JPH1154182A - Grounding terminal fitting and waterproofing method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the waterproof workability of a grounding terminal fitting. SOLUTION: A plurality of electric wires is bundled together and the bundle is fitted around its sheathed portion 7 with a heat-shrinkable tube 9 with its core wire portion 6 being exposed to the outside. The electric wires are then heated up for their own fixation as well as for the fluidization of a sealant applied between the wires to fill the space between the core wires 6 therewith. The obtained wire bundle is fitted with a terminal fitting 1 through the crimping process of a wire barrel 4 and an insulation barrel 5 on the fitting 1. To fitting of the tube 9 around the wire bundle before the crimping process facilitates the fitting process.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ground terminal and a waterproofing method therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a grounding terminal fitting which bundles a plurality of electric wires and collectively grounds them. In general, it comprises a terminal body that comes into contact with the grounding portion and a barrel portion for crimping each wire, and the barrel portion further includes a wire barrel for crimping a core portion exposed from the tip of each wire, It consists of an insulation barrel that bundles and crimps the covered parts of the electric wires.

However, in such a structure, since the core wire remains exposed at the crimping portion with the wire barrel, if water adheres to the core wire portion, the resin penetrates through the gap between each core wire by capillary action. There is a risk that water will enter the interior of the coating.

Conventionally, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No.
No. 23061. In this device, after an electric wire is crimped to a terminal fitting, the wire barrel and the insulation barrel are covered with a heat-shrinkable tube in which a sealant or the like is disposed.

[0005]

However, in the above publication, the heat shrink tube is fitted after the caulking work on the wire barrel and the insulation barrel, so that the fitting work is difficult. This is because unevenness due to both barrels becomes a hook when fitting.

In the above-mentioned publication, since the heat-shrinkable tube covers the wire barrel, the leading end of the heat-shrinkable tube reaches a position where the end overlaps the terminal body. Therefore,
When the sealant in the heat-shrinkable tube is fluidized by heating, the sealant may flow out around the mounting hole of the terminal main body, which may hinder grounding. The present invention has been devised in view of the above-described conventional problems, and an object thereof is to provide a ground terminal fitting which can reliably take the ground and is excellent in workability and a waterproofing method therefor. is there.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a terminal body which is brought into conductive contact with a grounding portion, and an appropriate number of electric wires connected to the terminal body. In a grounding terminal fitting comprising a barrel portion for bundling and crimping them, the barrel portion includes a wire barrel for crimping a core portion exposed from the tip of a bundled wire, and a coating for each of the bundled wires. And an insulation barrel for compressing the outer peripheral surface of the heat-shrinkable tube having a portion covered and a sealant provided therein.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, an appropriate number of electric wires whose core wires are exposed from the respective coated ends are bundled, and then a heat-shrinkable tube provided with a sealant inside is extrapolated to form the core wire portion. It is held at the position to be exposed, and in this state, the heat-shrinkable tube is heated at a predetermined temperature to fill the space between the core wires exposed from the coating with the fluidized sealant, and thereafter, the insulation barrel of the ground terminal fitting. The heat-shrinkable tube is crimped to fix the tube.

[0009]

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention,
Each wire is bundled before being crimped to the terminal fitting,
The heat shrink tube is fitted. At this time,
Since the heat-shrinkable tube can be fitted along the bundled electric wire covering without the unevenness of the conventional barrel, workability is improved.

Further, even if the heat-shrinkable tube is heated, the sealing agent flows at most up to the position before the wire barrel, and does not reach the terminal main body unlike the conventional case, and therefore, there is no problem of poor contact.

Since the wire barrel presses each wire core wire, since the core wire is exposed to the outside, there is a possibility that the wire will be immersed into each wire coating from here. Since the gap between each wire core is effectively filled at the position after the exposed part by the sealant,
In practice, the immersion phenomenon caused by the capillary phenomenon can be sufficiently avoided.

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, a description will be given of a case in which a plurality of electric wires are bundled to prevent water from leaking from a core wire portion.

The ground terminal fitting 1 is made of a conductive metal and includes a ring-shaped terminal body 2 and two barrel portions integrally extending rearward therefrom. A mounting hole 3 is opened in the center of the terminal main body 2, and when grounding, the mounting hole 3 is fitted to a stud bolt (not shown) provided upright on a grounding surface for grounding. Then, a nut (not shown) screwed into the stud bolt is tightened.

A wire barrel 4 for crimping a core portion of each wire to be connected is provided behind the terminal body 2.
Are arranged on the left and right, facing each other. Further, a pair of left and right insulation barrels 5 for crimping the outer peripheral surface of the heat-shrinkable tube 9 described below are provided on the rear side thereof.
They are arranged facing each other.

The heat-shrinkable tube 9 is made of a heat-shrinkable resin material, and is formed so as to be able to be fitted to the sheath 7 of a predetermined number of bundled wires W. The sealant 8 (adhesive) is applied to the entire inner surface. The sealing agent 8 has such a high viscosity that it does not flow out of the tube 9 at room temperature, and when heated to a temperature at which the tube 9 is thermally shrunk, the viscosity is reduced and the fluidity is increased.

Next, an example of a waterproofing method using the terminal fitting 1 of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. When the electric wires W are connected to the grounding terminal 1, first, a predetermined number of electric wires W, whose ends are peeled in advance, are bundled in a state where the lengths of the core wires 6 are aligned. Then, in this state, the heat-shrinkable tube 9 is fitted from the side of the core wire 6 and slid to the covering 7, and is held at a position where its front edge covers a slight length range of the electric wire core wire 6 (state in FIG. 2). . In this case, since the inside of the tube 9 is larger than the wire coating 7 in the bundled state and the coating 7 has no irregularities,
The slide operation can be performed smoothly.

Thereafter, the entire tube 9 is heated by a heating means such as an electric heater. Then, the tube 9 contracts by heat and tightens each wire coating 7 (FIG. 3). In addition, since the sealant 8 fits into the respective coatings 7 due to the shrinkage of the tube 9, the viscosity decreases, and the coatings become easier to flow, so that the sealant 8 substantially fills the gaps between the core wires 6 and between the coatings 7. (See FIG. 4). Thus, the heat-shrinkable tube 9 includes a part of the core wire 6 and protects the coating 7 in a watertight state over a predetermined length range (see FIG. 5).

Next, the grounding terminal 1 is finished by caulking the core 6 with the wire barrel 4 and the front end of the heat-shrinkable tube 9 with the insulation barrel 5 against the terminal 1. Can be

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the heat-shrinkable tube 9 is fitted in a state in which the electric wires W are bundled. The fitting operation is easier than before. Further, in the case where the sealing agent 8 is made to penetrate at a position including the crimped portion of the core wire 6 as in the related art, since the electric wire core wires 6 are bundled irregularly, the penetration state of the sealing agent 8 is not uniform. On the other hand, since the bundled shape is arranged as shown in FIG. 4 in the portion in the simply bundled state as in the present embodiment, the permeation state of the sealant 8 is also easy to be uniform, and therefore a high sealing It can be expected that the property will be obtained.

Further, a plurality of electric wires W are crimped to the terminal fitting 1, but prior to this, they are fixed in a state of being bundled by the heat-shrinkable tube 9, so that there is also an advantage that the crimping work becomes easy. Further, since the portion covered with the heat-shrinkable tube 9 is separated from the terminal main body 2, the leaked sealant 8 does not reach the terminal main body 2 unlike the related art, and the problem of poor contact does not occur. .

The present invention can be variously modified.
The following modifications are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

The form of the terminal fitting 1 is not limited to that shown in this embodiment, but is a so-called combination type terminal fitting 1.
It is also possible to apply to.

In this embodiment, an adhesive is used as the sealant 8, but it is also possible to use something other than the adhesive as the sealant 8.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a connection state between a ground terminal fitting and an electric wire.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which a heat-shrinkable tube is fitted into a bundled electric wire.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing a state in which fixing of the heat-shrinkable tube is completed, and a terminal fitting.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a side sectional view of the state of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Terminal fitting 4 ... Wire barrel (barrel part) 5 ... Insulation barrel (barrel part) 6 ... Core wire 7 ... Coating 8 ... Sealing agent 9 ... Heat shrinkable tube W ... Electric wire

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A ground terminal fitting comprising: a terminal main body which is brought into conductive contact with a grounding part; and a barrel part connected to the terminal main body, bundling an appropriate number of electric wires, and crimping them. The barrel portion can be covered so as to include a wire barrel for crimping a core portion exposed from the tip of the bundled electric wire, and a boundary portion between the covering portion and the core portion of each of the bundled electric wires, and the inside thereof can be covered. An earthing terminal fitting, comprising: an insulation barrel for crimping an outer peripheral surface of a heat-shrinkable tube provided with a sealing agent. 2. An appropriate number of electric wires, each having a core wire exposed from each coated end, are bundled, and then a heat-shrinkable tube provided with a sealant inside is extrapolated and held at a position where the core wire portion is exposed. In this state, the heat-shrinkable tube is heated at a predetermined temperature to fill the space between the respective core wires exposed from the coating with the fluidized sealant, and then the heat-shrinkable tube is fixed by the insulation barrel of the ground terminal fitting. A waterproofing method for grounding terminal fittings, which is fixed by tightening.