JPH09147960A - General purpose connector and its connecting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow to insert plural sorts of connectors, as well as to reduce the number of sorts of each pole number of the connectors. SOLUTION: While guides 22a and 22b are formed at the upper wall and the lower wall of the hood 21a of the housing of a general purpose connector 20 at the inner side of its opening, partition plates 23 forming the guide grooves 24a which can be inserted to the guides 22a and 22b respectively are provided separately. As a result, housing accommodations 25 corresponding to the pole number of opponent connectors 26 can be formed by inserting the partition plates 23 to the hood 21a of the general purpose connector 20. Consequently, it is made possible to connect plural opponent connectors to the one general purpose connector 20. And furthermore, without limiting the pole number of the opponent connector 26, the opponent connector with any pole number can be used, as long as it can be inserted to the hood 21a.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a general-purpose connector in which a plurality of connectors can be fitted in a housing accommodating portion, and more specifically, a partition plate to which the housing accommodating portion can be attached / detached allows a desired accommodation space in which a desired connector can be fitted. The present invention relates to a general-purpose connector that can be formed on a substrate, and a connecting method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various electronic devices have been mounted in vehicles with the progress of control technology for vehicles such as automobiles, and various connectors have been used for connecting electronic devices to each other and connecting electronic devices to power lines. It is used. Therefore, as the number of electronic devices and the like increases, the number of connectors and the number of poles are increasing. For example, as a conventional multi-pole connector, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-
What is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 39491 is known. As shown in FIG. 14, in this multi-pole connector, the plug housings 6 and 7 are inserted into the case housing 5 while the socket housings 1 to 4 are fitted in the case housing 5.
It is inserted in and is fitted with the socket housings 1 to 4. In this case, a plurality of electric contacts are provided inside the socket housings 1 to 4 and the plug housings 6 and 7, and are electrically connected by fitting the socket housings 1 to 4 and the plug housings 6 and 7. It

The case housing 5 is for facilitating the engagement of the movable projections 8-11 extending from one end face of the upper surface thereof with the locking claws 12-15 formed in the socket housings 1-4. The inner wall 16 is formed. Further, on the insertion side of the plug housings 6 and 7 into the case housing 5, there are formed grooves 17 and 18 extending from the upper surface to the lower surface, and the side walls of the socket housings 1 and 2 are fitted and inserted into one of the grooves 17 and the other. In the groove 18, the socket housing 3,
Insert the side wall of No. 4. As a result, the electrical contacts in the socket housings 1 to 4 and the contacts in the plug housings 6 and 7 are connected at the correct position.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional multi-pole connector, the case housing 5 is used.
Has a predetermined number of electrical contacts (hereinafter referred to as the number of poles).
It is only possible to use socket housings 1 to 4 and plug housings 6 and 7 having Therefore, when a socket housing and a plug housing with different numbers of poles are used, it is necessary to prepare a case housing corresponding to the number of poles. Therefore, it has been an obstacle in reducing the weight and cost of the applied equipment.

An object of the present invention is to provide a general-purpose connector excellent in versatility in which a plurality of kinds of connectors can be inserted and inserted while reducing the number of kinds of connectors according to the number of poles, and a connecting method thereof.

[0006]

The above object of the present invention is to form a housing accommodating portion corresponding to the number of poles of a mating connector by inserting a detachable partition plate into the hood portion of the housing. Can be achieved by a general-purpose connector coupling method. According to the connecting method of the general-purpose connector having the above configuration, the housing accommodating portion corresponding to the number of poles of the mating connector to be connected can be formed. Therefore,
It is possible to connect a plurality of mating connectors having different numbers of poles with one connector, it is not necessary to prepare a connector for each number of poles, and the number of parts can be reduced.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a general-purpose connector characterized in that it comprises a separate partition plate that can be detached and attached, and a hood portion of a housing having a structure into which the partition plate can be fitted. Can be achieved. According to the general-purpose connector having the above structure, it is possible to form the housing accommodating portion corresponding to the number of poles of the mating connector to be coupled. Therefore, it is possible to connect a plurality of mating connectors having different numbers of poles with one connector, and it is not necessary to prepare a connector for each number of poles, and the number of parts can be reduced. Further, the hood portion is provided with a convex guide portion on its inner wall,
Since the partition plate is provided with the guide groove that fits into the guide portion, it is possible to reliably and easily form the housing accommodating portion according to the number of poles of the mating connector.

Further, since the hood portion is provided with the fitting insertion hole for fitting the partition plate into the inner wall thereof, the partition plate can be fitted into the hood portion through the fitting insertion hole, and the hood portion can be securely mounted. In addition, the housing accommodating portion corresponding to the number of poles of the mating connector can be easily formed. Further, since the partition plate is provided with the locking portion for locking in the housing accommodating portion, the partition plate can be securely fixed to the hood portion, and the partition plate can be pulled out from the fitting insertion hole. Can be prevented.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A first embodiment of a general-purpose connector of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, the general-purpose connector 2 of the present embodiment
0 is the hood portion 2 of the housing 21 formed in a box shape.
1a, and the hood portion 21a has a plurality of convex guide portions 22a, 22b on the inner walls facing the opening end.
Are formed. The guide portions 22a and 22b are formed at regular intervals along the lateral width direction of the hood portion 21a. Further, the guide portion 22a of the upper wall and the guide portion 22b of the lower wall in the figure are arranged so as to face each other. The guide portions 22a and 22b fix the partition plate 23 in the hood portion 21a, and by fixing the partition plate 23, a desired housing accommodating portion 25 can be formed in the hood portion 21a.

As shown in FIG. 2, the partition plate 23 has a concave guide groove 24a formed in each of the upper and lower end surfaces thereof along the longitudinal direction. The partition plate 23 is fixed to the hood portion 21a by being fitted. In addition, a concave and wide connector guide groove 24b is formed in the central portion of both side surfaces of the partition plate 23.
Is formed along the longitudinal direction, and the strip-shaped convex portion 27 formed on the side surface of the mating connector 26 is fitted into the connector guide groove 24b. A groove 28 having the same shape as the connector guide groove 24b is also formed inside both side walls of the hood 21a.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the mating connector 26
In the drawing, concave insertion guide grooves 29a are formed on both sides of the upper wall surface in the figure along the longitudinal direction, and the lower wall surface also has a concave shape having the same spacing as the arrangement interval of the guide portions 22a and 22b of the hood portion 21a. The insertion guide groove 29b is formed. The mating connector 26 is fixed to the hood portion 21a by inserting the guide grooves 29a and 29b into the guide portions 22a and 22b of the hood portion 21a. Further, a flexible arm portion 30 is provided at a substantially central portion of the upper wall surface of the mating connector 26, and a locking claw portion 31 is provided at a substantially central portion of the arm portion 30. The arm portion 30 is for locking the mating connector 26 to the hood portion 21a. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the mating connector 26 is locked to the hood portion 21a by the claw portion 31 of the arm portion 30 contacting the rear end surface of the guide portion 22a.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, by changing the mounting position of the partition plate 23, the space between the inner side wall of the hood portion 21a or the space between the partition plate 23 and the other partition plate 23 can be set to an arbitrary size. Therefore, the housing accommodating portion 25 corresponding to the lateral width of the mating connector 26, that is, corresponding to the number of poles can be freely formed. As a result, a plurality of mating connectors 26 having different numbers of poles can be connected to one general-purpose connector 20, so that the number and types of mating connectors 26 can be reduced.

As described above, in the general-purpose connector 20 of this embodiment, a plurality of convex guide portions 22a and 22b are formed inside the open end of the hood portion 21a of the housing 21, and the guide portions 22a and 22a are formed. A partition plate 23 having a guide groove 24a is fitted into each of the 22b. Thereby, the housing accommodating portions 25 corresponding to the number of poles of the mating connector 26 are formed, and a plurality of mating connectors 26 can be connected to one general-purpose connector 20. Moreover, the number of poles of the mating connector 26 is not limited, and any number of poles can be used as long as it can be inserted into the hood portion 21a, so that the number of parts can be reduced. Also, a plurality of mating connectors 2
Even if 6 are combined into one, the force required for inserting / removing the respective mating connectors 26 does not change at all, so workability during maintenance is also excellent.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
The following embodiments are also possible. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the guide portions 22a, 2 of the hood portion 21a are inserted into the guide grooves 24a formed in the upper end surface and the lower end surface of the partition plate 23A.
A protrusion 34 that locks 2b may be provided. Also,
A deformation prevention piece 35 for preventing excessive deformation of the hood portion 21a may be provided at the rear end portion of the partition plate 23A.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the protrusion 34 is formed in the guide groove 24a of the partition plate 23A, so that it is possible to prevent the partition plate 23A from being pulled out after the fitting and insertion. When the partition plate 23A is fitted into the hood portion 21a, the deformation prevention piece 35 comes into contact with the outer wall surface of the opening end of the hood portion 21a. Accordingly, even if a force acts in the direction of vertically extending the hood portion 21a, the deformation preventing piece 35 can suppress excessive deformation. Needless to say, the force acting in the direction of compressing the hood portion 21a is suppressed by the upper and lower end surfaces of the partition plate 23A.

Next, a second embodiment of the general-purpose connector of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 to 13. In the above embodiment, the partition plate 23 (23A) is attached to the hood portion 21a.
The general-purpose connector 40 according to the present embodiment is configured to be inserted into the hood portion 21a from the opening side of the hood portion 41a.
The partition plate 42 is inserted into the hood portion 41a from the upper wall surface of a. As shown in FIG. 9, the general-purpose connector 40 is
A fitting insertion hole 43 into which the partition plate 42 can be fitted is provided on the upper wall of the hood portion 41 a of the housing 41. This fitting hole 4
The width of 3 is set to be slightly wider than the width of the partition plate 42, and the length thereof is set to be slightly longer than the partition plate 42. In addition, the lower wall of the hood portion 41a has an insertion hole 43 of the upper wall.
An elongated locking groove 43a is formed at a position opposed to. The lateral width of the locking groove 43a is set to be narrower than the lateral width of the fitting insertion hole 43.

As shown in FIG. 10, the partition plate 42 has a concave and wide connector guide groove 44 along the longitudinal direction of both side surfaces.
Is formed, and a through hole 46 penetrating both side surfaces is provided in the front end portion 42A along the vertical direction of the partition plate 42. Further, a convex protrusion 47 is formed at the center of the front end face of the partition plate 42, and a convex long-side protrusion 48 (see FIG. 11) is formed at the lower end face. The lateral widths of the protrusions 47 and 48 are set narrower than the lateral width of the partition plate 42.

As shown in FIG. 12, in the structure of the rear wall inside the hood portion 41a, a locking recess 49 is formed in the rear end wall of the fitting insertion hole 43, and the lower wall has a narrow locking groove. 43a is formed. Then, as shown in FIG. 11, when the partition plate 42 is inserted through the fitting insertion hole 43, the projection 47 formed on the front end surface of the partition plate 42 is locked with the locking recess 49 formed on the rear wall of the hood portion 41a. The projection 48 formed on the lower end surface of the partition plate 42 is fitted into the locking groove 43a formed on the lower wall of the hood portion 41a.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 13A, the partition plate 42 has a front end portion 42A shown in FIG. 13 when an external force F is applied.
It bends as shown in (b). At this time, since the protrusion 47 formed on the front end portion 42A of the partition plate 42 is also displaced at the same time, when the protrusion 47 is engaged with the locking recess 49,
It is possible to surely obtain a click feeling indicating completion of engagement.
As a result, the partition plate 42 is securely fixed to the hood portion 41a and does not easily come off.

In this way, the partition plate 42 is connected to the general-purpose connector 40.
The housing accommodating portion 45, into which the mating connector 50 having a predetermined number of poles can be fitted, is formed by inserting the hood portion 41a through the fitting insertion hole 43 opened and inserting the hood portion 41a into the hood portion 41a. That is, the housing accommodating portion 45 corresponding to the number of poles of the mating connector 50 can be freely formed. As a result, since a plurality of mating connectors 50 can be connected to one general-purpose connector 40, the number and types of mating connectors 50 can be reduced as in the first embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 12, a plurality of terminal insertion holes 51 are provided in the rear portion of the general-purpose connector 40 described above, and the terminal insertion holes 51 are L-shaped for a PCB (printed wiring board). The connection terminal 52 bent in a shape is inserted. The general-purpose connector of the present invention is applied to
It goes without saying that any type of device can be applied as long as it is electrically connected by a connector of not only an automobile but also an industrial robot. Also,
Although only two fitting insertion holes are provided in the second embodiment, the number is not limited to this number, and it is possible to provide more fitting insertion holes.

[0022]

As described above, according to the connecting method of the general-purpose connector of the present invention, the housing accommodating portion corresponding to the number of poles of the mating connector to be fitted can be formed, so that the number of poles can be made with one connector. It is possible to connect multiple mating connectors of different types. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the total number of connectors and reduce costs.

According to the general-purpose connector of the present invention, the detachable partition plate and the hood portion of the housing into which the partition plate can be inserted are provided, and the number of poles of the mating connector to be inserted is provided. It is possible to form a housing accommodating portion corresponding to. Therefore, it is possible to connect a plurality of mating connectors having different numbers of poles with one connector, and it is possible to reduce the total number of connectors, so that it is possible to achieve cost reduction. Further, since the convex guide portion is provided on the inner wall of the hood portion and the guide groove for fitting with the guide portion of the hood portion is provided on the partition plate, the housing accommodating portion according to the number of poles of the mating connector can be easily and surely provided. Can be formed.

Further, since the fitting plate has a fitting hole for fitting the partition plate, the partition plate can be fitted into the hood part through the fitting hole, so that the mating connector can be reliably and easily carried out. The housing accommodating portion can be formed according to the number of poles. Furthermore, since the locking portion that locks the partition plate to the hood portion is provided, the partition plate can be securely fixed to the hood portion, and the partition plate can be reliably prevented from slipping out from the fitting insertion hole. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of a general-purpose connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a partition plate in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing a usage example of a general-purpose connector.

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing another usage example of the general-purpose connector.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a mating state of a mating connector.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a partition plate provided with a deformation preventing piece.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a partition plate provided with deformation preventing pieces is fitted into a hood portion.

FIG. 8 is a front view of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of a general-purpose connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a partition plate in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a partition plate is fitted into a general-purpose connector.

FIG. 12 is a partial perspective view showing the internal structure of a general-purpose connector.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing a deformed state of a partition plate into a general-purpose connector.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view showing a conventional connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20, 40 General-purpose connector 21, 41 Connector housing 21a, 41a Hood part 22a, 22b Guide part 23, 23A, 42 Partition plate 24a Guide groove 24b, 44 Connector guide groove 25, 45 Housing accommodation part 26, 50 Mating connector 29a, 29b Fitting guide groove 34 Projection portion 35 Deformation preventing piece 43 Fitting insertion hole 43a Locking groove 46 Through hole 47 Projection portion (locking portion) 49 Locking concave portion

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ───

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] August 9, 1996

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0021

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

As shown in FIG. 11 , a plurality of terminal insertion holes 51 are provided in the rear portion of the general-purpose connector 40 described above, and the terminal insertion holes 51 are L-shaped for a PCB (printed wiring board). The connection terminal 52 bent in a shape is inserted. The general-purpose connector of the present invention is applied to
It goes without saying that any type of device can be applied as long as it is electrically connected by a connector of not only an automobile but also an industrial robot. Also,
Although only two fitting insertion holes are provided in the second embodiment, the number is not limited to this number, and it is possible to provide more fitting insertion holes.

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Drawing

[Correction target item name] FIG.

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

FIG. 11

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A method for connecting a general-purpose connector, wherein a detachable partition plate is inserted into a hood portion of a housing to form a housing accommodating portion corresponding to the number of poles of a mating connector. 2. A general-purpose connector comprising a detachable partition plate and a hood portion of a housing having a structure into which the partition plate can be inserted. 3. The general-purpose article according to claim 2, wherein the hood portion has a convex guide portion on an inner wall thereof, and the partition plate has a guide groove that fits into the guide portion. connector. 4. The general-purpose connector according to claim 2, wherein the hood portion has a fitting insertion hole for fitting the partition plate in an inner wall thereof. 5. The general-purpose connector according to claim 4, wherein the partition plate is provided with an engaging portion for engaging with the housing accommodating portion.