JPH0732876U - Lever type connector - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] In a connector provided with a lever, workability at the time of mounting the lever is improved, and size reduction is achieved when a plurality of connector housings are connected side by side. [Structure] A lever support shaft 20 is projectingly provided on the outer surfaces of the left and right side wall portions of the male connector housing 17.
1 is rotatably supported by fitting the bearing hole 21. Further, on the left and right side wall portions, the leg portion 11 of the lever 11 is provided.
The outer wall portion 22 is integrally provided so as to sandwich a from the side. On the other hand, the lever 11 has an arc-shaped cam groove 23 formed around the bearing hole 21, and the bearing hole 2 extends from the left edge portion.
The protrusion accommodating groove 25 is formed so as to be depressed toward the inner surface of the groove 1. Accordingly, when the lever 11 is mounted in the bearing hole 21, the lever support shaft 20 can be moved in the bearing hole 21 direction while being engaged with the protrusion housing groove 25 and finally fitted into the bearing hole 21. .

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a lever-type connector in which connectors are connected by the lever principle, and more particularly, to a connector having improved assembly workability.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 In this type of lever-type connector, for example, as shown on the left side of FIG. 9, a connector housing 1 of a male connector is provided with lever supporting shafts 2 on both side surfaces thereof, and a gate-shaped lever 3 having a cam groove therein. The legs are rotatably supported so as to straddle the connector housing 1. On the other hand, although not shown, the female connector is provided with a cam protrusion that engages with the cam groove of the lever 3, and by rotating the lever 3, the cam action of the cam protrusion and the cam groove causes The female connector can be easily moved in the coupling direction.

Outer wall portions 4 located on both sides of the leg portion of the lever 3 are provided on both left and right sides of the connector housing 1 of the male connector, so that the outer wall portions 4 from the cam protrusions that act when the lever is rotated are provided. The leg of the lever 3 is prevented from coming off the lever support shaft 2 by the reaction force.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, when the connector housing 1 is provided with the outer wall portion 4 as described above, as shown on the right side of FIG. 9, when the lever 3 is fitted to the lever support shaft 2 during assembly, the lever support shaft 2 The outer wall part 4 must be forcibly pushed outwards by the thickness of the above, and it must be installed. For this reason, the lever 3 cannot be easily mounted, resulting in poor workability, or the outer wall portion 4 is damaged if the lever 3 is excessively expanded.

There is also a configuration in which lever-type connectors of this type are laterally arranged and integrally connected. In this case, if the outer wall portions 4 as described above are provided, it is necessary to secure a space between the outer wall portions 4 that are adjacent to each other so that the outer wall portions 4 can be spread, so that extra space is required and the entire outer wall portion 4 is required. It becomes large in size.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to improve workability when mounting a lever in a connector housing provided with an outer wall portion so as to oppose from the side of the lever. Another object of the present invention is to provide a lever-type connector that can be made compact and can be downsized by removing unnecessary space when connecting a plurality of connector housings side by side.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to achieve the above object, the lever type connector of the present invention has a protrusion accommodating groove for guiding the lever support shaft to the bearing hole when the lever is attached to the lever. It has characteristics (the device of claim 1).

Further, the protrusion accommodating groove is formed by removing it from the line connecting the cam protrusion and the lever support shaft in the state where the resistance is maximized when the lever is rotated to connect the two connectors. It is desirable (the invention of claim 2). Further, a plurality of connector housings provided with levers may be arranged and connected integrally with the outer wall portions thereof facing each other (claim 3).

[0009]

[Action]

 According to the first aspect of the present invention, in order to mount the lever on the connector housing at the time of assembly, first, the edge of the protrusion accommodating groove of the lever is pressed against the lever support shaft and the lever is lightly pushed. Then, the lever flexes and deforms so as to slightly expand, and the lever supporting shaft enters into the protrusion accommodating groove. Therefore, if the lever is further pushed in this state, the lever support shaft moves in the bearing hole direction of the lever while engaging in the protrusion accommodating groove, and finally the lever support shaft fits into the lever bearing hole. When the lever support shaft advances into the protrusion accommodating groove, the lever flexes and deforms, but the guide groove is recessed, so the amount of flexing is small, and therefore the outer wall of the connector housing is forced to move outward. Almost never spread out, and there is little resistance to mounting the lever.

By the way, in this type of connector, the lever is rotated in order to connect the male and female connectors in the separated state. At this time, the resistance when the lever is rotated changes depending on the rotation angle of the lever, and there is a position where the resistance becomes maximum during the rotation, and at that position the lever is pushed the most from the lever support shaft. Pressure acts. Since the pressing force acts on the line connecting the cam protrusion and the lever support shaft, if the protrusion accommodating groove is formed on that line, the lever support shaft may not fit in the bearing hole depending on the magnitude of the pressing force. It is conceivable that it may come off and move to the protrusion accommodating groove side. However, according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the protrusion accommodating groove is formed off the line connecting the cam protrusion and the lever support shaft, the lever can be reliably prevented from coming off.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the plurality of connector housings are connected side by side. However, when the lever is attached, the lever of the connector housing does not widely push the connector housing outwardly. It is not necessary to secure a large space between the outer wall parts of the adjacent connector housings with a margin.

[0012]

[Effect of device]

 As described above, according to the lever type connector of the first aspect, when the lever is fitted to the lever supporting shaft at the time of assembly, the lever supporting shaft is guided into the bearing hole while being engaged in the protrusion accommodating groove. As a result, the outer wall portion can be easily mounted without widening outward, and workability can be improved.

Further, according to the lever type connector of the second aspect, it is possible to reliably prevent the lever from being disengaged from the lever support shaft when the lever is rotated to connect the other connector. Further, according to the lever type connector of the third aspect, it is not necessary to provide a large gap between the adjacent outer wall portions, so that the overall size can be reduced.

[0014]

【Example】

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, the lever-type connector of the present embodiment is of a double type in which two male connectors 12 and 12 having levers 11 and 11 are horizontally connected side by side, respectively. It can be combined with the female connector 13 (one female connector is combined with one male connector). Here, since each male connector 12 has the same configuration, the configuration of one male connector 12 will be described in detail for the sake of simplification of description.

First, the female connector 13 has a known configuration in which a rectangular parallelepiped female connector housing 14 is provided and a large number of female terminals are arranged in the female connector housing 14. A cover 15 is integrally attached to the upper portion of the female connector housing 14, and two cam projections 16 are coaxially provided at substantially the center of the left and right side wall portions of the female connector housing 14.

On the other hand, the male connector 12 includes a rectangular parallelepiped male connector housing 17, and a rectangular female connector housing chamber 18 capable of housing the female connector housing 14. A large number of male terminal accommodating chambers 19 are provided in the lower part of the female connector accommodating chamber 18, and the tips of male terminals (not shown) arranged in the male terminal accommodating chambers 19 are arranged in parallel in the female connector accommodating chamber 18. It is designed to project in the state.

Lever support shafts 20 having a projection size of about 1.5 mm are coaxially projected on the outer surfaces of the left and right side wall portions of the female connector housing chamber 18 of the male connector housing 17. A two-legged lever 11 shown in FIG. 4 is provided on the shaft 20 so as to straddle the male connector housing 17. The lever 11 is attached by fitting a bearing hole 21 formed in each leg portion 11 a thereof to the lever support shaft 20, and is rotatable with respect to the male connector housing 17. Outer wall portions 22 are integrally provided on the left and right side wall portions of the male connector housing 17, respectively, and are sandwiched laterally opposite to the leg portions 11a of the lever 11. The size of the gap between the outer wall 22 and the side wall of the connector housing 17 is set to be substantially equal to or slightly larger than the thickness of the leg 11a of the lever 11.

An arcuate cam groove 23 centered on the bearing hole 21 is formed in each leg portion 11a of the lever 11, and an inner portion extends from the right edge portion of the leg portion 11a to the right end portion of the cam groove 23. An insertion groove 24 is formed on the side surface. The cam protrusion 16 of the cover 15 provided on the female connector housing 14 side is adapted to enter the cam groove 23 through the insertion groove 24 and engage with the cam groove 23.

Of the inner side surface of the leg portion 11a of the lever 11, from the left edge portion thereof to the bearing hole 21, there is formed a projecting portion accommodating groove 25 having a width dimension that allows the lever support shaft 20 to enter. The recess is formed to have a depth of about 1 mm, which is about half the size of the engagement allowance between the lever support shaft 20 and the bearing hole 21. Further, as will be apparent from the description of the operation to be described later, the forming direction of the protrusion accommodating groove 25 is such that when the connectors 12 and 13 are connected, the resistance for rotating the lever 11 is maximized. It is formed off the line A (see FIG. 7) connecting the cam protrusion 16 and the lever support shaft 20, and is formed on a line having an angle of about 60 degrees with respect to the line.

Next, an operation of mounting the lever 11 on the male connector housing 17 will be described. First, the both legs 11a are inserted between the side wall and the outer wall 22 of the male connector housing 17 so as to straddle the lever 11 from above the male connector housing 17, and the protrusion housing groove 25 is formed on the lever support shaft 20. Press the edges of.

Then, when the lever 11 is strongly pushed downward from this state, the respective leg portions 11a, 11a of the lever 11 are spread by the lever support shafts 20, 20 and pressed against the inner surface of the outer wall portion 22. As a result, as shown on the right side of FIG. 3, the outer wall portion 22 is flexibly deformed so as to spread outward, and the lever support shaft 20 enters into the protrusion housing groove 25. After that, if the lever 11 is continuously pushed downward, the lever support shaft 20 moves in the protrusion accommodating groove 25, and finally encounters the bearing hole 21 and is fitted therein, and the lever 11 is inserted into the male connector housing 17. It becomes a state in which it is rotatably attached to.

In the assembling process of the lever 11 described above, the outer wall portion 22 of the male connector housing 17 is pushed and spread by each leg portion 11 a of the lever 11 and flexibly deformed so as to spread outward, and as a result, the lever support shaft 20 Fits into the bearing hole 21. In this respect, it is similar to the conventional lever-type connector. However, in the present invention, since the protrusion accommodating groove 25 is formed from the edge portion of the leg 11 a of the lever 11 to the bearing hole 21, the lever supporting shaft 20 is fitted into the bearing hole 21 until the lever is fitted. The tip end of the support shaft 20 passes through the protrusion accommodating groove 25 in a state of having entered. Here, since the projecting portion accommodation groove 25 is formed so as to be recessed from the surface of the leg portion 11a, the thickness dimension of that portion of the leg portion 11a is thin. Therefore, even if the leg portion 11a of the lever 11 is bent and deformed so as to be spread like the conventional configuration, the protrusion portion accommodation groove 25 is not provided, so that the leg portion 11a is forced to be bent and deformed by the thickness dimension. Unlike the conventional lever-type connector, the flexural deformation amount is limited to about 2/3 in the case of the present embodiment, so that the insertion resistance of the lever 11 is reduced and the work efficiency is greatly improved.

In addition, as described above, the amount of flexural deformation of the leg portion 11a of the lever 11 and the outer wall portion 22 of the male connector housing 17 can be extremely reduced because the outer wall portions provided between the outer wall portions 22 of the adjacent male connector housings 17 are both. This means that the gap for allowing the flexural deformation of 22 can be made narrower, and accordingly, the overall size can be reduced.

In addition, in the above-mentioned configuration, when the male and female connectors 12 and 13 are coupled, the following is performed. First, the female connector housing 14 is inserted into the female connector housing chamber 18 of the male connector housing 17 from above. At this time, the cam projection 16 of the female connector housing 14 moves downward while being guided by the insertion groove 24 of the lever 11 and engages with the cam groove 23. From this state, the lever 11 is rotated upward (in the direction of arrow B) as shown in FIG. Then, the cam projection 16 is pushed downward by the cam action with the cam groove 23, and eventually the female connector housing 14 is displaced in the coupling direction with the male connector housing 17 to be in the coupled state shown in FIG.

By the way, when the lever 11 is rotated to couple the female connector 13 to the male connector 12, the upper opening edge of the cam groove 23 pushes down the cam projection 16. At this time, the insertion resistance caused by the frictional resistance between the male and female terminals acts in the direction of pushing up the lever 11. Further, the insertion resistance does not have a uniform size when the lever 11 rotates, but changes with the rotation angle. Specifically, the change in the insertion resistance is as shown in FIG. 8, and the maximum resistance position is in the first half of the turning operation of the lever 11. When the lever 11 is rotated to this position, the lever 11 is pushed up with the greatest force. Since this pushing force acts on the line A connecting the cam protrusion 16 and the lever support shaft 20, the protrusion accommodating groove 25 is temporarily placed on the line A at the rotation position where the maximum insertion resistance occurs. If the push-up force against the lever 11 is very large, the lever support shaft 20 enters from the bearing hole 21 to the inside of the protrusion accommodating groove 25 and eventually comes out of the bearing hole 21. It is possible that it will come off.

In this regard, in this embodiment, since the projecting portion accommodation groove 25 is formed at an angular position that deviates from the line A, when the female connector 13 is coupled, the lever 11 is attached to the lever support shaft. It can be reliably prevented from coming off from 20.

Although the cam protrusion 16 is provided on the female connector housing 14 of the female connector 13 in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and the configuration may be such that it is provided on the cover 15 of the female connector 13. This is also included in the concept of the “cam protrusion protruding on the connector housing side” in the present invention. Further, it goes without saying that the male and female terminals may be arranged in the opposite relationship to the above embodiment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a male connector.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view showing a case where a male connector and a lever are attached.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a lever.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a coupling start state of the male and female connectors.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a combined state of male and female connectors.

FIG. 7 is a side view showing a position where the resistance when connecting the male and female connectors is maximum.

FIG. 8 is a curve showing changes in insertion resistance.

FIG. 9 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a conventional lever attached.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 ... Lever 12 ... Male connector 13 ... Female connector 14 ... Female connector housing 16 ... Cam projection 17 ... Male connector housing 20 ... Lever support shaft 21 ... Bearing hole 22 ... Outer wall part 23 ... Cam groove 25 ... Projection accommodating groove

Claims (3)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A cam groove in which one of the connectors to be connected to each other is provided with a lever supporting shaft in a projecting manner, and the lever supporting shaft is engageable with a cam projecting portion provided in a protruding manner on the other connector housing side. Is provided rotatably through the bearing hole, and the cam action of the cam groove associated with the rotation of the lever causes the other connector housing to be displaced to connect and disconnect both connectors, and In the connector housing provided with an outer wall portion positioned to face the lever from the side, a protrusion accommodating groove that guides the lever support shaft to the bearing hole when the lever is mounted is provided on the lever. A lever-type connector characterized in that it is formed so as to be recessed from an edge portion to the bearing hole. 2. The protrusion accommodating groove is removed from the line connecting the cam protrusion and the lever support shaft in a state where the resistance when rotating the lever to couple the two connectors is maximized. The lever-type connector according to claim 1, wherein the lever-type connector is formed. 3. The lever-type connector according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of connector housings provided with the levers are arranged and connected integrally with their outer wall portions facing each other.