JPH01502859A - pin and socket fiber optic connector - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Pin and Socket Fiber Optic Connector The present invention provides a pin and socket fiber optic connector. fiber optic connectors with pin and socket contacts Regarding the field.

Standard electrical connector housings when converting from copper to fiber optics It is desirable to terminate the optical fiber within the

U.S. Pat. No. 4,178.068 to Hoover, Fiber optic cable termination methods are listed and are compatible with standard oven entry electrical connectors. Nectar housing allows this method to be used. However, the tool The problem with using connectors is that socket contacts are It protrudes beyond the cavity, thereby exposing the socket contact and allowing it to be used with tools. Damage can occur due to accidental contact or mismatched connectors.

Two-bar termination means are for use with connectors with closed entry. Undesirable.

U.S. Patent No. 4.205.898 to Matthew et al. and British Patent No. 2,136,595B for aligning fiber optic cables. Other means for doing so are described.

Fiber optic connector requirements to clean the fiber optic end after removal This is desirable. Closed Entry Fiber Optic Connector When using the majority of contacts currently used in When you remove the socket contact from the socket cavity and disassemble the entire socket, It is impossible to clean it without using very tedious methods. this question The problem is that open entry socket contacts like two-bar connectors It is natural that this can be avoided to some extent by the cavity structure, but the socket contact There is another problem of damaging the parts.

Therefore, there is no need to disassemble the connector when cleaning the end of the Hikari 7 Eyeper. It is an object of the present invention to provide a fiber connector.

Also, if the connector is disconnected or not in use, the socket It is another object of the present invention to provide a fiber optic connector that avoids damage to contacts. That is one purpose.

Can be used with closed entry connector bodies and socket contact caps. The alignment three used in conjunction with Fiber optic socket connector that can be removed from the contact cavity along with the It is yet another object of the present invention to provide takt.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a standard electrical connection without modifying the contact cavity. The aim is to replace optical contacts with optical fiber contacts, and thereby Make these interchangeable.

For these and other objects of the invention, reference is made to the following description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. This will make it even clearer.

An object of the invention is to provide a connector body with at least one socket cavity. and a socket contact inserted into the socket contact cavity. This was achieved by providing a fiber optic connector consisting of: socket con Tact holds the retention area and cable termination area at one end and retracts the cable termination area at the other end. It has a double contact part. The connector has axial movement of the contact part. If the contact part is not retracted by limiting the A means of retracting the tab so that it is substantially flush with the face of the connector body. further comprising a contact portion on the contact portion.

The restriction means can be easily removed from the socket contact cavity along with the socket contact. can be removed.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the assembled connector of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows the socket contact glue shown in Figure 1 removed from the contact pin. FIG. 3 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of the tract pull contact portion.

Figures 3 and 4 show the diagrams in the disassembled and assembled states, respectively. 3 shows the retractable contact part and the restriction means;

5-8 depict another embodiment of the invention at various stages of assembly; FIG. shows yet another embodiment of the invention in a fully assembled state.

The invention provides a connector with at least one socket contact cavity. – Socket contact inserted into body and socket contact cavity Disclosed is an optical fiber connector comprising: Socket contacts, on the other hand a retention area and a cable termination area at one end, and a retractable connector at the other end. It has a contact part. The connector limits the axial movement of the contact portion. If the contact part is not retracted, the tip of the contact part is connected to the connector. - retractable contour means to be substantially flush with the surface of the body. The connector further includes a socket contact in the socket portion. so that the restricting means is retained on the contact part when removed from the tact cavity. It has a unique structure.

See drawings for details. Figure 1 shows the connection bin 12 and the assembled state. 1 shows an optical fiber connector IO which is a socket connector. Is pin 12 on the left side? and the pins enter the mating connector 10 with a contact body 9. - (not shown). connector lO and pin 12 and The mating connector is a mating pin and socket connector. form a vector.

For clarity, in the drawings relating to connector lO or mating connectors Terminated optical fibers and fiber optic cables are not shown but are ready for use. It will be understood that they exist. For example, retractable contacts the end of the first optical fiber and pin 12 with the end of the core centered at the end of the section 26; is the second optical fiber with the end of the core located in the center.

Connector 10 has at least one socket contact cavity 14 (sometimes referred to as a socket insert) Become. The invention is particularly suitable for closed entry socket contact cavities. That's true. The closed entry socket contact cavity 14 has a mating Aligning the pin contacts when a new electric bottle contact is placed in the cavity. It has a hollow shoulder portion 45. The shoulder portion 45 connects the pin 12 to the body. When inserting into socket contactor 11, roughly align pin 12 and socket contactor 16. and more precise alignment is achieved by other elements described in detail below. connection The vector body 11 is typically made from an insulating material.

The connector 1O has a socket in the opening defined by the shoulder portion 45. The socket contact 16 is inserted into the contact cavity 14. . The socket contact 16 has a retaining area 18 and a cable at one end 22 thereof. A terminal area 20 is provided.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the socket contacts shown are rear insertion contacts. be. After the contact 16 is inserted from the right side, it is held in place by the holding tine 24. is maintained. The socket contact is retractable at its opposite front end 28. It further includes a contact portion 26, a spring 40 and a barrel 38.

The connector restricts the movement of the retractable contact portion 26 in the axial forward direction. , if the contact part is not retracted, as shown in Figure 2, the contact part The tip 32 of the connector is substantially flush with the first surface 34 of the connector body 11. further comprising means 30 on the retractable contact portion 26 to Become. The means 30 also serve to axially align the vial 12 with the contact portion 26. is preferred. "Substantially coplanar" means that the front surface 34 and the front surface of the tip 32 are substantially coplanar. within two or three distances of each other, preferably within two lines of each other, and more Preferably, they are not aligned within lll1m of each other and are slightly recessed, so that they are not removed. The tip may be misaligned to avoid accidental damage if the tip is Most preferred.

As shown in FIG. 1, the connector body 11 further includes a chamber 36. Ru. Most preferably, the tip 32 of the contact portion 26 is located at the innermost portion of the chamber 36. There is no need to extend further inward than a minute.

This is preferred because the socket contact is inserted into the socket contact cavity. The purpose is to allow the end of the optical fiber to be cleaned without removing it from the cable. Furthermore, examples For example, in the Background of the Invention I; Optical fiber ends can be accessed without the contacts being susceptible to damage.

The restricting means 30 is connected to the retractable contact portion 26 and the mating contact. Most preferably, the bins 12 are aligned. Therefore, the limiting means 30, on the one hand, Place the optical fiber substantially flush with the face 34 of the connector body before making the optical connection. on the other hand, after the optical connection, the contact portion 26 and The mating contact bins 12 can be thought of as aligned.

In FIG. 2, the retractable contact portion 26 is shown on a greatly enlarged scale. Ritora The detachable contact portion 26 connects the socket contact barrel 38 and the socket. It can be seen that the contact springs 40 are cooperatively retractable. B If the contact 12 acts on the end 12 of the contact portion 26, the contact Portion 26 retracts within socket contact barrel 38. contact part 26 The inward movement of is caused by the force exerted by the socket contact spring 40. limited. When the pin contact is removed, the spring 40 becomes a retractable contact. The contact portion 26 is later pushed outward to engage the post 44 of the restriction means 30 and the contact body. The tip 32 of the contact portion 26 is engaged with the surface 51 of the connector body. It becomes the same plane as the surface 34 of the surface 11.

The restriction means 30 is a tube that fits tightly into the retractable contact portion 26. Preferably, it is a shaped sleeve 42. The restricting means 30 is located at the tip 3 of the contact portion. 2 has a post 44 around it in the vicinity and a post 46 around the opposite side, so that Thus, there are pors at both ends of the means 30. In use, the post 44 is connected to the connector - Contact portion due to engagement of shoulder portion 45 of body 11 with surface 51 26 to the left (outward).

Figures 3 and 4 show contact portion 26 and restriction means 30 in more detail. vinegar. The contact portion 26 has a post 52 along its middle circumferential portion. Preferably, as a result, the contact portions have adjacent first portions 53 and 53 of different diameters. and a second portion 54.

Furthermore, the limiting means 30 has another post 55 which can be secured to the post 52 of the contact part. do. In a preferred embodiment, the restriction means 30 is in the form of a tubular metal spring 42. It is constituted by The molded plastic casing 56 is attached to the post 44. 46.55 and is attached to the spring 42.

The restricting means 30 and the contact portion 26 are arranged as shown by arrow 57 in FIG. Assembled by sliding engagement. In this case, the pos 55 is a contact The larger portion 54 of the section is temporarily compressed and deformed, as shown in FIG. When it comes to the smaller part of the contact section, the post 55 has a substantially normal shape. expands to

Distance 58 between post 55 of casing 56 and post 52 of contact portion 26 (second (see figure) is sufficiently long when assembled so that the pin 16 is fully inserted as shown in Figure 1. When inserted into the socket contact cavity 14, contact occurs between them. It is designed so that it does not occur.

To remove the socket contact 16 from the connector body, use a hollow tool (not shown). ) into the rear end of the connector body (from the right side in Figure 1). The tool is Tine 2 4 outward to widen the holding area 18 and the tool compressively compresses the socket contact 16. and abut against the holding area 18. Therefore, remove the tool from the connector body. If so, the tool also removes the socket contact 16 from the body. Another important aspect of the present invention A key advantage is that retaining tines 24 can be removed using tools as described above (first Slide the contact 16 rearwardly relative to the cavity 14 (in the direction of arrow 60 in the figure). A socket contact having a barrel 38 and a spring 40 by 16 from the socket contact cavity 14, the limiting means 30 Rather than being held within the cavity 14 by force, the casing's post 55 and the Due to the engagement between the contact part and the post 52, it is always removed together with the contact 16. That's true. Therefore, restricting means with relatively small dimensions are suitable for easy reassembly. For this reason, it is held securely by the contact in a predetermined position at the contact portion.

To assemble the connector, assemble the socket as shown in Figures 3 and 4 for comparison. sliding the restricting means 30 over the contact portion 26 and then the tines 24 the socket contact 16 until it engages the socket retaining area 18. Insert into the rear part of the cavity 14. In this state, the retractable contact The tip 32 of the contact portion 26 is in contact with the surface 34 of the contact body 11 as shown in FIG. They are substantially on the same plane. The pin 12 is then inserted into the tip 3 of the retaining contact portion 26. 2 and is forced into the socket contact cavity 14. Figure 1 and Comparing FIG. 2 and FIG. 2, the retractable contact portion 26 is The limiting means 30 is protected by friction with the contact portion. It is initially moved rearwardly together with the retractable contact portion 26 for the purpose of mating. system The movement of the limiting means 30 is caused by the casing post 46 engaging the fixed arrow 38. It continues until it matches. Then, by inserting more pins, the retractable contour The contact portion is where the contact body 9 of the pin 12 contacts the contact body surface 34. It moves rearwardly relative to both the restricting means and the contact body 11 until it reaches the contact point.

The distance between the end of the pin 12 and the end 8 of the contact body 9 is equal to the overall length of the limiting means 30. It is about half of the casing post 55 and the contact part before inserting the pin. The length 58 or less between the insertion point 52 and the restriction means sleeve 42 is to roughly center the pin 12 and retractable contact portion 26. , which allows for alignment.

Most preferably, the tubular sleeve 42 is axially splittable.

This simplifies the manufacture of the sleeve and allows the sleeve 42 to 26 and bins 12 and their precise alignment. Wear. The material of sleeve 42 is slender enough to perform its intended alignment and restriction functions. As long as the ribs are strong enough and can be easily formed into the shape shown in the drawing, they should not be too heavy. It's not important.

Materials such as beryllium steel alloys satisfy the objectives of the present invention.

Figures 5-8 illustrate another embodiment of the invention, fifth showing the connector in an unassembled state. Figure 6 shows a portion of the connector in a partially assembled state. , Figure 7 shows the connector in its final assembled state without pin 12 inserted. FIG. 8 shows the connector in a state where the mating pin 12 is fitted.

In FIG. 5, the socket contact has a barrel 138 with a forward end 139; The barrel is thinner in cross section than the rest of the body. The ring 140 is located inside the barrel 138. on the side, preferably just after the thinned portion 139 of the barrel as shown in FIG. The sleeve 142 is then inserted into the retractable contactor as shown in FIG. tightly arranged around the front part of the front part. After that, the thin section 1 of the barrel 138 39 is wound as shown by arrow 143 and formed at the rear of sleeve 142. The sleeve pos 145 is captured. In this way, the sleeve 38, the retractable contact portion 116 is securely held by the barrel 1 38 and sleeve 142. Therefore, it is not engaged. Comparing Figure 7 without and Figure 8 with engagement, the alignment sleeve 142, the contact pin 12 and the retractable contact portion 11 are fitted together. It is easy to see that alignment between 6 and 6 can be easily performed.

Sleeve post 145 is located longitudinally relative to ring 140 and wrapped barrel portion 139. Since the retaining sleeve 142 can be moved longitudinally a small distance in the the longitudinal axis of pin 12 and retractable contact portion 116 can be reliably aligned even if they do not match exactly.

FIG. 9 shows yet another embodiment of the invention, the embodiment of FIG. A second ring 146 is used in place of the second ring 139 to ensure alignment sleeve 142 is held securely. It is substantially the same as FIGS. 5 to 8 except that it is held.

For the constructions shown in Figures 5-9, insert the socket contacts using the tools previously described. When removing from the connection body, remove the contact barrel and casing as shown in Figure 2. The tines 24 are aligned, as may occur due to the gap 150 that exists between the tines 24 and the This prevents it from becoming wedged in any part of the sleeve structure. These aspects are advantageous. Accordingly, according to the embodiments of FIGS. 5-9, the alignment sleeve mechanism socket without the risk of any part of it becoming improperly retained within the connector body. All parts of the contact can be taken out of the contact cavity .

In the embodiments of FIGS. 5 to 9, the axial movement of the socket contact is performed using a retract tab. is restricted by the rear post 153 (FIG. 9) formed in the contact portion 116. , as explained earlier, the frontmost part of the retractable contact part is the connector box. When the post 153 is substantially flush with the front surface of the barrel 138, the rear portion of the barrel 138 Contact 154.

Although the invention is particularly useful for optical 7-eye connectors, it also applies to electrical connectors as well. It can be applied in various ways. Accordingly, the invention has been described with respect to fiber optic connectors.

However, the application of the present invention to electrical connectors is also included within the scope of the present invention. I can think of it.

Those skilled in the art will be able to understand without departing from the concept of the present invention based on the disclosure of this specification. It will be obvious that other modifications of the invention may be made other than those specifically described herein. It would be white. Accordingly, such modifications are limited only by the scope of the claims. It is considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

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Claims (17)

[Claims] 1. Connector body with at least one socket contact cavity , The connector has a retention area at one end and a retractable contact portion. socket contact inserted into the vector cavity, and The axial movement of the contact portion is restricted so that the contact portion is retracted. If not, the tip of the contact portion is substantially flush with the front surface of the connector body. Means to make it a surface and within 3mm of the front of the body An optical fiber connector comprising: 2. The limiting means includes a front end of the retractable contact portion and a mating contact. The connector according to claim 1, which has a structure for aligning tact pins. 3. The restriction means is a tube that fits tightly into the retractable contact portion. 3. A connector according to claim 1, comprising a shaped sleeve. 4. 4. The connector of claim 3, wherein said sleeve is axially segmented. 5. The restriction means is a tube that fits tightly into the retractable contact portion. The claimed invention comprises a shaped sleeve, further comprising bosses around the periphery at both ends of the sleeve. Connector described in scope 1. 6. the sleeve is axially divided, the restriction means having a first boss on the rear periphery; The retractable contact portion has a first portion and a first portion having different diameters and adjacent to each other. It has two parts and a boss between them, and the boss of the retractable contact part is When removing the socket contact backward from the connector body, it will engage with the first boss. The connector according to claim 1. 7. The restriction means closely fits the front diameter portion of the retractable contact portion. a tubular sleeve, and a first boss, a second boss, and a third boss. further comprising a casing formed therein, the second boss and the third boss having a restriction means. claims at both ends of the casing to restrict back and forth movement in the axial direction. The connector described in box 6. 8. The tip of the contact part is within 2mm of the front surface of the connector body. A connector according to any one of claims 1 to 7. 9. The tip of the contact part is within 1mm of the front surface of the connector body. A connector according to any one of claims 1 to 8. 10. The limiting means is arranged in the retractable contact part in the rear part of the holding area. The connector according to claim 1, wherein: 11. The limiting means is arranged in the retractable contact part in the front part of the holding area. The connector according to claim 1, wherein: 12. The restriction means includes a first boss located at the rear of the sleeve and the retention area. 4. The connector according to claim 3, further comprising a rearwardly disposed second boss. 13. The socket contact has a socket contact bar in which the holding area is formed. further comprising a barrel, the barrel is configured such that when the contact portion is not recessed, , the tip of the contact portion is within 3 mm of the front surface of the connector body. and a rear surface that engages the second boss so as to be substantially flush with the front surface. The connector according to claim 12. 14. The socket contact is located at the front and rear of the tubular sleeve relative to the barrel. Claim further comprising second means connected to the barrel for limiting movement of the barrel. The connector described in box 13. 15. 12. The second limiting means comprises at least one press-fit ring. The connector according to paragraph 14. 16. Claim 15, wherein the second restricting means further includes a second press-fit ring. Connector listed. 17. The second restriction means has a front portion of a rolled barrel, and the first boss has a front portion of the barrel. It is now trapped between the ring and the rolled barrel, allowing for slight movement between them. 16. The connector according to claim 15.