JPH0245974Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] A. Field of industrial application The present invention is a contact locking mechanism for a small high-density connector, and more specifically, a structure in which a row of cavities for accommodating the contacts is housed in a single insulator block. The present invention relates to locking grooves for receptacle contacts of a high-density compact connector provided in three or more rows.

B. Prior Art A means for engaging and holding a receptacle contact equipped with a lance with a multi-polar connector housing (hereinafter referred to as housing) is provided at one point in the longitudinal direction of the housing.
A locking hole that communicates with the cavity from the side is provided,
Conventionally, the most typical contact holding means is to engage and hold the inserted contact with a lance. Further, other holding means are used in high-density connectors in which the connector poles are arranged in multiple rows, such as a rectangular multi-pole connector generally referred to as a DIN type. Another such conventional retaining means will be described with reference to the contacts 41 shown in FIG. 4B and the housing 40 of a three-row high density connector shown in FIG. 4A. Referring to FIGS. 4A and 4C, a plurality of cavities 42 for accommodating contacts are arranged in three parallel rows within housing 40. Referring to FIGS. As is clear from Fig. 4C, contact 4
1 is inserted into the cavity 42 from the rear surface of the housing 40, the front surface 49 of the contact 41 abuts against the front projection 43 of the housing 40, and the lance 45 of the contact is inserted into the lance locking groove 44 of the housing.
is engaged to retain the contact 41 within the cavity 42 of the housing 40.

C. Problems to be solved by the invention In conventional small high-density multi-row connectors with three or more rows, lance locking holes for engaging with lances are provided in the outer wall of the housing in the cavities of the first and last rows. However, providing a lance locking hole through the partition wall of the intermediate layer cavity is a separate mold configuration. However, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, it is advantageous to provide a locking groove for the lance from the front side of the housing, as shown in FIG. 4A. To further explain why it is advantageous to provide the lance locking groove 44 from the front face of the housing, as in the connector shown in FIG. 4A, the lance locking groove 58 shown in FIG. A case where the housings are provided in multiple rows like the housing shown in the figure will be described as an example. FIG. 5B shows a sectional view of a sliding mold for injection molding the housing shown in FIG. 5A. According to this mold, after injection molding, the left mold 51 fixed to the injection molding machine On the other hand, by sliding the right mold 52 in the direction indicated by arrow A, the product can be easily taken out. In this way, for multi-row connectors with three or more rows, a sliding mold is better for forming the locking means than a separate mold, in which the mold is taken out vertically or horizontally. is advantageous.

However, in such conventional technology,
For example, there are challenges in manufacturing housings for modern micro connectors where the connector pitch is 2.54 millimeters or less. The first
The first problem is a mold design and manufacturing problem, and the second problem is a housing structural problem.

The first problem will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B. In the case of a small connector with a small pitch, for example, the lance locking groove 58 shown in FIG. 5A must be extremely small; Accordingly, the dimensions of the core pin 59 provided in the mold 51 shown in FIG. Therefore, during injection molding, the high-temperature, high-pressure plastic material injected from the runner 53 collides with the core pins 59, causing the many small core pins 59 provided perpendicularly to the plane of the drawing to fall down, causing the core pins to collapse. 59
deformation occurs. As a result, accurate dimensions of the lance locking groove 58 cannot be obtained in the housing, and hot water burrs are likely to occur on the mating surface of the right mold 52 and the core pin 59. Therefore, since the core pin 59 of the mold for the housing of a small connector must have a certain level of strength, there is a limit to the reduction in the dimensions of the core pin 59, especially the reduction in the thickness x. For this reason, miniaturization of compact connectors with severe spatial restrictions is hindered, which poses the second problem. As is clear from FIG. 4A, the spacing between the cavities constituting the intermediate row is extremely small in small connectors (for example, in the case of a 2.54 mm pitch, the thickness of the partition wall is about 1 mm), and the size of the lance locking groove is Although it is advantageous to have a smaller
This problem is contradictory to the two rules. In addition, it becomes difficult to provide a guide part (generally called a bell mouth) to guide the pin when inserting the pin contact, and as shown in Fig. 4A, the front surface 49 of the contact (Fig. 4A) Since it is exposed, it is likely to collide with the tip of the pin when the pin is inserted, causing damage to the connector. Furthermore, even if the guide surface 57 of the pin could be partially provided as shown in FIG. 5A, it would be difficult to provide it on the bottom surface 54, so one end surface of the contact would still be exposed. , the problem of pin-contact collision cannot be completely solved.

The present invention has been developed focusing on the above-mentioned problems, and it solves the conventional mold manufacturing problems, eliminates collisions between pins and contacts, and achieves miniaturization of multi-row connectors. The object of the present invention is to provide a housing for a piece multi-row connector.

D. Means for Solving the Problems The insulator housing of the present invention does not provide lance locking grooves for each cavity in the middle row of cavities, except for the first row of cavities and the last row of cavities. It is characterized by providing a common lance locking groove that communicates with the lance.

E. Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a housing 10 according to the present invention, and will be described as a case in which a receptacle connector is obtained by incorporating the receptacle contact 30 shown in FIG. 3. In order to avoid redundancy in explanation, the same reference numerals are generally used for the same elements even if the drawing numbers are different.

Referring to FIG. 3, a receptacle contact 30 (hereinafter referred to as a contact) has a square pin contact (not shown) in a front opening 31 of the contact.
A pair of contact portions 3 inserted from the
2, and a lance 33 for holding the contact in the housing 10. The remaining structure of the illustrated contact 30 is well known and will not be further described.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the cavities for accommodating and holding contacts will be explained. A plurality of cavities 12, 12', etc. are arranged in parallel at intervals equal to the pitch of the connector. A plurality of cavities 13 forming one row of cavities and similarly arranged in parallel,
13' form a second row, and a plurality of cavities 14, 14', similarly arranged in parallel form a third row, forming a housing for three rows of multi-polar connectors. A pin insertion hole 18 for inserting a rectangular pin contact is provided to penetrate each cavity from the front surface of the housing 10. The front surface of the housing where the pin insertion hole 18 opens is formed with a recessed surface called a bell mouth, that is, a pin guide portion 19, in order to facilitate the insertion of a rectangular pin. Although the housing of the illustrated embodiment has a bellmouth shape as an example of a square contact pin, in the case of a round pin, the guide portion may be formed as a circular recess, and the shape of the pin guide portion may be It does not limit the technical scope of the invention. As is clear from the drawings, the cavities 12, 12'... of the first row, the cavities 13, 13'... The cavities 14, 14', . . . in the third row are all made of the same structure.

Next, the lance locking groove for engaging the lance 33 of the contact will be explained. Referring to FIG. 2, one cavity 12 in the first row has one independent lance locking groove 15 on the upper surface of the housing 10, and as understood from FIG. Its dimensions are a constant length determined in the direction of the central axis of the cavity, and in order to receive the lance 33 of the contact 30, it has a width slightly wider than the width of the lance. The rear bottom surface of the lance locking groove 15 communicates with the cavity, and the front bottom surface is constituted by a part of the front wall of the housing. The lance locking grooves of all cavities in the first row have exactly the same structure. The structure of the lance locking groove 15 of the third row of cavities 14 is also the same as that of the first row of lance locking grooves, so a description thereof will be omitted. Referring to FIG. 2, it is easily understood that the length of the lance locking groove 16 of the second row of cavities 13 is the same as the length of the other locking grooves 15. However, the first and third rows
Each cavity 12, 12'..., 14, 4'... in the row is provided with an independent lance locking groove 15, whereas each cavity 12, 1 in the second row is provided with an independent lance locking groove 15.
2'... is the only common connection that communicates with each cavity.
It is important to note that the number of lance locking grooves 16 is provided, and that the depth D ₁ (Fig. 2) of the lance locking groove 16 is smaller than the depth D ₂ of the other lance locking grooves 15. There is a need to. This structure allows the housing to have sufficient strength when designing a compact high-density connector, and also provides sufficient space on the front of the housing 10 to provide a bell mouth, i.e., a pin guide 19. I can do it.

A mold for manufacturing the housing 10 having such a structure by injection molding will be considered. The core pin of the mold in the lance locking groove 16 is in the lance locking groove 1.
Since the core pin is considerably thinner than the core pin of No. 5, an individual core pin for each cavity would cause accidents such as falling due to collision with molten plastic during injection molding, but in the housing of the embodiment, the core pin is made integrally. The core pin maintains sufficient strength to withstand impact from molten plastic.

The connector is assembled by inserting the contacts 30 shown in FIG. 3 into a cavity opened at the rear of the housing 10 from the front thereof. Continue inserting the contact until the front surface 39 of the contact hits the rear surface of the front wall of the housing 10, and the lance 33 of the contact 30
are engaged with the lance locking grooves 15 and 16. Since the front face 39 of the contact is completely covered by the front wall of the housing, there will be no collision with the pin during pin insertion.

The lance locking grooves in the first and third rows can provide sufficient space to the mold, allowing relatively large dimensions, whereas the lance locking grooves in the second row
Although conventional housings did not allow sufficient mold space to provide large dimensions for rows of lance locking grooves, one lance common to multiple cavities is provided in accordance with the present invention. It has been found that the locking groove solves all of the above-mentioned problems. Therefore, the invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment.

F. Effects of the invention As explained above, the housing of the invention has the following effects:
without sacrificing the mechanical strength of the housing.
The practical effect of being able to achieve high-density miniaturization of the connector while allowing the fine structure of the housing is significant.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the front side of the housing according to the embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A of the housing shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is the housing shown in Fig. 1. FIG. 4A is a perspective view of a conventional connector; FIG. 4B is a perspective view of a conventional contact used in the connector of FIG. 1; FIG. 4C is a perspective view of a conventional contact used in the connector of FIG.
The figure is a cross-sectional view of the connector shown in Fig. 4A, with the housing cut along line B-B, Fig. 5A is a perspective view for explaining the lance locking groove manufactured using a sliding mold, and Fig. 5B The figure is a sectional view of a mold for molding the block of FIG. 5A. 10, 40...Housing, 12, 13, 14
..., 42... Cavity, 15, 16, 44...
Lance locking groove, 19... Guide portion, 30, 41...
Contact, 33, 45...Lance.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) A plurality of cavity rows in which a plurality of cavities are arranged in parallel for holding a receptacle contact equipped with a lance, and a pin insertion hole communicating with the cavity from the front surface of the housing; In a connector housing equipped with a lance locking groove drilled from the front of the housing toward the cavity, a common lance locking groove that communicates with the cavities in the middle row, excluding the first row of cavities and the last row of cavities. Multi-pole connector housing with. (2) Utility model registration claim 1, characterized in that the cavities in the first row and the cavities in the last row are each provided with independent lance locking grooves.
Multi-pole connector housing as described in section. (3) The multi-pole connector housing according to claim 1, wherein the pin insertion hole has a pin guide portion on the front surface of the housing for guiding the pin.