JP3509635B2 - Waterproof 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 collective type waterproof connector.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a collective type waterproof connector, one described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-266941 is known. This product has a large-sized rubber plug on the rear surface of the connector housing in which a cavity is formed, which is large enough to cover the cavity and has a wire insertion hole at each position corresponding to each cavity. While elastically expanding, the terminal fitting is penetrated through the rubber plug to be housed in the cavity, and after the terminal fitting has passed, the inner surface of the wire insertion hole is brought into close contact with the outer circumference of the wire to remove the seal.

[0003]

However, the conventional structure has a structure in which the terminal fitting is forcibly inserted into the wire insertion hole of the rubber stopper as described above. If a stabilizer is provided in a protruding manner on the terminal fitting, for example, for stabilizing the insertion operation, there is a risk that the stabilizer may damage the inner surface of the wire insertion hole so that the inner surface of the wire insertion hole is cut and the sealing performance deteriorates.
The present invention has been completed based on the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to make it possible to easily insert a terminal fitting and to ensure a high sealing property.

[0004]

As a means for achieving the above object, the invention of claim 1 is an inner structure provided with a plurality of cavities for accommodating a terminal fitting fixed to an end of an electric wire in a retaining state. comprises a housing, a connector housing consisting of an outer housing of the insertion opening and opening of the said inner housing corresponding to the respective cavities can be inserted in and the rear wall from the front terminal fitting, said connector
Mating with the connector housing and this connector housing
Both connector housings should be between the mating connector housing and
A lever with a cam to help fit the
A lever mechanism consisting of a cam part and a follower part that engages
The outer housing in the connector housing.
And one of the mating connector housings
The lever is provided on one side, and the follower part is provided on the other side.
In addition, the rear surface of the inner housing and the outer
Contains gel material between the rear wall of the housing and
While the space is retained, the inner housing is
The storage space allows the gel material to be stored in a natural state almost tightly
The temporary locking position that holds the depth dimension enough to enable
Fitting both connector housings by operating the lever
The inner housing is pushed in with the operation
To reduce the depth of the storage space and press the gel material.
It can be locked at the main locking position in the contracted state.
It has a feature in that it exists . The invention of claim 2 is
The inner housing according to claim 1,
And the mating surface of the mating connector housing facing each other.
The space between the
The feature is that another shrinkable gel material is interposed
Have.

[0005]

[0006]

<Advantageous Effects and Effects of the Invention><Invention of Claim 1> When the inner housing is held at the temporary locking position, the gel material is mounted in the accommodation space between the rear surface and the rear wall of the outer housing. In this state, the terminal fitting is inserted from the insertion port of the outer housing, penetrates the gel material, and is accommodated in the corresponding cavity. Then, when the inner housing is pushed into the main locking position, the gel material is compressed between the inner housing and the rear wall of the outer housing, and the gel material is tightly attached around the electric wire. The terminal fitting can be inserted easily into the uncompressed gel material, and the insertion work can be easily performed. By moving the inner housing to the main locking position, the gel material is compressed and a high sealing property can be obtained. Also, when you operate the lever, the connector
Outer housing and mating housing in housing
And the inner housing are opposite each other.
Temporary locking position as pushed from the connector housing
To the main locking position. Both connector housings
Using the operation of the lever used to assist the mating of
Since the inner housing can be moved to the final locking position,
The operation to move the main housing to the final locking position is simple and small.
It can be done with little effort.

<Invention of Claim 2> Along with a fitting operation of both connector housings using a lever.
In addition, waterproof the private room on the mating surface side of the inner housing
It can be done.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
Or, it demonstrates based on FIG. In this embodiment,
As shown in FIG. 1, a female connector housing 10 (hereinafter referred to as a female housing) and a male connector housing 40 (hereinafter referred to as a male housing) that are fitted to each other.
And has two gel materials 3 as a seal member.
It is equipped with 4,46. In addition, below, the fitting end side of both housings 10 and 40 is demonstrated as the front.

The female housing 10 is further divided into an inner housing 11 and an outer housing 12.
As shown in FIG. 2, the inner housing 11 is formed in a horizontally long block shape, and a plurality of cavities 14 into which the female side terminal fittings 2 fixed to the end of the electric wire 1 can be inserted are formed in the inner housing 11. The upper and lower parts are arranged in line in two stages. A lance 15 is formed on the ceiling surface of each of the cavities 14 so as to prevent the inserted female terminal fitting 2 from coming off, and a mating male terminal fitting 44 described later is fitted on the front surface. The terminal fitting inlet 16 is opened.

One outer housing 12 is a large hood portion 1 having a stepped rectangular shape on the front surface of a thick rear wall 18.
9 is formed, and the rear end side of the inner housing 11 described above can be fitted into the inner side of the large hood portion 19. The rear wall 18 of the outer housing 12 is formed with an insertion port 20 into which the female terminal fitting 2 can be inserted at each position corresponding to each cavity 14 of the inner housing 11.

From the inner surface of the rear wall 18 of the outer housing 12, as shown in FIG. 3, a pair of left and right guide plates 22 are provided.
As shown in FIG. 2, the inner housing 11 is formed with a pair of guide holes 23 into which the guide plates 22 can be inserted so as to penetrate both front and rear surfaces. The guide hole 23 is formed slightly wider than the wall thickness of the guide plate 22, and the outer surface of each guide plate 22 is
It is set so as to be slidably contacted with the outer wall surface of the guide hole 23, and the tip end side of the guide plate 22 can be flexibly deformed inside the guide hole 23.

As shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, two upper and lower temporary locking projections 25 having a front surface as a tapered surface are formed at a position near the front end thereof, and a position between both temporary locking projections 25 at the rear of a predetermined dimension. On the other hand, a single main locking projection 26 having a tapered front surface is also formed.

On the other hand, on the outer wall surfaces of both guide holes 23,
Three insertion grooves 28, 29 facing the front-rear direction are formed, and the above-described temporary engagement projection 2 is formed in the upper and lower insertion grooves 28.
5 can be inserted, and a temporary locking projection 30 that can be locked to the temporary locking projection 25 is formed at a predetermined position in the middle of both insertion grooves 28 with the rear surface as a tapered surface. In addition, the main locking projection 26 can be inserted into the central insertion groove 29, and is located rearward of the position where the temporary locking projection 30 is formed in the insertion groove 29, and the rear surface side is also a tapered surface. Locking protrusion 2
A main locking projection 31 that can be locked to the 6 is formed.

That is, when the inner housing 11 is inserted into the large hood portion 19 of the outer housing 12 from the front and is pushed in while the guide plate 22 is relatively inserted into the guide hole 23, first, two temporary upper and lower tentative parts are provided. Locking protrusion 25
Rides on the corresponding temporary locking projection 30 and passes through it to elastically lock to the front surface of the temporary locking projection 30 to prevent the inner housing 11 from slipping off at the temporary locking position shown in FIG. Held in a state. At this time, an accommodation space 33 having a predetermined depth dimension is formed between the rear surface 11B of the inner housing 11 and the rear surface wall 18 of the outer housing 12. The first gel material 34 can be housed in the housing space 33 in a natural state in a substantially tight manner.

The inner housing 11 can be pushed further from the temporary locking position, and when the locking step portion 36 formed on the upper surface hits the stepped portion 37 of the large hood portion 19, the pushing is stopped. It This position is the main locking position (see FIG. 10), and here, the main locking projection 26 passes through the main locking projection 31 and elastically locks on the front surface thereof so that the locking state is prevented. Retained. Thus, when the inner housing 11 reaches the main locking position, the depth dimension of the accommodation space 33 is reduced to almost half.

The male housing 40 is used by being attached to a printed wiring board, for example, and as shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, a small hood portion 42 is provided on the front surface of a base portion 41.
It has a shape with. The small hood portion 42 corresponds to the inner housing 11 in the female housing 10 described above.
Can be fitted to the inside almost tightly, and the small hood 4
The 2 itself can be fitted almost tightly inside the large hood portion 19.

In the male housing 40, an L-shaped tab-shaped male-side terminal fitting 44 is mounted. The horizontal portion 44A of each male-side terminal fitting 44 is vertically arranged in two steps to project into the small hood portion 42 at a position corresponding to each female-side terminal fitting 2, and each vertical portion 44B projects to the back surface of the base portion 41. After that, it hangs down in two rows in the front and back to be connected to the corresponding contacts on the printed wiring board.

As will be described later in detail, when the male and female housings 10, 40 are properly fitted, the rear surface 42A of the small hood portion 42 and the state where the female housing 10 reaches the main locking position are shown. Front 11A of the inner housing 11
A predetermined space can be opened between and. The second gel material 46 is preliminarily attached to the inner surface 42A of the small hood portion 42 of the male housing 40. In the natural state, the second gel material 46 has a thickness that is about twice the final space between the back surface 42A of the small hood portion 42 and the front surface 11A of the inner housing 11.

The outer housing 12 of the female housing 10 is provided with a lever 50 for assisting the fitting of the male and female housings 10, 40. This lever 5
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, 0 has a shape in which the tips of a pair of L-shaped arms 51 are connected by an operating portion 52, and is mounted so as to straddle the upper surface side of the outer housing 12. And a bearing hole 53 provided on the base end side of the arm 51
Are fitted to shafts 54 (see FIGS. 3 and 4) projectingly provided on the left and right side surfaces of the outer housing 12 and are rotatably supported. More specifically, the operation unit 52 shown in FIG. 1 can be rotated 90 degrees toward a standby position in which the operation unit 52 faces upward, and the lock position in which the operation unit 52 faces rearward, as shown in FIG. When it reaches, the lock portion 56 provided on the operation portion 52 is locked by being locked by the locking portion 57 provided on the upper surface of the rear end portion of the outer housing 12.

A cam groove 59 is formed on the inner surface of both arms 51 of the lever 50 as shown in FIG. 7, and when the lever 50 is in the standby position described above, the cam groove 59 is formed.
The entrance 60 is open forward. on the other hand,
Follower pins 61 (see FIGS. 5 and 9) that can be engaged with the cam grooves 59 are provided on both right and left sides of the male housing 40. That is, when the male and female housings 10 and 40 are fitted together, the follower pin 61 of the male housing 40 is inserted into the cam groove 5.
When the lever 50 is turned toward the lock position from the state facing the entrance 60 of the cam 9, the cam groove 59 and the follower pin 6 are moved.
Due to the cam action between the male and female housings 10, 4
The forces in the directions of being attracted to each other with respect to 0 are assisted. In addition, escape grooves 63 are formed on both left and right sides of the outer housing 12 of the female housing 10 to allow the follower pins 61 to be fitted and released.

The present embodiment has the structure as described above,
Next, an example of the assembling procedure will be described. First male housing 4
On the 0 side, as shown in FIG. 1, the second gel material 46 penetrates the male-side terminal fitting 44, and the inner surface 4 of the small hood portion 42.
It is attached to 2A. In this case, the second gel material 46 remains in a substantially natural state.

On the one female housing 10 side, the lever 5
0 is set to the standby position and the first gel material 3
4 passes through both guide plates 22 and the outer housing 1
It is mounted on the front surface of the rear wall 18 in FIG. Next, the inner housing 11 is inserted into the large hood portion 19 of the outer housing 12 from the front while the guide plate 22 is being inserted into the guide hole 23, and as described above, the temporary locking projection 25 is temporarily locked. By locking the front surface of the portion 30, the inner housing 11 is retained at the temporary locking position in a state where it does not come off. At this time, as shown in FIG. 8, an accommodation space 33 having a predetermined depth dimension is formed between the rear surface 11B of the inner housing 11 and the rear surface wall 18 of the outer housing 12. Therefore, the first gel material 34 is accommodated in the accommodation space 33 in a substantially natural state.

Next, as shown by the arrow in FIG. 8, the female terminal fitting 2 fixed to the end of the electric wire 1 is inserted into the corresponding insertion opening 20 of the rear wall 18 of the outer housing 12, After penetrating the gel material 34, the gel material 34 is inserted into the cavity 14 located ahead of the gel material 34, and is accommodated by the lance 15 in a retaining state. At this time, since the first gel material 34 is still in a substantially natural state, the female-side terminal fitting 2 penetrates the first gel material 34 and receives only a small resistance.
4 is inserted.

When all the female terminal fittings 2 have been housed, as shown by the arrow in FIG. 9, the male and female housings 10,
40 is fitted. During the fitting process, the follower pin 61 of the male housing 40 is inserted into the inlet 60 of the cam groove 59 of the lever 50.
Get in. Then, when the lever 50 is rotated toward the lock position, the cam action between the cam groove 59 and the follower pin 61 causes the male housing 40 and the female housing 1 to move.
The outer housing 12 at 0 is pulled toward each other.

As the fitting progresses, the front surface 11A of the inner housing 11 in the female housing 10 becomes the second gel material 46.
Then, the second gel material 46 is compressed between the second gel material 46 and the inner surface 42A of the small hood portion 42 of the male housing 40, and the first gel material 34 is compressed. Outer housing 12 from the temporary locking position
Is pushed further into the back.

As shown in FIG. 10, when the lever 50 is rotated to the lock position and locked, the fitting operation is completed, and the first gel material 34 is compressed to approximately half the thickness while the inner housing is being compressed. 11 is in a state of being held at the main locking position by locking the main locking projection 26 on the front surface of the main locking projection 31. As a result, the first gel material 34 is brought into close contact with the wire 1 drawn out from the cavity 14, and the rear surface side of the female housing 10 is sealed.

On the other hand, the second gel material 46 is also attached to the inner surface 42A of the small hood portion 42 of the male housing 40 and the female housing 1.
It is compressed to approximately half the thickness between the front surface 11A of the inner housing 11 of 0. As a result, a seal is provided between the male and female housings 10, 40, specifically between the inner housing 11 and the small hood portion 42, around the male terminal fitting 44, and between the cavities 14 formed in the inner housing 11. Taken.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when waterproofing the rear surface of the female housing 10,
The female-side terminal fitting 2 may be inserted into the first gel material 34 which is in an uncompressed state, so that the insertion work into the cavity 14 can be easily performed, and the first gel material 34 can be fitted with the fitting operation of both the housings 10 and 40. Is compressed and a high sealing property is obtained.

The operation of moving the inner housing 11 to the main locking position to compress the first gel material 34 utilizes the operation of the lever 50 used to assist the fitting of the two housings 10 and 40. Since it is done, it can be done easily and with a small force. Further, the second gel material 46 is also attached in advance to the inner surface 42A of the small hood portion 42 of the male housing 40 that faces the front surface 11A of the inner housing 11, and this is attached as the two housings 10, 40 are fitted together. Since it can be compressed, it is also possible to perform waterproofing of the private room on the fitting surface side of the inner housing 11 together.

<Other Embodiments> The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and illustrated in the drawings. For example, the following embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. In addition to the above, various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. In the above-described embodiment, the inner housing is provided with the gel material on both front and rear surfaces for the purpose of waterproofing the individual chamber on the fitting surface side, but the fitting surface side is sealed by the rubber packing between the two housings. If it is sufficient, the second gel material can be removed, and such a material is also included in the technical scope of the present invention .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded vertical sectional view of an entire embodiment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the inner housing.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the outer housing.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a locking structure of an outer housing and an inner housing.

FIG. 5: Front view of male housing

FIG. 6 is a front view of the lever.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view thereof.

FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional view for explaining the inserting operation of the female-side terminal fitting.

FIG. 9 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a male and female housing before fitting.

FIG. 10 is a vertical cross-sectional view when the fitting is completed.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Electric wire 2 Female terminal fitting 10 ... Female housing (connector housing) 11 ... Inner housing 12 ... Outer housing 14 ... Cavity 18 ... Rear wall 20 ... insertion slot 33 ... accommodation space 34 ... First gel material 40 ... Male housing (mate connector housing) 46 ... Second gel material 50 ... lever 59 ... Cam groove 61 ... follower pin

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-8-250200 (JP, A) JP-A-5-326066 (JP, A) Actually open 6-62481 (JP, U) Actually open 52- 23393 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01R 13/52 301 H01R 13/629

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A terminal fitting fixed to an end of an electric wire comes off.
A connector including an inner housing having a plurality of cavities to be accommodated in a stopped state, and an outer housing into which the inner housing can be inserted from the front and a rear wall of which has openings for inserting the terminal fittings corresponding to the cavities. A housing, and the connector housing and the connector housing
Connect both connectors between the mating connector housing and the mating connector housing.
Lever having a cam portion to assist the fitting of the actuator housing.
And a follower part that engages with this cam part
A mechanism is provided, and the outer side of the connector housing is
Connector housing and the mating connector housing
The lever is on one side and the follower on the other side.
And a rear surface of the inner housing and the outer housing.
There is a storage space for the gel material between the back wall of the ging and
Meanwhile, in the inner housing, the accommodation space is the gel material.
Depth dimension enough to accommodate the
The temporary locking position that holds the method and the front by operating the lever
As the mating operation of both connector housings
The depth of the accommodation space due to the housing being pushed in
Full locking position where the gel material is compressed by shrinking the dimensions
A waterproof connector that can be locked to both and . 2. The inner housing and the mating connector
Between the mating surfaces facing the connector housing.
Another connector that can be compressed when the connector housing is engaged.
The waterproof connector according to claim 1, wherein a waterproof material is interposed .