JPH081579Y2 - connector - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Industrial field of application" The present invention relates to a connector for fitting a pair of connector housings for electrical conduction. Specifically, whether the pair of connector housings are fitted properly. The present invention relates to a connector having a detection confirmation mechanism of a fitting posture for detecting and confirming.

"Prior art" When mating a pair of connector housings, there is a risk that a half-fitted connector will not fit properly due to insufficient mating amount. Various devices provided with a state detection / confirmation mechanism have been proposed, and among the known examples thereof, a device applying an optical sensor is disclosed in JP-A-1-109671 and JP-A-63-225480.
It is shown in the publication.

That is, in this known example, a confirmation hole or a confirmation mark is provided on each surface of a pair of mating connector housings.
The light generation device is brought close to the fitted connector, and detection light is emitted to and detected from the confirmation hole or confirmation mark to detect and confirm the fitted state of the connector housing.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] According to the above conventional means, it is necessary to bring the light generating device close to the fitted connector and emit detection light to the surface of the connector in use. In some wire harnesses for automobiles that take various complicated postures, the optical sensor cannot be brought close to the individual surface of the connector, which causes a connector in which the mating state cannot be detected and confirmed. And
The means for detecting and confirming the light generating device in close proximity to each connector in the combined use state requires time and effort and is inefficient, and is not suitable as a quality confirmation means for recent mass production systems. There are the above problems.

The present invention provides a connector that solves the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional means.

"Means for Solving the Problems" The connector of the present invention which solves the above technical problems is "in a connector in which a pair of connector housings are fitted, a separate detection spacer is attached to one side of the pair of connector housings. In addition, the detection spacer is configured so that it can be taken out only when the pair of connector housings are in the normal fitting posture, and the detection spacer is provided with a bar code display section with a required bar code. Has become.

"Operation" In the connector of the present invention configured as described above, the detection spacer can be freely pulled out when the pair of connector housings is in the normal mating posture, and cannot be pulled out when the mating is not properly completed. Therefore, it is possible to accurately detect and confirm the quality of the fitting posture by the presence / absence of the detection spacer.

Then, based on the bar code display portion of the removed detection spacer, the optical sensor determines whether the fitting is good or bad (the connector of the detection spacer confirmed by the optical sensor is good fitting,
It is not necessary to bring optical sensors close to the surface of the connector when it is in use. It is possible to systematically and efficiently grasp the concrete state of good or bad mating.

"Example" Hereinafter, a detailed description will be given based on examples. First, referring to FIG. 1 showing one embodiment of a rear extraction type of a detection spacer, fitting of a front half portion of a male connector housing 2 (hereinafter, simply referred to as a male housing 2) accommodating a male terminal (not shown). A female connector housing 1 (hereinafter, simply referred to as the female housing 1) in which a female terminal (not shown) is housed in the portion 3
In the connector for connecting the two terminals by fitting the first half of the above), a spacer accommodating portion 5 is provided on the upper side of the terminal accommodating portion 4 of the female housing 1, and a separate detection spacer 6 is provided in the spacer accommodating portion 5. Inserted and locked from the rear of the detection spacer 6
The front end of the female housing 1 faces the front of the female housing 1 and is assembled.

Specifically, the detection spacer 6 has two parallel cantilever-shaped elastic locking pieces 8 extending forward from the base 7, and has a locking claw 9 protruding downward at its free end. Further, the flat upper surface of the base portion 7 is formed on a barcode display portion 17 to which a barcode body on which a required barcode is printed is attached.

The spacer accommodating portion 5 that receives the detection spacer 6 is formed in the upper portion of the female housing 1 and has a groove shape that penetrates from the rear to the front, and the bottom of the spacer accommodating portion 5 has a locking portion 11 at the front end. When the detection spacer 6 is inserted into the spacer accommodating part 5 from the rear of the female housing 1 as shown in FIG. The locking claw 9 of the elastic locking piece 8 is engaged with the locking portion 11 at the tip of the locking ridge 10 to provide a backward locking means for the detection spacer 6 which is locked so that the detection spacer 6 does not pull out. Has been.

Then, the locking claw 9 in the locking posture faces a locking dissociation portion 12 (described later) of the male housing 2 to be fitted, and the base portion 7 of the detection spacer 6 projects from the rear end of the female housing 1. The protruding portion has a shape that functions as a “presence confirmation portion” of the detection spacer 6 and a “pick portion” when pulling out.

On the other hand, at the rear bottom portion of the fitting portion 3 of the male housing 2, there is provided a tongue-shaped locking / disengaging portion 12 projecting forward.
The locking disengagement portion 12 is provided with the intention of disengaging the retracting locking means and freely setting the detection spacer 6 when the male and female housings 1 and 2 are fitted in the normal posture. ), When the male and female housings 1 and 2 are in the normal mating posture, the tip 13 of the locking dissociation portion 12 closely faces the locking portion 11 on the female housing 1 side and engages with the locking portion 11. The locking claw 9 of the elastic locking piece 8 is pushed upward to elastically bend the elastic locking piece 8 so that the engagement between the two is disengaged.

A guide taper 14 is attached to the front end of the locking claw 9 in order to facilitate the lifting of the locking claw 9 by the locking disengagement portion 12.

Further, the male and female housings 1 and 2 are provided with a fitting lock mechanism composed of a lock claw 15 on the male housing 2 side and a lock piece 16 on the female housing 1 side, and when the male and female housings 1 and 2 are normally fitted, The lock claw 15 and the lock piece 16 are fitted to each other to lock the fitting posture.

In the connector having the above-mentioned detection spacer 6, when the housings are fitted to each other in the normal posture, the front end of the locking dissociation portion 12 on the male housing 2 side closely faces the locking portion 11 on the female housing 1 side to lock the housing. Since the elastic locking piece 8 of the detection spacer 6 that is locked to the portion 11 is pushed up, the locking of the detection spacer 6 is disengaged and can be pulled out freely, and as shown in FIG. The detection spacer 6 is pulled out, and the connector without the detection spacer 6 becomes a normally fitted connector.

Then, when the male and female housings 1 and 2 are not fully fitted to each other in a semi-fitting state, as shown in FIG. 1 (C), the forward movement amount of the locking dissociation portion 12 is insufficient and the front end 13 is locked. Since the detection claw 9 of the detection spacer 6 in the state is not reached and the detection spacer 6 is kept in the locked state, the wiping cannot be performed.
The one that is attached becomes a defective connector with insufficient mating.

Next, a second embodiment of the type in which the detection spacer is laterally removed will be described with reference to FIG. That is, the female housing 1 and the male housing 2 are fitted to each other, and the normal fitting posture is set to the lock piece.
In the connector locked by the 16 and the lock claw 15, below the lock claw 15 of the male housing 2, a plate-shaped separate detection spacer 6 is provided in a direction orthogonal to the housing fitting direction.
Is mounted slidably, and the detection spacer 6 has a downward bending concave portion 19 on the intermediate upper surface. The downward bending concave portion 19 is a lock piece 16 that bends downward when the male and female housings 1 and 2 are fitted.
The tip of the is received as shown in FIG. 2 (E).

Interference protrusions 20A20B are bulged on both sides of the downwardly bent recess 19 (both sides in the direction in which the detection spacer 6 is taken in and out), and when the interference protrusion 20A20B is pulled out, the interference spacer 20A20B is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2 (E), it has a shape of height H that allows the lock piece 16 in the free posture to pass therethrough and interferes with the lock piece 16 in the downwardly bent posture.

The recessed surface of the downward flexing recess 19 of the detection spacer 6 is formed in the same bar code display portion 17 as in the first embodiment. The detection spacer 6 has a rear end that serves as a pick-up and pull-out portion 21 that protrudes from the male housing 2, and is inserted and removed from a mounting hole 22 in a side wall of the male housing 2.

In the connector shown in FIG. 2 as described above, the male and female housings 1 and 2 are fitted in a normal posture as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C, the lock piece 16 and the lock claw 15 are engaged, and the lock piece 16 is In the free posture, the detection spacer 6 can be pulled out to the side of the connector, and as shown in FIGS. 2D and 2E, the fitting amount of the male and female housings 1 and 2 is insufficient, and the lock piece 16 is bent downward. If it is, the detection spacer 6 cannot be removed.

According to the first and second embodiments described above, the normal fitting of the male and female housings 1 and 2 can be accurately confirmed due to the absence of the detection spacer 6 being pulled out, and the semi-fitting failure can be accurately checked due to the presence of the detection spacer 6 being unable to be pulled out. can do.

Then, the bar code of the bar code display section 17 is used as the bar code of the management information based on the connector use position and the connector type, and the extracted detection spacers 6 are collectively applied to the bar code sensor at a predetermined location. It is possible to concretely and accurately and collectively grasp the state of good or bad fitting of the connector group of the automotive wire harness having a large number of connector groups used in various postures.

In the above configuration of the present invention, the bar code display portion 17 may be provided not only on the surface position of the detection spacer 6 as in the above-described embodiment but also on an arbitrary position such as the back surface of the detection spacer 6.

[Advantage of Invention] As described above, the connector of the present invention can visually and tactually confirm the fitting state of the connector housing due to the absence and non-existence of the detection spacer 6. In addition to improving the reliability of the confirmation of the mating state, the bar code detection of the detection spacer 6 that has been pulled out enables accurate and efficient grasp of the fitting quality of the connector group used for the automobile wire harness etc. It has the effect of improving quality reliability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a connector according to a first embodiment of the present invention, (A) is a perspective view of its constituent members, (B) and (C) are front views of its operating state, and FIG. 2 is a second embodiment of the present invention. Connector of
(A) is a perspective view of its constituent members, (B) and (D) are front views of its operating state, (C) and (E) are side views of its operating state, main symbols, 1: female connector housing, 2: Male connector housing, 3: Fitting part, 5: Spacer accommodating part, 6: Detection spacer, 7: Base part, 8: Elastic locking piece, 9: Locking claw, 10: Locking protrusion, 1
1: Engagement part, 12: Engagement disengagement part, 15: Lock piece, 16: Lock claw, 17: Bar code display part, 19: Downward flexure concave part, 20A20B: Interference convex part, 21: Picking part

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A connector for fitting a pair of connector housings, wherein a separate detection spacer is attached to one side of the pair of connector housings, and the detection spacer has a normal fitting posture of the pair of connector housings. A connector characterized in that it can be taken out only by itself, and further, the detection spacer is provided with a bar code display section with a required bar code.