JP6018876B2 - Protector - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a protector.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for reducing the number of parts when connecting with a joint connector at a protector mounting location is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
As shown in FIG. 5, a protector 501, which is a multi-function protector, has a main part composed of a case 505 having a U-shaped cross section that accommodates the wire harness 503 and a lid 507 that closes the opening of the case 505. .
On the upper surface 509 of the lid 507, a connector housing part 511 having the same shape as that of a conventional joint connector is integrally formed, and in the connector housing part 511, a joint having the same shape as that of a conventional joint bus bar is provided. A bus bar portion 513 protrudes. Further, from one side of the lid 507, two vehicle body fixing portions 517 having bolt holes 515 for fixing the protector 501 to the vehicle body are projected.

  In the protector 501, all of the connector housing part 511, the joint bus bar part 513, and the vehicle body fixing part 517 except for the case 505 are integrally formed on the lid 507 with a highly conductive resin. As a result, a conductive portion 519 that conducts from the joint bus bar portion 513 to the vehicle body fixing portion 517 through the connector housing portion 511 and the lid 507 is formed. The case 505 is formed of a normal resin that does not have the same conductivity as the conventional case. In the wire harness 503 to which the protector 501 is attached, a connector 527 is attached to a terminal of an electric wire group 525 that configures the branch line 523 by branching off the branch line 523 connected to the ground circuit from the trunk line 521. The connector 527 is provided with a terminal portion, and the terminal portion is connected to a conductor of each electric wire group 525.

  In order to connect the wire group 525 to the ground by the protector 501, first, the trunk 521 constituting the wire harness 503 is accommodated in the case 505, and the lid 507 is attached to the case 505 in a state where only the branch line 523 is pulled out from the case 505. Covered and locked. Next, the connector 527 at the end of the electric wire group 525 constituting the branch line 523 is fitted to the connector housing portion 511, so that the joint bus bar portion 513 and the electric wire group 525 are conductively connected.

  In this state, when the protector 501 is fixed to the bolt hole 515 that also serves as the body ground portion of the vehicle body panel 529 with the bolt 531, the protector 501 is electrically connected from the vehicle body panel 529 to the joint bus bar portion 513 through the conductive portion 519. The group 525 is grounded to form a ground circuit. Therefore, an earth circuit can be formed only by the protector 501 without using an electric wire for ground connection.

  According to the protector 501 which is such a multi-function protector, the number of parts can be reduced, and the labor required for assembling and the labor required for parts management can be reduced. Further, in the case of performing the ground connection, the protector 501 is provided with a conductive portion 519 made of a highly conductive resin, and the protector 501 is fixed to the vehicle body panel 529 via the projecting vehicle body fixing portion 517, thereby This eliminates the need for electric wires and ground terminals, and further reduces the number of parts.

JP 2002-10438 A

  By the way, the protector 501 may be used in, for example, an instrument panel (hereinafter also referred to as an instrument panel) of a vehicle. In general, an air duct 533 and an instrument panel force 535 for a car air conditioner are disposed in the instrument panel as shown in FIG. When the wire harness 503 is routed along the instrument panel force 535 and the protector 501 is disposed below the air duct 533, water droplets 539 due to condensation of the air duct 533 fall on the connector housing portion 511, and the electric wire There is a possibility that the terminal portion of the group 525 may be corroded and corroded. In this case, particularly when the electric wire group 525 is an aluminum electric wire, the occurrence of corrosion due to the electrolytic corrosion between the terminal portions made of copper alloy becomes significant. At present, as a countermeasure, anticorrosion treatment such as resin mold is performed, which is a cause of cost increase.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and an object of the present invention is to provide a protector that can reduce the cost by eliminating the need for the anticorrosion treatment of the electrical connection portion in the connector portion protruding from the outer surface of at least one side wall of the protector body. It is to provide.

The above object of the present invention is achieved by the following configuration.
(1) A protector main body and a lid that are combined with each other to form a long cylindrical body that can store an electric wire, both side walls of the protector main body that sandwich and oppose the electric wire, and at least one side wall of the both side walls A connector portion projecting from the outer surface, and a roof portion extending to a side edge of the lid body so as to cover an upper portion of the electrical connection portion in the connector portion, and the lid body of the protector body The roof portion is attached to the protector body at a predetermined inclination angle so that one side in a direction perpendicular to the extending direction is lowered, and the roof portion is disposed on the one side of the lid through a thin hinge portion. It is integrally formed on the edge and is swingable with respect to the lid, and on the swing end side of the roof portion, there is a locking claw protruding from the roof portion, and the connector portion or the protector body. A lock formed from a locking portion formed A mechanism is provided, and the roof portion is configured to be fixed to the protector main body side so as to extend in a direction along the inclination angle of the lid body by the lock mechanism .

  According to the protector having the above configuration (1), the upper portion of the electrical connection portion of the connector portion projecting from the outer surface of the side wall of the protector body is covered by the roof portion extending to the side edge of the lid. Then, the water drop which fell from the upper direction of a protector is received by the roof part which covers the upper direction of an electrical connection part. The water droplets received by the roof part flow down along the inclination of the roof part, and are guided below the protector without contacting the electrical connection part of the connector part. Thereby, water is not applied to the electrical connection part of the connector part, and the electrical connection part is hardly corroded.

Furthermore, according to the protector having the above configuration ( 1 ), the roof portion can swing with respect to the lid body through the thin hinge portion, so that even after the lid body is attached to the protector body. By oscillating only the roof portion, it is possible to connect the mating connector to the connector portion. That is, it is not necessary to remove the lid from the protector body every time the mating connector is connected to the connector. Moreover, since a thin hinge part can connect continuously between a roof part and a protector main body, a water droplet permeates from between a protector main body and a roof part, and does not contact a connector part.

  The protector according to the present invention eliminates the need for the anticorrosion treatment of the electrical connection portion in the connector portion protruding from the outer surface of at least one side wall of the protector body, thereby reducing the cost.

  The present invention has been briefly described above. Further, the details of the present invention will be further clarified by reading through a mode for carrying out the invention described below (hereinafter referred to as “embodiment”) with reference to the accompanying drawings. .

It is a principal part expansion perspective view of the protector which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a principal part disassembled perspective view of the protector shown in FIG. (A) is a top view of the protector shown in FIG. 1, (b) is a front view of (a). (A) is AA arrow sectional drawing of FIG.3 (b), (b) is a principal part expanded sectional view of the thin hinge part shown to (a). It is a perspective view of the conventional protector. It is a schematic sectional drawing showing the positional relationship of the conventional protector arrange | positioned in an instrument panel and an air duct.

Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a protector according to the present embodiment (hereinafter referred to as a multi-function protector 11) is used by being disposed in an instrument panel (instrument panel) (not shown) of a vehicle. In the instrument panel inner space 13 (see FIG. 4), at least an upper air duct 15 for a car air conditioner and a lower instrument panel reinforcement 17 are disposed. The multi-function protector 11 according to this embodiment is disposed between the air duct 15 and the instrument panel reinforcement 17 along the instrument panel reinforcement 17.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the multi-function protector 11 of the present embodiment includes a protector main body 19, a lid body 21, a plurality of connector housings 51 constituting a joint connector part (connector part) 50, a roof part 23, A thin hinge portion 25 is included as a main component. Originally, the general protector used only for protecting the electric wire is referred to as the multi-function protector 11 because the joint connector portion 50 as a functional portion is attached.

Each of the protector body 19 and the lid body 21 is integrally formed of a synthetic resin material, and is combined with each other so as to accommodate a wire harness 45 composed of a plurality of aluminum electric wires (electric wires) 29. Form.
The protector body 19 rises from a bottom wall portion 31 (see FIG. 4) that intersects the air duct 15 and extends along the instrument panel reinforcement 17 and from both bottom wall edges along the longitudinal direction of the bottom wall portion 31. The pair of side walls 33 are formed in a substantially U-shaped cross section with the upper portion serving as the opening 35.
The opening 35 opens the upper part of the wire housing space 37 of the protector body 19. That is, in the protector body 19, the pair of side walls 33 face each other with the trunk line of the wire harness 45 housed in the wire housing space 37 interposed therebetween.
The upper part of the electric wire accommodation space 37 that accommodates the trunk line of the wire harness 45 is sealed by attaching the lid 21 to the opening 35 of the protector body 19.
The lid body 21 is provided with a plurality of locking pieces 39 (see FIG. 2). The locking piece portion 39 is locked to the lid locking portion 41 of the protector body 19, thereby fixing the lid 21 to the protector body 19.

  The lid 21 is attached to the protector body 19 with a predetermined inclination angle θ so that one side (right side in FIG. 4A) in the direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the protector body 19 is lowered. The When the water droplets 43 that have fallen from the air duct 15 due to condensation fall on the lid body 21, the water droplets 43 are guided to one side in a direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the lid body 21 due to this inclination. Thereby, the protector main body 19 has a structure in which the water droplets 43 do not easily enter the electric wire housing space 37.

  The wire harness 45 in which the trunk line is accommodated in the electric wire accommodation space 37 is configured by bundling a plurality of aluminum electric wires 29 connected to each of a plurality of electrical components disposed in an instrument panel or the like. A plurality of branch lines 47 (see FIG. 2) are led out from the wire harness 45 to the outside of the protector body 19 through, for example, one side wall 33 (right side in FIG. 4A).

  A plurality of connector housings 51 that constitute the joint connector portion 50 protrude from the side wall outer surface 49 of the one side wall 33. That is, the joint connector portion 50 is disposed outside the wire housing space 37 in the protector body 19. In the present embodiment, joint bus bars (not shown) are provided in the plurality of connector housings 51 constituting the joint connector portion 50. Each connector housing 51 is coupled to a connector (mating connector) 53 that accommodates female terminals (not shown). A female terminal in the connector 53 is connected to a branch line 47 branched from the trunk line of the wire harness 45 housed in the protector body 19 and led out of the protector body 19. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the connection portion between the joint bus bar and the female terminal and the connection portion between the female terminal and the branch line 47 are electrical connection portions in the joint connector portion 50.

  On one side edge 55 of the lid 21 corresponding to the joint connector portion 50 of the protector body 19, a roof portion 23 is extended so as to cover the upper side of the electrical connection portion in the joint connector portion 50. The roof portion 23 in the present embodiment extends in a direction along the inclination of the lid body 21 to cover the upper portion of the joint connector portion 50 protruding from the side wall outer surface 49 in an eave shape.

  In addition, the roof part 23 of this embodiment is integrally molded by the side edge 55 of the cover body 21 through the thin hinge part 25. As shown in FIG. The thin hinge portion 25 is continuously formed along the entire length of the roof portion 23 in the longitudinal direction. The roof portion 23 is swingable with respect to the lid body 21 by being connected to the side edge 55 by the thin hinge portion 25.

In addition, on the rocking end side of the roof portion 23, a locking mechanism is provided that includes a locking claw protruding from the roof portion 23 and a locking portion formed on the joint connector 50 or the protector body 19. Thus, the roof portion 23 can be controlled to swing and fixed to the protector main body 19 side.
The roof portion 23 that can swing with respect to the lid body 21 through the thin-walled hinge portion 25 is locked to the protector main body 19 side by a locking mechanism, and as shown in FIG. It is fixed so as to cover the connector housing 51 and the connector 53 in the joint connector portion 50 at an inclination angle along the inclination.

Next, the operation of the multifunction protector 11 having the above configuration will be described.
In the multi-function protector 11 according to the present embodiment, the connectors 53 are coupled to the plurality of connector housings 51 in the joint connector portion 50 protruding from the side wall outer surface 49 of the protector body 19.
The connector 53 coupled to the connector housing 51 conducts the female terminal electrically connected to the end of each branch line 47 to the joint bus bar. The female terminal of the connector 53 is connected to a joint bus bar provided in the protector body 19, and each branch line 47 is joint-connected.

  And the upper part of the electrical connection part in the connection part of a joint bus bar and a female terminal and the connection part of a female terminal and the branch line 47 is covered by the roof part 23 extended in the side edge 55 of the cover body 21. FIG.

  The multi-function protector 11 of the present embodiment is located below the air duct 15, and when the water droplet 43 falls from above the protector body 19 due to dew condensation generated in the air duct 15, the water droplet 43 is received by the lid body 21. It flows down along a single-flow slope. Further, the water droplet 43 dropped from above the joint connector portion 50 protruding from the side wall outer surface 49 of the protector body 19 is received by the roof portion 23 covering the electrical connection portion of the joint connector portion 50. The water droplets 43 received by the roof portion 23 flow down along the inclination of the roof portion 23 and are guided below the protector body 19 without contacting the electrical connection portion of the joint connector portion 50. Thereby, water is not applied to the electrical connection portion of the joint connector portion 50, and the electrical connection portion at the connection portion between the joint bus bar and the female terminal and the connection portion between the female terminal and the branch line 47 is hardly corroded. In particular, when the aluminum electric wire 29 is used like the wire harness 45 of the present embodiment, for example, corrosion caused by electrolytic corrosion with a female terminal made of copper alloy can be effectively suppressed.

  Further, in the multi-function protector 11 according to the present embodiment, the roof portion 23 can swing with respect to the lid body 21 via the thin hinge portion 25. Therefore, even after the lid 21 is attached to the protector main body 19, only the roof portion 23 is swung, and the connector 53 can be connected to the connector housing 51 of the joint connector portion 50. That is, it is not necessary to remove the lid 21 from the protector body 19 every time the connector 53 is connected to the connector housing 51. Moreover, since the thin hinge part 25 can connect between the roof part 23 and the protector main body 19 continuously, the water droplet 43 infiltrates from between the protector main body 19 and the roof part 23, and the joint connector part 50 There is no contact with.

  Therefore, according to the multi-function protector 11 according to the present embodiment, the anticorrosion treatment of the electrical connection portion in the joint connector portion 50 protruding from the side wall outer surface 49 of the protector main body 19 is unnecessary, and the cost can be reduced.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the connector portion attached to the side wall outer surface 49 of the protector main body 19 is the joint connector portion 50 has been described. However, the multi-function protector 11 is also provided on the side wall outer surface 49 of the protector main body 19. An electric connection part for fusible links, an electric connection part for fuses and relays, or the like may be provided. Even in such a structure, similarly to the operation of the above-described embodiment, these electrical connection portions are covered by the roof portion 23, and the water droplets 43 can be prevented from coming into contact with the electrical connection portion.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, A deformation | transformation, improvement, etc. are possible suitably. In addition, the material, shape, dimensions, number, arrangement location, and the like of each component in the above-described embodiment are arbitrary and are not limited as long as the present invention can be achieved.

11 ... Multi-function protector (Protector)
19 ... Protector body 21 ... Lid 23 ... Roof 25 ... Thin hinge 29 ... Aluminum wire (electric wire)
33 ... Side wall 45 ... Wire harness 47 ... Branch line 49 ... Side wall outer surface 50 ... Joint connector part (connector part)
51 ... Connector housing 53 ... Connector (mating connector)
55 ... side edge

Claims (1)

A protector main body and a lid that are combined with each other to form a long cylindrical body that can accommodate an electric wire;
Both side walls of the protector body facing and sandwiching the electric wire;
A connector part projecting from at least one side wall of the both side walls;
A roof portion extending on a side edge of the lid so as to cover an upper portion of the electrical connection portion in the connector portion;
Equipped with a,
The lid is attached to the protector body with a predetermined inclination angle so that one side of the direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the protector body is lowered,
The roof portion is integrally formed with the side edge of the one side of the lid through a thin hinge portion, and is swingable with respect to the lid.
On the rocking end side of the roof portion, a locking mechanism is provided that includes a locking claw protruding from the roof portion, and a locking portion formed on the connector portion or the protector body,
The said roof part is comprised by the said lock mechanism structure so that it could fix to the said protector main body side so that it might extend in the direction in alignment with the said inclination angle of the said cover body .

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