JPH0234770Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a connector suitable for connecting printed wiring boards for electrical continuity. The present invention relates to a connector suitable for electrically connecting a printed wiring board of a game cartridge in a game machine.

(Prior Art) In recent years, television games have become a big boom not only among children but also among adults. This television game consists of a main unit that is connected to a television receiver with a built-in computer, a game cartridge that is inserted into and removed from the main unit, and an operation unit. It is equipped with a printed wiring board wired with a ROM (read only memory) that stores programs, and is packaged with one side of the printed wiring board exposed to the outside. Therefore, the game operation becomes possible by electrically connecting the printed wiring board of this game cartridge and the main printed wiring board of the computer equipment of the main body. A cartridge type connector as shown in FIG. 9 is used to connect these two printed wiring boards.

That is, one end of a pair of elastic conductive pieces 1 and 2 is electrically connected to a main printed wiring board 3 of the computer equipment by soldering, and the other ends of both conductive pieces 1 and 2 are respectively curved to form a spring. Part 1
a, 2a are formed, and contacts 1b, 2b are formed at the shortest opposing locations of the spring portions 1a, 2a. Inside the insertion opening 4 of the connector, the pair of contacts 1b and 2b are arranged opposite each other at an interval smaller than the thickness of the printed wiring board 5 of the cartridge. By inserting the printed circuit board 5 of the cartridge between these contacts 1b and 2b, both spring parts 1a and 2a are pushed outward as shown by the arrows, and the elastic force of both spring parts 1a and 2a causes both spring parts 1a and 2a to be expanded outward as shown by the arrows. Contacts 1b and 2b are printed wiring board 5
The printed wiring boards 3 and 5 are electrically connected to each other by pressure contact with the wiring pattern.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, since game cartridges and the like are inserted when in use and removed when not in use, the pair of contacts 1b and 2b mentioned above are used as female contacts, and the printed wiring board 5 Connectors with male contacts will be frequently disconnected. Usually 2
Since the spring parts 1a and 2 are connected and disconnected more than 30,000 times,
It must be set so that a considerable spring pressure is generated by the deformation caused by the insertion of the printed wiring board 5 at a. That is, it is necessary to apply a large preload to the female contact in advance. Therefore, expensive high-performance spring material is used for the conductive pieces 1 and 2, and
The plating layers of the contacts 1b and 2b must also be made relatively thick, which is a factor in increasing costs. Moreover, even if the structure is made of expensive materials as described above, the electrical connections are damaged due to peeling of the wiring pattern on the printed wiring board 5 and deterioration of the spring parts 1a and 2a due to frequent insertion and removal. Problems that cannot be solved properly occur, which significantly impairs durability, and the insertion force is too large.

Therefore, in order to eliminate the above-mentioned defects, a connector as shown in FIG. 10, for example, has been devised. In this connector, a pair of conductive pieces 6, 7 constituting the female side contacts are curved in a meandering manner, and each has three points of contact 6a, 6b, 6c and 7a, 7.
b, 7c, and a substantially elliptical expanding member 8 is rotatably provided between both conductive pieces 6, 7. Prior to insertion and removal of the printed wiring board 5, the expanding member 8 is rotated. After pushing the conductive pieces 6 and 7 outward with the expanding member 8 and inserting the printed wiring board 5' in a non-contact state, insert the expanding member 8 at one point. As shown by the chain lines, each contact point 6a, 6b,
6c, 7a, 7b, and 7c are brought into pressure contact with the printed wiring board 5.

With the above configuration, the contacts 6a, 6b, 6c, 7a, 7b,
7c is eliminated, and wear of the wiring pattern and contacts is prevented. However, with such a configuration, it is necessary to provide various members such as the expansion member 8 and a member for operating it, which not only makes the configuration extremely complicated but also increases the cost. Since it must be rotated, it has the problem of being very troublesome to operate.

The present invention was devised in view of these problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a connector that allows both contacts to be reliably brought into contact and electrically connected regardless of the frequency of use.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the connector of the present invention has an inverted F-shaped groove near one wall of the space formed between the opposing wall parts of the body. One spring contact is disposed, and the tip of the first spring contact is held in contact with the outer surface of a locking piece provided near the opening of the space, and a second spring contact is placed on the other wall. A sideways U-shaped part which is arranged in contact with the outer surface of the second wall part and is curved at the tip part of the second spring contactor is externally fitted to the tip part of the other wall part so as to be vertically displaceable,
The tip of the U-shaped portion, which is bent into a substantially F-shape, protrudes into the space, and the inverted-F-shaped bent portion of the first spring contact is formed into a substantially F-shaped bent portion of the second spring contact. The male contact made of a printed wiring board can be inserted and removed diagonally between these curved parts, and the male contact inserted between these curved parts When the contact is in a horizontal state, these curved portions are configured to come into pressure contact with the wiring pattern of the male contact.

(Function) With the above configuration, the inverted F-shaped curved portion of the first spring contact whose tip end is held in contact with the locking piece portion and the sideways U-shaped portion are connected to the other wall portion. The distance between the second spring contact, which is externally fitted on the tip part so as to be vertically displaceable, and the approximately F-shaped curved part is constant regardless of the spring force of the first spring contact and the second spring contact. It is maintained. Therefore, even if the spring force of the first spring contactor and the second spring contactor is increased, the male side contact made of the printed wiring board will be damaged by the first spring contact formed by the bent part of the first spring contactor. Since the contact is inserted in a non-contact state with the second contact formed by the curved portion of the second spring contactor, or in a state in which they are in only light contact, the male contact The first spring contact and the second spring contact do not deform during insertion. Then, when the male contact inserted between the first contact and the second contact is placed in a horizontal position, the first contact is pressed by the wiring pattern of the male contact and the entire first spring contact is pushed against one wall. At the same time, the second contact is pressed and the entire second spring contact deforms in the direction away from the outer surface of the other wall, and accordingly, the first contact and the second contact are brought into contact with the first spring. Due to the large elastic restoring force of the child and the second spring contact, they are strongly pressed against the wiring pattern and electrically connected.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be explained in detail based on the drawings.

In the connector illustrated in FIG.
There is a space S between the opposing walls 11 and 12 in
is formed, and one wall 11 of this space S
A first spring contactor 13 is disposed nearer to it.
This first spring contactor 13 is bent into an inverted F-shape, and the bent portion serves as a first contact point 131. And the tip 132 of the first spring contactor 13
is a body 1 near the opening S ₁ in the space S.
0 and is held in contact with the outer surface of a locking piece 14 that is integrally provided with the locking piece 14. Such a first spring contactor 13
is inserted into the space S from the direction of arrow A, and is attached by locking its locking piece 133 into the locking hole 111 of one wall portion 11.

Further, a second spring contactor 15 is disposed in contact with the outer surface of the other wall portion 12 . This second spring contactor 15 has a horizontal U-shaped portion 1 at its tip.
51 is curved, and this U-shaped portion 151 is externally fitted onto the tip portion 121 of the other wall portion 12 so as to be vertically displaceable, and an inverted F-shaped portion formed at the tip portion of this U-shaped portion 151 A shaped curved portion projects into the space S. This curved portion constitutes a second contact point 152. Such a second spring contact 15 is inserted into the body 10 from the direction of arrow B, and the locking piece 1 is inserted into the body 10 from the direction of arrow B.
53 to the locking surface 122 of the other wall portion 12.

Here, the first contact 131 described above is the second contact 1
52, and between the first contact 131 and the second contact 152, there is a male contact 1 made of a printed wiring board.
6 is inserted and removed diagonally. Further, the first spring contact 13 and the second spring contact 15 constitute a female contact 17.

In the illustrated example connector, the first spring contact 1
The other ends of spring contactor 3 and second spring contactor 15 each extend to the outside and are fixed to main printed wiring board 18 by soldering.

Next, the effect will be explained.

The male contact 16 is inserted obliquely between the second contact 152 and the tapered guide surface formed on the lower surface of the locking piece 14, as shown by the solid line in FIG. At this time, the first contact 131 and the second contact 152
either maintains a non-contact state with the wiring pattern (not shown) of the male side contact 16, or even if it does come into contact, it only makes light contact. Therefore,
Neither the first spring contact 13 nor the second spring contact 15 is deformed, and the first contact 131 and the second contact 15 are not deformed.
2. No wear or peeling occurs on the wiring pattern of the male contact 16. Next, when the male contact 16 inserted between the first contact 131 and the second contact 152 as described above is pushed down in the direction of arrow C to bring it into a horizontal state as shown by the dashed line in the figure, the male First contact 131 by side contact 16
is pressed so that the entire first spring contact 13 deforms in a direction approaching one wall 11, and the second contact 152 is pressed so that the entire second spring contact 15 deforms toward the outer surface of the other wall 12. The first contact 131 and the second contact 152 are pressed into contact with the wiring pattern of the male contact 16 and electrically connected thereto. In this case, by preloading the first spring contactor 13 toward the other wall portion 12 side by its own elasticity, the tip portion 132 of the first spring contactor 13 can be moved to the locking piece portion 1.
The second spring contact 15 is held in contact with the top surface of the second wall 12 in a pressed state, and the second spring contact 15 is held in contact with the upper surface of the second wall 12 in a pressed state, and the second spring contact 15 is held in such a manner that it elastically presses the outer surface of the other wall 12 by its own elasticity. If preloaded, when the male contact 16 is pushed down to a horizontal state, the first spring contact 13 and the second spring contact 1
5 can be pressed more reliably and the durability is also improved.

Note that instead of the tapered guide surface of the locking piece 14 shown in FIG. 1, for example, on the front side of the body 10,
It can be configured to be swingable between a horizontal position and a predetermined diagonal position, and a guide groove is formed on the inner surface of this locking piece, and the male contact 16 is inserted and extracted along this guide groove. good.

FIG. 2 shows a connector installed in a cartridge mounting section of a television game machine.

The connector shown in the figure includes an upper body 10A into which the above-described male contacts are inserted, and a lower body 10B into which a main printed wiring board is mounted. The structure of the upper body 10A and the structure of the female contact 17 built into the upper body 10A are the same as those of the connector shown in FIG. 1, so the same parts are given the same reference numerals and a description thereof will be omitted. A first spring contact 13' having a folded contact 134 and a second spring contact 15' having a folded contact 154 are provided on the lower body 10B. These contacts 134 and 154 are opposed to each other with an interval smaller than the thickness of the main printed wiring board. Further, the female contact 17 built in the upper body 10A and the female contact 19 built in the lower body 10B are the first spring contacts 13, 1.
3' and the second spring contacts 15, 15' are each made of an integral metal piece bent into a U-shape to achieve electrical continuity. This contact point 13
A main printed wiring board (not shown) is always inserted between 4 and 154, and the main printed wiring board is not inserted or removed frequently. Even if the female side contact 19 is formed by the two spring contactors 15', problems such as contact wear will not occur. Furthermore, according to the connector shown in Fig. 2, two female contacts 17 and 19 can be configured at the same time, and the female contacts 17 and 19 can be separated from the bodies 10A and 10B, making product inspection and parts replacement easy. can be done.

Next, the three-dimensional structure of the connector shown in FIG. 2 and the method of assembling the first and second spring contacts will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, and 5a to 5b.

Figure 3 shows upper body 10A and lower body 10B.
The entire body is shown in which the mounting pieces 10C and 10C are integrally formed. One wall 11 of the upper body 10A is partitioned by a number of partition walls 20. Further, the other wall portion 12 is similarly divided by a large number of partition walls 21. Other internal structures of the upper body 10A and lower body 10B are the same as those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The lower body 10B includes wall portions 22 and 23 facing each other, and these wall portions 22 and 23 are partitioned by a number of partition walls 24 and 25, respectively. The first spring contacts 13, 13' are constituted by an integral metal piece 26, and a large number of these metal pieces 26 are connected by tie bars 27.
Connect such a connection body to the body from the rear (the first
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the first spring contacts 13, 13' are inserted into the upper body 10A and the lower body 10B in a predetermined state as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. Further, the second spring contacts 15, 15' are constituted by an integral metal piece 28, and a large number of these metal pieces 28 are connected by tie bars 29. From the front of the body (arrow B in Figure 1)
direction), the second spring contacts 15, 15' are inserted into the upper body 10A and the lower body 10 in a predetermined state as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4.
inserted into B. Incidentally, the above-mentioned connecting body can be assembled by cutting off the tie bars 27 and 29 to separate the first spring contacts 13 and 13' and the second spring contacts 15 and 15, respectively.
It is divided into 15'. Figures 5a to 5d illustrate the procedure for cutting out the tie bars 27, 29. In the illustrated example, a mold 30 is first applied to the metal pieces 28 as shown in FIG. 5a, and from this state the punch 31 is operated to punch out tie bars 29 as shown in FIG. 5b. Next, as shown in Fig. 5c, the mold 30 is placed against the metal pieces 26, and from this state, the punch 31 is passed between the metal pieces 28, in which the tie bars 29 have already been punched out, as shown in Fig. 5d. We are taking steps to punch out... In this case, the tie bar 29... is punched out using the metal piece 26.
before inserting it into the body.

FIG. 6 shows a guide frame 40 to which a connector is attached. This guide frame 40 is a frame-shaped holding frame 4
1 and a cartridge mounting tray 42. The holding frame 41 has a support shaft 411, and this support shaft 4
11 is a mounting hole 42 provided at the end of the tray 42
1 and the tray 42 is attached to the holding frame 41 so as to be vertically swingable. Holding frame 4
A coil spring 43 is held in the cylindrical portion 412 of the tray 42.
The tray 42 is always urged upward by the coil spring 43. Further, the tray 42 is provided with a protrusion 423, and this protrusion 423 comes into contact with the locking portion 413 of the holding frame 41, so that the upper limit of the tray 42 is restricted. Furthermore, a locking pawl 424 is provided protruding from the front part of the tray 42.
24 is configured to fit into an opening 414 formed in the front part of the holding frame 41. As shown in FIG. 8, the opening 414 is provided with a locking piece 416 that is constantly biased by a spring 415, and when the locking pawl 424 described above is pushed into the opening 414, the locking piece 416 is pressed into the opening 414. Locking piece 4 pushed down to 424
16 climbs over the locking pawl 424 due to the bias of the spring 415, returns to its original position, engages with the locking pawl 424, and becomes locked. To release the locked state, press the button 417 to release the engaged state between the locking piece 416 and the locking pawl 424.

Here, as can be inferred from FIG. 7, the center of swing of the tray 42 formed by the support shaft 411 of the holding frame 41 changes from the diagonal state of the male contact 16 shown in FIG. 1 to the horizontal state. It is configured so as to coincide with the center of swing of the male contact 16 when the male contact 16 is rotated. That is, the support shaft 411 of the holding frame 41 is provided so as to be located on the center line between the contact point 131 of the first spring contactor 13 and the contact point 152 of the second spring contactor 15.

In the above, when installing the game cartridge, the cartridge 44 is slid and inserted into the tray 42 as shown in FIG. In this way, the male contact 16 protruding from the cartridge 44 is inserted obliquely between the first contact 131 and the second contact 152 of the female contact 17 (see FIGS. 1 and 5). Next, the cartridge 44 is pushed down together with the tray 42 so that the engaging claw 424 is engaged with the engaging piece 416 to be in a locked state.
6 swings around the same point as the swing fulcrum of the tray 42 and becomes horizontal, and its wiring pattern presses against the first contact 131 and the second contact 152 of the female contact 17 and electrically Conducted.

When removing the cartridge 44 after the game is over, press the button 417 to release the lock state, and the coil spring 43
The tray 42 returns to the slanted position shown in FIG. 7 due to the biasing force, and the cartridge 44 is removed from this state.

(Effects of the invention) As described above, according to the invention, when the male contact made of a printed wiring board is inserted into and removed from the female contact, the first spring contact and the second spring constituting the female contact Even if the spring force of the contacts is increased, these contacts will not strongly rub against the wiring pattern of the male contact. When the male contact is in a horizontal state, the first contact (the curved part of the first spring contact) is pressed by the wiring pattern of the male contact, and the entire first spring contact is pushed against one wall. At the same time, the second contact (the curved portion of the second spring contact) is pressed, and the entire second spring contact is deformed in a direction away from the outer surface of the other wall. Therefore, since the first and second spring contacts are deformed in their entirety, the strokes of the first and second spring contacts as spring contact pieces become very long. It becomes easier to balance the spring pressures of the contact and the second spring contact, thereby preventing the second spring contact from being twisted due to the spring force of the first spring contact. The reliability of pressure contact with the male contact can be significantly improved, and reliable electrical continuity can be achieved over a long period of time. Also, the sideways U-shaped portion curved at the tip of the second spring contactor is fitted onto the tip of the other wall, and the tip of the U-shaped portion curved into a substantially F-shape is fitted onto the other wall. Since it is designed to protrude from the inner surface of the wall, even if the U-shaped tip is about to be twisted, it will be supported by the inner surface of the other wall, effectively preventing the tip from being twisted. can. Therefore, due to these factors, the spring contactor can be manufactured from a relatively inexpensive material. Furthermore, since the first spring contact can be inserted from the rear of the body and the second spring contact from the front of the body, it is possible to preload these contacts in the direction of approaching the mating contact. With this configuration, a more reliable state of electrical continuity between the male contact and the wiring pattern can be ensured.

Furthermore, with the present invention, there is no need to provide an expanding member or an operating member for operating the member in order to expand the pair of spring contacts of the female side contact as in the conventional case. , the configuration can be significantly simplified, and there is no operational hassle.
Furthermore, it has practical effects such as a significant cost reduction.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of one embodiment of the connector of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of another embodiment of the invention, and Fig. 3 is an exploded perspective view of another embodiment of the connector of the present invention. , Fig. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the connector in an assembled state, Figs. 5a to 5d are explanatory views for explaining the procedure for punching out tie bars, Fig. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the guide frame, and Fig. 7 8 is a partially cutaway right side view of the guide frame, FIG. 8 is a partially cutaway front view of the locking mechanism in the guide frame, and FIGS. 9 and 10 are longitudinal sectional views of a conventional card edge type connector. 10, 10A, 10B...Body, 11, 12
...Wall part, 121...Tip part of the other wall part, 13
...First spring contact, 131...First contact (curved part of first spring contact), 14...Locking piece, 15
...Second spring contact, 151...U-shaped part of second spring contact, 152...Second contact (curved part of second spring contact), 16...Male side contact, S...Space .

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A first spring contact in an inverted F-shape is disposed near one wall of a space formed between opposing wall parts of the body, and the tip of the first spring contact is connected to the opening of the space. A second spring contact is placed in contact with the outer surface of the other wall, and the tip of the second spring contact is bent. The sideways U-shaped portion is fitted onto the tip of the other wall so as to be vertically displaceable, and the tip of the U-shaped portion, which is bent into a substantially F-shape, is projected into the space; The inverted F-shaped curved portion of the first spring contactor is arranged rearwardly from the approximately F-shaped curved portion of the second spring contactor, and a printed circuit board is provided between these curved portions. The male contact can be inserted and removed diagonally, and when the male contact inserted between these curved parts is placed in a horizontal state, these curved parts are in pressure contact with the wiring pattern of the male contact. A connector characterized by: