JPH07326417A - Contact and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the interference to the opposite contact by reducing the bulge of a twisted section, and enable the high-density arrangement into a housing, in a contact where a pair of contact arms are made, being twisted. CONSTITUTION:Each width of a pair of contact arms 32 is set to be approximately equal to the thickness of a board, and also the four corners of the twisted sections of the contact arm 32 are chamfered before the process of twisting. The length in diagonal direction of the cross section of the twisted section become short by this chamfering by this chamfering, so the bulge after deformation by twisting decreases.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contact for an electric connector, which is formed by shearing a metal plate, and in particular, a pair of contact arms extending from a base part are twisted and deformed in the middle to come into contact with a mating contact. Relates to a contact in which plate surfaces face each other and a manufacturing method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-70350, a pair of contact arms formed by shearing a metal plate is twisted and deformed in the middle to form a pair of contact arms. There is known a contact in which the plate surface (rolling surface) of the contact arm is brought into contact with a mating contact received during. In this type of contact, since the pair of contact arms make contact with the mating contact with the plate surface having high smoothness instead of the sheared surface having low smoothness, it is possible to obtain high contact reliability.

[0003]

In recent years, there has been a demand for arranging contacts of this type in a housing at a high density. In order to arrange the contacts at a high density, it is preferable that the width of the contact be as narrow as possible by setting the width of the contact arm of the contact to be substantially equal to the plate thickness.

9 and 10 show an example of a conventional contact in which the width of the contact arm is set to be equal to the plate thickness. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an outline of the contact along the manufacturing process.
Shows a state in which a pair of contact arms is formed by shearing a metal plate, and FIG. 6 (b) shows a state in which the contact arms are twisted and deformed.
The figure (c) shows a state in which the width of the twist-deformed portion is narrowed, and the figure (d) shows a state in which the mating contact is connected. FIG. 10 is a sectional view of the contact arm, and FIGS. 10 (a), 10 (b) and 10 (c) are Xa-Xa in FIG. 9, respectively.
The cross-sectional shape along the line, the Xb-Xb line, and the Xc-Xc line is shown.

In the contact 1 shown in FIGS. 9 and 10,
After the pair of contact arms 2 having a width substantially equal to the plate thickness is formed by shearing the metal plate, the pair of contact arms 2 are symmetrically twisted at a substantially right angle to contact with the mating connector 3 at the tip portion. 1
The plate surfaces 4 of the pair of contact arms 2 are configured to face each other. The width of the contact arm 2 is set to be substantially equal to the plate thickness, but in the portion that is twisted and deformed, there is a portion where the contact arm 2 is twisted by 45 ° as shown in FIG. 10 (b). The width is considerably larger than the other parts. If the width of the part that is twisted and deformed becomes large, it will hinder the high density arrangement of contacts.
As shown in FIG. 10 (c), the torsionally deformed portion was crushed in the width direction. However, when the width of the portion thus twisted and deformed is crushed, the height (width in the vertical direction) of the crushed portion becomes large, so that the contact 1 and the contact 3 become as shown in FIG. 9D. When connected, there is a risk that the crushed portion after being twisted and deformed may interfere with the mating contact 3.

If the contact arm makes contact with the mating contact at a portion other than the portion that makes regular contact, the portion that comes into regular contact and the mating contact may not be able to make sufficient contact, and the contact reliability of the contact will deteriorate. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a contact which can be arranged in a housing at a high density and which does not interfere with a mating contact.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a contact which can be arranged in a housing at a high density and which is suitable for manufacturing a contact that does not interfere with a mating contact. It is a thing.

[0009]

The contact of the present invention for achieving the above object is the contact as described above, in which the width and plate thickness of the contact arm are substantially equal to each other.
It is characterized in that the four corners of the torsionally deformed portion are chamfered.

Further, the method of manufacturing a contact of the present invention is
A shearing step of shearing a metal plate to extend substantially parallel to each other and forming a pair of contact arms having substantially the same width and plate thickness, and plate surfaces of the pair of contact arms that contact the mating contact. And a chamfering step for chamfering the four corners of the pair of contact arms to be twisted and deformed prior to the twisting step.

Here, "chamfering" means forming the four corners in a tapered shape or a curved surface so that the length in the diagonal direction becomes short in the cross-sectional shape of the twisted and deformed portion. Note that making the cross-sectional shape circular is also included in chamfering the four corners.

[0012]

According to the contact of the present invention, the width of the contact arm is formed substantially equal to the plate thickness, and the four corners of the torsionally deformed portion are chamfered.
Since the cross-sectional shape of the twist-deformed portion has a short length in the diagonal direction, the width and height of the twist-deformed portion are not significantly larger than the other portions.
As a result, the width of the contact is reduced as a whole, so that it is possible to arrange the contacts in the housing at a high density, and it is possible to prevent the twisted and deformed portion from interfering with the mating contact. Is improved.

According to the method of manufacturing a contact of the present invention,
In the shearing step, after the metal plate is sheared to form a pair of contact arms having substantially the same width and thickness, the four corners of the portion to be twist-deformed are chamfered before the contact arms are twist-deformed. In the cross-sectional shape of the portion, the length in the diagonal direction becomes short, and the width and height of the twist-deformed portion do not significantly protrude after the twist-deformation as compared with the other portions. For this reason, the manufactured contact has a narrow width as a whole, so that it can be arranged in a high density in the housing, and the twisted deformation of the contact is prevented from interfering with the contact. It

Further, in the present invention, since the four corners of the portion to be twisted and deformed are chamfered in advance, the cross section 2 of the portion to be twisted and deformed
The second polar moment becomes smaller, and it becomes easier to twist and deform itself, and the chamfering operation becomes easier than the method of chamfering the four corners after the torsional deformation.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of an electrical connector having contacts according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 (a) is a plan view and FIG. 1 (b) is a front view (as viewed from the mating surface side). Figure),
FIG. 7C is a right side view. 2 is an enlarged view of a part of FIG. 1B, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG.

The insulating housing 11 of the electrical connector 10 has a large number of accommodating chambers 12 for accommodating the signal contacts 20 shown in FIG. 3 and accommodating chambers 13 for accommodating the grounding contacts 30 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the fitting surface of the insulating housing 11 is provided with a large number of insertion openings 12a that communicate with the accommodation chamber 12 and a large number of insertion openings 13a that communicate with the accommodation chamber 13.
The accommodating chamber 12 and the accommodating chamber 13 are the insertion port 12a and the insertion port 13 of FIG.
As can be seen from the positional relationship with a, a signal contact
The accommodation chamber 12 that accommodates 20 is arranged so as to be surrounded by the accommodation chamber 13 that accommodates the grounding contact 30.

The present invention is applied to the ground contact 30 among the signal contact 20 and the ground contact 30. FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of the third contact 30 from the top among the ground contacts 30 shown in FIG.

The contact 30 has a base 31, a pair of contact arms 32 extending in parallel from one of the bases 31, and a connecting portion 33 extending from the other of the base 31. The contact 30 is stamped and formed from a metal plate, and the structure of the contact 30 will be described in detail below while describing a method of manufacturing the contact 30.

6 (a), 6 (b) and 6 (c) are schematic views showing the manufacturing process of the contact 30 in order, and FIG. 6 (d) shows the action of the contact 30. FIG. 7 is a view showing the cross-sectional shape of the contact arm 32 of the contact 30. (a), (b), and (c) shown in FIG. 7 correspond to (a), (b), and (c) in FIG. 6, respectively. ing. FIG. 8 is a plan view showing the outline of the contact 30 in the manufacturing process.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the contact 30 is
First, the metal plate 40 shown in FIG. 8 is punched out to form a pair of contact arms 32. At this time, as shown in FIG. 7A, the width of the contact arm 32 (the vertical width in FIG. 7A) is set to be substantially equal to the thickness of the metal plate 40. As shown in FIG. 8, the contact 30 has a contact arm 32 and a base portion 31 and a contact portion 33 formed at the same time by punching, and the four contacts 30 arranged vertically in the insulating housing 11 of the electric connector 10 are integrally formed. It is punched out and then cut off.

After being sheared, the contact arm 32 is chamfered at its four corners in a portion near the base 31 over a predetermined length. In this embodiment, the chamfering is performed by pressing the four corners with a mold to form curved surfaces at the four corners, but the other corners are cut into other shapes by cutting the four corners to form tapered flat surfaces at the four corners. You may make it chamfer. By chamfering, the cross-section of the chamfered portion is reduced in length in the diagonal direction.

After chamfering, as shown in FIG.
The pair of contact arms 32 are symmetrical in the chamfered portions so that the plate surfaces 34 face each other at the tips (portions in contact with the mating contacts) (the upper contact arm in FIG. 7).
(32 is clockwise, lower contact arm 32 is counterclockwise)
Each of them is twisted and deformed by about 90 degrees. Specifically, in this embodiment, a pair of contact arms 32 is sandwiched from above and below in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing in FIG. 6, and a mold for generating a twisting moment by a couple around the axis of the contact arms 32 is used. The pair of contact arms 32 are gradually twisted and deformed in three steps of about 30 degrees each.

Since the four corners of the twist-deformed portion have been chamfered in advance, the contact 30 does not bulge significantly after being twist-deformed. Therefore, the contact 30 is connected to the mating contact 50 as shown in FIG. 6 (d). When contacted, it does not interfere with the other party's contact 50.

The formation of the contact arm 32 described above and the formation of the connection portion 33 shown in FIG. 5 are also performed. In this embodiment, the connecting portion 33 is formed as a compliant type that is connected by being pressed into a through hole of a substrate (not shown).

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific modes of the embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an electrical connector having contacts according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a contact according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing a contact manufacturing process.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the contact arm of the contact.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a contact manufacturing process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically showing a conventional contact manufacturing process.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view of a contact arm of a conventional contact.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,20,30 Contact 2,32 Contact arm 3,50 Counter contact 4,34 Plate surface 10 Electrical connector 11 Insulation housing 31 Base 40 Metal plate

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A contact formed by shearing a metal plate, wherein a pair of plate surfaces are opposed to each other at a base portion and a portion which extends from the base portion and is torsionally deformed in the middle to come into contact with a mating contact. A contact including a contact arm, wherein the contact arm has a width and a plate thickness that are substantially equal to each other, and the four corners of the twist-deformed portion are chamfered. 2. A shearing step of shearing a metal plate to form a pair of contact arms extending substantially parallel to each other and having a width and a plate thickness substantially equal to each other; and a portion for contacting the pair of contact arms with a mating contact. And a chamfering step of chamfering the four corners of the torsionally deformed portions of the pair of contact arms prior to the twisting step so that the plate surfaces face each other. A method of manufacturing a characteristic contact.