JPH10112357A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To jointly use female, male connector housings. SOLUTION: Female, male connector housings 40 are constituted by piling an upper side block 10 on a lower side block 20 and holding the blocks 10, 20 with a joining cover 30. A locking part 14 is formed in the upper side block 10. A housing member S for housing the female, male connector housings 40 is arranged. An engaging accepting part 54 capable of engaging with the locking part 14 is formed in the housing member S. The female, male contactor housings can be formed in the same shape, the female, male connector housings can be jointly used. Even if both connector housings are divide, the blocks 10, 20 are jointly used in both connector housings, and thereby, the number of components is reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a connector.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been a construction in which a crimping operation of an electric wire to a terminal fitting can be performed with the terminal fitting incorporated in a connector housing. A part of the upper or lower surface of the connector having such a configuration is opened so that the crimping jig can be inserted into the cavity. However, in the case where the cavity is formed in multiple stages, simply forming an opening for inserting the crimping jig on the upper surface or the lower surface can crimp the terminal fitting in the cavity disposed between the upper stage and the lower stage. Since the operation cannot be performed, in such a connector having a cavity formed in multiple stages, as shown in FIG. 6, the connector 1 is divided into each stage, and the upper surface or the lower surface of each divided block 2 is divided. An opening 2A for inserting a crimping jig is formed in the opening 2A.

[0003]

However, since the connectors need to be held in a connected state, usually, a locking portion is formed on one side of the male and female connectors, and a locking portion for receiving the locking portion is formed on the other side. A lock receiving portion having a shape different from that of the lock receiving portion is formed. Generally, a hood portion for accommodating the female connector is integrally formed with the male connector. Therefore, the shape of the housing has to be different between the female connector and the male connector. In particular, in the type of connector constituted by a plurality of blocks as described above, the female connector and the male connector also have different shapes in each block, and if the female connector side and the male connector side are combined, blocks having different shapes are obtained. Must be prepared, and the economic burden and the burden on parts management associated with the production of a plurality of types of dies increase. An object of the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a connector capable of sharing a male and female connector housing.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a connector according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises a male and female connector housing capable of accommodating both male and female terminal fittings inside the connector housing. In a state where the male and female terminal fittings are connected to each other, a coupling means is provided which engages with both connector housings to hold both connector housings in a locked state.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the connector according to the first aspect, the connector housing is composed of a plurality of blocks divided so as to be stacked in a plurality of stages, and a cavity capable of accommodating a terminal fitting is formed for each individual block. It is characterized by being done.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the connector according to the first or second aspect, a lock portion is provided on an outer surface of the connector housing, and the connecting means can insert both connector housings from both ends. The connector housing is formed in a cylindrical shape capable of housing the connector housing therein, and a lock receiving portion engageable with the lock portion is formed at a symmetrical position on the inner surface thereof.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, if the male and female connector housings are opposed to each other and the male and female terminal fittings are connected to each other and the two connector housings are engaged with the connecting means, The connector housing is held in a locked state. That is, even if the connector housings have the same structure and are used for both sexes, they can be connected to each other by the connecting means interposed between them. Therefore, since the male and female connector housings can be shared,
Excellent in economics and management.

[0010] According to the second aspect of the present invention, the assembly divided into a plurality of blocks can be assembled, and the connecting means can lock the male and female connector housings in a connected state. In the case of the division into a plurality of blocks as described above, the effect of reducing the number of types of required components can be obtained.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when both connector housings are inserted from both ends of the connecting means to a predetermined depth position, the lock portion and the lock receiving portion are engaged and the connector housing is connected. . In this case, since both connector housings are accommodated inside the connecting means, it is difficult to receive an external force, and damage can be avoided.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a connector according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, the connector according to the present embodiment includes both male and female connectors F and M, and a housing member S (corresponding to a connecting means of the present invention) which can house the male and female connectors F and M in a coupled state. Here, the male and female connectors F and M are constituted by components having the same shape except for the terminal fittings A and B to be assembled.

The female connector F will be described. The female connector F is a connector housing 4 formed in a flat rectangular parallelepiped.
In the connector housing 40, a plurality of cavities 11 are arranged side by side in two upper and lower stages. The connector housing 40 includes two blocks 1 that divide the cavities 11 and 21 up and down.
0 and 20 are combined. Hereinafter, the upper block 10 is referred to as an upper block 10, and the lower block 20 is referred to as a lower block 20.

As shown in FIG. 3, cavities 11 are formed in the upper block 10 in a horizontal line, and a lock portion 14 is formed at the center on the upper surface and guide pieces 15 are provided on both sides thereof. The lock portion 14 has a cantilevered arm shape at a front end portion, and the lock portion 14 has a guide groove 14A formed from the front end portion to the rear, and has a substantially central portion on both sides of the guide groove 14A. An engagement protrusion 14B that can be engaged with the engagement receiving portion 54 of the housing member S is formed. Further, a rear end portion of the lock portion 14 is a release operation portion 14C, and the engagement between the engagement protrusion 14B and the engagement receiving portion 54 can be released by pressing the release operation portion 14C downward. It has become. The two guide pieces 15 arranged on both sides of the lock portion 14 are formed so as to protrude from the front edge to the rear edge so as to face each other, and fit into the guide grooves 53 of the housing member S.

The upper block 10 has connecting projections 16, 16 formed on both left and right sides (in FIG. 3, both right and left sides), respectively.
1A. Further, the lower surface of the upper block 10 has an opening in the rear half, and this opening 13
The crimping jig can be inserted into each cavity 11 through the holes. That is, the crimping operation of the electric wire W can be performed in a state where the female terminal fitting A is incorporated in each cavity 11. Each cavity 1
A lance 12 protrudes into the inside 1 so that the incorporated female terminal fitting A is primarily locked.

The lower block 20 has, on its upper surface, secondary locking projections 22 arranged in a row in a row corresponding to the cavities 11 of the upper block 10, and the lower block 20 is connected to the lower surface of the upper block 10. , The secondary locking projection 22 engages with the female terminal fitting A of the upper block 10 to secondary lock it. A lance 23 also protrudes into each cavity 21 of the lower block 20 so that the female terminal fitting A incorporated is primarily locked. Further, the lower surface of the lower block 20 is open at the rear half similarly to the lower surface of the upper block 10, and the female terminal fitting A is inserted into each cavity 21 through the opening 24 so that the electric wire W The crimping work can be performed.

A connection cover 30 is mounted on the opening 24 of the lower block 20. On both left and right edges of the connection cover 30, the two blocks 1
Arm pieces 31 extending upward along both left and right side surfaces of 0 and 20 are integrally connected. And this arm piece 3
1 is provided with a connection groove 31A, and the upper block 1
0 and the lower block 20 and the lower block 2
When the connection cover 30 is attached to the opening 24 on the lower surface of the block 0, the connection protrusion 16 of the upper block 10 fits into the connection groove 31A, and the blocks 10, 20 are held in a sandwich state.

On the upper surface of the connecting cover 30, secondary locking projections 32 are arranged in a row in a row so as to correspond to the cavities 21 of the lower block 20.
0 is attached to the opening 24 of the lower block 20, the secondary locking projection 32 engages with the female terminal fitting A incorporated in the cavity 21 of the lower block 20 to secondarily lock the female terminal fitting A. It has become.

The male connector M is provided with a connector housing 40 having the same structure as the connector housing 40 of the female connector F. That is, it is composed of the upper block 10, the lower block 20, and the connection cover 30.

The male terminal fitting B is incorporated in the cavities 11 and 21 of the connector housing 40. In a state where the male terminal fittings B are assembled into the cavities 11 and 21, the female terminal fittings A of the male terminal fittings B are provided.
1 protrudes from the front side of the connector housing 40 (the right side in FIG. 1).

The housing member S will be described. Housing member S
As shown in FIG. 5, has a rectangular cylindrical shape, the inside of which is a housing chamber 51 for housing the male and female connectors F, M, and the both open ends are inserted with the male connector M and the female connector F. Insertion holes 51A and 51B for inserting. A guide piece 5 protruding downward from the one insertion port 51A to the other insertion port 51B at the center of the ceiling surface of the storage chamber 51.
2 are provided, and guide grooves 53 are formed on both sides from one insertion port 51A to the other insertion port 51B. In addition, each insertion opening 5 of the guide piece 52
An engagement receiving portion 54 is formed slightly inward from 1A and 51B. Furthermore, rattling prevention ridges 55 are formed on the left and right inner wall surfaces (wall surfaces along the length direction) of the accommodation room 51 at substantially the center in the height direction from one insertion port 51A to the other insertion port 51B. . A rectangular opening 56 extending in the length direction is formed on the upper surface of the housing member S, so that it is possible to observe whether the male and female connectors F and M are in a connected state.

Next, the operation of connecting the male and female connectors F and M will be described. First, the male and female connectors F and M are assembled. To this end, the female terminal fittings A or the male terminal fittings B are incorporated into the cavities 11 and 21 of the blocks 10 and 20, and each of the openings 1 is mounted with the terminal fittings A and B incorporated.
The crimping work of the electric wire W is performed by using 3, 24. afterwards,
The lower block 20 is overlapped on the lower surface of the upper block 10, and the connection cover 30 is placed in the opening 24 of the lower block 20.
Attach. Then, the connection protrusion 16 of the upper block 10
Are fitted into the connection grooves 31A of the connection cover 30, and the upper block 10 and the lower block 20 are held in a state of being vertically overlapped (see FIG. 4). Thus, the assembling work of the male and female connectors F and M is completed.

Subsequently, the male connector M is inserted into one insertion opening 51A of the housing member S. At this time, the guide pieces 15 of the male connector M are inserted into the guide grooves 53 of the housing member S, and the guide pieces 52 of the storage member S are fitted into the guide grooves 14A of the male connector M. Then, when the male connector M is pushed into the interior of the accommodation chamber 51, the engagement projection 14B of the male connector M gets over the engagement receiving portion 54 of the accommodation member S and engages with the inner surface thereof. As a result, the male connector M is prevented from coming off.

Further, the female connector F is inserted into the other insertion opening 51B of the housing member S. At this time, the male connector M
Similarly, the guide piece 15 on the female connector F side is inserted into the guide groove 53 on the housing member S, and the guide piece 52 on the housing member S is inserted into the guide groove 14A on the female connector F side. Then, when the female connector F is pushed into the interior of the accommodation chamber 51, the distal end of the male terminal fitting B enters the female terminal fitting A, and both connectors F and M are connected. When the female connector F abuts against the male connector M, the engaging projection 14B of the female connector F gets over the engagement receiving portion 54 of the housing member S and engages with the inner surface thereof. F and M are kept in the combined state. In the state where the male and female connectors F and M are connected,
The release operation portion 14C of each of the connectors F and M is located outside the housing member S, and by operating this, the male and female connectors F and M in the coupled state can be removed.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the housing member S for housing the male and female connector housings 40 in the coupled state is provided, the hood portion for housing the female connector housing in the male connector housing as in the related art is provided. It is not necessary to form them integrally, and it is not necessary to provide lock portions and lock receiving portions having different shapes between the two connector housings. Therefore, since the male and female connector housings 40 can be formed in the same shape, the shape of each of the divided blocks 10 and 20 is also changed.
M can be common, so that the total number of components of both the male and female connectors F and M can be reduced.

Specifically, if the shape of the male and female connector housings is different, for example, a total of six parts (male upper block, male lower block, male lower connecting cover, female upper block, female lower block) , A female lower connection cover) is required, but in the present embodiment, it can be composed of four parts (an upper block 10, a lower block 20, a connection cover 30, and a housing member S).

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be modified as follows, for example, and these embodiments also belong to the technical scope of the present invention. (1) In the above embodiment, the type in which the male and female connectors are divided into a plurality of blocks has been described. However, both may be integrated, and the housing member S does not necessarily house the entire connector. It does not need to be provided, and may be exposed. In short, any shape can be used as long as both connectors can be connected.

(2) In this embodiment, the connector housing 40 connects the upper block 10 and the lower block 20 to each other.
Although it is configured by stacking in tiers, it may be configured by stacking blocks in which cavities are arranged side by side in multiple rows.

(3) In the above embodiment, the male and female connectors F and M are provided with the engagement projections 14B, and the housing member S is provided with the engagement receiving portions 54 which can be engaged with the connectors. Although the male and female connectors F and M are held in a connected state by the engagement between the engagement projection 14B and the engagement receiving portion 54, the engagement projection and the engagement receiving portion are not provided. The male and female connectors may be configured to be press-fitted into the housing member, whereby the male and female connectors may be held in a coupled state.

(4) In the above embodiment, the upper block 10 and the lower block 20 are held in a state of being overlapped by the connecting cover 30 before being inserted into the housing member S. Each block may be provided with a lock portion, and each block may be housed in a housing member without being connected, and each block may be engaged with a lock receiving portion provided on the housing member side. In addition, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the scope.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing the entirety of the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing a combined state of the male and female connectors.

FIG. 3 is an exploded front view of the connector housing.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the female connector.

FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a housing member.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Upper block (block) 11, 21 ... Cavity 14 ... Engagement protrusion (lock part) 20 ... Lower block (block) 40 ... Connector housing (both male and female connector housings) 54 ... Engagement receiving part (lock receiving part) M: Male connector F: Female connector S: Housing member (connection means)

Claims (3)

[Claims] A male / female connector housing capable of accommodating both male and female terminal fittings inside the connector housing, and the male and female terminal fittings connected to each other with the two connector housings facing each other. A connector for holding both connector housings in a locked state by mating. 2. The connector housing according to claim 1, wherein the connector housing includes a plurality of blocks divided so as to be stacked in a plurality of stages, and a cavity capable of accommodating a terminal fitting is formed in each of the blocks. Connectors. 3. A connector is provided with a lock portion on an outer surface thereof, and the connecting means is formed in a tubular shape capable of inserting both connector housings from both ends and accommodating these connector housings therein. 2. A lock receiving portion which is engageable with the lock portion is formed at a symmetrical position on an inner surface thereof.
Or the connector according to 2.