JPH02242528A - Feeder cable of moveable body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make unnecessary complex manual work so as to make possible cost reduction by inserting a terminal fixed on a wire and an FPC into respective end sides of a connector and electrically connecting them together. CONSTITUTION:A wire 1 has a terminal 12 fixed at its end portion which terminal 12 is provided with a elastic contact piece 11, and a halfmoon-shaped contact portion 11a and a drop preventing protruding piece 11b are formed on the contact piece 11. A connector 2 comprises a flat-box-shaped wound body 21 and a lock member 22 capable of being inserted/detached into/from one end side of the wound body 21. Thus, by insertion of both the terminal fixed to the terminal portion of a feeder wire and the terminal portion of a FPC flexible printed board 3 into the connector 2 from both end sides thereof, both of them are simply pressed and connected together within the connector to make possible electrical connection. Complex work for connection is thereby made unnecessary to enable cost reduction and enhancement of the reliability.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention mainly relates to a power supply cable for movable bodies such as copying machines and optical reading devices.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art In a copying machine or a document reading device with a fixed document table, a power supply cable that supplies power to a movable body such as an exposure lamp provided in an optical scanner section is required to be highly flexible and durable.

For this reason, flexible printed circuit boards (hereinafter referred to as rFPCs), which have excellent characteristics, are generally used, but FI) C is attached by crimping a contact piece to the terminal part like a normal electric wire, and this contact piece is It is impossible to make an electrical connection by plugging it into a connector.

FIG. 14 shows an example of a conventional FI C terminal processing method, in which a printed board 1 is attached to one end of the FPCiQl.
02, and insert the electric wire 104 with one end connected to the connector 103 into the printed board 102 to connect the FPCl
1 and the electric wire 104a (see Fig. 15) directly into a half FJ.
The end portion of the electric wire, including the portion 105, was covered with a heat shrink tube 106 for insulation.

A guard 108 is attached to one side of the FPCIOI using double-sided tape 107, as shown in detail in FIG.
FP by reinforcing Ci[]i and sliding contact with other parts
This prevents damage to the CIOI.

Similarly, attach the printed board 10 to the other end of F'PCIOI.
2' and connected to the connecting terminal 103'.
4' and the FPCIOI are soldered, and the wire end including the soldered part 105' is wrapped in a heat shrink tube 106.
’.

The electric wire 104 is connected to a movable part (not shown) via the connector 103, and the electric wire 104' is connected to a power supply part (not shown) via the connection terminal 103'.

FIG. 16 shows another example of the conventional FPC terminal processing method, in which printed boards 112, 112' are lined at both ends of the FPCl, and board connectors 113113 are attached to the terminals. ' respectively soldered part 1
It is soldered at 15 and 115'.

On the other hand, harness connectors 116 and 11E3' are fixed to the terminals of the electric wires 114 and 114', respectively, and these harness connectors 116 and 116' are connected to board connectors 113 and 113' to connect them to a power source (not shown). It supplies power to the moving parts.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, such conventional power supply cables for movable parts each have problems such as shortness.

That is, in the former case, after lining both ends of the FPCIQi with printed boards 102, 102', the electric wires 104, 104' are inserted into through holes provided in the printed boards 102, 102' and FPCI01, respectively, and their terminals are connected. It is necessary to solder the electric wire strands to the printed circuit boards 102, 102', and then cover them with heat shrinkable tubes 106, 106' and heat shrink them, which requires a large number of parts. It requires time and effort and increases production costs.

Moreover, since members such as FPCIOl and heat shrink tubes 106, 106' are interposed between the electric wire 104 connected to the movable part and the electric wire 104' connected to the power supply part, it is cost effective in terms of repair.・As the height increases, the processing area at the end of the wire also becomes extremely uneven.

In order to attach the power supply cable to the movable part, the attachment member must be lifted.

In the latter case, the electric wire 114.
Directly soldering 114' will save you some tedious work, but you will have to do the work of lining the printed circuit board 112°112' on the FPCl l l and the board connectors 113 and 113'.
There is still work to do, such as soldering the board connector 1.
Harness connector 116 to connect 13, 113'
, 116' is required, which has the disadvantage of increasing costs.

Furthermore, the half [-U
Since the I-attached cloth portion 115115' is not insulated, the soldered portions 115, 115' must be lifted from the chassis when the electric wire cable is attached to the chassis, and if this happens, a short circuit will occur as the movable part moves. There was a risk. Furthermore, if an insulating member is further attached to this portion in order to avoid this, there is a drawback that the number of parts and the number of work steps increase, resulting in an even higher cost.

Furthermore, since both ends of the FPC are lined with a printed board, the reciprocating movement of the FPC due to the movement of the movable part causes the boundary between the FPC and the printed board 101a (Fig. 10)
, 111a (Figure 12) is repeatedly subjected to stress due to bending and stretching, resulting in failure of power supply due to complete disconnection of the FPC pattern at that part, or heat generation or ignition due to conductor width reduction due to partial disconnection. There was also a risk of

Incidentally, for the power supply cable of a moving body, an FPC printed only on one side is usually used instead of one printed on both sides due to cost 1. When using such a TPC to connect to a moving body through a connector that can be electrically connected only on one side, if the power supply cable is bent into a U-shape, the front and back of the FPC will be reversed, resulting in However, there was a problem in that the connector had to be turned upside down and attached to the moving object, or the FPC had to be twisted once.

In addition, when assembling the power supply cable, the terminal part of the FPC is not clear, so it takes a lot of time and effort to find it, and there is also the problem that mistakes in connecting the terminal part are likely to occur.

It is an object of the present invention to solve these conventional problems and provide a power supply cable for a movable body that has an extremely simple configuration and is excellent in assembly workability and durability.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, a power supply cable for a movable body according to the present invention has a terminal fixed at the end of a power supply wire and a flexiful printed circuit board printed only on one side, at both ends. A movable power supply cable electrically connected via a connector that can be inserted and fixed from a flexible printed circuit board, the cable being made of a material of a different color from the flexible printed circuit board at both ends of the flexible printed circuit board. A backing member is attached.

It is also possible to color the members lining both ends of the flexible printed circuit board in a different color from the flexible printed circuit board.

[For production]

With the above configuration, simply by inserting the terminal fixed at the end of the power supply wire and the end of the flexible printed circuit board into the connector from both ends, the two are pressure-connected within the connector and electrically connected. The complicated connection work that was conventionally required is no longer necessary, making it possible to significantly reduce costs and improve reliability.

In addition, the backing members attached to both ends of the flexible printed circuit board are made of a different material or colored in a different color than the flexible printed circuit board, improving work efficiency when assembling the power supply cable and eliminating one mistake. It becomes possible to prevent this from happening.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a power supply cable for an exposure lamp provided in an optical system scanner of a copying machine will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 13 of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 10 schematically shows the optical system of a conventional copying machine with a fixed document table. Below the contact glass 41 that constitutes the document table, there is an exposure lamp 43 equipped with a reflector 42 and a first mirror. 44 is a movable body shown in FIG.
．． A second mirror 46 and a third mirror 47 are attached to a second scanner 48 and are driven by a scanner motor 49 and a scanner wire 51 to move reciprocatingly in the direction of the arrow to move the original onto the contact glass 41. scan.

A bottom plate 60 is provided below the first scanner 45 and the second scanner 48, and the bottom plate 60 partitions the two optical system units from the lower image forming section such as a photoreceptor.

Further, an exposure lamp 43 provided in the first scanner 45
As shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, a power supply cable 50 is bundled together with a signal optical fiber 52 and connected to a power source.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.

A power supply cable 10 according to the present invention includes an electric wire 1.1, connectors 2, 2 that connect one end of the electric wire 1.1 to both ends of an FPC 3 printed only on one side, and an electric wire 1.
, 1 are connected to a power supply section (not shown) and an exposure lamp, respectively, and a protective member 6 which is longer than the FPC' and is provided in parallel with the FPC'.

As shown in FIG. 2, the electric wire 1 has a terminal 12 fixedly provided with an elastic contact piece 11 at its terminal end.
A semi-cylindrical contact portion 11a and a protrusion 11b for preventing disconnection are formed on the holder.

As shown in detail in FIGS. 2 and 3, the connector 2 consists of a flat box-shaped housing 21 and a locking member 22 that can be inserted and removed from one end of the housing 21. .

The housing 21 has an opening 21a into which the contact piece 11 of the terminal 12 fixed to the end of the electric wire 1 can be inserted, an opening 21b into which the mouthpiece 22 can be inserted, and a protrusion 11b of the contact piece 11 that engages with the opening 21a. As shown in FIG. 3, a locking portion 21c that locks the extraction of the FPC'3 together with a locking protrusion 21d that can be fitted into a locking hole 3a (see FIG. 4) of the FPC'3, which will be described later. An elastic protrusion 21e that acts as a retainer when the locking member 22 is inserted, a screw hole 21f that vertically penetrates the housing 21, and positioning pins protruding from corresponding positions on both the front and back surfaces of the housing 21. 21g, and on the other hand, the locking member 22 is provided with a slit 22a through which an FPC can be inserted.

Note that these screw holes 21f and positioning pins 2
The number of connectors 1g is not limited to one, but may be a plurality of connectors, and the shape of the connector 2 is preferably symmetrical when viewed from the insertion direction (arrow A) of the FPC 2;

By doing this, even if the front and back of the connector are reversed when installing the connector, it is possible to always secure the screw from the same direction, and even if there is a bottom hole 60 shown in Fig. 8 below, the screw will not tighten. Stopping work will not be hindered.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the FPC3 has a thin backing member 31 such as a polyester film attached to both ends to improve workability when inserting the extremely thin and flexible FPC into the slit 22a. It also serves to reinforce the locking holes 3a provided at both ends of the FPC'.

Two conductor portions 32a and 32b are buried inside the FPC 3 with a distance t between them equal to or larger than the 31 side.

Solder-plated conductor exposed parts g3a and 3sb are formed at both ends of each conductor part '52a+32b.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the protective member 6 is provided with through holes 5a and 5b symmetrically vertically and horizontally at both ends, corresponding to the screwing holes 21f and the positioning pins 21g of the connector 2, respectively. An example of a flexible flame retardant material that improves assembly ease by eliminating separation and is made of a material such as polyimide I-.

Since this embodiment has the above configuration, with the locking member 22 removed from the housing 21, the electric wire 1 is inserted through the opening 21a of the housing 21, and the sling of the locking member 22 is inserted through the opening 21b. h 22 F inserted through a
When PC3 is inserted, the protruding piece 11b of the contact piece 11 on the wire 1 side
At the point where the electric wire 1 passes over the protrusion having the locking part 21c of the housing 21, its tip engages with the locking part 2ic, and locks the electric wire 1 so that it cannot be pulled out.

On the other hand, when the locking hole 3a on the FPC side fits into the locking protrusion 21d on the housing 21 side, extraction of F1)C3 is prevented. In this state, insert the lock member 22 into the housing 21.
When the projection 21d is inserted into the hole 2ia, the fitting between the protrusion 21d and the hole 2ia becomes more secure, and the FPc is pressed downward in FIG. 2 to expose the conductor exposed portion 33a.

The contact portion 118 of the contact piece 11 corresponds to the plating layer 33b.
are bitten into each other to ensure contact between the two, and at the position where the locking member 22 has been inserted for a predetermined length, the protrusion 21 on the housing 21 side
e to prevent its removal.

FIG. 6 shows a state in which the connector 2, in which the electric wire 1 and the FP(j;) are electrically connected in this manner, is attached to a copying machine.

In this case, the FPC3 is bent 180 degrees in the middle so that one connector 2 connects to the optical system connector 56 and the other connector 2
The moving first scanner 45 is penetrated through the screw-locking hole 21f and screwed by the locking screws 7, 7, respectively. They fit into positioning holes 53a and 45a provided in the base 53 and the first scanner 45, respectively, and are firmly fixed.

In addition, the protection member 6 is attached to one side of the connector 2 with double-sided tape or the like, with the through hole 6b fitted into the positioning pin 21g of the connector 2 and the through hole 6a aligned with the screw fastening hole 21f of the connector 2. and fix it from above with screws 7, so that it follows the outside of the curved FIC filter with the FPC attached to the optical system base 53 and the scanner 45.

When the first scanner 45 moves back and forth in the direction of the arrow in this state, the bent portions of the FPC 3 and the protection member 6 move left and right in the figure, causing the exposure lamp 43 provided in the first scanner 45 to move to the left and right in the figure.
(Figure 10).

Next, FIGS. 7 to 9 show other embodiments of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the protective member 16 is longer than the FPC 3.
As shown in FIG. 7, the shape of the terminal portion of the FPC3 is changed to the same shape as that of the FPC3 shown in FIG. 4, and locking holes 16a are provided at both ends.

The end portion of the protective member 16 formed in this way and Fp c
5 are overlapped with each other with the locking holes 16a and 3a almost aligned, and as shown in FIG.
When inserted into the housing 21 from 1b, both the locking hole 3a on the FP (1) side and the locking hole 16a on the protection member 16 side fit into the locking protrusion 21d on the housing 21 side, making it impossible to remove both. blocked.

When the locking member 22 is inserted into the housing 21 in this state, the projection 21d and the locking hole "ia" 16a are more securely fitted and fixed firmly.

FIG. 9 shows the external appearance of the power supply cable assembled in this way. According to this embodiment, it is necessary to separately provide locking protrusions for the FPC 3 and the protection member 1 on the connector 2 side. Therefore, the structure of the connector 2 can be simplified and the ease of assembly can be further improved.

In addition, in these embodiments, the member 31 lining both ends of the FPC 3 can be made of a material with a different color from that of the FPC 3 or colored in a different color, and by doing so, it is possible to assemble the power supply cable. The identification of the backing member 61 becomes very clear during operation.

Therefore, if the backing member 31 side is always positioned on the locking member 22 side of the connector 2 during assembly, work errors such as erroneously inserting the FPCI from the housing 21 side of the connector 2 can be prevented. be able to.

In addition, holes 3 provided at both ends of the FPC 3 and the protection member 16
a, 16a may be replaced with a notch that can fit into the locking protrusion 21d on the connector 2 side. There is no problem.

Further, in the above embodiment, the present invention was described for the case where power is supplied to an exposure lamp provided in an optical system scanner of a copying machine, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is not limited to this, but is applicable to movable devices such as optical reading devices and dot printer heads. It can be used without any problem even when power is supplied to the unit using FPC.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention provides the following various excellent effects.

In other words, the electrical connection is made by inserting the terminal fixed to the wire and the FPC from both ends of the connector, eliminating the need for soldering and heat-shrink tube attachment, which were previously required to assemble this type of power supply cable. Complex manual operations such as Deterioration of reliability is prevented.

In addition, since the FPC is not lined with a printed board, the FPC
There is no risk of power supply failure or heat generation 2 due to complete or partial disconnection of the pattern due to localized stress on the PC.
There are no unevenness or exposed solder parts that occur at the joint between the electric wire and FPC, making it easier to assemble to the mating component.
There is no risk of short circuit etc.

Furthermore, we changed the material or colored the backing material attached to both ends of the FPC so that the color is different from the FPC, so it can be used as a work guide when assembling the power supply cable, and helps prevent work errors. This can be prevented and work efficiency can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view showing the structure of a connector that connects the electric wire and FPC, and Figs. 3 (a), (b), and (c) are 4(a) and 4(b) are a plan view and a side view showing an example of an FPC; FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of a protective member; Figure 6 is a front view showing how the power supply cable according to the present invention is attached to an actual machine, Figure 7 is a plan view showing an example of a protective member in another embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 8 is a diagram showing how the power supply cable is attached to the connector. 9 is a front view showing the entire assembled state; FIG. 10 is an optical path diagram of the optical system of a copying machine to which the present invention is applied; FIG. 11 is the optical system. Perspective view showing the scanner section, 12th
The figure is a perspective view showing the normal power supply cable attached to the optical system scanner section, Figure 13 is an exploded perspective view thereof, the 14th direction is a front view showing an example of a conventional power supply cable, and Figure 15 is the 13th direction. Front view showing enlarged part of the figure, Part 1
FIG. 6 is a front view showing another example of a conventional power supply cable. 1 - Electric wire 2 6 - Flexible printed circuit board 4.5 - Connection terminal 6゜10 - Power supply cable 11 12 - Terminal 21 22 - Connector 11 hook member 31 - FPC lining member 2 a +62b - Conductor part 33a , 3:5b...Conductor exposed part 4 contact glass 42 43.Exposure lamp 45 48...Second scanner 53 Connector (FPC) 1B...Protection part assembly contact piece connector housing/reflector plate/first Scanner optical system base

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A terminal fixed to the end of a power supply wire and a flexible printed circuit board printed on only one side are electrically connected via connectors that can be inserted and fixed from both ends, respectively. A power supply cable for a movable body,
A power supply cable for a movable body, characterized in that a backing member made of a material of a different color from the flexible printed circuit board is attached to both ends of the flexible printed circuit board. 2. A movable body that electrically connects a terminal fixed to the end of a power supply wire to a flexible printed circuit board printed on only one side through a connector that can be inserted and fixed from both ends. It is a power supply cable,
A power supply cable for a movable body, characterized in that a backing member colored in a color different from that of the flexible printed circuit board is attached to both ends of the flexible printed circuit board.