JP3317210B2 - Earth joint connector - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an earth joint connector.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 shows a conventional earth joint connector 50. This earth joint connector 50
Is mounted on, for example, an outer wall surface (not shown) of the engine, and connects a plurality of circuits requiring grounding to one ground mounting point. Connector housing 51
A grounding terminal 52 extends from a rear portion of the lower surface of the lower surface, and a mounting hole 52A is provided here. When assembling the ground joint connector 50 to the member to be mounted, a bolt (not shown) is inserted into the mounting hole 52A and tightened.

[0003]

However, since the ground terminal 52 is provided with only the circular mounting hole 52A, the ground terminal 52 may be rotated when the bolt is tightened, or the connector housing may be rotated. There is a problem that the work has to be performed while holding down the work 51, and the workability is not always good.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an earth joint connector with good assembling operability.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an earth joint connector in which a ground terminal is drawn out of a connector housing, and the ground terminal is connected to a member to be mounted. a ground joint connector to perform the fixing of the connector housing by tightening the screwing means, before
While the insertion hole is formed in the attached member,
The terminal is provided with a locking portion, and this locking portion is
Before the fastening by the fastening means is performed,
By locking, the connector housing is
Temporary holding is possible while preventing rotation of the attached member
And the locking portion is located at the distal end of the locking portion.
A pair of cuts sandwiched by this cut
Elastic pieces are provided, and both elastic pieces
With the base as the base, and on the extension of the base
Folded away from each other in the opposite direction,
Return to the extension line again at the center position in the length direction of the elastic piece
By being formed in a folded manner, the insertion hole
When they are inserted, they elastically deform toward each other
The insertion hole passes through the insertion hole, and returns and deforms after passing through the insertion hole.
It is characterized by being able to be locked to.

[0006]

[0007]

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, first, the locking portion provided on the ground terminal is locked on the member to be mounted, and the connector housing is temporarily held on the member to be mounted. deep. In this state, the ground terminal is tightened by the screw tightening means, so that the connector housing is completely fixed to the member to be mounted. At this time, since the connector housing is temporarily held by the locking portion, the operator does not need to hold the connector housing,
In addition, since it is prevented from rotating, screwing work can be performed with one hand.

[0009]

[0010]

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Reference Example First, a reference example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows a plan view before the earth joint connector 1 and the external earth terminal 10 are combined. The ground joint connector 1 is mounted on an outer wall E of, for example, a vehicle body or an engine room, and is used for grounding a circuit connected to a mating female connector (not shown).

[0013] As illustrated, the earth joint connector 1 of the present embodiment is In its Contact <br/> the connector housing 2 (this reference example shows the case where it is applied to the male housing, the present invention provides both male and female And a ground terminal 3 incorporated in the connector housing 2. In particular, in this reference example , an external ground terminal 10 which is combined with the above-described ground terminal 3 and is in a connected state is also connected so that circuits other than the circuit related to the connector housing 2 can be grounded together.

First, the external ground terminal 10 will be described. The external ground terminal 10 is formed by bending a conductive metal plate, and has barrels 15 and 16 at the rear for crimping the covered electric wire W. It is formed in several places. Among them, the rear side is an insulation barrel 15 for caulking the covered portion of the covered electric wire as it is, and the front side is a wire barrel 16 for caulking the core wire at the center of the electric wire W. A bolt 12 is provided at the center of the external ground terminal 10.
Is provided with a through-hole 17 for inserting the through hole. The edge of the through hole 17 is formed in a substantially square shape, and a pair of sides located in the front-rear direction (the direction in which the electric wire W extends) of the external ground terminal 10 are linear, and The pair of sides located are arc-shaped. A pair of combination portions 18 are formed outside the arc-shaped hole edge, and a pair of combination portions formed at a hole edge of a through hole 14 of an assembly portion 9 on the connector housing 2 side described later. As a result, the two grounding terminals 3 and 10 are locked in a locked state.

The male connector housing 2 is integrally formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape with a synthetic resin material, and the front side is opened to form a fitting opening 6 which can be fitted with a mating female connector.
The connector housing 2 is formed in the shape of a rectangular tube, and tabs 4 protrude therein in five rows and two columns (provided that two tabs from the center right of the upper row protrude from the connector housing 2). The tabs 4 are not provided since the fitting holding portions 7 for fitting and holding the two connectors are provided in the connector housing 2. Therefore, a total of eight tabs 4 are provided. The tab 4 is a part of the ground terminal 3 (to be described later) formed by bending a single conductive metal plate, and is integrated into the connector housing 2 at the time of insert molding.

Although the form of the ground terminal 3 alone is not shown in detail, the tab 4 as described above protrudes from the front part, and the ground joint connector 1 is provided at the middle part.
8 for supporting the space from the outer wall E by a predetermined height
Is provided, and further, an assembling portion 9 is extended at a rear portion. The connector housing 2 is supported by the support portion 8.
The gap provided between the outer wall E and the outer wall E secures a gap necessary for fitting a female connector (not shown) to the ground joint connector 1 and the electric wire W extending from the external ground terminal 10. (In the present embodiment , there is a restriction that the wiring direction must pass under the connector housing 2 when arranging the harness). . A reinforcing groove 8A is formed at the center from the support portion 8 to the assembly portion 9 to reinforce this portion.

The assembling portion 9 is formed so as to project from the support portion 8 in both left and right directions, and is a portion for attaching the earth joint connector 1 to a pair of holes 23 and 24 provided in the outer wall E. . When the earth joint connector 1 is viewed from above, a bolt 1
2 is formed, while a locking portion 22 described later is provided on the left side. In the rear part of the assembling part 9, the left side from the center is a reinforcing piece 9A bent upward for reinforcement.

The through-hole 14 has the same shape as the through-hole 17 provided in the external ground terminal 10, and although not shown in detail, outside the left and right edge of the through-hole 14, a connection with the external ground terminal 10 is provided. A pair of combination parts 19 for combination are arranged. The combination portion 19 can be combined with the combination portion 18 on the side of the external ground terminal 10 in an uneven manner.
The two ground terminals 3 and 10 are assembled by sliding them together so that they are aligned with each other.

The locking portion 22 is bent by a step portion 22A so as to be positioned below the lower surface of the mounting portion 9 by the thickness of the outer wall E, and its tip extends parallel to the mounting portion 9. Will be issued. The length of the locking portion 22 is slightly longer than the diameter of the locking hole portion 24 provided on the outer wall E, and is fitted therein to temporarily lock the assembly portion 9, and When the nut 9 is tightened, the assembly portion 9 is prevented from rotating together.

The outer wall E is provided with a bolt hole 23 having substantially the same diameter as the pair of through holes 14 and 17, and a locking hole 24 having substantially the same diameter as the bolt hole 23. The bolt 12 is inserted into the bolt hole 23 to fix the two ground terminals 3 and 10, while the locking hole 24 is provided with the locking portion 22 protruding from the assembly portion 9. It is inserted. The interval between the pair of holes 23, 24 is set to be slightly smaller than the interval from the through hole 14 on the assembly portion 9 side to the step portion 22A (see FIG. 5). For this reason, when the positions of the through hole 14 and the bolt hole 23 are aligned, the step 2
2A is slightly inside the hole edge of the locking hole 24.

Next, the operation and effect of this embodiment constructed as described above will be described. First, the through-hole 17 of the external ground terminal 10 to which the electric wire W is crimped and the through-hole 14 of the assembling part 9 are overlapped so that the two ground terminals 3,
10 is assembled. As the combination portions 18 and 19 engage with each other, the grounding terminals 3 and 10 are held in a retaining state.

Next, the locking portion 22 is fitted into the locking hole 24. The assembly is started while the earth joint connector 1 is inclined obliquely to the outer wall E so that the tip of the locking portion 22 can enter the locking hole 24. When the locking portion 22 is sufficiently inserted into the locking hole 24, the position of the ground joint connector 1 is returned to the mounting position, and the through holes 14, 17 are aligned with the bolt holes 23. deep. At this time, the upper surface of the distal end of the locking portion 22 is configured to contact the lower surface of the hole edge of the locking hole 24, whereby the ground joint connector 1 is temporarily held at a predetermined position, The rotation of the ground terminal 3 during the tightening operation of the bolt 12 is restricted (see FIG. 5).

Then, the bolt 12 is inserted into the through holes 14 and 17 of both terminals 3 and 10 and the hole 23 for the bolt, and the nut 25 is turned to complete the assembly of the ground joint connector 1.

As described above, according to the present embodiment , the connector housing 2 is temporarily held on the outer wall E by the locking portion 22 when the earth joint connector 1 is assembled. For this reason, the worker does not need to hold the connector housing 2 and is prevented from rotating, so that the screw tightening operation can be performed with one hand, and the earth joint connector 1 with good workability can be obtained.

Further, the locking portion 22 is sunk into the back side of the locking hole 24 so as to be hooked, so that it can be prevented from rotating and temporarily held.

In addition, the position of the through hole 14 for attaching the bolt 12 and the position where the locking portion 22 is provided are as follows.
It is arranged separately on both right and left ends of the assembling part 9. In other words, the distance from the locking portion 22 to the through hole 14 is set to be the longest, so that the moment is higher than when the locking portion 22 and the locking hole portion 24 are closer to each other. Can be used effectively. Therefore, it is possible to more effectively prevent the connector housing 2 from rotating together during the screw tightening operation.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. This embodiment and reference
In the examples , the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a part of the description is omitted.

The main difference between this embodiment and the reference example is the configuration of the locking portion 30. The locking portion 30 is formed by bending downward at the left end of the assembly portion 9. A notch 32 is provided along the center of the width from the tip of the locking portion 30 to the vicinity of the bending position, thereby forming a pair of leg-shaped elastic pieces 31. In addition, the locking portion 30
The base portion of the elastic piece 31 is bent so as to be away from each other in the opposite direction with respect to the extension of the base 34, and is further extended on the extension at the center position of the length of the elastic piece 31. It will be folded back. At this time, when viewed from the front of the connector housing 2, the distal ends of the two elastic pieces 31 are closed so as to intersect on the extension of the base 34. The pair of elastic pieces 31 formed in this way can be elastically deformed in the direction in which they are recessed.

On the other hand, a pair of holes 2 formed in the outer wall E
3, 33, the diameter of the locking hole 33 is smaller than the distance (indicated by D in FIG. 7) that is the most distant near the center of both elastic pieces 31. The pair of holes 23 and 33 are respectively connected to the ground joint connector 35.
Are provided at positions corresponding to the through holes 14 and the locking portions 30.

Next, the operation and effect of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. First, the position of the distal end of the elastic piece 31 and the position of the locking hole 33 are matched, and the elastic piece 3
1 is inserted into the locking hole 33. Since the distance D at which the pair of elastic pieces 31 is most separated from each other is larger than the diameter of the locking hole 33, the elastic piece 31 is pressed by the hole edge of the locking hole 33 with the insertion operation. Deformed. Then, when the earth joint connector 35 is pushed into a predetermined position, the elastic piece 31 is deformed to return to its original state,
4 reaches the locking hole 33, and the earth joint connector 35 reaches the temporary fixing position.

Then, the bolt 12 is inserted into the through holes 14 and 17 of the terminals 3 and 10 and the bolt hole 23, and the nut 25 is turned to complete the assembly of the ground joint connector 1.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, in addition to the effect of the reference example , the elastic piece 31 is elastically deformed while the elastic piece 31 is deformed by simply inserting the locking part 30 straight into the locking hole 33. Locking allows temporary holding and rotation prevention. For this reason,
The workability is excellent.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, the following ones are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

(1) In this embodiment, an external ground terminal is assembled to the ground terminal to form a joint, but the external ground terminal can be omitted.

[0035] (2) According to the present invention, the shape of the elastic piece real
The invention is not limited to only those shown in the embodiment . For example, any terminal may be used as long as it can be folded back into a substantially U shape at the tip end of the ground terminal and can be elastically deformed in the squeezing direction and locked in the hole.

(3) The locking portion is not limited to the position in the present embodiment, but may be provided above the assembly portion or at a position closer to the through hole.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view before assembling an earth joint connector and an external earth terminal in a reference example .

FIG. 2 is a plan view of an earth joint connector.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the ground joint connector.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of an earth joint connector.

FIG. 5 is a front view when the ground joint connector is assembled to a member to be mounted.

Figure 6 is an enlarged perspective view of the locking portion of the earth joint connector of this embodiment

FIG. 7 is a front view when the ground joint connector is assembled to a member to be mounted.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a ground joint connector according to the related art.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An earth joint connector wherein an earth terminal is drawn out of a connector housing, and the earth terminal is fastened to a member to be attached by screw fastening means to fix the connector housing. While the insertion hole is formed in the attached member,
A locking portion is provided on the ground terminal, and this locking portion is
Before the fastening by the fastening means is performed, the insertion hole
To lock the connector housing forward.
Temporary holding is possible while preventing rotation of the attached member.
And Tsu, moreover, the locking portion is placed from the front end side of the Dokakaritome portion
A pair of elastic pieces sandwiching this cut by the cut
Are provided, and both elastic pieces are based on the respective roots.
Parts and opposite to each other on the extension of the same base
Folded away in the direction of
At the center in the longitudinal direction, return to its extension again.
Inserted into the insertion hole by being folded back
When it is inserted, it is elastically deformed in
Pass, and after returning, deformed and locked in the insertion hole
Earth joint connector characterized by the ability to function .