JPH10199594A - Terminal screw cap for general-purpose terminal block - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the fitting of a cap to a general-purpose terminal block, by protrudedly providing an elastic locking member equipped with a claw part the lower surface of the upper surface cover part of a terminal cap with having a claw part for engaging the lower end surface of the head part of a terminal screw at the tip. SOLUTION: The height of a claw part 14 is set in a position where the claw part 14 engages with a lower end surface 16 in the head part 15 of a terminal screw 6 when a terminal cap is mounted on a terminal block. When the terminal cap is positioned in a given position, and is pushed strongly by a finger; at first, the claw part 14 of an elastic locking member abuts on the side part on a top surface 18 side in the head part 15 of the terminal screw 6, and then is pushed downward. By this pushing force, first and second elastic locking member 12 and 13 are elastically deformed to be expanded an outer side, and the claw part 14 is slid on the side surface 20 of the top surface 18 from the top surface 18 side part in the top part 15 of the terminal screw 6, and finally enters the lower end surface 26 of the terminal screw 6 to prevent the coming-out of the terminal cap 7.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a large number of terminals in a general-purpose terminal block for use in connecting equipment such as various controllers and compressors to a power source, or in connecting various equipment used for process control to wiring with the outside. The present invention relates to a terminal screw cap of a general-purpose terminal block for covering a mounting screw.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When connecting a power supply to a compressor and its controller, and when connecting a power supply or a controller to relays and transformers of various devices, the connection work must be performed reliably and easily. In addition, a terminal block having a large number of terminal mounting screws arranged adjacent to these devices is provided, and when connecting the terminals, the end of the predetermined wire is guided to the predetermined terminal mounting screw, and the terminal is fastened and fixed with screws and connected. That is being done.

Since it is expensive to manufacture and use a dedicated terminal block for connection of each device as this terminal block, a large number of terminals are previously prepared so as to be applicable to connection of a wide variety of devices. 2. Description of the Related Art A general-purpose terminal block is used in which a terminal block provided is manufactured, and when various devices are electrically connected to the outside, only a necessary part of a large number of terminals is used for connection. In such a general-purpose terminal block,
In many cases, a power supply terminal for supplying a relatively high voltage such as 100 V or 200 V and a signal terminal for a relatively low voltage and low power are provided in parallel.

In the above-mentioned general-purpose terminal block, when this general-purpose terminal block is used for a specific device, if only a necessary part of a large number of terminals is used for connection, this terminal is used. Unscrew the unused terminals in advance at the factory that manufactures the equipment, and use this as a mark,
When the user of this equipment or the person who performs the installation work performs the connection based on the connection diagram, the wiring is prevented from being erroneously wired. In addition, caps are fixed to unused terminals in advance with fixing screws to prevent erroneous wiring by construction workers, which means that there is no insulation effect on unused terminals. ing.

Further, as described above, 100V or 200V
If a power supply terminal for supplying relatively high voltage and high power, such as a power supply terminal, and a signal terminal for relatively low voltage and low power are installed together, incorrect wiring may damage the equipment. It is also practiced to divide the table and call attention to workers when wiring. Furthermore, in order to totally insulate the general-purpose terminal block, a cap is fixed to each terminal with a screw at a manufacturing plant before shipment, and a construction worker removes a predetermined cap and connects to the terminal. .

[0006]

In the above-mentioned conventional general-purpose terminal block, when connecting only a necessary portion of a large number of terminals, the screws of the unused terminals are removed in advance, and this is removed. As a mark, if the installer of this equipment does not perform incorrect wiring, the installer will perform all wiring connections at the same time when installing the equipment. In such a case, the mark from which the screw of the unused terminal is removed in advance may be lost, and the effect of preventing incorrect wiring is not obtained.

Further, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a cap is fixed to a terminal which is not used with a fixing screw in advance to cover the terminal, thereby preventing erroneous wiring by a construction worker. Requires fixing screws,
In addition to an increase in the number of parts, there are disadvantages in that the number of manufacturing steps for fixing the cap with a fixing screw increases.

As a countermeasure, the cap is not attached by using a fixing screw, but by inserting a through hole in the lower end wall of the cover into the terminal screw provided on the terminal block and tightening the terminal screw. It has also been proposed to fix the cap at the time of mounting (JP-A-5-226011).

However, in this case, although a separate screw is not required, a screwing operation for attaching the cap is necessary, and when the cap is fixed at the time of mounting the terminal screw, the cover must be removed. The cap must be released by being bent by elasticity and the terminal screw must be tightened in that state, and the screw tightening operation is troublesome.

Furthermore, in order to prevent erroneous wiring when a power supply terminal for supplying high voltage and high power and a signal terminal for low voltage and low power are provided, two terminal blocks are divided. However, two types of terminal blocks had to be manufactured, and the terminal blocks had to be expensive.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a terminal screw cap for a general-purpose terminal block which can easily attach the cap to the general-purpose terminal block, is easy to manufacture, and can reliably prevent erroneous wiring by a construction worker. The purpose is to provide.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a terminal cap having an upper surface cover for covering at least the upper surface of a terminal screw. An elastic locking member having a claw engaging with the lower end surface of the head of the screw is provided in a protruding manner.

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, when a cap is attached to a terminal screw such as an unused terminal screw, the terminal cap is covered from above the terminal screw and pressed by a finger to be elastic. The claw provided at the tip of the locking member slides on the upper surface of the head of the terminal screw and descends while deforming outwardly by the elastic force of the elastic locking member, and this claw finally becomes the terminal screw. The lower end surface of the head is engaged and engaged with the elastic force of the elastic locking member to prevent the head from slipping off.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a general-purpose terminal block 5 having four terminals, a first terminal 1, a second terminal 2, a third terminal 3, and a fourth terminal 4, and each terminal is provided with a terminal screw 6. ing. In this embodiment, for example, the first terminal 1 and the second terminal 2 are used as plus and minus terminals for a power supply, and the fourth terminal 4 is used as a signal terminal. The three terminals are unused terminals.

For the unused third terminal, FIG.
A terminal cap 7 as shown in FIG.
The terminal cap 7 includes an upper surface cover 8 that covers the upper part of the terminal screw 6 and a side cover 10 that covers the side surface. The lower surface 11 of the upper surface cover 8 has a first elastic locking member 12 The two plate-shaped elastic locking members of the second elastic locking member 13 protrude. Each of the elastic locking members 12 and 13 has a claw portion 14 at the tip thereof. The height of the claw portion 14 is determined when the terminal cap 7 is mounted on the terminal block 5 as shown in FIG. 14 is set at a position where the lower end face 16 of the head 15 of the terminal screw 6 is engaged.

When the terminal cap 7 is mounted on the third terminal 3 which does not use the terminal cap 7 as described above, the terminal cap 7 is positioned as shown in FIG. After the claw portion 14 of the locking member comes into contact with the side of the head 15 of the terminal screw 6 on the top surface 18 side, the claw portion 14 is pushed downward and the first elastic locking member 12 is pressed by the force.
And the second elastic locking member 13 elastically deforms and expands outward,
The claw portion 14 slides on the side surface 20 of the terminal screw 6 from the side of the head portion of the terminal screw on the top surface 18 side, and finally the claw portion 14 enters the lower end surface 16 of the terminal screw 6 and the terminal The cap 7 is prevented from falling off. When the terminal cap 7 thus mounted is required to be used later, a screwdriver or the like is pushed into the lower end of the side cover 10 of the terminal cap 7 and pryed, so that the nail is clawed. The engagement between the portion 14 and the lower end surface 16 of the terminal screw is released, and the terminal cap 7 can be removed.

In the above embodiment, the terminal cap 7
At the time of fixing, the claw portion 1 is attached to the distal ends of two elastic locking members 12 and 13 provided on the lower surface of the upper surface cover portion 8 of the terminal cap.
4 is provided, but not limited to two, three or four
Any number, such as pieces, can be selected. Further, a cylindrical elastic locking member 23 is provided as shown in FIG. 4 without using a flat elastic locking member, and three claw portions 24 are formed at the lower end thereof. In this embodiment, the same operation and effect as those of the above embodiment can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, one terminal cap is provided for the unused third terminal. However, for example, when the fourth terminal is not used, the terminal cap is also provided for this terminal. A cap can be fitted. Furthermore, not only the unused terminals but also all the terminals can be mounted to protect the terminal portions from the time of manufacture to the time of use. In that case, in order to distinguish from unused terminals, prepare two types of terminal caps, for example, blue and red, attach unused terminal caps with red terminal caps, and use unused terminals with blue terminals. For example, the color of the cap may be changed, for example, by mounting a cap for preventing miswiring.

In the above embodiment, an example is shown in which each terminal cap is manufactured and used as an independent product. However, for example, as shown in FIG. May be formed and integrally injection-molded to produce an integrated terminal cap to which a number of terminal caps 25 are connected. In using this,
As shown in FIG. 6, for example, when two adjacent terminals are unused terminals with respect to the general-purpose terminal block 5 having a large number of terminals, adjacent ones of the integrated terminal caps 25 are used. In a state where the two pieces are connected, they are separated by a hand or a nipper at the split groove 26, and are mounted as they are on the unused terminal block as shown in FIG. In the above embodiment, an example in which two unused terminals are adjacent is shown. However, the present invention can also be applied to a case in which an arbitrary number of unused terminals such as three are adjacent to each other. It is. As described above, by integrally forming a plurality of terminal caps adjacent to each other, manufacture and management and handling of the terminal caps are facilitated.

[0020]

The present invention is configured as described above.
When attaching a cap to a terminal screw such as an unused terminal screw, place the terminal cap over the terminal screw and press it with your finger. While sliding on the upper surface of the head, it descends while deforming outward by the elastic force of the elastic locking member, and this claw finally enters the lower end surface of the head of the terminal screw by the elastic force of the elastic locking member. , And the retaining is performed. For this reason, it is extremely easy to attach the cap to the general-purpose terminal block, the production is simple, and the erroneous wiring by the construction worker can be reliably prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state before assembling a terminal cap according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of the terminal cap.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the terminal cap.

FIG. 4 is a rear perspective view showing another embodiment of the terminal cap of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a part of still another embodiment of the terminal cap of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an assembled state of the terminal cap.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 1st terminal 2 2nd terminal 3 3rd terminal 4 4th terminal 5 General-purpose terminal block 6 Terminal screw 7 Terminal cap 8 Upper surface cover part 10 Side cover part 11 Lower surface 12 First elastic locking member 13 Second elastic member Stop member 14 Claw portion 15 Head 16 Lower end surface 18 Top surface 20 Side surface 24 Claw portion

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A terminal cap having an upper surface cover for covering at least an upper surface of a terminal screw, the lower surface of the upper cover being provided with a claw at a tip for engaging with a lower end surface of a head of the terminal screw. A terminal screw cap for a general-purpose terminal block, wherein a resilient locking member is protruded. 2. The terminal screw cap for a general-purpose terminal block according to claim 1, wherein said elastic locking member has a cylindrical shape into which a head of a terminal screw is fitted. 3. The terminal screw cap for a general-purpose terminal block according to claim 1, wherein said elastic locking member forms a plurality of claw portions to which heads of terminal screws are fitted. 4. The terminal screw cap for a general-purpose terminal block according to claim 1, wherein a different color is applied to each cap. 5. The general-purpose terminal block according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of caps are connected to each other at a separation portion to be integrally formed, and are used separately at the separation portion when used. Terminal screw cap.