JP3296961B2 - Half mating detection 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 half-fitting detection connector capable of detecting a fitting state between connectors.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various safety devices are mounted on automobiles, and particularly high reliability is required for connectors for electrically connecting these devices. Due to such a demand, a semi-fitted detection connector having a means for detecting whether or not the wire harness is completely fitted may be used for connection of a wire harness for an automobile.

A half-fitting detection connector of this type described in, for example, JP-A-7-142122 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing a conventional half-fitting detection connector, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a short-circuiting contact, and FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a half-fitting state of a male and female connector. In this conventional example, a cantilevered flexible locking arm 1 is provided on an upper surface of a male connector housing a, and a locking projection 1a is formed on an upper surface of an intermediate portion of the flexible locking arm 1. On the other hand, on the upper wall 3 of the female connector housing b, an engagement frame portion 5 for the flexible lock arm 1 is provided, and a locking projection 1a is provided.
Is formed.

A support frame 9 is provided inside the female connector housing b so as to extend forward from a rear wall 11 (see FIG. 6 ). The support frame portion 9 is formed to have a substantially T-shaped cross section by providing a partition plate portion 13 at an intermediate portion. This partition plate 1
3, a pair of pin-type terminal fittings 15, 1
5 is provided in a state penetrating the rear wall 11.

A substantially T-shaped opening 17 into which the support frame 9 enters is formed inside the male connector housing a, and a support chamber 21 for a short-circuit contact 19 is provided below the opening 17. ing. As shown in FIG. 5, the short-circuiting contact 19 is formed with bifurcated elastic contact pieces 25, 25 connected to the base 23, and the elastic contact pieces 25, 25 are further formed with arc-shaped short-circuit contact portions 27, 27. Have been. Also, the elastic contact piece 2
At the ends of 5 and 25, a pressure receiving plate portion 28 bent upward is provided, and the pressure receiving plate portion 28 can be pressed by the lower surface of the flexible lock arm 1.

In the half-fitting detection connector 29 having such a configuration, when the fitting of the male connector housing a and the female connector housing b is started, the support frame 9 and the pin detection terminal fittings 15 are opened. When the locking projection 1a engages with the lower portion of the engagement frame 5, the flexible lock arm 1 is flexibly displaced and presses the pressure receiving plate 28. Accordingly, the elastic contact pieces 25, 25 of the short-circuit contact 19 are also displaced downward in FIG. 6, so that the coupling-detecting pin-type terminal fittings 15, 15 remain in a non-contact state with the short-circuit contact 19. .

On the other hand, when the male and female connector housings a and b are completely fitted, the locking projection 1a enters the locking hole 7, the flexible lock arm 1 returns, and the short-circuit contact 19
The elastic contact pieces 25, 25 also return, and the short-circuit contact portions 27, 2
7 was in contact with the pair of pin-type terminal fittings 15 for connection detection and operated the detection electric circuit.

[0008]

However, in the above-mentioned half-fitting detection connector 29, a pair of coupling detection pin-type terminal fittings 15 and 15 are provided on both sides of the support frame portion 9, and the short-circuiting contact 19 for this is provided. Of the elastic contact pieces 25, 25 and the two short-circuit contact portions 27, 27 of the elastic contact pieces 25, 25 are simultaneously connected to the pin-type terminal fitting 1 for connection detection.
Since the detection electric circuit was actuated by contacting the terminals 5 and 15, if any cause (dust, corrosion, etc.) that caused a contact failure occurred, the probability of picking it up doubled. If one of the short-circuit contact portions 27, 27 has a poor contact, there is a case where a half-fitting is detected even in a completely fitted state. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a half-fitting detection connector that can prevent a decrease in a detection function due to picking up a cause of a contact failure, and thus has a reliability of a half-fitting detection function. It aims at improvement.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semi-fitting detection connector according to the present invention, which has a pair of connector housings which can be freely fitted, and one of the connector housings has a locking member. In a half-fitted detection connector in which a blind hole is formed and a flexible lock arm that returns by elastic restoring force at the time of complete fitting and is locked in the locking hole is provided in the other connector housing, the pair of detection terminals is A gap is formed in the displacement direction of the flexible lock arm in the one connector housing, and a pressing portion that presses and makes contact with the detection terminal following the return of the flexible lock arm is used as the other connector. Rutotomoni provided in the housing, the flexible locking
A through hole is formed in the arm and the flexible lock arm is
The pressing portion urged in the direction and projected from the through hole.
The flexible lock arm and the other
And a connector housing .

In the semi-engaged detection connector thus configured, at the time of complete mating, the detection terminal is pressed by the pressing portion with the return of the flexible lock arm, and the pair of detection terminals themselves come into direct contact. Thus, the number of contacts for detecting the engagement is one. Also, the pressing part is formed by a spring
Because the pressing part follows the flexible lock arm,
The detection terminal is pressed by its own urging force, so that a stable contact pressure can always be applied to the detection terminal.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a half-fitting detection connector according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a half-fitting detection connector according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the spring shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, A is a male connector housing (the other connector housing) that accommodates a female terminal (not shown), and B is a female connector housing for a wiring board (one connector housing) that accommodates a male terminal (not shown). It is formed of a synthetic resin material. The female connector housing B is formed in a hood shape, and the male connector housing A can be freely fitted inside.

A concave portion 3 is provided on the upper surface of the male connector housing A.
1 is formed, and the concave portion 31 is provided with a flexible lock arm 33. The flexible lock arm 33 has a front end rising from the concave portion 31 and a rear end formed as a free end extending rearward of the housing. A locking projection 35 is provided on the upper surface of the intermediate portion of the flexible lock arm 33, and a release projection 37 for releasing the lock is provided at the free end.

On the other hand, in the center of the front end of the upper wall 39 of the female connector housing B, an engagement frame portion 41 for the flexible lock arm 33 is provided, and a lock engagement hole 43 for the lock projection 35 is provided. Is formed. Therefore,
When the male and female connector housings A and B are fitted, the flexible lock arm 33 is displaced downward (downward in FIG. 1) by the locking projection 35 abutting against the front end surface of the engagement frame portion 41. Thereafter, the locking projection 35 is restored when the locking projection 35 reaches the locking hole 43, and the connector is completely locked.

In the concave portion 31 of the male connector housing A,
A support protrusion 45 (see FIG. 2) is provided below the flexible lock arm 33. The support protrusion 45 protrudes from the inner wall of the recess 31 in the horizontal direction. A helical spring 47 is inserted into the outer periphery of the support protrusion 45. The spring 47 has a hole 4 formed in the housing at one end.
9 and fixed. Also, the spring 47
A pressing portion 51 bent in a gate shape is formed at the other end of the flexible locking arm 33, and the pressing portion 51 is inserted into a through hole 53 formed in the flexible locking arm 33 so that the upper surface side of the flexible locking arm 33. So as to protrude therefrom.

The other end of the spring 47 is a free end, and comes into contact with the lower surface of the flexible lock arm 33 with the pressing portion 51 disposed in the through hole 53. The spring 47 thus arranged has one end supported by the hole 49 and the other end abutting on the lower surface of the flexible lock arm 33, thereby biasing the flexible lock arm 33 in a direction to push it upward. are doing.

On the other hand, the rear wall 55 of the female connector housing B
From a pair of detection terminals 57a having a spring property,
57b is provided to extend in front of the housing, and contact pieces 59a, 59b bent in directions approaching each other are formed at the tips of the respective detection terminals 57a, 57b. The detection terminals 57a and 57b are in a state in which the tip of one of the detection terminals 57a is bent downward so that the contact pieces 59a and 59b are vertically overlapped with a gap in the displacement direction of the flexible lock arm 33. It is arranged in.

When one end of the detection terminal 57a is bent downward, the detection terminal 57a
The pressing portion 51 of the spring 47 provided on the male connector housing A is disposed at a position where it contacts the lower surface.

The operation of the thus-configured half-fitting detection connector 61 will be described with reference to FIG. FIGS. 3A and 3B are explanatory diagrams showing a process of the half-fitting detection connector from a half-fitting state to a completely fitting state, as shown in FIGS. When the male and female connector housings A and B start mating, the locking projections 35 are formed.
Abuts on the front end of the engagement frame portion 41, and the flexible lock arm 33 is displaced downward (downward in FIG. 3). At this time, the other end of the spring 47 is also pressed downward by the lower surface of the flexible lock arm 33, and the pressing portion 51 is pressed down together with the flexible lock arm 33 against the urging force of the spring 47 itself.

Therefore, in the half-fitted state shown in FIG. 3A in which the locking projection 35 does not reach the locking hole 43, the pressing portion 51 is arranged apart from the detection terminals 57a and 57b, and 57a and 57b are contact pieces 59a,
59b remains in a non-contact state.

When the male and female connector housings A and B are completely fitted, as shown in FIG. 3B, the locking projection 35 reaches the locking hole 43 and the locking projection 35 is By entering into 43, the flexible lock arm 33 returns upward by its own elastic restoring force and the urging force of the spring 47. The flexible lock arm 33 thereby locks the completely fitted state of the male and female connector housings A and B.

At this time, with the return of the flexible lock arm 33, the pressing portion 51 of the spring 47 also moves upward by its own restoring force, and the pressing portion 51
Press the lower surface of a upward. The pressed one detection terminal 57a is displaced upward, and comes into contact with the contact piece 59b of the other detection terminal 57b. As a result, the contact pieces 59a and 59b of the pair of detection terminals 57a and 57b come into contact with each other to activate the detection electric circuit.

The semi-fitting detection connector 6 thus configured
According to 1, the pair of detection terminals 57a, 57b
Since the detection terminals 57a and 57b themselves are brought into direct contact with each other, the number of contacts is reduced from two in the past to one in the past, and the detection probability of erroneous detection by picking up the cause of contact failure can be halved. .

The detection terminal 57 is driven by the flexible lock arm 33 by a spring 47 provided separately.
Since a and 57b are pressed, a good contact pressure can be secured, and the contact between the contact pieces 59a and 59b can be stabilized.

As a result, the fitting state can be reliably detected, and the reliability of the fitting detection can be improved.

In the above embodiment, the helical spring 47 has been described as an example.
May be a leaf spring having one end fixed to the male connector housing A side and a pressing portion 51 formed at the other end serving as a free end protruding from the through hole 53. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which the locking hole 43 is formed to penetrate the upper wall 39 of the female connector housing B has been described.
3 may be formed as a concave portion on the lower surface of the upper wall 39 without penetrating the upper wall 39. In the case of such a structure, a pair of detection terminals 57a, 5a
7b is disposed on the lower surface side of the upper wall 39 without being exposed to the outside.

Further, the detection terminals 57a and 57b
It is preferable to accommodate the upper wall 39 within the thickness range. Thereby, interference with the male connector housing A inserted at an angle can be avoided. In order to avoid interference with the male connector housing A, it is effective to form the front end side of the flexible lock arm 33 with an R-shaped curved surface portion 33a.

[0027]

As described above in detail, according to the half-fitted detection connector according to the present invention, a pair of detection terminals are disposed in one connector housing, and when the connector is completely fitted, the detection terminals are pressed. The other connector housing is provided with a pressing portion to be brought into contact with the other, and the pair of detection terminals themselves are brought into direct contact with each other, so that a single point of contact for fitting detection can be obtained, and the cause of poor contact is picked up. Erroneous detection can be halved. As a result,
It is possible to reliably detect the fitting state, and it is possible to improve the reliability of the fitting detection. Further, the pressing portion is formed in the spring, as well as follow the flexible lock arm, since pressing the detecting terminal by the biasing force of its own, it is possible to ensure good contact pressure, to stabilize the contact of the sensing terminal This also improves the reliability of the fitting detection.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a half-fitting detection connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the spring shown in FIG.

3 (A) and 3 (B) are explanatory views showing a process of a half-fitting detection connector from a half-fitting state to a completely fitting state.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing a conventional half-fitting detection connector.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a short-circuit contact.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a half-fitted state of the male and female connectors.

[Explanation of symbols]

33 Flexible lock arm 43 Locking hole 47 Spring 51 Pressing part 53 Through hole 57a, 57b Detection terminal 61 Half-fitting detection connector A Male connector housing (other connector housing) B Female connector housing (one connector housing)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A connector housing having a pair of connector housings which can be freely fitted, and a locking hole for locking is formed in one of the connector housings. A semi-fitting detection connector having a flexible lock arm provided in the other connector housing, wherein a pair of detection terminals are arranged in the one connector housing with a gap formed in a direction of displacement of the flexible lock arm; Rutotomoni provided a pressing portion by being driven by the return of flexible lock arm is contacted by pressing the sensing terminal to said second connector housing, the through hole in the flexible lock arm
And urges the flexible locking arm in the direction of the return.
With the pressing portion protruding from the through hole.
A ring is attached to the flexible locking arm and the other connector housing.
A semi-fitting detection connector, which is disposed between the connector and the connector.