JP7488129B2 - rubber seal - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an annular gasket that is sandwiched between an outer peripheral member and an inner peripheral member that are to be fitted together and that comes into contact with both the inner peripheral surface of the outer peripheral member and the outer peripheral surface of the inner peripheral member.

Conventionally, annular packings have been proposed that are used to be sandwiched between an outer peripheral member and an inner peripheral member that are fitted together to provide a watertight seal between the two (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 6). For example, this type of packing has a seal portion that abuts against both the inner peripheral surface of the outer peripheral member and the outer peripheral surface of the inner peripheral member, and by abutting the seal portion against both the inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface, the gap between the inner peripheral surface of the outer peripheral member and the outer peripheral surface of the inner peripheral member is sealed.

JP 2010-251193 A JP 2013-8598 A JP 2014-139890 A JP 2016-212969 A International Publication No. 2014/104122 Patent No. 5417800

When the above-mentioned annular packing is actually used, the seal portion of the packing is usually subjected to an external force in the direction in which it is crushed between the outer peripheral member and the inner peripheral member (i.e., in the radial direction) in order to exert its inherent sealing properties, as well as an external force in the fitting direction associated with the fitting of the outer peripheral member and the inner peripheral member. In particular, when the thickness of the seal portion is increased in order to enhance sealing properties, the latter external force (i.e., the external force in the fitting direction) tends to be large. If the latter external force becomes excessively large, the packing may become pinched due to curling up, or the packing itself may buckle. Such abnormal deformation of the packing may be an obstacle to the packing exerting the designed sealing properties, so it is desirable to suppress it as much as possible.

The present invention was made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a packing that has excellent sealing properties by suppressing abnormal deformation during use.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the packing according to the present invention is characterized by the following [1] to [ 2 ].
[1]
An annular packing is sandwiched between an outer peripheral side member and an inner peripheral side member that are to be fitted together, and is to come into contact with both an inner peripheral surface of the outer peripheral side member and an outer peripheral surface of the inner peripheral side member,
a first annular seal portion located on one side in a fitting direction between the outer circumferential member and the inner circumferential member;
a second seal portion having an annular shape and located on the other side of the first seal portion in the fitting direction;
an annular inclined portion located on the one side of the first seal portion, the annular inclined portion having an inclined surface that is continuous with a radially outer surface of the first seal portion and inclined radially inward as it moves away from the first seal portion toward the one side;
a first recessed portion provided on a radially inner surface of the inclined portion and recessed radially outward ;
an annular terminal portion located on the other side of the second seal portion;
A second recessed portion is provided on a radially inner surface of the terminal portion and recessed radially outward,
in a state where the flange is not elastically deformed, the flange has a standard cylindrical shape that is defined by an annular reference outer peripheral surface extending in the fitting direction and an annular reference inner peripheral surface extending in the fitting direction and has a constant wall thickness over the entire area, and the flange has an annular first protrusion that protrudes radially outward and a portion corresponding to an apex of the protrusion that constitutes the first seal portion, and an annular second protrusion that protrudes radially outward and a portion corresponding to an apex of the protrusion that constitutes the second seal portion, and the flange has an annular first recessed portion and annular second recessed portion that are recessed radially outward,
an entire area of a portion located on the other side of the second protrusion in the fitting direction constitutes the terminal portion, and an entire area of an outer circumferential surface of the terminal portion is included in the reference outer circumferential surface,
The second recessed portion is provided on a radially inner surface of a boundary portion between the terminal portion and the second protrusion portion.
It is a packing.
［ 2 ］
In the packing according to the above [ 1 ],
A recess dimension of the second recess portion is smaller than a recess dimension of the first recess portion.
It is a packing.

According to the packing of the configuration of [1] above, the first seal portion and the second seal portion arranged in the fitting direction can double seal the gap between the inner peripheral surface of the outer peripheral member and the outer peripheral surface of the inner peripheral member. Furthermore, for example, when attaching the packing to the inner peripheral member, if the packing is installed so that the inclined portion of the packing faces the outer peripheral member, even if a large external force is applied from the outer peripheral member to the inclined portion (particularly the inclined surface of the inclined portion) when the outer peripheral member and the inner peripheral member are fitted together, the inclined portion itself deforms to reduce the indentation of the first recessed portion, thereby making it possible to respond to such an external force. That is, the function of the first recessed portion can absorb the external force applied to the packing during fitting. As a result, even if the thickness of the seal portion is increased in order to improve the sealing performance, for example, abnormal deformation of the packing during fitting (i.e., biting, buckling, etc.) is suppressed. Therefore, the packing of this configuration is more suppressed in abnormal deformation during use and has excellent sealing performance than the conventional packing described above.

Furthermore, according to the packing of the configuration of [ 1 ] above, the second recess is provided in the terminal portion on the other side of the fitting direction of the second seal portion, so that when the terminal portion of the packing is pushed into the corner of the gap described above by the external force in the fitting direction applied to the packing during fitting, the terminal portion can be deformed so as to bend with the second recess as a base point. According to experiments and studies by the inventors, it has become clear that the terminal portion of the packing bends as described above, and the terminal portion exerts an appropriate reaction force against the external force described above on the second seal portion, etc., thereby stabilizing the attitude and position of the packing. Therefore, the packing of this configuration has even better sealing properties than conventional packings.

According to the packing of the configuration of [ 2 ] above, the recess dimension of the second recess is smaller than the recess dimension of the first recess. The second recess only needs to be the starting point of the above-mentioned bending, and does not need to absorb external forces like the first recess. By designing the second recess smaller than the first recess, the shape of the packing can be optimized for the required function. Note that the "recess dimension" can be defined as, for example, the depth of the recess, the opening area of the recess, and the volume of the hollow portion defined by the recess.

In this way, the present invention can provide a packing with excellent sealing properties by suppressing abnormal deformation during use.

The present invention has been briefly described above. The details of the present invention will be further clarified by reading the following detailed description of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a main cross-sectional view showing a state in which a female housing to which a packing according to an embodiment of the present invention is attached is completely fitted to a male housing and the packing exerts its sealing function. 2A and 2B show the packing shown in FIG. 1, with FIG. 2A being a perspective view and FIG. 2B being a side view. 3(a) is a view corresponding to an enlarged view of part A in FIG. 1 in a state where the female housing and the male housing are in the middle of being mated (where the gasket is not performing its sealing function), and FIG. 3(b) is an enlarged view of part A in FIG. 1 (where the gasket is performing its sealing function).

<Embodiment>
Hereinafter, a packing 30 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the example shown in Fig. 1, the female housing 10 to which the packing 30 is attached is fitted with the male housing 20, so that the packing 30 exerts a sealing function.

For the sake of convenience, the following definitions are used for the "front-rear direction," "up-down direction," "upper" and "lower" as shown in FIG. 1, and the depth direction of the paper in FIG. 1 is defined as the "width direction." The "front-rear direction," "width direction," and "up-down direction" are mutually perpendicular. The front-rear direction coincides with the mating direction of the female housing 10 and the male housing 20. For each of the female housing 10 and the male housing 20, the front side in the mating direction (the side approaching the mating housing) is called the "front side," and the release side in the mating direction (the side moving away from the mating housing) is called the "rear side." Specifically, in FIG. 1, the left and right directions are the front and rear sides, respectively, for the female housing 10, and the right and left directions are the front and rear sides, respectively, for the male housing 20.

First, the female housing 10 will be described. The female housing 10 is a resin molded body, and as shown in FIG. 1, has a mating recess 11 that opens forward and is recessed backward. A hood portion 21 (described later) of the male housing 20 is inserted into the mating recess 11. Inside the mating recess 11, a terminal accommodating portion 13 is provided that protrudes forward from a bottom wall 12 that defines the bottom surface (rear end surface) of the mating recess 11 and extends in the front-to-rear direction. The outer periphery of the terminal accommodating portion 13 has an elongated hole shape that is long in the width direction when viewed from the front-to-rear direction.

Inside the terminal accommodating section 13, multiple terminal accommodating holes (not shown) extending in the front-rear direction are formed and aligned in the width direction. A female terminal (not shown) is inserted into each terminal accommodating chamber from the rear side and accommodated therein.

A cantilever-shaped lock arm 14 is formed on the top of the female housing 10, extending forward from the bottom wall 12 so as to face the mating recess 11. The lock arm 14 is elastically deformable in the vertical direction. A lock hole 15 is formed at the tip (front end) of the lock arm 14, penetrating in the vertical direction. When the female housing 10 and the male housing 20 are mated, a lock protrusion 24 of the male housing 20, described later, is engaged in the lock hole 15.

Next, the male housing 20 will be described. The male housing 20 is a resin molded body, and as shown in FIG. 1, has a cylindrical hood portion 21 that opens forward and extends in the front-to-rear direction. Inside the hood portion 21, a mating recess 22 that opens forward and is recessed backward is formed. The terminal accommodating portion 13 of the female housing 10 is inserted into the mating recess 22. The annular front end surface 21a of the hood portion 21 is inclined toward the rear as it moves radially inward around the entire circumference.

Inside the mating recess 22, multiple male terminals (not shown) are accommodated in the male housing 20 in a line in the width direction corresponding to the multiple female terminals, protruding forward from a bottom wall 23 that defines the bottom surface (rear end surface) of the multiple mating recesses 22 and extending in the front-rear direction. A locking protrusion 24 that protrudes upward is formed on the upper part of the hood portion 21 in correspondence with the locking arm 14.

Next, the packing 30 will be described. The packing 30 is a molded body of resin (rubber), and as shown in FIG. 2 (see FIG. 2(a) in particular), has an elongated annular shape that corresponds to the outer peripheral shape of the terminal accommodating portion 13 of the female housing 10. As shown in FIG. 1, the packing 30 is inserted into the outer periphery of the terminal accommodating portion 13 from the front side of the female housing 10, and is engaged with the corner where the outer peripheral surface of the terminal accommodating portion 13 intersects with the front end surface of the bottom wall 12. The detailed shape of the packing 30 will be described later.

The male housing 20 is fitted into the female housing 10 with the gasket 30 attached. To fit the female housing 10 and the male housing 20 together, first, the two housings 10, 20 are arranged so that their front ends face each other in the front-rear direction. Next, the terminal accommodating portion 13 is inserted into the mating recess 22, the hood portion 21 is inserted into the mating recess 11, and the two housings 10, 20 are brought closer to each other in the front-rear direction until the locking protrusion 24 is engaged with the locking hole 15 of the locking arm 14 so that the gasket 30 is sandwiched in the annular gap between the hood portion 21 and the terminal accommodating portion 13.

When the locking projection 24 is engaged with the locking hole 15 of the locking arm 14, the mating of the female housing 10 and the male housing 20 is completed (see FIG. 1). When mating is complete, the locking projection 24 is engaged with the locking hole 15, preventing the female housing 10 and the male housing 20 from being separated.

In the fully mated state, the first seal portion 33 and the second seal portion 34 of the packing 30, which will be described later, are crushed radially between the terminal accommodating portion 13 and the hood portion 21, and are in pressing contact with both the outer peripheral surface of the terminal accommodating portion 13 and the inner peripheral surface of the hood portion 21. As a result, the packing 30 liquid-tightly seals the annular gap between the outer peripheral surface of the terminal accommodating portion 13 and the inner peripheral surface of the hood portion 21.

Next, the detailed shape of the packing 30 will be described. As shown in Fig. 2(b) and Fig. 3(a), when not elastically deformed, the packing 30 has a cylindrical shape in which a reference cylindrical outer peripheral surface 30a extending in the front-rear direction and a reference annular inner peripheral surface 30b extending in the front-rear direction are defined as a reference cylindrical shape having a constant thickness over the entire area, and the outer peripheral surface is provided with a first annular protrusion 31 and a second annular protrusion 32 that protrude radially outward, and the inner peripheral surface is provided with a first annular recess 37, a third annular recess 38, and a second annular recess 41 that are recessed radially outward.

The first protrusion 31 is provided in the front region of the packing 30, and the second protrusion 32 is provided behind the first protrusion 31 so as to be aligned with the first protrusion 31 in the front-to-rear direction. The portion of the packing 30 corresponding to the top of the first protrusion 31 in the front-to-rear direction constitutes the first seal portion 33 of the present invention, and the portion of the packing 30 corresponding to the top of the second protrusion 32 in the front-to-rear direction constitutes the second seal portion 34 of the present invention. The thicknesses (radial lengths) of the first seal portion 33 and the second seal portion 34 are equal and are greater than the thicknesses of other portions of the packing 30 in the front-to-rear direction.

The portion of the outer peripheral surface of the first protrusion 31 forward of the first seal portion 33 constitutes the inclined surface 35 of the present invention. The inclined surface 35 is continuous with the outer peripheral surface of the first seal portion 33 and inclines radially inward as it moves away from the first seal portion 33 toward the front. The portion of the packing 30 that corresponds to the inclined surface 35 in the front-to-rear direction constitutes the annular inclined portion 36 of the present invention.

The first recessed portion 37 is provided on the inner circumferential surface of the inclined portion 36. That is, the first recessed portion 37 is located forward of the first seal portion 33. The third recessed portion 38 is provided on the inner circumferential surface of the packing 30 in the front-rear direction, in a portion between the first seal portion 33 and the second seal portion 34. Therefore, the third recessed portion 38 is located rearward of the first seal portion 33 and forward of the second seal portion 34.

The rear end of the packing 30 behind the second protrusion 32 in the front-rear direction constitutes the terminal portion 39 of the present invention. The entire outer peripheral surface of the terminal portion 39 is the reference outer peripheral surface 30a. The second recessed portion 41 is provided on the inner peripheral surface near the boundary with the second protrusion 32 in the terminal portion 39. The recess dimension of the second recessed portion 41 is smaller than the recess dimension of the first recessed portion 37. The "recess dimension" is defined as, for example, any one of the depth of the recess, the opening area of the recess, and the volume of the hollow portion defined by the recess.

In this example, the packing 30 having the shape described above is attached to the outer periphery of the terminal accommodating portion 13 of the female housing 10 so that the rear end face of the packing 30 (i.e., the rear end face of the terminal portion 39) is engaged with the corner where the outer periphery of the terminal accommodating portion 13 intersects with the front end face of the bottom wall 12, as shown in Figure 3(a).

As the male housing 20 is fitted to the female housing 10, the annular front end surface 21a of the hood portion 21 of the male housing 20 first comes into contact with the inclined surface 35 of the packing 30. The front end surface 21a then presses the inclined surface 35, causing a large external force to be applied from the front end surface 21a to the inclined portion 36. At this time, the inclined portion 36 itself is deformed so as to be crushed radially inward to reduce the depression of the first recessed portion 37, and the first seal portion 33 is also deformed so as to be crushed radially inward (see FIG. 3(b)). Due to the action of the first recessed portion 37, the large external force that the inclined portion 36 receives from the front end surface 21a is effectively absorbed, and the front end of the hood portion 21 can smoothly overcome the first seal portion 33. As a result, abnormal deformation of the packing 30 (i.e., pinching, buckling, etc.) is suppressed when the front end of the hood portion 21 passes over the first seal portion 33.

After the front end of the hood portion 21 passes over the first seal portion 33, the front end surface 21a of the hood portion 21 abuts against a portion of the outer circumferential surface of the second protrusion portion 32 that is forward of the second seal portion 34. The front end surface 21a presses this portion, and a large external force is applied from the front end surface 21a to the second protrusion portion 32. At this time, the second protrusion portion 32 itself is deformed so as to be crushed radially inward so as to reduce the depression of the third recess portion 38, and accordingly, the second seal portion 34 is also deformed so as to be crushed radially inward (see FIG. 3(b)). Due to the action of the third recess portion 38 in this way, the front end of the hood portion 21 can also smoothly pass over the second seal portion 34. As a result, even when the front end of the hood portion 21 passes over the second seal portion 34, abnormal deformation of the packing 30 (i.e., biting, buckling, etc.) is suppressed.

As described above, at the stage where the front end of the hood portion 21 has climbed over the first seal portion 33 and the second seal portion 34, as shown in FIG. 3(b), the frictional frictional force between the inner peripheral surface of the hood portion 21 and the outer peripheral surface of the packing 30 is large due to the large area of the pressing contact region between the inner peripheral surface of the hood portion 21 and the outer peripheral surface of the packing 30. Therefore, the terminal portion 39 of the packing 30 is subjected to a large rearward external force caused by this frictional frictional force and is pressed against the front end surface of the bottom wall 12.

The terminal portion 39 pressed against the bottom wall 12 in this way is deformed so as to bend radially inward from the second recessed portion 41 as a base point (see FIG. 3(b)). According to experiments and studies by the inventors, it has become clear that bending the terminal portion 39 of the packing 30 in this way causes the terminal portion 39 to exert an appropriate forward reaction force on the second seal portion 34 and the like in response to the above-mentioned rearward external force, thereby stabilizing the attitude and position of the packing 30.

At this stage when the terminal portion 39 is bent, the locking projection 24 is engaged with the locking hole 15 of the locking arm 14, completing the mating of the female housing 10 and the male housing 20. In the mating completed state, as shown in FIG. 3(b), the first seal portion 33 and the second seal portion 34 of the packing 30 are crushed radially between the terminal accommodating portion 13 and the hood portion 21 without abnormal deformation of the packing 30 (i.e., biting or buckling) and are in pressing contact with both the outer peripheral surface of the terminal accommodating portion 13 and the inner peripheral surface of the hood portion 21. As a result, the packing 30 reliably seals the annular gap between the outer peripheral surface of the terminal accommodating portion 13 and the inner peripheral surface of the hood portion 21 in a liquid-tight manner.

<Action and Effects>
As described above, according to the packing 30 of this embodiment, the first seal portion 33 and the second seal portion 34 arranged in the fitting direction (front-rear direction) can double seal the gap between the inner peripheral surface of the hood portion 21 and the outer peripheral surface of the terminal accommodating portion 13. Furthermore, even if a large external force is applied from the hood portion 21 to the inclined portion 36 (particularly the inclined surface 35 of the inclined portion 36) when the female housing 10 and the male housing 20 are fitted together, the inclined portion 36 itself deforms to reduce the recess of the first recessed portion 37, thereby making it possible to respond to such an external force. That is, the action of the first recessed portion 37 can absorb the external force applied to the packing 30 when fitted together. As a result, even if the thicknesses of the first and second seal portions 33 and 34 are increased in order to improve the sealing property, for example, the occurrence of abnormal deformation (i.e., biting, buckling, etc.) of the packing 30 when fitted together is suppressed. Therefore, the packing 30 of this embodiment is more suppressed from abnormal deformation during use and has excellent sealing properties than the conventional packing described above.

Furthermore, according to the packing 30 of this embodiment, the second recessed portion 41 is provided in the terminal portion 39 on the rear side of the second seal portion 34, so that when the terminal portion 39 of the packing 30 is pushed into the corner of the above-mentioned gap (the front end surface of the bottom wall 12) by the external force in the mating direction (rearward) applied to the packing 30 during mating, the terminal portion 39 can be deformed so as to bend with the second recessed portion 41 as a base point. According to experiments and studies by the inventors, it has been revealed that the terminal portion 39 of the packing 30 bends as described above, and the terminal portion 39 exerts an appropriate reaction force against the above-mentioned external force on the second seal portion 34, etc., thereby stabilizing the attitude and position of the packing 30. Therefore, the packing 30 of this embodiment has even better sealing properties than conventional packings.

Furthermore, in the packing 30 according to this embodiment, the recess dimension of the second recess portion 41 is smaller than the recess dimension of the first recess portion 37. The second recess portion 41 only needs to be the starting point of the bending described above, and does not need to absorb external forces like the first recess portion 37. By designing the second recess portion 41 to be smaller than the first recess portion 37, the shape of the packing 30 can be optimized for the required function.

<Other Aspects>
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be adopted within the scope of the present invention. For example, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and appropriate modifications, improvements, etc. are possible. In addition, the material, shape, size, number, arrangement location, etc. of each component in the above-described embodiments are arbitrary as long as the present invention can be achieved, and are not limited.

For example, in the above embodiment, the second recessed portion 41 is provided on the inner peripheral surface of the terminal portion 39 of the packing 30. However, such a second recessed portion 41 does not have to be provided. Also, in the above embodiment, the recess dimension of the second recessed portion 41 is smaller than the recess dimension of the first recessed portion 37. However, the recess dimension of the second recessed portion 41 may be larger than the recess dimension of the first recessed portion 37.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, a third recessed portion 38 is provided on the inner circumferential surface of the packing 30 in the front-rear direction between the first seal portion 33 and the second seal portion 34. However, such a third recessed portion 38 does not necessarily have to be provided.

Here, the features of the embodiment of the packing 30 according to the present invention described above will be briefly summarized and listed in the following [1] to [3].
[1]
An annular packing (30) is sandwiched between an outer peripheral side member (21) and an inner peripheral side member (13) that are to be fitted together, and is to abut against both an inner peripheral surface of the outer peripheral side member (21) and an outer peripheral surface of the inner peripheral side member (13),
a first annular seal portion (33) located on one side in a fitting direction between the outer circumferential side member (21) and the inner circumferential side member (13);
a second annular seal portion (34) located on the other side of the first seal portion (33) in the fitting direction;
an annular inclined portion (36) having an inclined surface (35) that is continuous with a radially outer surface of the first seal portion (33) and inclined radially inward as it moves away from the first seal portion (33) toward the one side, and is located on the one side of the first seal portion (33);
A first recessed portion (37) recessed radially outwardly and provided on a radially inner surface of the inclined portion (36).
Gasket (30).
[2]
The packing (30) according to the above [1],
an annular terminal portion (39) located on the other side of the second seal portion (34);
A second recessed portion (41) recessed radially outwardly and provided on a radially inner surface of the terminal portion (39),
Gasket (30).
[3]
In the packing (30) described in the above [2],
The recess dimension of the second recess portion (41) is smaller than the recess dimension of the first recess portion (37).
Gasket (30).

13 Terminal accommodating portion (inner peripheral member)
21 Hood portion (outer peripheral member)
30 Gasket 33 First seal portion 34 Second seal portion 35 Inclined surface 36 Inclined portion 37 First recessed portion 39 Terminal portion 41 Second recessed portion

Claims (2)

An annular packing is sandwiched between an outer peripheral side member and an inner peripheral side member that are to be fitted together, and is to come into contact with both an inner peripheral surface of the outer peripheral side member and an outer peripheral surface of the inner peripheral side member,
a first annular seal portion located on one side in a fitting direction between the outer circumferential member and the inner circumferential member;
a second seal portion having an annular shape and located on the other side of the first seal portion in the fitting direction;
an annular inclined portion located on the one side of the first seal portion, the annular inclined portion having an inclined surface that is continuous with a radially outer surface of the first seal portion and inclined radially inward as it moves away from the first seal portion toward the one side;
a first recessed portion provided on a radially inner surface of the inclined portion and recessed radially outward ;
an annular terminal portion located on the other side of the second seal portion;
A second recessed portion is provided on a radially inner surface of the terminal portion and recessed radially outward,
in a state where the flange is not elastically deformed, the flange has a standard cylindrical shape that is defined by an annular reference outer peripheral surface extending in the fitting direction and an annular reference inner peripheral surface extending in the fitting direction and has a constant wall thickness over the entire area, and the flange has an annular first protrusion that protrudes radially outward and a portion corresponding to an apex of the protrusion that constitutes the first seal portion, and an annular second protrusion that protrudes radially outward and a portion corresponding to an apex of the protrusion that constitutes the second seal portion, and the flange has an annular first recessed portion and annular second recessed portion that are recessed radially outward,
an entire area of a portion located on the other side of the second protrusion in the fitting direction constitutes the terminal portion, and an entire area of an outer circumferential surface of the terminal portion is included in the reference outer circumferential surface,
The second recessed portion is provided on a radially inner surface of a boundary portion between the terminal portion and the second protrusion portion.
rubber seal. The packing according to claim 1 ,
A recess dimension of the second recess portion is smaller than a recess dimension of the first recess portion.
rubber seal.

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