JPH07296927A - Rotary connector device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a rotary connector device improved so that no strong contact of a resilient tab or flexible cable with the inner wall of a housing is generated, even though such contacting happens eventually owing to the installing tolerance by weakening partially the stiffness of the tab in the direction across the width, and thereby providing a flexibility to work with a stress applied to the tab across the width. CONSTITUTION:A rotor housing is mounted rotatably relative to a stator housing. A flexible cable 3 is spirally accommodated in the space bounded by the two housings. and a terminal 4 is connected with a conductor 31 exposed from this flexible cable 3. The terminal 4 is resin molded and fixed to at least either of the housings, and to this supporting element 5, a resilient tab 8 is secured, which is arranged along the cable 3. The width W1 of the tab 8 on the side secured to the support 5 is made smaller than the width W2 on the opposite side, and thereby the stiffness in the direction across the width is weakened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of a rotary connector device suitable for supplying power to an air bag provided on a pad portion of a steering wheel of an automobile, and more particularly, to an end portion of a flexible cable. The present invention relates to a technique for improving a structure for fixing to a housing by improving an elastic tongue provided along the flexible cable to prevent buckling of the flexible cable.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been a technique in which an elastic tongue is provided along a flexible cable in order to prevent buckling of the end of the flexible cable. For example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-11147 discloses this type of elastic tongue as a buckling prevention member.

[0003]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the past,
When the elastic tongue a is assembled in an eccentric state with respect to the support b as shown in FIG. 7 due to the assembly tolerance, the elastic tongue a and the flexible cable (not shown) come into strong contact with the inner wall c of the housing. There was an occasion. Therefore, when the rotary connector device rotates, noise is generated due to the interference between the elastic tongue a and the inner wall c of the housing, which further deteriorates the durability performance.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and by partially weakening the rigidity of the elastic tongue in the width direction, the stress applied in the width direction of the elastic tongue can be reduced. A rotary connector device is provided that provides flexibility to the elastic tongue and the flexible cable so that the elastic tongue and the flexible cable do not come into strong contact with the inner wall of the housing due to assembly tolerances. The purpose is to do.

The present invention provides the following means in order to achieve the above object. That is, a stator housing, a rotor housing rotatably attached to the stator housing, a flexible cable housed in a spiral shape in a space formed by the housing, and an electrically conductive wire exposed from the flexible cable. And a support body fixed to at least one of the stator housing and the rotor housing, and an elastic tongue fixed to the support body and provided along the flexible cable. In a connector device, a rotary connector device is provided in which the rigidity of the elastic tongue in the width direction is partially weakened.

Further, as an embodiment of the above invention, there is provided a rotary connector device in which the width of the elastic tongue attached to the support is relatively narrower than the width of the opposite side.

As another embodiment, there is provided a rotary connector device in which the elastic tongue piece has a plurality of holes and the support portion has a plurality of columns fitted into the holes.

As another embodiment, there is provided a rotary connector device in which at least two pillars of the plurality of pillars are positioned when the elastic tongue piece is assembled to the support body.

As another embodiment, there is provided a rotary connector device in which the elastic tongue is fixed to the support by crushing at least one of the plurality of columns.

[0010]

1 to 5 show a preferred embodiment according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a stator housing, 2 is a rotor housing, 3 is a flexible cable, 4
Is a terminal, 5 is a support, 6 is a connecting pin, 7 is an external connection harness, and 8 is an elastic tongue, which will be described in detail below.

First, the stator housing 1 is fixed to a combination switch of an automobile, for example. The rotor housing 2 is rotatably attached to the stator housing 1 and is connected to a steering handle (not shown) by a connecting pin 6.

The flexible cable 3 has, for example, a conductive wire 31.
A so-called flat cable with a structure in which is sandwiched between resin films is used. The flexible cable 3 is housed in a doughnut-shaped space formed by the stator housing 1 and the rotor housing 2, one end of which is fixed to the stator housing 1 and the other end of which is fixed to the rotor housing 2. .

The terminal 4 is made of a metal material such as copper. The terminal 4 is composed of a plurality of terminal pieces, and after being molded on the support body 5, a connecting piece (not shown) that connects the terminal pieces to each other is cut.

The support 5 is formed by resin-molding the terminal 4, and one support 5A is fixed to the rotor housing 2 and the other support 5B is fixed to the stator housing 1 as shown in FIG. By the way, one support 5A is configured as a relay member for electrically connecting the flexible cable 3 to the external connection harness 7, and the other support 5B is configured as it is as a direct insertion connector.

The support 5 has three columns 51, 52 and 53, as shown in FIGS. By the way, the columns 51 and 53 are configured for positioning when the elastic tongue piece 8 is assembled to the support body 5. Further, the remaining columns 52 are configured to fix the elastic tongue piece 8 to the support body 5 by crushing by heat caulking or the like.

Further, the elastic tongue piece 8 is provided along the flexible cable 3 in order to prevent buckling of the end of the flexible cable 3 attached to the support body 5, and more specifically, the flexible tongue 8 is provided. It is glued. The elastic tongue 8 has a length 2
One piece 81, 82, and the width W1 on the side attached to the support 5 as shown in FIG.
The width is made relatively narrower than the width 2 (arrow A shown in FIG. 1,
The rigidity with respect to the A'direction) is weakened in the width W1 portion. As a result, flexibility is given to the stress applied in the width direction of the elastic tongue piece, and the elastic tongue piece 8 and the flexible cable 3 are temporarily attached to the housing 1, 2 due to the assembly tolerance.
Even if the inner wall of the vehicle comes into contact with the inner wall of the vehicle, the strong contact is prevented.

Reference numeral 9 shown in FIG. 3 is a cover, and the cover 9 prevents the flexible cable 3 from hanging on the support 5 and becoming difficult to slip.

The rotary connector device having the above structure operates as follows. In the rotary connector device having the above structure, the external connection harness 7 is connected to, for example, an airbag device (not shown) on the steering handle side, and the other support 5B is connected.
An airbag controller (not shown) on the vehicle body side
Connect to. Thus, for example, when a car has a collision accident, an electric signal from the airbag controller is transmitted to the airbag device of the steering pad through the flexible cable 3 of the rotary connector device to ignite the inflator and ignite the airbag. Will be inflated.

[0019]

Other Embodiments The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, the flexible case 8 may be the support 5
Instead of narrowing the entire width of the attached side, a part of the width W3 may be narrowed as shown in FIG.

[0020]

Since the present invention has the above-described function, it has the following effects. That is, by partially weakening the rigidity of the elastic tongue in the width direction, flexibility is generated with respect to the stress applied in the width direction of the elastic tongue. As a result, even if the elastic tongue or the flexible cable comes into contact with the inner wall of the housing due to the assembly tolerance, the elastic tongue and the housing do not come into strong contact with each other. Noise is less likely to occur due to interference with the inner wall, and durability performance is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view showing a state before the elastic tongue piece shown in FIG. 1 is assembled.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a rotor housing to which the one shown in FIG. 1 is assembled.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a rotary connector device in which the one shown in FIG. 1 is assembled.

5 is a perspective view of the elastic tongue shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing an attached state of an elastic tongue piece in the prior art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Stator Housing 2 Rotor Housing 3 Flexible Cable 4 Terminal 5 Support 6 Connecting Pin 7 External Connection Harness 8 Elastic Tongue 31 Conductive Wire 51, 52, 53 Pillar 81, 82, 83 Hole

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A stator housing (1), a rotor housing (2) rotatably mounted on the stator housing (1), and a housing formed in a spiral shape in a space formed by the housings (1, 2). The flexible cable (3), the terminal (4) electrically connected to the conductive wire (31) exposed from the flexible cable (3), the terminal (4) is resin-molded, and the stator housing (1) and Rotation comprising a support (5) fixed to at least one of the rotor housings (2) and an elastic tongue (8) fixed to the support (5) and provided along the flexible cable (3) A connector device, wherein the elastic tongue (8) has a partially weakened rigidity in the width direction. 2. The invention according to claim 1, wherein the width (W1) of the elastic tongue (8) on the side attached to the support (5) is compared with the width (W2) on the opposite side. Rotating connector device that has been made narrower. 3. The invention according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the elastic tongue (8) has a plurality of holes (81, 82, 83), and the supporting portion (5) has the holes (81, 82). 82,
83) A rotary connector device having a plurality of pillars (51, 52, 53) fitted to each other. 4. The invention according to claim 3, wherein at least two of the plurality of columns (51, 52, 53) are included.
A rotary connector device in which two pillars (51, 53) are positioned when the elastic tongue piece (8) is assembled to the support body (5). 5. The invention according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the elastic tongue piece (8) is attached to the support body (5) by crushing at least one of the plurality of columns (51, 52, 53). Rotating connector device fixed to.