JPH07282870A - Branch connector for flat cable - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a branch connector for a flat cable capable of easily branching the flat cable and expanding the applicable range when the flat cable is used for an automobile for a wire harness. CONSTITUTION:A flat cable 3 is sandwiched and fixed by a lower housing 1 and an upper housing 2, and pressure contact members 4 are pressed into slits 2b provided on the upper housing 2. Pressure contact sections 5 of the pressure contact members 4 are electrically connected to conductor sections of the flat cable 3. End sections of the pressure contact members 4 are formed into terminal sections 4b, and the terminal sections 4b form the connector terminals of a branch connector.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a flat cable branch connector suitable for branching a flat cable used as a wire harness for an automobile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a wire harness for an automobile is mainly a bundle of a plurality of single wire cables. In this type of wire harness, for example, when the cable 33 is branched between the connectors 31 and 32 and electrically connected to the connector 35 via the electric wire 34 as shown in FIG. There is. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, first, the coating of the intermediate portion of the cable 33 is peeled off to expose the conductor portion 33a, forming a so-called intermediate lead portion. Further, the conductor on the end of the cable 34 is stripped to expose the conductor 34a. Then, by the joint terminal 36 formed of a thin metal plate, the conductor portions 33a, 3a
4a is crimped. In this way, the wire harness is branched.

By the way, in recent years, it has been required to improve the habitability of automobiles and the like. Therefore, the space for disposing the wire harness tends to be narrowed. For example, the wire harness is installed on the back of the dashboard or the like, but the installation space for such a wire harness tends to be reduced. Therefore, a method has been proposed in which a rectangular tubular protector is arranged in the space for installing the wire harness, and the wire harness is flattened by installing the wire harness in the protector, and the wire harness is installed in a narrow space. However, this method has a problem that the manufacturing cost of the protector is high.

Further, the conventional wire harness in which single wire cables are bundled has a drawback that the weight is heavy.
Since a large amount of wire harnesses are used in automobiles, the weight of the wire harness is relatively large with respect to the weight of the entire automobile. Furthermore, when arranging a wire harness in which only single-wire cables are bundled, for example, in a door, it is necessary to circumvent the range of movement of the window glass, so that the wire length becomes longer and the weight is further increased. Invite.

Therefore, the use of flat cables as a wire harness for automobiles has been studied. By using a flat cable as the wire harness, the weight of the wire harness and the installation space can be reduced. Further, when a flat cable is used as the wire harness, the wire harness can be arranged in the gap between the window glass and the iron plate even in a door or the like. Absent. Therefore, the wire harness can be arranged linearly, the wiring length can be shortened, and the weight of the wire harness can be further reduced.

[0006]

However, when a flat cable is used as a wire harness for an automobile, there is a problem that it becomes difficult to branch the cable.
That is, when the conventional branching method is applied to a flat cable, as shown in FIG. 9, after the cable 41 to be branched is partially separated from the flat cable 40, an intermediate lead-out portion is formed on the cable 41. It is necessary to crimp the intermediate lead-out portion to the conductor portion of the cable 42 with the joint terminal 43. However, such work is extremely complicated, and there is a risk that the adjacent cables will be damaged when the cables 41 are separated. For this reason, in the conventional flat cable used as a wire harness for automobiles, almost no branching is performed, and the applicable range of the flat cable is limited. It is also proposed to use a flexible printed circuit board to branch the flat cable (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-6).
No. 2543), the flexible printed circuit board has drawbacks such as high manufacturing cost, and thus has not been widely adopted for a wire harness for automobiles.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is possible to easily branch a flat cable and to expand the applicable range when the flat cable is used as a wire harness in an automobile or the like. It is intended to provide a branch connector for use.

[0008]

A flat cable branch connector according to the present invention is a flat cable branch connector for branching a flat cable in which a plurality of conductors are arranged in parallel and covered with an insulator. A pressure contact including a housing for sandwiching and fixing a flat cable between two members, and a pressure contact portion which is cut into an insulator of the flat cable at a portion sandwiched by the first and second members and is pressure-contacted with a conductor portion. A member, and a branch connector terminal is constituted by an end portion of the press contact member.

[0009]

In the present invention, the pressure contact portion of the pressure contact member is pressure contacted with the conductor portion of the flat cable to electrically connect the conductor portion and the pressure contact member. In addition, the end portion of the pressure contact member constitutes a branch connector terminal. For example, when the connector of the fitting partner is fitted to the branch connector according to the present invention, the terminal of the connector of the fitting partner and the end portion of the pressure contact member are engaged with each other to electrically connect them. In the present invention, since the flat cable is branched in this manner, it is not necessary to separate the cables forming the flat cable, and the flat cable can be branched very easily.

By using a plurality of pressure contact members corresponding to the plurality of cables forming the flat cable, each conductor portion of the flat cable can be branched individually.

The pressure contact member is previously fixed to one of the first and second members of the housing. When the flat cable is sandwiched and fixed by the first and second members, the pressure contact portion of the pressure contact member is fixed. May be cut into the conductor portion and pressure-welded. However, at least one of the first and second members is provided with a slit penetrating in the thickness direction thereof, the flat cable is fixed by the first and second members, and then the press contact member is inserted into the slit. Then, it is preferable to connect the pressure contact member and the cable conductor portion. Thus, after the flat cable is sandwiched and fixed by the housing, the pressure contact member can be pressure-contacted with the conductor portion of the flat cable, so that the displacement between the pressure contact member and the flat cable can be prevented, and the pressure contact member and the conductor of the flat cable can be prevented. The flat cable can be reliably pressed against the flat cable, and there is no risk of damaging the flat cable.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a perspective view showing a flat cable branch connector according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state in which an electric wire is similarly connected to the branch connector. The branch connector 10 according to this embodiment includes a lower housing (first member) 1, an upper housing (second member) 2, and a pressure contact member 4.
The lower housing 1 is provided with a plurality of (five in the figure) substantially semicircular grooves 1a extending in the length direction thereof in parallel with each other. In addition, these grooves 1a are formed in the lower housing 1.
The concave portion 1c is provided adjacent to the formation region of. On the other hand, in the upper housing 2, the groove 1a of the lower housing 1
Is provided with a plurality of substantially semicircular grooves 2a, and a recess 2c is provided in alignment with the recess 1c.

The flat cable 3 is sandwiched and fixed by the lower housing 1 and the upper housing 2 from above and below. In this case, for example, a lock mechanism (not shown) is provided in the lower housing 1 and the upper housing 2, and they are fixed to each other by this lock mechanism. In addition, due to the recesses 1c and 2c,
As shown in FIG.
1 is configured.

The upper housing 2 is provided with five slits 2b extending in a direction orthogonal to the groove 2a and penetrating from the upper surface side to the lower surface side of the housing 2 in parallel with each other. Further, the lower housing 1 is provided with a groove 1b at a position aligned with the slit 2b of the upper housing 2.

A pressure contact member 4 (bus bar) is inserted into each slit 2b provided in the upper housing 2. The press-contact member 4 is formed of a metal plate, and is provided on one end of the base 4a, a base 4a extending in the length direction of the slit 2b, a press-contact part 5 that is vertically extended from the base 4a. The terminal portion 4b is bent into a crank shape. The pressure contact portions 5 of the pressure contact members 4 are provided at different positions in the longitudinal direction of the base portion 4a so as to correspond to the conductor portions of the flat cable 3. Further, the press contact portion 5 is provided with a slit 5a, and the conductor portion of the flat cable 3 is sandwiched by the slit 5a.

Next, a method for branching a flat cable by using the branch connector thus constructed will be described.
First, the flat cable 3 is arranged in alignment with the groove 1a of the lower housing 1, the upper housing 2 is attached to the lower housing 1, and the flat cable 3 is sandwiched and fixed by the housings 1 and 2.

Next, the slit 2b of the upper housing 2
The press contact member 4 is press-fitted into. At this time, a cut is provided in the insulating coating layer of the flat cable 3 by the wall portion of the slit 5a of the pressure contact member 4, and the cable conductor portion and the pressure contact member 4 are electrically connected through this cut. At this time, since the pressure contact member 4 is sandwiched between the walls of the slit 2b, the deformation of the pressure contact member 4 can be avoided. Also, the pressure contact member 4
As shown in FIG. 2, the terminal portions 4b of 4 are arranged inside the opening portion 11 that is opened to the side portion of the connector 10 to form a branch connector terminal. When a connector (not shown) which is a mating partner is fitted to the opening 11 side of the branch connector, the terminal of the mating connector is engaged with the terminal portion 4b, and both are electrically connected. . This completes the branching of the flat cable 3. The cable connected to the mating connector may be a flat cable or a wire harness in which conventional single wire cables are bundled. The cable connected to the mating connector is connected to, for example, a window glass driving motor and a door lock electromagnetic coil.

In this embodiment, the flat cable 3 is sandwiched and fixed by the housings 1 and 2, and then the cable is branched by inserting the pressure contact member 4 into the slit 2b. Therefore, the flat cable 3 and the pressure contact member 4 are connected to each other. Can be prevented from being displaced, the pressure contact member 4 can be reliably pressed against the conductor portion of the cable, and there is no risk of damaging the flat cable. If the pressure contact member is fixed to the lower housing or the upper housing in advance, in the case of a cable having a curving tendency or a bending tendency, the pressure contact member may damage the cable when fixing it to the housing. is there. However, in the present embodiment, even if the cable has a curving or bending tendency, tension is applied only when the cable is fixed to the housings 1 and 2, and the housing 1 and
The cable may be fixed to a predetermined position of 2, and the pressure contact member 4
Even when tension is not applied to the cable when inserting into the slit 2b, there is no risk of damaging the cable.

Further, in this embodiment, since the press contact member 4 is used for branching as described above, it is not necessary to separate the cables constituting the flat cable, and branching of the flat cable is extremely easy. As a result, the range of application when the flat cable is used as a wire harness for automobiles can be expanded. Furthermore, since the press-contact member 4 is electrically connected to the cable conductor portion only by being press-fitted into the slit 2b, it is easy to automate the production of the wire harness having the branch portion, thereby reducing the production cost of the wire harness. It can be reduced. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, since the thickness of the connector 10 is relatively small, the wire harness can be arranged in a narrow space. For example, the wire harness is arranged in the gap between the window glass inside the door and the iron plate. You can also do it. As a result, the wire length can be shortened, and the weight of the flat cable is smaller than that of the conventional wire harness in which single-wire cables are bundled, and thus the weight of the wire harness relative to the weight of the entire vehicle can be significantly reduced. Therefore, there is an effect that the weight of the automobile is further reduced and the fuel consumption of the automobile is improved.

FIG. 3 (a) is a perspective view showing a flat cable branch connector according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
(B) is a plan view showing the anchor 13 of the same.
The present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that an anchor (clip) 13 is provided in the lower portion of the lower housing 2, and other configurations are basically the same as those in the first embodiment. Therefore, the same components are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, an anchor 13 is provided at the bottom of the lower housing 1. This anchor 13
Are integrally formed with the lower housing 1 by resin, and the column portion 1 vertically downward protruding from the lower housing 1
3a and a pair of plate-like engaging portions 13 extending obliquely from both ends of the supporting column portion 13a to both sides of the supporting column portion 13a and having elastic force.
and b.

The branch connector 10 is fixed to a vehicle body or the like by inserting an anchor 13 into a hole provided in the vehicle body or the like. When the engaging portion 13b is inserted into the hole, the engaging portion 13b is pressed and narrowed by the wall surface of the hole, and when the engaging portion 13b passes through the hole, the engaging portion 13b is opened by an elastic force, and the tip portion of the engaging portion 13b is brought into contact with the supporting member wall portion around the hole. Engage. This allows the anchor 13
Does not easily come out of the hole, and the branch connector 10 can be fixed to the vehicle body or the like.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the upper housing 22 of the flat cable branch connector according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the cover 23 is mounted on the upper housing 22 so as to be openable and closable. The cover 23 is formed integrally with the upper housing 22. Further, an engaging projection 23a is provided on the tip of the cover 23.

Similar to the first embodiment, the upper housing 22 is provided with a substantially semicircular groove 22a corresponding to the unevenness of the flat cable, and a slit 22b penetrating from the upper surface side to the lower surface side. It is provided. In addition, the upper housing 22 is provided with an engaging portion 22c capable of engaging with the protrusion 23a of the cover 23.

In this embodiment, like the first embodiment, the cover 23 is closed after the pressure contact member is inserted into the slit 22b of the upper housing 22. As a result, the pressure contact member is not exposed to the upper part of the housing, which has the advantage of improving the insulation.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a pressure contact member of a flat cable branch connector according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. The pressure contact member 24 includes a plurality of pressure contact portions 25. By inserting the pressure contact member 24 into the slit of the upper housing in place of the pressure contact member 4 shown in FIG.
The predetermined conductor portions of the flat cable can be electrically connected to each other. That is, by using the pressure contact member shown in FIG. 5, branching of the flat cable and connection between the conductors of the flat cable can be performed at the same time.

FIG. 6 (a) is a perspective view showing an upper housing of a flat cable branch connector according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 (b) is a perspective view showing a pressure contact member of the branch connector. is there. On the upper part of the press contact member 26, two recesses 2 are formed at positions spaced apart from each other in the longitudinal direction of the terminal 26.
6a is provided. In addition, the upper housing 22,
A cover 23 is provided as in the third embodiment. The cover 23 is provided with a protrusion 23c at a position aligned with the recess 26a of the pressure contact member 26. When the cover 23 is closed after the press-contact member 26 is inserted into the slit 22b of the upper housing 22, the projection 23c presses the press-contact member 26 and fits into the recess 26b.
The pressure contact portion 27 of 6 is prevented from coming off the cable conductor.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the pressure contact portion of the pressure contact member is pressure contacted with the conductor portion of the flat cable,
Since the cable is branched using the end portion of the pressure contact member as the branch connector terminal, the branching of the flat cable becomes extremely easy. As a result, the range of application when the flat cable is used as a wire harness for an automobile or the like is significantly expanded, the installation space for the wire harness in the automobile or the like can be reduced, and the weight of the wire harness can be significantly reduced. Further, there is an effect that it becomes easy to automate the production of the wire harness having the branch portion, and the production cost of the wire harness can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a flat cable branch connector according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which an electric wire is also connected to the branch connector.

FIG. 3A is a perspective view showing a flat cable branching connector according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3B is a plan view showing an anchor of the branching connector.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an upper housing of a flat cable branch connector according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a pressure contact member of a flat cable branch connector according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6A is a perspective view showing an upper housing of a flat cable branch connector according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6B is a perspective view showing a pressure contact member of the branch connector.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a branch of a wire harness.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional method for branching a wire harness.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a problem when a conventional wire harness branching method is applied to a flat cable.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1; Lower housing 1a, 2a, 22a; Groove 1c, 2c; Recess 2,2; Upper housing 2b, 22b; Slit 3, 40; Flat cable 4, 24, 26; Pressure contact member 5, 25, 27; Pressure contact portion 10; Branch connector 11; Opening 13; Anchor 23; Cover

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Kazuo Enomoto 1-5-1 Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo Fujikura Stock Company (72) Inventor Satoshi Watanabe 1-5-1 Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo Stock Association Inside Fujikura

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A flat cable branching connector for branching a flat cable in which a plurality of conductors are arranged in parallel and covered with an insulator, and a housing for sandwiching and fixing the flat cable between first and second members, A pressure contact member having a pressure contact portion which is cut into the insulator of the flat cable and is pressure contacted with the conductor portion at a portion sandwiched between the first and second members, and branched by an end portion of the pressure contact member. Branch connector for flat cables, characterized in that the connector terminals are configured. 2. The flat cable branch connector according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the pressure contact members are provided. 3. A slit penetrating in a thickness direction is provided in either one of the first and second members, and the press-contact member is inserted into the slit so that the flat cable of the flat cable is inserted into the slit. The branch connector for a flat cable according to claim 1, wherein the branch connector is pressed against the conductor portion.