JPH11354186A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve workability at removing a terminal fitting from a connector housing. SOLUTION: A slide member 30 is provided on a connector housing 10. The slide member 30 can be pushed from a standby position in front of an elastic locking piece 12 to a pushing position, which is deeper than the standby position. The slide member 30 is pushed so that the elastic locking piece 12 is deformed elastically into a deforming permissible space 13 by a guiding surface 35 to release a stop of a terminal fitting 20 caused by the elastic locking piece 12. The terminal fitting 20 needs only to be pulled out of the connector housing 10. The slide member 30 can release a stop state of all terminal fittings 20 at once and workability can be improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a connector disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 63-131074 as a connector for preventing a terminal fitting inserted in a connector housing from being detached by an elastic locking piece. When recycling this type of connector, it is necessary to separate the metal terminal fitting from the resin connector housing.This separation work is performed by inserting the jig into the connector housing and attaching the elastic locking piece to the terminal fitting. This is performed in such a manner that the terminal fitting is pulled out of the connector housing while maintaining the state.

[0003]

However, in the method using a jig as described above, the number of terminal fittings that can be removed by one jig operation is only one. However, there is a drawback that it takes. In particular, in recent years, as the number of connectors has been increased, the complexity of operations has also increased, and there is a strong demand for improved operability. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to improve workability when a terminal fitting is detached from a connector housing.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, an inner wall of a cavity of a connector housing into which a terminal fitting can be inserted extends in the terminal insertion direction and has a terminal locking projection at a tip. A locking piece is provided, and when the terminal fitting is inserted into the cavity, the elastic locking piece is elastically deformed into a deformation allowable space provided in the connector housing and then restored, so that the terminal locking projection is brought into contact with the terminal fitting. In the connector that locks the connector in a retaining state, the connector housing is mounted at a standby position ahead of the elastic locking piece from the front of the connector housing and can be pushed from the standby position to a push-in position on the back side. A slide member is provided, and the slide member is slid from the standby position to the pushing position,
A guide surface is provided, which obliquely contacts the tip of the elastic locking piece and elastically deforms the elastic locking piece toward the deformation allowable space.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, when the slide member is at the standby position, the elastic locking piece of the deformation allowable space is provided integrally with the slide member. While restricting the elastic deformation of the elastic locking piece by being located at the corresponding portion with the distal end side, when the slide member moves to the pushing position, the base end of the elastic locking piece in the deformation allowable space And a retainer portion which moves to the corresponding portion to allow the elastic locking piece to elastically deform.

[0006] The invention of claim 3 is claim 1 or claim 2.
In the invention of the above, the slide member is provided with a detection piece integrally via a deformable connecting portion, the detection piece,
When the slide member is in the standby position, the slide member is housed in a recess formed in a front end surface of the connector housing, and in a process of being pushed into the push-in position, the slide member abuts on a rear surface of the recess and the recess is formed. The connector housing is pushed down so as to protrude forward from the front end face of the connector housing.

[0007]

When the sliding member is pushed from the standby position to the pushing position, the guide portion comes into contact with the elastic locking piece and elastically deforms it into the deformation allowable space. Then, the terminal locking projection of the elastic locking piece is detached from the terminal fitting, and the retaining of the terminal fitting by the elastic locking piece is released, so that the terminal fitting may be removed from the connector housing. If a plurality of guide surfaces of the slide member are provided so as to correspond to all the elastic locking pieces, it is possible to simultaneously release the retaining states of all the terminal fittings, thereby improving workability. it can.

When the slide member is in the standby position, the retainer portion restricts the elastic deformation of the elastic locking piece, so that the elastic locking piece is locked in a state to prevent the terminal fitting from being pulled out. The terminal fitting is in a double locked state. [Invention of Claim 3] When the slide member is at the standby position, the detecting piece is housed in the recess. When the slide member is moved to the pushing position, the detecting piece hits the inner surface of the concave portion and is pushed down, so that the detecting piece projects from the front surface of the connector housing. That is, the position of the slide member can be detected based on the state of the detection piece.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [First Embodiment] A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The connector of the present embodiment includes a resin connector housing 10, a resin slide member 30, and a terminal fitting 20. The connector housing 10 has a rear surface (FIG. 1).
A plurality of cavities 11 (four chambers in this embodiment) that are individually opened in the right side of FIG. 1 are formed in parallel in a horizontal row, and a terminal fitting 20 is inserted into each cavity 11 from the rear. . A part of the upper wall portion of each cavity 11 is an elastic locking piece 12 protruding forward in a cantilever manner,
On the lower surface of the distal end portion of each elastic locking piece 12, a terminal locking projection 12A that can be engaged with the terminal fitting 20 is formed. Above the elastic locking piece 12, a deformation allowable space 13 for allowing upward elastic deformation is formed so as to extend in the front-rear direction along the upper surface of the elastic locking piece 12.
Note that the deformation allowable space 13 may be either a form in which the elastic locking pieces 12 are individually partitioned or a form in which all the elastic locking pieces 12 communicate with each other in the horizontal direction.

The terminal fitting 20 has a box-shaped fitting portion 21 with a front portion.
And the rear part is a crimping part 22 with the electric wire 25.
And are individually inserted into the respective cavities 11 from behind the connector housing 10. In the process of insertion, the upper edge of the front end of the fitting portion 21 is elastically deformed so as to engage with the terminal locking projection 12A and push the elastic locking piece 12 up into the deformation allowable space 13, so that the upper surface of the fitting portion 21 is raised. Terminal locking projection 12A
Insertion proceeds while sliding on. And the terminal fitting 20
When the terminal reaches the proper insertion position, the terminal locking projection 12A is disengaged from the upper surface of the fitting portion 21 and the elastic locking piece 12 is elastically restored. The terminal fitting 20 is engaged with the locking receiving portion 23 from the rear, whereby the terminal fitting 20 is retained and retained by the elastic locking piece 12. The front end face of the connector housing 10 has a tab receiving port 1 communicating with the front end of each cavity 11.
A tab (not shown) of the mating male terminal fitting is fitted into the fitting portion 21 through the tab receiving port 14.

An accommodation space 15 for accommodating the slide member 30 is formed in the front end face of the connector housing 10. The housing space 15 is provided with the elastic locking pieces 12.
, And has a large horizontally long opening so as to communicate with the upper surfaces of the front ends of all the cavities 11. The back end of the housing space 15 communicates with the front end of the deformation allowable space 13 so that the ceiling surface is flush. A recess 16 having a small depth is formed on the front end surface of the connector housing 10 so as to communicate with the upper edge of the housing space 15.

The sliding member 30 has a horizontally long plate-shaped main body 31 that can be accommodated in the accommodation space 15, and four guide portions extending rearward from the main body 31 so as to correspond to the elastic locking pieces 12. 32, and each elastic locking piece 12
Four-piece deformation restricting portion 33 extending rearward to correspond to
And a horizontally long plate-shaped detection piece 3 extending upward from the main body 31.
4 The upper and lower surfaces of the guide portion 32 are flush with the upper and lower surfaces of the main body portion 31, and the upper surface thereof is along the ceiling surface of the housing space 15, and the lower surface thereof is the terminal fitting 2.
It should be along the upper surface of the 0 fitting part 21. Also,
The extended end face (the right end face in FIG. 1) of the guide portion 32 is
A guide surface 35 inclined obliquely upward is provided.
Numeral 5 faces the tip of the elastic locking piece 12.

The deformation restricting portion 33 has a horizontal plate shape, and the upper surface thereof is flush with the upper surface of the main body portion 31 and the upper surface of the guide portion 32 so as to be along the ceiling surface of the housing space 15 and the deformation allowable space 13. Has become. On the other hand, the lower surface of the deformation restricting portion 33 extends along the upper surface of the elastic locking piece 12. That is, the deformation restricting portion 33 is inserted almost tightly into the deformation allowable space 13. The extension end of the deformation restricting portion 33 is a retainer portion 36 which can restrict elastic deformation of the elastic locking piece 12 into the deformation allowable space 13. Further, a clearance hole 37 is provided between the retainer portion 36 and the guide portion 32 to enable the elastic locking piece 12 to elastically deform toward the deformation allowable space 13 by avoiding interference with the elastic locking piece 12. Is open.

The detecting piece 34 is connected to the upper end edge of the main body 31 by a thin and relatively easily deformable connecting portion 38, and can be accommodated in the recess 16 of the connector housing 10. Normally, the detection piece 34 is maintained in a state of rising upward from the main body 31. However, when a pressing force acts on the detection piece 34 from the rear, the detection piece 34 It can fall down to.
The thickness of the detection piece 34 is equal to or smaller than the depth dimension of the recess 16, and the height of the detection piece 34 (dimension in the front-rear direction when falling forward) is larger than the depth of the recess 16. Is set to In addition, the connecting portion 38
The detection piece 34 is arranged so as to extend along the front edge of the bottom surface of the detection piece 34.

The slide member 30 is mounted on the connector housing 10 from the front thereof, and is mounted at a predetermined standby position (see FIG. 1). ) (See FIG. 2). Note that the connector housing 10 and the slide member 30 are provided with locking means (not shown) for holding them at the standby position and the pushing position, respectively. Slide member 30
Is in the standby position, the main body 31 is flush with the front surface of the connector housing 10 and is housed in the housing space 15, and the detection piece 34 is substantially flush with the front end face of the connector housing 10. The guide portion 3 is accommodated in the recess 16 and
The guide surface 35 does not interfere with the elastic locking piece 12, the deformation restricting portion 33 is inserted into the deformation allowable space 13, and the retainer at the tip thereof is located at a position forward (forward) of the elastic locking piece 12. The portion 36 is located at a portion corresponding to the distal end side of the elastic locking piece 12. When the slide member 30 is pushed into the pushing position, the guide surface 35 of the guide portion 32 comes into contact with the tip of the elastic locking piece 12, and the elastic locking piece 12 fits into the escape hole 37 so that the deformation allowable space 13 is formed. It is designed to be elastically deformed inward. Further, the retainer portion 36 is displaced from a position corresponding to the distal end side of the elastic locking piece 12 to a portion corresponding to the base end of the elastic locking piece 12. Further, the detecting piece 34 is
Is relatively pressed by the inner surface of the connector housing and falls forward, so that the tip of the detection piece 34 protrudes from the front surface of the connector housing 10.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described. When inserting the terminal fitting 20 into the cavity 11, the slide member 30 is removed from the connector housing 10. In this state, since there is nothing that restricts the elastic deformation of the elastic locking piece 12, the terminal fitting 20 can be inserted while elastically deforming the elastic locking piece 12 into the deformation allowable space 13. After inserting the terminal fitting 20 and stopping it with the elastic locking piece 12,
The slide member 30 is mounted on the connector housing 10 and temporarily locked at the standby position (see FIG. 1). In this state,
Since the retainer portion 36 is located at a position on the distal end side of the elastic locking piece 12 and regulates the elastic deformation of the elastic locking piece 12, the terminal fitting 20 is in a double locking state. The connector of the present embodiment includes:
The slide member 30 is used in a state where the slide member 30 is at the standby position, and is fitted to the mating connector.

When the terminal fitting 20 is separated from the connector housing 10 for recycling after use of the connector, the front surface of the main body 31 of the slide member 30 is pushed to move the slide member 30 from the standby position to the pushed position. Displace. Then, the retainer portion 36 is moved to the elastic locking piece 12.
, The deformation of the elastic locking piece 12 is released, and the guide surface 35 abuts against the distal end of the elastic locking piece 12 to be elastically deformed so as to push up the elastic locking piece 12. . Thereby, the elastic locking pieces 12
As a result, the terminal fitting 20 can be pulled out of the cavity 11 rearward. At this time, since the slide member 30 is held at the pushed-in position by the not-shown locking means, the work of extracting the terminal fitting 20 becomes easy. In addition, the slide member 3
The displacement of 0 to the pushed-in position is detected when the detection piece 34 has fallen forward and protruded from the front surface of the connector housing 10. Further, since the lower end of the fallen detection piece 34 is hooked on the inner bottom surface of the lower end of the concave portion, further pushing of the slide member is restricted, and an excessive pushing operation is prevented.

As described above, in this embodiment, as means for releasing the retaining of the terminal fitting 20 by the elastic locking pieces 12, all the elastic locking pieces 12 can be simultaneously deformed to the release position. Since the slide member 30 was used,
The operability is better than the case where a jig (not shown) is inserted for each terminal fitting 20 and the elastic locking pieces 12 are individually displaced to the release position. Further, in the present embodiment, since the retainer portion 36 is provided to restrict the deformation of the elastic locking piece 12 in the releasing direction, the terminal fitting 20 can be in the double locking state, so that the terminal fitting 20 can be prevented from coming off. Excellent reliability.

When the connector of this embodiment is fitted with a mating connector (not shown), if the slide member 30 is at the pushed-in position, the retaining of the terminal fitting 20 is released. Sometimes the terminal fitting 20 is pushed by the mating male terminal fitting (not shown) and retreats to cause poor connection. In the present embodiment, a detection piece 34 is provided as a countermeasure. That is, when the slide member 30 is displaced to the pushed-in position, the detection piece 34 falls down and protrudes from the front surface of the connector housing 10. The position of the slide member 30 can be grasped. Also, for example,
Even if the fitting operation is performed without visual confirmation, since the detecting piece 34 protrudes from the connector housing 10, the detecting piece 34 collides with the mating connector, and the two connectors are in a proper fitting state. No. in this way,
Both connectors are prevented from being fitted in a state where the slide member 30 is in the pushed-in position.

[Other Embodiments] The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and illustrated in the drawings. For example, the following embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. In addition, various changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. (1) In the above embodiment, the retainer is provided on the slide member. However, according to the present invention, a configuration without the retainer may be adopted. (2) In the above embodiment, the detection piece is provided on the slide member. However, according to the present invention, the detection piece may not be provided.

(3) In the above embodiment, the cavities are formed in a row in a row. However, according to the present invention, the cavities may be divided into a plurality of upper and lower stages and may be arranged in a row in a row. (4) In the above embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a female connector having a female terminal fitting has been described, but the present invention can also be applied to a male connector having a male terminal fitting.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state in which a slide member is at a standby position according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a slide member has moved to a pushing position.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a slide member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Connector housing 11 ... Cavity 12 ... Elastic locking piece 12A ... Terminal locking protrusion 13 ... Deformation allowable space 16 ... Concave part 20 ... Terminal fitting 30 ... Slide member 34 ... Detection piece 35 ... Guide surface 36 ... Retainer part 38 ... Connection Department

Claims (3)

[Claims] An elastic locking piece is provided on an inner wall of a cavity of a connector housing in which a terminal fitting can be inserted, the elastic locking piece extending along a terminal insertion direction and having a terminal locking projection at a tip. When the terminal fitting is inserted, the elastic locking piece is elastically deformed into a deformation allowable space provided in the connector housing and then restored and the terminal locking projection locks the terminal fitting in a state in which the terminal fitting is prevented from coming off. A slide member which is mounted from the front of the connector housing at a standby position ahead of the elastic locking piece in the connector housing and which can be pushed from the standby position to a push-in position on the back side is provided. During the slide from the standby position to the pushing position, abuts the tip of the elastic locking piece obliquely, and Connector, wherein a guide surface to elastically deform the piece in the deformation allowing space side is provided. 2. The slide member is provided integrally with the slide member,
When the slide member is at the standby position, it is located in a portion of the deformation allowable space corresponding to the distal end side of the elastic locking piece to regulate elastic deformation of the elastic locking piece, and the slide member is When moving to the pushing position, a retainer portion that moves to a portion of the deformation allowable space corresponding to the base end of the elastic locking piece to allow elastic deformation of the elastic locking piece is provided. The connector according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The slide member is integrally provided with a detection piece via a deformable connecting portion, and the detection piece is provided on the front end face of the connector housing when the slide member is at the standby position. While being accommodated in the formed concave portion, in the process of the slide member being pushed into the pushing position, the slide member abuts against the inner surface of the concave portion and is pushed down so as to protrude forward from the front end surface of the connector housing from the concave portion. The connector according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein