JPH035103Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to a locking mechanism for an electrical connector.

Conventional technology In recent years, with the remarkable progress in semiconductor technology, the number of connectors mounted on boards has increased.
Demand for higher density connectors, etc. is becoming stronger year by year. Furthermore, in order to improve the reliability of the contacts, it has become essential to provide a locking mechanism to the connector.

An example of a conventional locking mechanism for locking a pair of connector bodies is one in which wire locking springs are provided on both the front and rear sides of the pin header side.
There was a connector on the cable side that hooked the lock spring from both sides.

Other conventional examples of this type of locking mechanism include Publication of Utility Model Publication No. 53-47580 and Publication of Utility Model Publication No. 54-31916.
As disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 58-21101, lock springs are provided on both sides of the electrical connector main body, and when the pair of electrical connector main bodies are connected/disconnected and locked/unlocked, both lock springs are pressed with one hand, for example. There was one that was able to be inserted and removed and unlocked at the same time by holding it between the thumb and index finger.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the former conventional locking spring mechanism mentioned above, space for installing the locking spring and space for releasing the lock is required on the front and rear sides of the connector body, and it is difficult to arrange the connector bodies side by side. high-density mounting is not possible.

The latter conventional locking mechanism described above requires a fairly large space inside the pair of electrical connector bodies into which a thumb, index finger, etc. can be inserted, and is therefore not suitable for recent high-density packaging, especially This method cannot be applied to cases where it is desired to mount a plurality of pairs of electrical connector bodies laterally on a printed circuit board with high density. Also, this latter conventional locking mechanism is not applicable to electrical connectors having a width greater than the span between the parent resin and the index finger, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a locking mechanism for an electrical connector that overcomes the problems of the conventional mechanism as described above.

Means for Solving the Problems According to the present invention, in a locking mechanism for electrical connectors for locking connectors that are mated to each other, one of the front and rear surfaces of the housing of one connector. A locking spring is provided on the side surface and is pivotable between a locking position adjacent to the side surface and an unlocking position remote from the side surface, and the locking spring is formed from a single piece of springy wire. The inverted U-shaped locking spring is formed into an inverted U-shape, and a pivot portion is formed at the lower end of both legs of the inverted U-shaped locking spring. A curved lock protrusion protruding downward is formed adjacent to the housing, a convex step is formed on the side surface of the housing, and a side portion of the convex step is provided with the pivot shaft of the lock spring. A lock spring mounting pivot hole is formed in the side portion of the convex stepped portion to receive the lock spring and allow the pivot movement of the lock spring. A restraining protrusion is formed to engage the leg portion to restrain free pivoting of the lock spring between the lock position and the unlock position, and the other connector is fitted to the one connector. In this state, by pivoting the lock spring to the lock position, the curved lock protrusion of the lock spring elastically engages with a portion of the housing of the other connector, and the one connector and the other connector are connected together. The mating with the connector is locked.

Embodiments Next, the present invention will be described in more detail with regard to embodiments of the present invention based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an electrical connector to which a locking mechanism for an electrical connector is applied as an embodiment of the present invention. This electrical connector 1 of this embodiment
00 is what is called a pin header,
It is equipped with an insulating housing 110 in which a male contact 111 is arranged, and this insulating housing 1
10 may be integrally molded from a plastic material or the like, and has a convex stepped portion 120 on its front side. A vertical groove 121 is formed on the outer surface of both sides of the convex step 120, and a lock spring mounting pivot hole 122 is formed in the lower part of the bottom wall of the vertical groove 121. Further, on the upper part of the bottom wall of this vertical groove 121, there is a restraining protrusion 1 which functions as described later.
23 is formed. Furthermore, this vertical groove 12
A tapered part 124 is formed at the upper part of the front inner wall of No. 1 as a limiting part for achieving the function described later.

Insulating housing 11 of this electrical connector 100
0, a lock spring 130 is attached. This lock spring 130 is formed from a single wire having spring properties into a substantially inverted U-shape.
A pivot portion 132 is formed at the lower end of both legs 131 of this inverted U-shaped locking spring 130, and a pivot portion 132 is formed at the upper arm portion 133 of this inverted U-shaped locking spring 130 at a position adjacent to each leg 131. A substantially U-shaped curved lock protrusion 134 is formed that protrudes downward. Also, both legs 1 of this lock spring 130
31 is bent toward the center of the insulating housing 110 just beyond the top of the insulating housing 110, as shown at 135.

This lock spring 130 connects the pivot parts 132 at the lower ends of both legs 131 to the lock spring mounting pivot holes 1 on both sides of the convex stepped part 120 of the insulating housing 110.
22, the insulating housing 1
10.
That is, the lock spring 130 has two positions: a locked position adjacent to the front side of the insulating housing 110, as shown by a solid line in FIG. It can pivot between

When in the lock position shown by solid lines in FIG. 1, the legs 131 of the lock spring 130 engage with the rear wall of the restraining protrusion 123, thereby holding the lock spring 130 in the lock position. However, when a force is applied to the lock spring 130 for the unlocking operation, the legs 131 elastically ride over the restraining protrusion 123 and move to the unlocking position as shown by the dotted line. At this time, the taper portion 124
Since the legs 131 of the lock spring 130 come into contact with the lock spring 130, the lock spring 130 will not open any further. That is, the tapered portion 12
4 is the insulating housing 110 of the lock spring 130;
Acts as a limiting stop to limit pivoting away from the front side of the. Therefore, when the lock springs 130 are opened, there is no possibility that the lock springs 130 will fall down too much. When the lock spring 130 is in the unlocked position as shown by the dotted line, both legs 131 of the lock spring 130 come into contact with the front side wall of the restraining protrusion 123, so that the lock spring 13
0 will not close naturally to the lock position. However, when a force for locking operation is applied to the locking spring 130, the legs 131 are elastically overcome by the restraining projections 123 and are moved to the locking position as shown by the solid line.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which a mating electrical connector 200 to which a cable 220 is connected is fitted to the electrical connector 100 of FIG. 1, and the fitting is locked by a locking spring 130.
To achieve such a locked state, first, as shown by the dotted line in FIG.
With the lock spring 130 of the lock spring 130 opened to the unlocked position, the mating electrical connector 200 is fitted to the electrical connector 100. Next, lock spring 130 is closed to the lock position shown in solid line in FIG. In this way, the fitted lock state can be achieved. The height dimension of the hook part of the lock spring 130 is
Insulating housing 21 of mating electrical connector 200
Set the height to be slightly smaller than the height of 0 so that the spring force is applied when the lock is engaged. By doing so, the lock spring 130 will not come off naturally unless a release operation is performed.

To change the lock state from the locked state shown in FIG. 2 to the unlocked state, push the curved lock projections 134 on both sides of the lock spring 130 with your fingers,
It is only necessary to open the lock bar 30 to the unlocked position.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the fitted and locked state of a pair of electrical connectors according to another embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the front side of the insulating housing 310 of the electrical connector 300, which is a pin header, has convex step portions 320A and 32 on both sides thereof.
0B are formed, and these convex step portions 320A
A vertical groove 321 is formed on the inner surface of 320B. In addition, at the top of the bottom wall of the vertical groove 321,
Restriction protrusion 12 in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2
A locking spring mounting pivot hole similar to the locking spring mounting pivot hole 122 in the embodiment shown in FIG. (not shown) are formed. Further, a tapered portion 324 serving as a limiting portion is formed at the upper portion of the front inner wall of the vertical groove 321. A lock spring 330 is attached to the insulating housing 310 of the electrical connector 300. This lock spring 330 is essentially the lock spring 130 described above.
It is similar to , and is formed from a single wire with spring properties into an almost inverted U-shape. At the lower ends of both legs 331 of this inverted U-shaped locking spring 330, pivot parts (not shown in FIG. 3) bent outward are formed, and these pivot parts are inserted into lock spring mounting pivot holes. The lock spring 330 is inserted so that it can pivot in the same manner as the lock spring 130. As best shown in FIG. 3, the legs 331 of the locking spring 330 are bent outward past the tops of the convex steps 320A and 320B, and then extend vertically upward to connect to the electrical connector 300. Mated mating electrical connector 2
00, it is bent again towards the center of the insulating housing 210 just beyond the top of the insulating housing 210. Upper arm portion 333 of lock spring 330
A substantially U-shaped curved locking protrusion 334 is formed in the connector, similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. By engaging, a fitted lock state can be achieved.
The operation of lock spring 330 is essentially the same as the operation of lock spring 130 in the embodiment of FIG. 1, and therefore will not be further described.

Effects of the invention Since the locking mechanism for electrical connectors of the present invention has the structure described above, there is no need to place fingers on both sides for the unlocking operation.
There is no need to take up a large space on both sides of the electrical connector pair. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the electrical connectors 100, which are pin headers, can be mounted on the printed circuit board 1 with high density in the lateral direction. Also,
Curved lock protrusion 13 of lock spring 130, 330
Since the lock can be released simply by pressing 4,334 with a finger, the present invention is applicable not only to electrical connectors within the span between the thumb and index finger, but also to electrical connectors with a wider width.

In addition, the locking mechanism for electrical connectors of the present invention is
Since it is only necessary to provide the lock spring on one side of the front and rear sides of the electrical connector,
As illustrated in FIG. 5, on the printed circuit board 1,
Electrical connectors 100, which are pin headers, can be mounted in high density at the front and rear.

Moreover, since the locking mechanism for an electrical connector of the present invention can be constructed with only a locking spring, the number of parts is small, and assembly is easy and inexpensive.

Further, by arranging the curved lock protrusions 134, 334 near both ends of the upper arm portion 133, the influence of the wire lock spring can be reduced and the lock strength can be increased.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an electrical connector to which a locking mechanism for electrical connectors is applied as an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 2 shows a state in which the electrical connector of Fig. 1 is fitted with a mating electrical connector and locked. 3 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 2 showing a pair of electrical connectors as another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the pair of electrical connectors of FIG. 2 on a printed circuit board; FIG. 5 is a partial front view showing a state where the electrical connector pairs of FIG. 2 are arranged side by side on a printed circuit board. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Printed circuit board, 100... Electrical connector, 110... Insulating housing, 120... Convex step, 121... Vertical groove, 122... Lock spring mounting pivot hole, 123... Restriction protrusion, 124... Taper Part, 130... Lock spring, 131... Leg part, 132... Pivot part, 133... Upper arm part, 1
34... Curved lock protrusion, 200... Mating electrical connector, 210... Insulating housing, 220...
…cable.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) A locking mechanism for electrical connectors for locking connectors that are mated to each other, provided on one of the front and rear surfaces of the housing of one of the connectors. A locking spring is provided which can pivot between a locking position adjacent to the side surface and an unlocking position remote from the side surface, and the locking spring is formed from a single piece of springy wire in a generally inverted U shape. A pivot portion is formed at the lower end of both legs of the inverted U-shaped lock spring, and a pivot portion is formed at the upper arm portion of the inverted U-shaped lock spring adjacent to each leg portion. A curved lock protrusion projecting downward is formed at the position, a convex step is formed on the side surface of the housing, and a side of the convex step includes:
A lock spring mounting pivot hole is formed to receive the pivot portion of the lock spring and permit the pivoting of the lock spring, and above the lock spring mounting pivot hole on the side of the convex stepped portion. , a restraining protrusion is formed on the one connector to engage each leg of the lock spring to restrain free pivoting of the lock spring between the lock position and the lock spring release position; By pivoting the lock spring to the locking position with the other connector fitted, the curved lock protrusion of the lock spring elastically engages with the housing of the other connector. A locking mechanism for an electrical connector, characterized in that the fitting between the connector and the other connector is locked. (2) A limiting stop portion is formed on the side portion of the convex step portion to engage with the leg portion of the lock spring to limit pivoting of the lock spring in a direction away from the side surface. A locking mechanism for an electrical connector according to claim (1) of the registered utility model.