JPH11283685A - Pressure contact terminal and cable branch part using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pressure contact terminal which provides good pressure contacting workability and which can be miniaturized and a cable branch part which uses the pressure contact terminal. SOLUTION: A pressure contact terminal having Y-shaped pressure contacting slits 22, 23 has longitudinally formed blade parts at the ends 22a, 23a of the pressure contacting slits 22, 23 and has constricted parts 22c, 23c near the bottoms of the pressure contacting slits 22, 23. Such pressure contacting slits 22, 23 are provided parallel to each other and a U-shaped buffer slit 24 is provided between and parallel to the pressure contacting slits 22, 23. A cable branch part uses the pressure contacting terminal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pressure contact terminal and a cable branch portion using the pressure contact terminal, and is particularly useful for branching and connecting a power harness cable.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 5, for example, a conventional harness cable (hereinafter referred to as "cable") has a plurality of covered electric wires in which a conductor 1 made of a single wire or a stranded wire is coated with an insulating coating layer 2 made of a vinyl resin. 3 are bundled with a sheath 4 made of vinyl resin.

[0003] The branch connection of the cable is performed by peeling the sheath 4 and the insulating coating layer 2 at the branching and connecting portions, exposing the conductor 1, and crimping the conductor 1 to an exposed conductor of another cable by a crimp terminal. Connect and do. Then, the cover is attached to the entire outside, and the insulating resin is injected into the cover. The above-described method of forming a branch connection has the following disadvantages. That is, it is necessary to peel off the insulating coating layer in addition to the sheath of the cable, and the workability is poor. If the conductor diameter of the cable is small and the insulating coating layer is thin, the conductor may be damaged when the insulating coating layer is peeled. Further, when a plurality of branch conductors are branched and connected to one trunk conductor, each branch conductor is connected to the trunk conductor by being shifted by the length of the crimp terminal, so that the size of the branch and connection portions in the longitudinal direction increases.

Therefore, there is a structure shown in FIG. 6 as a branch connection structure of a cable that does not require peeling the insulating coating layer in advance. That is, a press contact terminal 11 having a Y-shaped press contact slit 11a formed by punching a metal plate straight.
Is used. Then, the coated electric wire 3 with the insulating coating layer 2
Is pressed into the press contact slit 11a, and the conductor 1 is electrically connected to the press contact terminal 11 while the insulating coating layer 2 is torn. The press contact terminal 11 to which the insulated wire 3 is connected is fixed in a branch connection cover (not shown). Alternatively, an insulator called a resin is injected into the branch connection cover to complete the branch connection operation.

[0005]

However, the branch connection structure shown in FIG. 6 has the following problems.
1) When the diameter of the insulated wire 3 is increased, the pressure contact slit 11
A large force is required when inserting the conductor 1 while tearing the insulating coating layer 2 into a, and the connection work becomes difficult. Therefore, it is used mainly for thin conductors such as telephone lines and communication lines, and it has been difficult to apply it to harness cables for electric power. 2) Since the covered electric wire 3 is fixed to the press contact slit 11a by press contact, the covered electric wire 3 may fall off from the press contact slit 11a.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the invention according to claim 1 is an invention in which a pressure contact terminal having a Y-shaped pressure contact slit is opposed to the pressure contact slit. On both side surfaces, a blade portion is formed along the longitudinal direction of the slit.

The first aspect of the present invention is based on the results of intensive experiments. That is, a blade portion is formed along the longitudinal direction on both sides of the electric wire insertion portion for inserting the covered electric wire of the Y-shaped press contact slit, and the angle θ of the blade portion, in other words, the inclination of the opposite sides. The angle θ between the parts
The relationship between (see FIG. 1 (c)) and the insertion force of the covered electric wire was measured. As a result, as shown in FIG. 4, when the angle θ is around 120 °, the insertion force of the covered electric wire becomes the smallest, and the insertion force is reduced by 30 times as compared with the conventional press-fitting slit that is punched straight and has no inclined surface. % Decrease. Therefore, when the angle formed by the inclined portion is set to 100 ° to 130 °, preferably approximately 120 °, a covered wire having a diameter larger than that of the related art can be easily inserted into the press contact slit having the same width. Further, when inserting a covered wire having the same diameter, the width of the press contact slit can be narrowed, and the press contact terminal itself can be made smaller than before.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the pressure contact terminal according to the first aspect, a plurality of Y pressure contact slits are provided in parallel, and the pressure contact slit has a constricted portion near a bottom portion. A U-shaped buffer slit is provided in parallel with the press-contact slit therebetween.

The present invention is effective when connecting between different types (different diameters) of coated electric wires by press contact terminals. Conventionally, the size of the press contact terminal is increased in order to prevent different residual stresses caused by the insertion of the different (different diameter) coated electric wires from affecting each other. Inserting the insulated wire into the insulation displacement slit,
The press-contact slit receives an opening force, and a residual stress is generated in the press-contact terminal. However, in the invention described in claim 2,
This residual stress is relieved by the bottom having the constricted portion and the U-shaped buffer slit provided between the press contact slits. Therefore, even when the coated electric wire is inserted into the press contact slit, the press contact terminal is not deformed, the interval between the adjacent press contact slits is reduced, and the press contact terminal can be downsized.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a covered electric wire by closing an opening of the press contact slit so that the covered electric wire of the cable inserted into the press contact slit according to the first or second aspect does not come out of the press contact slit. A cable branching section, wherein a fixing section is formed, and the covered electric wire fixing section is covered with a coating layer formed by molding.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the covered wire fixing portion is formed by closing the opening of the press contact slit, it is possible to prevent the covered wire from dropping out of the press contact slit.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 (a), 1 (b) and 1 (c) are a plan view, an AA sectional view and a rear view of an embodiment of a press contact terminal according to the present invention, respectively. The press contact terminal 20 of the present embodiment includes a pair of opposed Y-shaped press contact slits 22, 22 connected in a U-shape by a connecting portion 21.
(For the trunk line) and Y-shaped press-contact slits 23, 2 which are also connected by the connecting portion 21 and are narrower than the press-contact slits 22.
3 (for branch lines) are formed in parallel. The press-fitting slit 22 is opened such that the tip portions 22a and 22a form a C-shape to form an electric wire insertion portion. The opposing tips 22a, 22a have blades formed by cutting in the longitudinal direction. The opposite blade portions of the tip portions 22a, 22a are symmetrically inclined with respect to the center line of the press-contact slit 22, and the angle θ is about 120 °. The opposing parallel portions 22b of the press-contact slit 22 are symmetrically inclined in a cross section orthogonal to the longitudinal direction, and the angle between the two inclined portions is also approximately 120 °. Further, a constricted portion 22c is provided near the bottom of the press contact slit 22. The pressure contact slit 23 also has a tip portion 23a, a parallel portion 23b, and a constricted portion 23c having the same shape as the pressure contact slit 22. In addition, the press contact slits 22 and 23
A U-shaped buffer slit 24 is provided between them.

When the coated electric wire is inserted into the press contact terminal 20 of the above embodiment, the insertion force is reduced by about 30% as compared with the case where the cover wire is inserted into the conventional press contact terminal having the same slit width.
Workability is improved. Therefore, it is possible to connect the insulated wire (for example, the insulated wire of a harness cable for electric power) having a larger diameter than the conventional insulated terminal to the insulated terminal 20. Further, in order to insert the covered electric wire with the same insertion force as the press contact terminal 20 of the present embodiment, the width (the horizontal direction in FIG. 1A) of the conventional press contact terminal is 1.5 times that of the present embodiment. It turned out to be more than double. That is, if the insertion force is the same, the press contact terminal can be reduced in size as compared with the related art.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are explanatory views of one embodiment of a cable branching section using the press contact terminal 20 of the above embodiment. In the present embodiment, the relatively thick covered wire 31 of the trunk cable and the relatively thin covered wire 32 of the branch line cable are inserted and connected to the press contact slits 22 and 23, respectively. Then, a string-shaped metal member 33 (for example, copper tape) is wound as a band between the opposed pressure contact slits 22, 22, between the pressure contact slits 23, 23, and the connecting portion 21 of the pressure contact terminal 20, and the insulated wire 31.
32 and the press contact terminal 20 are fixed, thereby forming a covered electric wire fixing portion. When the trunk line cable and the branch line cable are each composed of three covered wires 31 and 32, each covered wire 31 is connected to the covered wire 32 using the press-contact terminal 20 for each covered wire 31. To form a covered electric wire fixing portion. Then, an insulating spacer is interposed between the three press contact terminals 20 and the whole is covered with a coating layer such as a molded vinyl resin to form a cable branch portion. The outer diameter of the thus formed cable branch portion is equal to that of a conventional crimp terminal, but the length is about half. In addition, the outer diameter of the press contact terminal is reduced in spite of providing a means for preventing the terminal from coming off.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of another embodiment of the cable branch portion using the press contact terminal 20 of the above embodiment. In the present embodiment, the press contact slits 22 and 23 of the press contact terminal 20 are used.
Cuts 22d, 23 outside the tips 22a, 23a of
d is provided. Then, in a state where the covered electric wires 31 and 32 are inserted into the press contact slits 22 and 23, the tip portions 22a and 23
a is bent inward so as to close the openings of the press contact slits 22 and 23, and the press contact terminal 20 and the covered electric wires 31 and 32 are fixed. When the trunk line cable and the branch line cable are composed of three coated electric wires 31 and 32, similarly to the above-described embodiment, three press contact terminals 20 are used, and a coating layer of vinyl resin or the like is formed by molding as a whole. To form a cable branch.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the present invention is not limited to the two pressing slits of the pressing terminal. Further, the means for preventing the covered electric wire from coming off from the press contact terminal is not limited to the above embodiment.

[0017]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is an effect that the insertion force of the coated electric wire into the press contact slit is reduced, and the workability is improved. Accordingly, the size of the covered electric wire can be increased. Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, there is an effect that the pressure contact terminal is reduced in size. Further, according to the third aspect of the invention, there is an effect that the cable branch portion is reduced in size.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A to 1C are a plan view, an AA sectional view, and a rear view, respectively, of an embodiment of a press contact terminal according to the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are a plan view and a side view, respectively, of an embodiment of a cable branch portion according to the present invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are a plan view and a side view, respectively, of another embodiment of the cable branch portion according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between an inclination angle θ of a press contact slit and an insertion force.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a harness cable.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional connection structure between a press contact terminal and a covered electric wire.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 conductor 2 insulating coating layer 3, 31, 32 coated electric wire 4 sheath 11, 20 pressure contact terminal 11 a, 22, 23 pressure contact slit 21 connecting part 22 a, 23 a tip part 22 b, 23 b parallel part 22 c, 23 c constricted part 24 buffer slit 22 d, 23d notch 33 string-shaped metal member

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A pressure contact terminal having a Y-shaped pressure contact slit, characterized in that opposite side surfaces of the pressure contact slit are formed with blade portions along the longitudinal direction of the slit. 2. A plurality of Y-shaped press contact slits are provided in parallel, said press contact slit has a constricted portion near a bottom portion, and a U-shaped buffer slit is provided between said press contact slits on said press contact slit. The pressure contact terminal according to claim 1, wherein the pressure contact terminal is provided in parallel. 3. An insulated wire fixing portion is formed by closing an opening of the press-contact slit so that the covered electric wire of the cable inserted into the press-contact slit according to claim 1 or 2 does not fall out of the press-contact slit. A cable branch portion, wherein a wire fixing portion is covered with a coating layer formed by molding.