JP5780213B2 - Connector device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a connector device used for, for example, a hybrid vehicle, an electric vehicle, and the like, and more particularly to a connector device that can be suitably used for a power harness used when transmitting a large amount of power.

  Conventionally, a male connector having a male housing for accommodating a male connector side terminal and a female connector having a female housing for accommodating a female connector side terminal have been provided, and vibration or the like has been applied to the male connector and the female connector in a fitted state. There is known a connector device having a backlash suppressing member that suppresses rattling between housings, that is, relative movement between a male housing and a female housing (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In the connector device described in Patent Document 1, the male side cylindrical portion formed in the male housing is accommodated in the female side cylindrical portion formed in the female housing, and the male connector and the female connector are fitted. The shape of the male side cylindrical portion viewed from the female connector side along the fitting direction (the direction in which the male connector and the female connector are fitted) is a rectangular shape with rounded corners. Similarly, the shape of the female side cylindrical portion viewed from the male connector side along the fitting direction is a rectangular shape with rounded corners.

  A pair of backlash suppressing members are respectively provided on the pair of long sides along the longitudinal direction of the female cylinder. The backlash suppressing member has a long plate portion and a short plate portion formed shorter than the long plate portion, and is formed in a J-shaped cross section in which the long plate portion and the short plate portion face each other in parallel. The backlash suppressing member is provided so as to sandwich the long side portion of the female side cylindrical portion from the inner and outer surfaces of the female side cylindrical portion, the long plate portion is on the outer surface side of the female side cylindrical portion, and the short plate portion is on the female side cylindrical portion. It is arranged on the inner surface side. And the short board part intervenes between the long side part of a male side cylinder part, and the long side part of a female side cylinder part, and the backlash between housings is suppressed.

JP 2012-18803 A

  By the way, in the connector device disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, when the housing is formed by die casting of aluminum alloy (die casting), the bending is caused particularly in the long side portion of the male side cylindrical portion and the long side portion of the female side cylindrical portion. May occur. In this case, the short plate portion of the backlash suppressing member may locally contact the respective long side portions of the male side tubular portion and the female side tubular portion, and may not sufficiently obtain the backlash suppressing effect. There was still room for improvement.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a connector device that can further suppress backlash between housings even when the cylindrical portion of the housing is bent.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a first housing in which a first tube portion is formed, which includes a first terminal and has a pair of first long side portions and a pair of first short side portions. A second connector having a first housing having a second housing housing a second terminal and having a second cylindrical portion that includes a pair of second long side portions and a pair of second short side portions; and a spacer having a rigidity lower plate portion than first housing and the second housing, when fitting the said first housing and said second housing, said first cylindrical portion within the second cylindrical portion is accommodated, the conjunction between the first terminal and the second terminal is connected to a connector device in which the plate portion of the spacer is interposed between said second cylindrical portion and the first cylindrical portion, said The spacer is attached to the second cylindrical portion of the second housing. And an inner plate portion as the plate portion, and an outer plate portion that is formed integrally with the inner plate portion and faces the inner plate portion with the second tube portion sandwiched in the inner thickness direction thereof. The inner plate portion of the spacer has a position corresponding to a center portion of the first long side portion and the second long side portion in a direction orthogonal to the fitting direction of the first housing and the second housing. the together first slit extending along the fitting direction is formed in the outer plate portion of said spacer, said in the direction perpendicular to the fitting direction of the second housing and the first housing second A connector device is provided in which a second cut extending along the fitting direction is formed at a position corresponding to a central portion of two long side portions .

Further, the inner plate portion includes a gap between one end portion in the direction orthogonal to the fitting direction and the central portion, and the other end portion in the direction orthogonal to the fitting direction and the central portion. A notch extending along the fitting direction may be formed between them.

The second cylindrical portion of the front Stories second housing, may protrusion engaging said second notch of said outer plate portion is formed.

  The spacer may be provided at two locations sandwiching the second terminal at the opening end of the second housing.

  According to the connector device of the present invention, backlash between the housings can be further suppressed even when the tubular portion of the housing is bent.

It is a perspective view which shows the structural example of the female connector which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view of a male connector. It is a schematic diagram which shows the upper part of a female connector. The spacer is shown, (a) is a perspective view, (b) is a perspective view seen from the back side of (a), and (c) is a side view. It is a cross-sectional enlarged view of a spacer and its peripheral part in the state which fitted the male housing and the female housing. It is DD sectional drawing of FIG. 3 at the time of housing fitting. The female connector which concerns on a comparative example is shown, (a) is a comparison figure of FIG. 6, (b) is an enlarged view of (a).

[Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of a female connector 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the male connector 7.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the female connector 1 includes a female housing 2 as a second housing. The female housing 2 is formed by die casting a metal such as an aluminum alloy.

  The female housing 2 is formed with a rectangular cylindrical portion 20 having rounded four corners in the shape viewed from the direction of the arrow C. The cylinder part 20 has a pair of long side part 20a and a pair of short side part 20b. The pair of short sides 20 b are opposed to the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical portion 20, and the pair of long sides 20 a are opposed to the lateral direction of the cylindrical portion 20.

  The cylindrical portion 20 accommodates a female terminal portion 3 that holds a plurality of female terminals 30 (three in the present embodiment). The plurality of female terminals 30 are arranged in the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2 along the long side direction in the rectangular cross section. The female housing 2 integrally has a cylindrical portion 21 that holds a plurality of electric wires 12 (three in this embodiment) to which a plurality of female terminals 30 are connected by crimping.

  The female housing 2 is provided with a lever 4 that is rotatably supported with respect to the female housing 2 and that holds the fitting state with the male housing 8, and a lock portion 5 that fixes the lever 4.

  Further, in the short side portion 20b of the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2, a slide linear hole 23 into which a rib 82 and a guide member 10 of the male housing 8 described later are inserted while sliding, and the lever 4 is supported by protruding outward. And a lever shaft 24 is provided. Two spacers 6 which will be described later are attached to the pair of long side portions 20a in the opening end portion 22 of the cylindrical portion 20 at two locations where the plurality of female terminals 30 are sandwiched in the direction along the short side portion 20b.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the male connector 7 includes a male housing 8 as a first housing. The male housing 8 is formed by die-casting the same type of material as the female housing 2 (for example, a metal such as an aluminum alloy).

  The male housing 8 is formed with a rectangular tube portion 80 having rounded corners in the cross section. The cylinder part 80 has a pair of long side part 80a and a pair of short side part 80b. The pair of short side portions 80 b are opposed to the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical portion 80, and the pair of long side portions 80 a are opposed to the lateral direction of the cylindrical portion 80. The dimension of the long side part 80a and the short side part 80b in the circumferential direction of the cylinder part 80 is formed smaller than the dimension of the long side part 20a and the short side part 20b in the circumferential direction of the cylinder part 20 of the female housing 2.

  The cylindrical portion 80 integrally includes a seal holding portion 81 that holds the seal member 11 that seals between the male connector 7 and the attached member. Further, the male connector 7 includes a male terminal portion 9 including a plurality (three in the present embodiment) of male terminals 91 and a male terminal holding member 90 that holds these male terminals 91. When the male housing 8 and the female housing 2 are fitted, the cylindrical portion 80 of the male housing 8 is accommodated in the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2, and the plurality of female terminals 30 are electrically connected to the plurality of male terminals 91. The

  A short side portion 80 b of the cylindrical portion 80 is provided with a rib 82 extending along the fitting direction with the female housing 2 and a cam pin 83 projecting outward from the rib 82. Further, a guide member 10 made of a resin (for example, high heat resistant nylon PA6T) is provided on the outer periphery of the rib 82.

  The attachment / detachment operation between the female connector 1 and the male connector 7 is performed by tilting the lever 4 in the direction of arrow A in FIG.

  More specifically, when the male connector 7 is attached to the female connector 1, the rib 82 and the guide member 10 are inserted while sliding in the slide linear hole 23, and the lever 4 is tilted in the direction of arrow A. At that time, the slide curved holes 40 provided on both side surfaces of the handle of the lever 4 move in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 1, and the cam pins 83 are locked to the slide curved holes 40. When the male connector 7 is detached from the female connector 1, the lever 4 is tilted in the direction opposite to the arrow A, and the rib 82 and the guide member 10 are pulled out from the slide linear hole 23 while sliding.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the upper part of the female connector 1. The lever 4 and the lock portion 5 are omitted, and the cylindrical portion 21 is simplified.

  Guide protrusions 25 a to 25 c extending in parallel with each other along the fitting direction of the male housing 8 and the female housing 2 are formed on the outer surface 200 a of the long side portion 20 a of the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2. The guide projection 25b is formed at the center of the long side portion 20a in the longitudinal direction of the tube portion 20, and the guide projections 25a and 25c place the spacer 6 in the arrangement direction of the female terminals 30 (longitudinal direction of the tube portion 20). It is formed at a sandwiching position. In addition, grooves 26 are formed on the outer surface 200a between the guide protrusion 25a and the guide protrusion 25b and between the guide protrusion 25b and the guide protrusion 25c, respectively. Further, a mark portion 27 as a mark for attaching the spacer 6 is formed along the extending direction of the electric wire 12 with the two grooves 26 as starting points.

  Therefore, the spacer 6 is uniquely determined by the guide projections 25a to 25c at the position where the spacer 6 is attached to the cylindrical portion 20. In addition, although illustration is abbreviate | omitted, also about the cylinder part bottom face part 201 facing the cylinder part upper surface part 200, three protrusions for guides, two grooves, and two mark parts are formed similarly.

  4A and 4B show the spacer 6, in which FIG. 4A is a perspective view, FIG. 4B is a perspective view seen from the back side of FIG. 4A, and FIG. FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the spacer 6 and its peripheral portion in a state where the male housing 8 and the female housing 2 are fitted.

  The spacer 6 according to the present embodiment is made of resin and has lower rigidity than the female housing 2 and the male housing 8. As shown in FIG. 4, the spacer 6 has a short plate portion 63 as an inner plate portion and a long plate as an outer plate portion facing the short plate portion 63 with the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2 sandwiched in the inner thickness direction. The plate portion 60 and the connecting portion 65 having an arc-shaped cross section for connecting the short plate portion 63 and the long plate portion 60 are integrally provided. Further, the long plate portion 60 and the short plate portion 63 face each other in parallel via the connecting portion 65.

  The long plate portion 60 is provided at the lance portion 61 that extends along the fitting direction of the male housing 8 and the female housing 2 with the connecting portion 65 as a base, and the tip portion on the opposite side of the connecting portion 65 of the lance portion 61. And a claw portion 66 projecting toward the short plate portion 63.

  The claw portion 66 is locked in the groove 26 provided on the outer surface 200a of the upper surface portion of the female housing 2, and prevents the spacer 6 from falling off the female housing 2.

  Further, the long plate portion 60 is formed with a guide notch 62 extending along the fitting direction between the male housing 8 and the female housing 2 at the center portion in the arrangement direction of the plurality of female terminals 30 in the spacer 6. The guide notch 62 engages with a guide protrusion 25b (see FIG. 3) provided on the outer surface 200a of the long side portion 20a of the female housing 2.

  As shown in FIG. 4 (b), the short plate portion 63 has a male housing 8 and a female at a central portion in the longitudinal direction of the spacer 6 (a direction orthogonal to the fitting direction of the male housing 8 and the female housing 2). A notch 64b extending along the fitting direction with the housing 2 is formed. Further, the short plate portion 63 has notches 64 a and 64 c extending along the fitting direction of the male housing 8 and the female housing 2 between the cut portion 64 b and both end portions of the short plate portion 63 in the longitudinal direction of the spacer 6. Is formed. Note that “extending along the fitting direction” includes a case where the housing extends while being slightly inclined with respect to the fitting direction of the housing. “Some” means about −5 ° to 5 °.

  The long plate portion 60 is divided into four pieces, ie, divided pieces 60 a to 60 d, by a guide notch 62 and two lance portions 61. The short plate portion 63 is divided into four pieces of divided pieces 63a to 63d by cuts 64a to 64c. In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, the divided pieces 60 a to 60 d and the divided pieces 63 a to 63 d have substantially the same width in the longitudinal direction of the spacer 6, but the widths may be different from each other.

  Next, a method for attaching the spacer 6 to the female housing 2 will be described. The spacer 6 is attached by fitting the male housing 8 and the female housing 2 so that the long side portion 20 a of the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2 is sandwiched between the long plate portion 60 and the short plate portion 63 of the spacer 6. By sliding in the direction. At that time, the long plate portion 60 is disposed outside the outer surface 200a of the long side portion 20a, and the short plate portion 63 is disposed inside the inner surface 200b of the long side portion 20a.

  When the female housing 2 and the male housing 8 are fitted, the short plate portion 63 of the spacer 6 is interposed between the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2 and the cylindrical portion 80 of the male housing 8 as shown in FIG. . More specifically, when the female housing 2 and the male housing 8 are fitted to each other, the short plate portion 63 of the spacer 6 is replaced with the inner surface 200b of the long side portion 20a of the female housing 2 and the outer surface 800a of the long side portion 80a of the male housing 8. It intervenes between.

(Operation and effect of the embodiment)
Next, the operation and effect of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line DD in FIG. 3 when the housing is shown with the female terminal portion 3, the male terminal portion 9, and the lever 4 omitted. In FIG. 6, the deflection of the cylindrical portion 20 and the cylindrical portion 80 is exaggerated for explanation.

  As for the cylinder part 20, a pair of long side part 20a is bent most inside the cylinder part 20 in the center part of the longitudinal direction of the cylinder part 20. As shown in FIG. Similarly, in the cylindrical portion 80, the pair of long side portions 80 a are bent in the innermost direction of the cylindrical portion 20 at the central portion in the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical portion 80.

  The notch 64b in the short plate portion 63 of the spacer 6 is formed at a position corresponding to the central portion of the long side portion 20a and the long side portion 80a. That is, in the short plate portion 63 of the spacer 6, a notch 64 b is formed at a position where the pair of long side portions 20 a and the pair of long side portions 80 a bend in the innermost direction of the cylindrical portion 20. As a result, the short plate portion 63 of the spacer 6 is elastically deformed so that the split pieces 63b and the split pieces 63c sandwiching the notch 64b follow the deflection of the pair of long side portions 20a and the pair of long side portions 80a.

  The split pieces 63 a to 63 d of the short plate portion 63 in the spacer 6 are in contact with both the inner surface 200 b of the long side portion 20 a in the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2 and the outer surface 800 a of the long side portion 80 a in the cylindrical portion 80 of the male housing 8. ing. The split pieces 60 a to 60 d of the long plate part 60 are in contact with the outer surface 200 a of the long side part 20 a in the cylindrical part 20 of the female housing 2.

  7A and 7B show a female connector according to a comparative example, in which FIG. 7A is a comparative view of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7B is an enlarged view of FIG. FIG. 7 shows a case where the divided piece 60b and the divided piece 60c of the long plate portion 60 are not separated (divided piece 60e), and similarly, the divided piece 63b and the divided piece 63c of the short plate portion 63 are separated. The case where there is no (divided piece 63e) is shown. That is, the notch 64b and the guide notch 62 (see FIG. 4) are not formed in the spacer of the female connector according to this comparative example.

  The split piece 63 a and the split piece 63 d of the short plate portion 63 are in contact with the outer surface 800 a of the long side portion 20 a inner surface 200 b of the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2 and the long side portion 80 a of the cylindrical portion 80 of the male housing 8. On the other hand, a gap 101 a and a gap 101 c are formed between both end portions of the split piece 63 e and the inner surface 200 b of the long side portion 20 a of the female housing 2. A gap 101b is formed between the center portion of the split piece 63e and the outer surface 800a of the long side portion 80a of the male housing 8.

  The split piece 60 a and the split piece 60 d of the long plate portion 60 are in contact with the outer surface 200 a of the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2. On the other hand, a gap 100 is formed between the central portion of the split piece 60 e and the outer surface 200 a of the female housing 2.

  In the present embodiment, since the notches 64a to 64c are formed in the short plate portion 63 of the spacer 6, the divided pieces 63a to 63d are compared with the case where there is no notch in the central portion (comparative example in FIG. 7). However, it is possible to move freely according to the deflection of the cylindrical portion 20 of the female housing 2 and the cylindrical portion 80 of the male housing 8. Similarly, in the long plate portion 60, since the guide notch 62 is formed, the divided piece 60b and the divided piece 60c are female housings as compared with the case where there is no notch in the central portion (comparative example in FIG. 7). It is possible to move freely according to the deflection of the two cylindrical portions 20. Therefore, the contact area between the outer surface 200a and inner surface 200b of the female housing 2 and the spacer 6 increases. Similarly, the contact area between the outer surface 800a and the spacer 6 also increases in the cylindrical portion 80 of the male housing 8.

  Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the gap between the female housing 2 and the spacer 6 and the gap between the female housing 2 and the male housing 8 that are caused by the deflection that is generated at the time of molding of the housing are filled. The backlash at the time of fitting with the male housing 8 can be more reliably suppressed.

  Further, when the guide notch 62 of the spacer 6 and the guide protrusion 25b of the female housing 2 are engaged, the position of the spacer 6 with respect to the female housing 2 is determined as one. Proper placement of the spacer 6 leads to subsidence suppression.

  Furthermore, by providing the spacers 6 at the two locations of the cylindrical portion upper surface portion 200 and the cylindrical portion bottom surface portion 201 of the female housing 2, the suppression effect is higher than when the spacer 6 is provided at only one location.

  In addition, poor contact between terminals caused by rattling of the connector device due to micro vibrations of the automobile is also improved.

  While the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the embodiments described above do not limit the invention according to the claims. In addition, it should be noted that not all the combinations of features described in the embodiments are essential to the means for solving the problems of the invention.

  For example, in the embodiment, the female connector 1 may not have the lever 4.

  Further, the notches 64 a to 64 c in the short plate portion 63 of the spacer 6 may be formed by forming 64 b at least in the center portion in the longitudinal direction of the spacer 6.

  Further, the guide protrusion 25 b of the female housing 2 may not be arranged at the central portion in the long side direction in the rectangular cross section of the cylindrical portion 20.

  Further, the spacer 6 may be attached to the cylindrical portion 80 of the male housing 8.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Female connector (2nd connector), 2 ... Female housing (2nd housing), 3 ... Female terminal part, 4 ... Lever, 5 ... Lock part, 6 ... Spacer, 7 ... Male connector (1st connector), 8 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS ... Male housing (1st housing), 9 ... Male terminal part, 10 ... Guide member, 11 ... Seal member, 12 ... Electric wire, 20 ... Tube part (2nd cylinder part), 20a ... Long side part (2nd long side) Part), 20b ... short side part (second short side part), 21 ... cylindrical part, 22 ... opening end part, 23 ... sliding linear hole, 24 ... lever shaft, 25a, 25b, 25c ... projection for projection (projection) , 26 ... groove part, 27 ... mark part, 30 ... female terminal, 40 ... slide curved hole, 60 ... long plate part, 60a, 60b, 60c, 60d, 60e ... split piece, 61 ... lance part, 62 ... notch for guide 63 ... Short plate portion (plate portion), 63a, 63b, 6 c, 63d, 63e ... divided pieces, 64a, 64b, 64c ... notches, 65 ... connecting parts, 66 ... claw parts, 80 ... cylindrical parts (first cylindrical parts), 80a ... long side parts (first long side parts) 80b ... short side portion (first short side portion) 81 ... seal holding portion, 82 ... rib, 83 ... cam pin, 90 ... male terminal holding member, 91 ... male terminal, 100, 101a, 101b, 101c ... gap, 200a ... outer surface, 200b ... inner surface, 800a ... outer surface

Claims (4)

A first connector having a first housing that houses a first terminal and has a first cylindrical portion formed with a pair of first long sides and a pair of first short sides ;
A second connector having a second housing that houses a second terminal and has a second cylindrical portion formed with a pair of second long sides and a pair of second short sides ;
A spacer having a plate portion having lower rigidity than the first housing and the second housing ;
With
When the first housing and the second housing are fitted together, the first tube portion is accommodated in the second tube portion, the first terminal and the second terminal are connected, and the first A connector device in which the plate portion of the spacer is interposed between a tube portion and the second tube portion,
The spacer is attached to the second tube portion in the second housing, and is formed integrally with the inner plate portion as the plate portion and the inner plate portion, and sandwiches the second tube portion in the inner thickness direction. And an outer plate portion facing the inner plate portion,
The inner plate portion of the spacer has a position corresponding to a center portion of the first long side portion and the second long side portion in a direction orthogonal to the fitting direction of the first housing and the second housing. with a first slit extending along the fitting direction are formed,
The outer plate portion of the spacer is arranged along the fitting direction at a position corresponding to a center portion of the second long side portion in a direction orthogonal to the fitting direction of the first housing and the second housing. A second notch extending is formed,
Connector device. The inner plate portion is between one end portion in the direction orthogonal to the fitting direction and the central portion, and between the other end portion in the direction orthogonal to the fitting direction and the central portion. A notch extending along the fitting direction is formed,
The connector device according to claim 1 . Before Symbol The second cylindrical portion of the second housing, the projection engaging said second notch of said outer plate portion is formed,
The connector device according to claim 1 or 2 . The spacer is provided at two locations sandwiching the second terminal at the opening end of the second housing,
The connector device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 .

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