JPH1166989A - Electric contact member - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric contact member which has a simple structure without taking much installation space and has small electric resistance. SOLUTION: This electric contact member 1 is constituted of a holder 2 consisting of insulating material, one or more coil springs 6 which are stored in the holder 2 and consists of conductive material. At the upper part of the holder 2, an opening 3 for inserting the movable end 8 of the coil spring 6 is formed. At the lower part of the holder 2, a support part 4 for supporting and fixing the coil spring 6 is formed. At the inner wall of the support part 4, a female screw 5 is formed, and the coil spring 6 is supported by engaging the spiral part 7 of the coil spring 6 with the female screw 5. The movable end 8 of the coil spring 6, which is of U shape, is protruded to the outside of the holder 2 from the opening 3, and its front end 81 functions as an electric contact. The fixed end 9 of the coil spring 6 constitutes a lead terminal connected to a lead wire.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric contact member installed at an electric connection part.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various electrical connection portions such as a mount portion for mounting a lens on a body of a single-lens reflex camera and a connector portion between a digital camera and an LCD monitor for displaying an image captured by the camera are provided as springs as electrical contact members. Type connector pins are installed.

FIG. 4 shows this spring type connector pin. As shown in FIG.
Is a barrel 11, a plunger 12 slidable in the axial direction with respect to the barrel 11, a coil spring 13 housed in a space 17 surrounded by the barrel 11 and the plunger 12, a plunger 12 and a coil spring 13
And the relay member 14 located between the two. The tip of each shaft of the barrel 11 and the plunger 12
They constitute electrical contacts 15 and 16, respectively.

The plunger 12 includes a coil spring 13
Moves in the axial direction against the elastic force of the barrel 11 and expands and contracts with respect to the barrel 11. Due to the expansion and contraction of the plunger 12, the electric contact 16 comes into contact with, for example, a land portion to obtain electrical conduction.

However, in such a spring-type connector pin 10, a barrel 11, a plunger 12,
It is composed of the relay member 14 and the coil spring 13 and has a large number of parts, so the structure is complicated.
Since the outer diameter of the spring-type connector pins 10 becomes large, when a plurality of spring-type connector pins 10 are arranged side by side, the installation interval between them cannot be shortened, and a large installation space is required for the electrical connection part. There are drawbacks.

Further, since the number of components constituting the spring-type connector pin 10 is large, the electrical resistance at the contact point between the components becomes high, and the electrical resistance of the spring-type connector pin 10 as a whole becomes high due to the accumulation of these. (For example, the initial resistance value is about 10 to 30 mΩ).

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an electric contact member which has a simple structure, requires no installation space, and has a low electric resistance.

[0008]

This and other objects are achieved by the present invention which is defined below as (1) to (8).

(1) It has a holder having an opening and at least one conductive coil spring housed in the holder, and one end of the coil spring forms a movable end movable with respect to the holder. The movable end projects outside the holder through the opening to function as an electrical contact.

(2) The electric contact member according to the above (1), wherein the movable end has a shape capable of making a point contact at the tip.

(3) The electrical contact member according to (1) or (2), wherein the movable end is formed by bending a wire constituting a coil spring.

(4) The electrical contact member according to any one of (1) to (3), wherein the other end of the coil spring constitutes a fixed end fixedly mounted on the holder.

(5) The electrical contact member according to any one of (1) to (4), wherein the other end of the coil spring forms a lead terminal.

(6) A female screw is formed on the inner wall of the holder, and the helical portion of the other end of the coil spring is screwed to the female screw to support the coil spring. An electric contact member according to any one of the above.

(7) The electric contact member according to any one of (1) to (6), wherein the plurality of coil springs are arranged in parallel.

(8) The electric contact member according to any one of (1) to (7), wherein the coil spring is made of copper or a copper-based alloy.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an electric contact member according to the present invention will be described in detail based on a preferred embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the electric contact member of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. As shown in these drawings, the electric contact member 1 of the present invention includes a holder (casing) 2 and a plurality (two) of coil springs 6 housed in the holder 2.

The holder 2 is made of an insulating material such as various plastics such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl chloride and polycarbonate, and various ceramics.

A coil spring 6 is provided above the holder 2 in the drawing.
The number of openings (slits) 3 corresponding to the number is formed. The opening 3 is for inserting a movable end 8 of a coil spring 6 described later, and thus has a shape corresponding to the movable end 8. In this embodiment, the opening 3 has a strip shape (rectangular shape).

A support 4 for supporting and fixing the coil spring 6 is formed at a lower portion of the holder 2 in the drawing. A female screw 5 is formed on the inner wall of the support 4.

The female screw 5 is formed at substantially the same pitch as the spiral portion 7 of the coil spring 6. The width of the thread groove of the female screw 5 is set substantially equal to the outer diameter of the wire constituting the coil spring 6.

In such a holder 2, two coil springs 6 are housed side by side via a partition 23 of the holder 2. In this case, in order to reduce the size and space, it is preferable that the coil springs 6 are installed so that the interval between them is as small as possible. In the present embodiment, such a requirement can be satisfied by reducing the thickness of the partition wall 23. In addition, each coil spring 6
Are the same, and therefore, one coil spring 6 will be described below.

The coil spring 6 is formed by deforming a wire made of a material having conductivity and elasticity as desired, and includes a spiral portion 7 formed by spirally winding the wire and a spiral portion 7 in the drawing. It comprises a movable end 8 formed on the upper end side and a fixed end 9 formed on the lower end side of the spiral portion 7 in the drawing.

The coil spring 6 is fixedly supported by the holder 2 by screwing a part (the lower part in FIGS. 2 and 3) of the spiral part 7 to the female screw 5. Therefore, the fixed end 9 is also fixedly installed on the holder 2.

The movable end 8 projects outside the holder 2 through the opening 3 formed in the holder 2. The tip 81 of the movable end 8 has a shape that can make point contact with a land (not shown) (a terminal having a flat portion), for example. That is, the movable end 8 is formed by bending a wire constituting the coil spring 6 into a U-shape, and the tip (the top of the curved portion) 81 of the movable end 8 is an electrical contact that makes point contact with the land. Function as

The fixed end 9 is formed by a shaft (wire) extending in the direction of the center line of the coil spring 6, and forms a lead terminal connected (for example, soldered) to a lead wire (not shown).

As shown on the left side of FIG.
In the natural state (when no external force is applied, the portion above the support portion 4 of the spiral portion 7 extends, and the movable end 8 protrudes above the opening 3 by a predetermined length. As shown on the right side, when the tip 81 of the movable end 8 comes into contact with the land or the like and receives a reaction force (indicated by an arrow in FIG. Is compressed, and the protruding length of the movable end 8 from the opening 3 is reduced.

Although the moving stroke of the movable end 8 in the coil spring 6 is not particularly limited, it is usually 0.5 to 1.5.
It is preferable to set it to about mm.

Examples of the material of the wire constituting the coil spring 6 include various metal materials such as copper or a copper-based alloy, iron or an iron-based alloy (eg, stainless steel). Copper or a copper-based alloy is preferable because of its superiority. Furthermore, copper-based alloys such as beryllium copper, phosphor bronze, and nickel silver are preferable because they have extremely high conductivity and are excellent in workability and corrosion resistance.

In order to improve the corrosion resistance of the coil spring 6, the surface of the wire may be subjected to various surface treatments such as anti-corrosion plating such as noble metal plating and the formation of other coating layers.

The diameter of the wire is not particularly limited, but a wire having a diameter of usually about 0.08 to 1.0 mm can be used.

In the electric contact member 1 of the present invention, in particular, in the electric contact member 1 in which the coil spring 6 is made of a wire made of the above-described material, the electric resistance of the entire electric contact member 1 is, for example, an initial resistance value of 3 to 10 mΩ. And 70% lower than before.

Next, an example of a method of assembling the electric contact member 1 will be described. First, the lower end opening 21 of the holder 2
Then, the movable end 8 of the coil spring 6 is inserted, the coil spring 6 is rotated in a predetermined direction, and the spiral portion 7 is screwed into the female screw 5. At this time, a jig (not shown) is inserted into the opening 3 to close the opening 3.

When the screwing of the spiral portion 7 into the female screw 5 progresses to some extent, the tip 81 of the movable end 8 comes into contact with the upper inner surface 22 of the holder 2, and when the screwing further advances, the spiral portion 7 Is compressed.

When the lower end of the spiral portion 7 approaches the lower end opening 21 and enters the inside of the holder 2, the rotation (screw-in operation) of the coil spring 6 is stopped at a predetermined rotation angle. That is, since the movable end 8 and the opening 3 coincide with each other and the movable end 8 can be inserted into the opening 3 at every rotation angle of 180 °, the rotation of the coil spring 6 It stops when it becomes a state.

Next, when the jig is removed and the opening 3 is opened, the portion of the spiral portion 7 above the support portion 4 extends,
The movable end 8 protrudes out of the holder 2 through the opening 3 (the state shown in FIG. 3).

If necessary, an adhesive may be injected into or near the female screw 5 and solidified.

By mounting all the coil springs 6 in the holder 2 as described above, the assembly of the electrical contact member 1 is completed.

Since the electric contact member 1 of the present invention is composed of the holder 2 and the coil spring 6, the structure is extremely simple, and contributes to miniaturization and weight reduction. In particular, when a plurality of coil springs 6 are juxtaposed, the installation interval between adjacent coil springs 6 can be shortened, so that the arrangement density of electrical contacts can be increased and the installation space can be reduced.

Further, in the electrical contact member 1, the portion constituting the path for obtaining electrical conduction is substantially only the coil spring 6, and unlike the conventional one, the portion passing through the contact between a plurality of members is used. Therefore, the electric resistance can be reduced.

Further, since the coil spring 6 is supported by screwing the spiral portion 7 of the coil spring 6 into the female screw 5 formed on the holder 2, the structure for supporting the coil spring 6 is extremely simple. At the time of assembling the electrical contact member 1, the coil spring 6 only needs to be screwed into the female screw 5, so that the assembling operation is extremely easy.

Although the electric contact member of the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and the structure of each part may be any structure capable of exhibiting the same function. Can be replaced by

In particular, the conditions such as the number and arrangement of the coil springs 6 and the shapes and structures of the movable end 8 and the fixed end 9 are not limited to those shown in the drawings, but may be any. For example, the shape of the movable end 8 may be a shape obtained by deforming a wire into a U shape, a V shape, a W shape, a ring shape, or the like, or a shape in which a head part capable of point contact is fixed. Good.

The support structure of the coil spring 6 with respect to the holder 2 is not limited to the screwing with the female screw as shown in the figure, but may also be performed by bonding with an adhesive, fitting, caulking, and other supporting structures using various supporting members. Anything is acceptable.

The use of the electric contact member of the present invention is not particularly limited. For example, a mount portion for mounting a lens on the body of a single-lens reflex camera, a digital camera, and an LCD monitor for displaying a photographed image of the same. , And various electrical connection parts such as a connector part between a video camera and a battery pack.

[0047]

As described above, according to the electric contact member of the present invention, the number of parts is small, the structure is simple, and the size, weight and cost can be reduced. In particular, the installation interval of the coil spring can be shortened, and when a plurality of electric contacts are provided in parallel, the arrangement density can be increased.

Further, since the electric conduction path is substantially formed only by the coil spring, the electric resistance is small, that is, the power loss is small.

In particular, in the case of a configuration in which the spiral portion of the coil spring is screwed into the female screw formed on the inner wall of the holder, the configuration can be made simpler and the assembly is easy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an electric contact member of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a configuration of a conventional electric contact member (spring type connector pin).

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electric contact member 2 Holder 21 Lower end opening 22 Upper inner surface 23 Partition wall 3 Opening 4 Support part 5 Female screw 6 Coil spring 7 Helical part 8 Movable end 81 Tip 9 Fixed end 10 Spring type connector pin 11 Barrel 12 Plunger 13 Coil spring 14 Relay member 15 electrical contacts 16 electrical contacts 17 space

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A holder having an opening and at least one conductive coil spring housed in the holder, one end of the coil spring constituting a movable end movable with respect to the holder. An electric contact member, wherein the movable end projects outside the holder through the opening to function as an electric contact. 2. The electrical contact member according to claim 1, wherein the movable end has a shape capable of making a point contact at the tip. 3. The electrical contact member according to claim 1, wherein the movable end is formed by bending a wire constituting a coil spring. 4. The electrical contact member according to claim 1, wherein the other end of the coil spring forms a fixed end fixedly mounted on the holder. 5. The electrical contact member according to claim 1, wherein the other end of the coil spring forms a lead terminal. 6. The coil spring according to claim 1, wherein a female screw is formed on an inner wall of the holder, and the coil spring is supported by screwing a spiral portion on the other end of the coil spring to the female screw. Electrical contact members. 7. The electric contact member according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said coil springs are arranged in parallel. 8. The electrical contact member according to claim 1, wherein the coil spring is made of copper or a copper-based alloy.