JP7246616B2 - Connector and electrical connection structure using the same - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector used for electrically connecting members, parts, etc., and a connection structure thereof.

2. Description of the Related Art Connectors are widely used for electrical connection between electrical and electronic equipment or power sources.
This type of connector is mated with a plug connector butting a socket connector.
However, direct electrical connection between large panel-shaped members and box-shaped members with low dimensional accuracy causes a large relative positional deviation, and conventionally, after connecting members and parts, cables and relay connectors are used to connect the electrical connections afterward. was connected.
In this case, there is a problem that not only does the assembly work on site take a lot of man-hours, but also a separate work such as housing the relay connector in a member or the like is required.

Patent Document 1 discloses an electrical connector in which a contact member is supported by a spring member.
However, the electrical connector disclosed in the publication has a receptacle connector with a complicated structure, and although it is suitable for electrically connecting small items such as electronic parts, it does not solve the above problems. .

JP 2006-19296 A

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a connector and its electrical connection structure that have a simple structure and enable electrical connection between members and parts while relieving stress due to mutual positional displacement.

A connector according to the present invention comprises a plug connector having a plug contact and a socket connector having a socket contact, the plug contact having a sliding contact portion, and the socket contact sliding from a direction orthogonal to a butting direction. It is characterized by having a groove portion into which a plug contact is inserted and slidably abutted.
The sliding direction is defined as a vertical or horizontal direction that is approximately perpendicular to the direction in which the plug connector and the socket connector meet.

In the present invention, the groove may have a wide contact portion that is in line contact with the slide contact portion of the plug contact, and the wide contact portion may be elastically supported by an elastic support portion. The portion may be plate-shaped.

In this way, deviation in the butting direction is absorbed by the contact between the wide contact portion and the plate-shaped slide contact portion, and deviation in the sliding direction is absorbed by the plate-shaped slide contact portion.
In addition, the elastic support portion absorbs deviation in the pitch direction which is substantially orthogonal to both the sliding direction and the fitting direction.

An electrical connection structure according to the present invention is an electrical connection structure between a first member and a second member using the connector described above , wherein one of the first member and the second member has the plug connector. , the socket connector is provided on the other side, and after the first member and the second member are butted against each other at a predetermined position, the one member is slid in a direction orthogonal to the butting direction, thereby obtaining the plug connector. and a socket connector.

In the present invention, the first member and the second member have an opening in one of the surfaces facing each other, one of the plug connector and the socket connector is fixed inside the opening, and the other is fixed inside the opening. It may be slidably connected after being inserted into the opening.
Thus, electrical connection can be made by temporarily connecting (temporarily positioning) the other plug connector or socket connector by inserting it into one of the openings, and then sliding the connector.

In the present invention, the plug connector or socket connector to be inserted into the opening has an outer shell for protecting the outside, and the outer shell has a guide piece for guiding insertion into the opening. may
Since the guide piece provided on the outer shell guides the insertion into the opening, it becomes easier to insert the plug connector or socket connector inside the opening.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the plug connector and the socket connector or the first member and the second member are provided with retaining means for preventing separation from each other.
By doing so, it is possible to prevent the electrically connected members and parts from coming off while absorbing the mutual deviation.

In the connector according to the present invention, the plug contacts of the plug connector are inserted into the grooves formed in the socket contacts of the socket connector from the sliding direction and slidably abutted.
This facilitates absorption of misalignment in the mating direction compared to conventional butt connectors.
Further, by forming the plug contact into a plate shape and elastically supporting the wide contact portion of the groove by the elastic supporting portion, it is possible to largely absorb deviations in the sliding direction and the pitch direction.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The connector according to the present invention has a simple structure, and is excellent in on-site workability for connection and electrical connection between members and parts fixing a plug connector and a socket connector.

1A and 1B are external views of a connector according to the present invention, in which (a) and (b) show a state before a plug connector and a socket connector are fitted, and (c) shows a fitted state. An example of the structure of a socket connector is shown, (a) is a perspective view, and (b) is a bottom view. 1 shows an exploded view of a socket connector; FIG. (a) shows a structural example of a socket portion and a plug connector, and (b) shows a sectional view of a socket contact. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing that the plug contact slides into contact with the groove of the socket contact; An embodiment in which a connector is fixed to a member is shown. (a) to (c) show examples of coupling and electrical connection methods between members. (a) and (b) are top plan views for explaining the fitted state of the plug connector and the socket connector.

A structural example of a connector according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The connector consists of a plug connector 10 and a socket connector 20, as shown in FIG.
In general, a pair of connectors is used to connect an electric/electronic device to be electrically connected to another power source, or to connect electric/electronic devices.
In this case, for example, referring to FIG. 1(c), the plug connector provided on one side is inserted into the socket connector provided on the other side in the butting direction .
In contrast, the present invention is characterized in that the socket connector 20 and the plug connector 10 are vertically slidably brought into contact with each other, as shown in FIGS.

The plug connector 10 has a plug housing 12 made of resin and a plug contact 11 made of a plated copper alloy.
Here, the plug contact 11 has a plate shape.
The shape of the plug housing 12 is not particularly limited as long as the plug connector 11 is plate-shaped, and the plug connector 10 may be a straight type plug as shown in FIG. 1 or a perpendicularly bent plug as shown in FIG.

A structural example of the socket connector 20 is shown in FIG. 2, and its exploded view is shown in FIG.
The socket connector 20 is formed by covering the socket contacts 21 on the tip side of the socket portion 24 with a socket housing 25 made of resin and an outer shell 26 made of metal.
The socket portion 24 has a connection terminal 21g on the rear end side of the socket contact 21, to which the core wire 22a of the cable 22 is connected.
The cable 22 may be covered with a protective member 23 that protects the cable 22 .
The socket contact 21 is made of, for example, tin-plated copper alloy, and a cross-sectional view of the socket contact 21 is shown in FIG. 4(b).
The socket contact 21 forms a groove 21a into which the plug contact 11 is inserted by the upper wall 21d and side walls 21e, 21e bent from both sides thereof.
The groove portion 21a has an elastic support portion 21b that is folded back toward the inside of the groove portion 21a from below the side wall 21e, and the elastic support portion 21b made of a spring or the like is provided integrally with the side wall 21e.
As shown in FIG. 5, the plug contact 11 is inserted into the groove 21a from the sliding direction. there is
Here, the peak of the mountain shape of the elastic support portion 21b forms a wide contact portion 21c that makes line contact in the butting direction , and this wide contact portion 21c is elastically supported by the elastic support portion 21b.
The elastic supporting portions 21b, 21b provided on the side walls 21e, 21e on both sides elastically press the plug contact 11 toward each other, thereby holding the plug contact 11 therebetween.
The deflection of the elastic contact portion 21b facilitates absorption of the deviation of the plug contacts 11 in the pitch direction.
Assuming that the surface of the plug contact 11 that slides against the elastic support portion 21b is the slide contact portion 11a, the slide contact portion 11a is shaped like a plate and absorbs deviations in the sliding direction and the butting direction .
Although the upper wall 21 d of the socket contact 21 is provided with the lance 21 f that engages with the socket housing 25 , the position of the lance is not limited as long as the socket contact 21 can be engaged with the socket housing 25 .

In the connector according to the present invention, after moving the socket connector 20 and/or the plug connector 10 in the butting direction as shown in FIG. are inserted and brought into sliding contact with each other, the plug connector 10 and the socket connector 20 are fitted and connected as shown in (c).
FIG. 6 shows an embodiment in which the connector according to the present invention is fixed to the first member 1 and the second member 2. As shown in FIG.
The surfaces on which the first member 1 and the second member 2 face each other are defined as facing surfaces 1a and 2a, respectively. A plug connector 10 was fixed inside the facing surface 1a.
Alternatively, the socket connector 20 may be fixed inside the facing surface 2a, and the plug connector 10 may be fixed outside the facing surface 1a.
The plug connector 10 in this embodiment has a plug fixing hole 12a for fixing to the facing surface 1a in the plug housing 12, and the socket connector 20 has a socket fixing hole 26a for fixing to the facing surface 2a.
In this embodiment, the projecting portion 26b of the outer shell 26 is provided with the fixing hole 26a.
The plug connector 10 and the socket connector 20 are fixed to the mounting hole 101 of the first member 1 and the mounting hole 201 of the second member 2 through the fixing holes 12a and 26a, respectively.
The first member 1 has a plug connector 10 fixed inside the facing surface 1a and has an opening 100 formed by cutting out a part of the facing surface 1a.
The opening 100 has a width that allows the outer shell 26 of the socket connector 20 to be inserted above the plug contact 11, so that the plug contact 11 and the socket contact 21 are fitted inside the facing surface 1a, thereby allowing the second The first member 1 and the second member 2 are electrically connected.
The outer shell 26 has a guide piece 26 c projecting in the butting direction and inclined toward the inside of the outer shell 26 , so that the guide piece 26 c guides the insertion of the outer shell 26 inside the opening 100 .
As a result, even when the opening 100 and the outer shell 26 have similar widths in the pitch direction as shown in FIG. The plug contact 11 in the sliding direction can be inserted into the groove 21a of the socket contact 21 held by 26 and slidably abutted.

In order to prevent the plug contacts 11 fitted in the grooves 21a of the socket contacts 21 from being separated from each other, it is preferable to have retaining means.
In this embodiment, the retaining portion 200 such as a hook provided in the second member 2 is engaged with the retaining hole portion 102 provided in the first member 1. may have
For example, the plug housing 12 of the plug connector 10 may be provided with a retaining hole portion, and the outer shell 26 of the socket connector 20 may be provided with a retaining portion.
As shown in FIG. 7A, provisional alignment is performed so that the socket connector 20 provided on the second member 2 is inserted into the upper space of the opening 100 provided on the facing surface 1a of the first member 1. Next, as shown in (b), by inserting the socket connector 20 into the opening 100, the retaining portion 200 is inserted into the retaining hole portion 102, and the plug contact 11 is inserted into the groove portion 21a from the sliding direction. By contacting, as shown in (c), the retaining portion 200 is locked in the retaining hole portion 102 and the plug connector 10 and the socket connector 20 are electrically connected.

In this embodiment, an example in which the first member and the second member are electrically connected while being connected is shown. It can be applied to the connection between parts.

1 first member 2 second member 10 plug connector 11 plug contact 11a slide contact portion 12 plug housing 20 socket connector 21 socket contact 21a groove portion 21b elastic support portion 21c wide contact portion 24 socket portion 25 socket housing 26 outer shell 26c guide piece 100 Opening 102 Retaining hole 200 Retaining part

Claims (4)

A plug connector having plug contacts and a socket connector having socket contacts,
the plug contact has a sliding contact portion,
The socket contact has a groove into which the plug contact is inserted in a direction orthogonal to the butting direction and slides into contact therewith ,
An electrical connection structure between a first member and a second member using the plug connector and the socket connector,
one of the first member and the second member has the plug connector and the other has the socket connector;
After the first member and the second member are butted against each other at a predetermined position, one of the members is slid in a direction orthogonal to the butting direction, thereby electrically connecting the plug connector and the socket connector. can be,
The first member and the second member have an opening on one of the surfaces facing each other,
One of the plug connector and the socket connector is fixed inside the opening, and the other is inserted into the opening and then slidably connected,
the plug connector or socket connector inserted into the opening has an outer shell for protecting the outside;
The electrical connection structure , wherein the outer shell has a guide piece for guiding insertion into the opening . the groove portion has a wide contact portion that makes line contact with the slide contact portion of the plug contact;
2. The electrical connection structure according to claim 1, wherein said wide contact portion is elastically supported by an elastic support portion. 2. The electrical connection structure according to claim 1 , wherein the slide contact portion of said plug contact is plate-shaped. 2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising retaining means for preventing separation between the plug connector and the socket connector or between the first member and the second member. electrical connection structure.

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