion
A lever-type connector, wherein the center of the post or the opening is located .