JPH0353755B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Purpose of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention provides a method for fitting and disengaging convex and concave housings accommodating a plurality of female and male terminals with a small force. Regarding multi-pole connectors.

[Conventional technology]

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-203581 discloses a technique in which a cam mechanism is used to engage and disengage a first connector housing and a second connector housing with a small force. The cam mechanism is
It consists of two aligned slots in a first housing, a cam track in a second housing, and a cam follower mounted on a cam follower slide. The cam driven slide is U-shaped, consisting of a web and a pair of parallel arms extending from the web, the arms extending approximately the distance between the end walls of a flange forming a hood for receiving a second housing in a first housing. The cam followers are of equal length and are located on the inner surface of the arm.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

According to the above cam mechanism, the cam driven slide must be installed perpendicular to the direction in which the first and second housings are fitted together. Therefore, a mounting space that is sufficiently wider than the length of the slide is required on one side of the connector, which poses a problem in terms of workability when mating and unmating the connector in a narrow space such as an automobile dash board. It was hot. Also, since the cam follower slides guided by the slot, the cam follower slide requires two aligned slots on one side to prevent rotational moments from rotating the cam follower slide. Correspondingly, two cam tracks must be provided on one side, and their inclination is steep, requiring a relatively large insertion/extraction force.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a low insertion/extraction force multipolar connector that allows connectors to be easily fitted or removed even in a limited narrow space with small force.

Structure of the Invention [Means and Effects for Solving Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the low insertion/extraction force multi-pole connector of the present invention includes a concave housing housing a plurality of male terminals and a concave housing housing a plurality of male terminals. In a multi-pole connector in which male and female terminals are electrically connected by mating with a convex housing, one longitudinal side wall of the housing part of the concave housing that receives the convex housing is perpendicular to the axis of the terminal. A pair of guide rails parallel to each other are provided, a slider is slidably mounted on the guide rails, a cam follower is provided protruding from the lower surface of the slider, and the movement of the cam follower is provided on the housing portion. A guide groove is provided in the side wall of the convex housing to engage with the cam follower extending through the space and extending obliquely toward the rear from the fitting surface with the concave housing; The present invention is characterized in that the convex housing is moved toward or away from the concave housing by moving the slider along the guide rail.

The slider is mounted in advance on a pair of guide rails provided on the sleeve portion of the concave housing. Therefore, there is no need for the trouble of fitting the housing from one side when fitting the housing, and as long as the convex and concave housings have a large space, it can be used even in a limited space.

Furthermore, since the slider slides along a pair of guide rails, by applying force for moving the slider near its center, stable movement is achieved with less rotational moment. Furthermore, since the slider slides along the guide rail, only one guide groove that engages with the cam follower needs to be provided on one side of the convex housing, and the guide groove can be formed with a gentle slope. This has the effect of reducing the force required for fitting and disengaging the housing.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

1 to 3, 1 is a concave housing, 2 is a convex housing, and 3 is a slider. Both housings 1 and 2 have a plurality of male terminals 4 and female terminals 5, respectively, as shown in FIG. It is accommodated.

The concave housing 1 has a sleeve portion 7 for receiving the convex housing 2 in front of the fitting surface 6. Mantle body part 7
is a frame body consisting of upper and lower opposing side walls 8 and 9 and left and right end walls 10, and the upper part of the end wall 10 is in contact with the side wall 8 and both ends via an enlarged portion 10a that swells outward. The side wall 8 has a pair of parallel guide rails 11, 12 for the slider 3 and a slot 13 which is open at one end (on the left side as viewed in FIG. 1). One guide rail 11 is formed one step higher along the front edge of the side wall 8, and the other guide rail 12 extends from the rear edge of the side wall 8 to have a stepped structure. As described above, the slot 13 has at least one end opened 13a and is provided near the front guide rail 11. In addition, each guide rail 11, 12
A locking protrusion 14 and a temporary locking protrusion 15 for the slider 3 are provided on the opening 13a side, a locking protrusion 16 is provided on the other side, and a locking protrusion 16 is provided on the other side of the guide rail 11 (as seen in FIG. 1). A stopper 17 for the slider 3 is protruded from the right side).

The slider 3 has a structure in which insertion grooves 19 and 20 for the guide rails 11 and 12 of the stepped structure are provided on both sides of the lower surface of a chevron-shaped pressing portion 18, and a cylindrical cam follower 21 is provided protruding from the center of the lower surface. Groove bottom walls 19a, 20a in each insertion groove 19, 20
A detent locking protrusion 22 that engages with the locking protrusions 14 to 16 is provided on the inner end surface. The lower surface of the pressing part 18, that is, the sliding surface 18 with the side wall 8
It is preferable to provide a plurality of recesses 18b in the groove a as shown in the figure to reduce sliding resistance.

In the convex housing 2, an enlarged plate part 24 that matches the enlarged part 10a of the sleeve part 7 is formed on the upper part of the main body part 23 for accommodating the female terminal.
4 is provided with a guide groove 25 that engages with the cam follower 21. The guide groove 25 has an inlet portion 25a extending inward from the fitting surface 26 of the convex housing 2.
and an intermediate portion 25 that extends diagonally toward the rear.
b, and an exit portion 25c extending parallel to the fitting surface 26.
It consists of

Note that since the concave housing 1 and the convex housing 2 are formed large as multi-pole connectors, the first
As shown in the figure, the fitting surface 6 of the concave housing 1 is provided with a long fitting guide rod 27 at the center and short fitting guide rods 28 on both sides, and a recess 29 corresponding to the fitting surface 26 of the convex housing 2 is provided. It is preferable to provide such a mechanism to prevent reverse coupling and to eliminate vibration of both housings 1 and 2 when operating the slider 3, which will be described later.

As shown in FIG. 2, the slider 3 is inserted into the insertion grooves 19 and 2 corresponding to the guide rails 11 and 12 from the opening 13a side of the slot 13 in the concave housing 1.
0 and mount it in advance so that it can slide.
FIG. 2 shows that the cam follower 21 of the slider 3 is introduced into the slot 13 through the opening 13a, and the detent locking projections 22 of the insertion grooves 19, 20 are inserted into the locking projections 14 of the guide rails 11, 12. It shows a state where it is temporarily locked between the temporary locking protrusion 15 and the temporary locking protrusion 15. Since the slider 3 slides along the two guide rails 11 and 12, the width of the slot 13 can be made wide or narrow as long as it allows the movement of the cam follower 21.

The two housings 1 and 2 are fitted together as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6.

First, the sleeve portion 7 of the concave housing 1 is inserted into the convex housing 2 . The insertion is continued until the temporarily locked cam follower 21 of the slider 3 reaches the back wall of the entrance portion 25a of the guide groove 25 (FIG. 4). As a result, the male and female terminals 4, shown in FIG.
The tips of 5 are on the verge of contacting each other, and fitting begins.

Subsequently, when the slider 3 is moved to the left as shown in FIG. 5, the convex housing 2 approaches the concave housing 1 by the guide groove 25 that engages with the cam follower 21. Since the cam follower 21 comes into sliding contact with the gently inclined intermediate portion 25b of the guide groove 25, the fitting can be achieved with a small force.

FIG. 6 shows the mating completed state, and the cam follower 21
is located at the exit portion 25c of the guide groove 25, and the slider 3 comes into contact with the stopper 17 and is locked by the engagement between the detent locking projection 22 and the locking projection 16 of the guide rails 11 and 12 portion.

Both housings can be removed by following the exact opposite procedure to the above. The slider 3 is operated from the center of the chevron-shaped pressing part 18, that is, the two guide rails 1.
If you press the middle part of 1 and 12 with your fingertips, there will be almost no rotational moment and no unnecessary force will be needed. Since the slider 3 is mounted in the concave housing 1 in advance, the operator only has to operate the slider, which eliminates the trouble of mounting the slider from one side of the housing as in the prior art. Furthermore, since no particular space is required for mounting the slider, it can be mounted and removed in a narrow space.

In another embodiment, the cam follower 21' is formed at one end as shown in the figure, and the rail guide section 19',
As a slider 3' with 20' facing each other, the front edge of the side wall 8' of the illustrated concave housing 1' may be cut off to provide a movement space for the cam follower 21'.

8a to 8c show other embodiments of the cam followers and their guide grooves, in which the shapes of the cam followers 30, 31, and 32 are conical a, cylindrical b, and trapezoid c, respectively, and the corresponding guide grooves are 33 and 34 are triangular cross sections a,
They have trapezoidal cross sections b and c. By combining trapezoids as shown in c, it is also possible to prevent the slider and guide groove from coming off.

FIG. 9 is a graph showing the relationship between the stroke and the fitting force when the two housings are fitted, with respect to the connection state of the female and male terminals. As can be seen from curve A, the mating force initially increases rapidly due to static friction A ₁
reaches peak A ₂ and then becomes constant due to dynamic friction.
The mating is completed when A ₃ is reached.

Therefore, although FIG. 1 shows a case where the inclination of the middle part of the guide groove 25 is constant, FIGS.
As shown in c, various guide grooves 35, 36, 37 having slopes corresponding to changes in curve A can be formed. Each of the guide grooves has intermediate portions 35b, 36b, 37b with a gentle slope, followed by intermediate portions 35b', 36b', 37b' with a large slope.
In c, the slope S at the time of fitting and the slope S' at the time of separation are formed opposite to each other.

Effects of the Invention As explained above, in the low insertion/extraction force multi-pole connector of the present invention, the slider constituting the cam mechanism for fitting or disengaging the convex and concave housings is always connected to one housing (the concave type). Because it is in a mounted state, it is possible to work in a limited space, and since the slider slides along two guide rails, there is less wasted force such as rotational moment, and the cam Only one guide groove that engages with the follower needs to be provided, and since the inclination of the guide groove can be made gentler, the force required for fitting and disengaging the two housings can be further reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the low insertion/extraction force multi-pole connector according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view of the slider mounted in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a view of the slider in Fig. 1 from below. 4 to 6 are plan views showing the fitting process of the connector in FIG. 1, FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the convex and concave housings in FIG. 4, and FIG. 8a ~c are sectional views showing other aspects of the cam follower and guide groove, respectively; Figure 9 is a graph showing the relationship between stroke and fitting force when convex and concave housings are fitted; Figures 10a~ 11c is a plan view showing another embodiment of the guide groove, and FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view showing another embodiment of the slider and the recessed housing. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Concave housing, 2... Convex housing, 3... Slider, 7... Mantle body part, 11, 12
...Guide rail, 13...Slot, 21...Cam follower, 25...Guide groove.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a multi-pole connector in which male and female terminals are electrically connected by fitting a concave housing housing a plurality of male terminals to a convex housing housing a plurality of female terminals, the convex housing of the concave housing A pair of parallel guide rails are provided on one longitudinal side wall of the receiving housing in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the terminal, and a slider is slidably mounted on the guide rails, and a cam follower is mounted on the lower surface of the slider. A space is formed in the housing portion to allow movement of the cam follower, and a side wall of the convex housing is provided with a concave housing that extends through the space and engages with the cam follower. A guide groove is provided that extends obliquely toward the rear from the fitting surface of the housing, and the convex housing can be moved toward or away from the concave housing by moving the slider along the guide rail. Low insertion/extraction force multi-pole connector.