JPS61118981A - Contactor forming material - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a contact forming material suitable for manufacturing contacts of electrical connectors, relays, switches, and the like.

(Prior art and its problems) Contacts used in connectors, relays, switches, etc. must have both high conductivity and high springiness due to their characteristics, but generally those with high conductivity have high springiness. At present, there is no metal material that satisfies both requirements at the same time. Therefore, the current practice is to use copper alloys such as phosphor bronze, which have the best balance of the above two requirements, but even if it is said to best meet the requirements, the conductivity is lower than that of pure copper or even pure silver. It is much smaller than. As a result, in order to obtain a highly conductive contact with the required springiness, it is necessary to use a metal with high springiness and at the same time increase the cross-sectional area of the contact to improve conductivity. There is no way to avoid contactors becoming larger. Therefore, there is a natural limit to the miniaturization of contacts, and it is difficult to meet the recent demand for miniaturization of connectors that correspond to the miniaturization and high performance of electronic devices. The price is high.

Therefore, in order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, for example, a metal with high conductivity may be pressure-welded to a metal with excellent spring properties, or a metal with high conductivity may be laminated by vapor deposition or electrolysis to have high conductivity and excellent spring force. Attempts have been made to obtain contactors that However, since dissimilar metals are directly combined, diffusion progresses over time, leading to changes in the composition and state of the metals, resulting in a decrease in performance.Also, local batteries formed by dissimilar metals can cause corrosion. It has various drawbacks, such as the possibility that it may cause problems.

Furthermore, in the conventional method of manufacturing, for example, a multi-pole connector, it is difficult to manufacture a miniaturized, high-performance connector due to the drawbacks of the contacts described above.

That is, in a conventional multi-pole connector, for example, a single-pole contact (1) shown in FIG. 1(a) made independently for each pole is housed in an insulated housing (2) as shown in FIG. 1(b). It is manufactured by being inserted into the fixing hole (2a). However, when trying to increase the number of contacts accommodated within a certain length in order to miniaturize the connector, not only the width of the contacts but also the mutual spacing between the accommodation fixing holes (2a) of the insulating housing that fixes the contacts It has no choice but to become smaller. For this reason, manufacturing is difficult because contacts and insulating housings are required to be made small with high dimensional accuracy, and this also puts a certain limit on miniaturization. In addition to this, as mentioned above, the single-pole contact is insulated with I.
In the method of inserting and fixing into the fixing hole of the housing, the more poles there are, the more difficult it is to assemble, which also increases manufacturing costs.

In order to eliminate this drawback, as shown in Fig. 2, a contact chain is made by connecting one end of the required plurality of cylinders of contactors (1) with a connecting piece (3), and this is combined with an insulating housing (2). ) is inserted into the housing/fixing hole (2a) of the contactor, and then cut along line A to make the contacts electrically independent and assemble them. However, as the miniaturization of contacts and their high-density packaging in insulating housings progress beyond a certain level, the mechanical strength of the contacts decreases and the distance between them decreases. For this reason, in the stage of assembling and transporting the contacts manufactured by press to the process or to the automatic insertion machine, irregularities in spacing and irregularities in front and rear positions (-
The contacts are no longer lined up in a straight line. ) As a result, it becomes impossible to insert the contacts into the contact receiving and fixing holes of the insulating housings, which are small and arranged at close intervals, making it impossible to assemble the contacts with high cost and weight.

The present invention was made for the purpose of providing a contact forming material that can easily manufacture not only single-pole contacts with high contact performance but also small multi-pole connectors in which contacts are mounted at high density. The details will be explained using drawings.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) The contact forming material of the present invention basically consists of a metal layer (4) which becomes the contact area as shown in the cross-sectional view in Fig. It features a double laminated structure consisting of a metal layer (4) and a plastic layer (5).
), depending on the required characteristics, are used, for example, those described below, and these are laminated by the method described below. That is, as the metal layer (4), for example, phosphor bronze,
Metals with appropriate conductivity and spring properties such as brass and beryllium copper, iron alloys such as stainless steel, metals with spring properties containing reinforcing materials such as whiskers, and amorphous metals with strong contact spring pressure. Metals, as well as highly conductive metals such as copper, silver, and gold, are used. Examples of the plastic layer (5) include epoxy, polyester, polyimide, polyamide, and polyolefin.

Discharge ===; A single layer or a layer of two or more types of insulating materials such as rubber, and even plastic and ceramic.

Whiskers of non-metals such as carbon and various compounds,
Those containing single or two or more types of fibrous or foil-like materials are used to provide greater springiness. Moreover, in the above, a material having conductivity in addition to insulation is used. For example, a metal layer (4) such as a copper alloy with conductivity and spring properties made with emphasis on conductivity may be combined with a plastic layer (5) having spring properties, or a highly conductive material may be used. The metal layer (4), which has almost no spring properties, is combined with a conductive or insulating plastic layer (5), which has spring properties, or conversely, the metal layer (4), which has high spring properties, is combined with a spring layer (5). The metal layer (4) and the plastic layer (5) are selected depending on the desired properties, such as a combination with a non-conductive or insulating plastic layer (5). Then, for example, a thermoplastic or heat-fusible adhesive is applied to one of the metal layer (4) or the plastic layer (5) formed in the shape of a plate or nine strips, and the adhesive is pressed under heat, or a rubber-based It is made by bonding with a polymeric hardening adhesive. For example, a fluidized plastic is applied to the metal 4 (41) by spraying or printing, a metal layer (4) is heated to a temperature higher than the melting point of the plastic, and particulate plastic or resin is suspended in the flowing air. In contrast, the plastic layer (5) is formed by electrolytic, chemical, chemical, and sputtering.

It is manufactured by forming a metal layer (4) by ion plating or the like.

(Functions and Effects) As described above, the contact forming material of the present invention has a double laminated structure of a metal layer (4) and a plastic layer (5) serving as a backing layer. Therefore, for example, the metal layer is made of an alloy layer with high conductivity and low springiness, and this is replaced by a plastic layer (5
) is cut at the point indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 4(a) and bent as shown in Fig. 4(b), or it is cut into strips as shown in Fig. 4(C). A monopolar contact having the required conductivity and springiness can be made by cutting and bending the formed material made in the figure at the points indicated by dotted lines in the figure. In addition, since a considerable portion of the elasticity is shared by the plastic layer (5), the electrical conductivity can be increased accordingly, which allows the cross section of the contact to be reduced and the contact to be miniaturized. In addition, since one side of this contact is made of plastic, it is not susceptible to self-destruction due to changes in properties due to metal diffusion or separation during deformation, unlike conventional two metals bonded together.

Furthermore, it is possible to prevent self-destruction due to electrochemical corrosion caused by local batteries, and it becomes possible to realize a contact that eliminates the drawbacks of the conventional contacts.

Furthermore, according to the forming material of the present invention, it is possible to easily realize a compact multi-pole connector in which a large number of small contacts are arranged in parallel at small intervals, which enables high-density mounting on T-L devices and miniaturization of electronic devices. can be achieved. For example, as shown in FIG. 45(a), the metal layer (4) of the forming material (6) is partially removed by machining or etching to create a metal layer (4) of a required number in parallel. Then, add this to, for example, plasti, a layer (5
) is heated and softened, the metal layer (4) is placed on the front side as shown in Fig. 5(b), and the metal layer (4) is folded in half from the middle to form a multipolar contact. As shown in FIG. 5(C), the contact portion (4a) and the connecting terminal portion (4b) are exposed and molded and fixed with an insulator (2) to form a male connector. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6(a), two plates on which metal layers (4) are arranged in parallel with the same size and mutual spacing as the male connector are made in the same manner as described above. Then, after bending this as shown in Fig. 6(b), the contact part (4a) and the connecting terminal part are connected to each other as shown in Fig. 6(C), at a distance where the male connector is inserted and makes contact. (4b) is exposed and molded with insulator (2) to form a female connector, thereby forming a multi-pole connector.

That is, since the formation of the metal layer (4) that will become the contact by removal techniques such as cutting and chipping techniques is performed with high precision as is well known, it is not only possible to easily form the contact metal layer (4) with a small width. , these can be arranged four times with small mutual spacing. Moreover, these contact metal layers (4) are lined with a common plastic layer (5), so that their position does not shift and their fixing in the insulating housing (2) can be done easily and precisely. can. Therefore, compared to the conventional connector made by inserting the contact into the fixing hole of the insulating housing, it is easier to realize a compact multi-pole connector, contributing to the miniaturization of electronic equipment. In order to improve environmental resistance, abrasion resistance, electrical connection stability, solderability, acceptability, etc., the metal layer can be plated with metal, chemically treated, or coated with a coating material.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. Figure 5 (a) (b) (c)
and FIGS. 6A, 6C, and 6C are explanatory diagrams of manufacturing examples of multi-pole connectors.

+1+...Contact, (2)...Insulating housing, (
2a)...Contact housing fixing hole, (3)...Connection piece, (
4)...Contact metal layer, (4a)...Contact part, (4
b)...Connection terminal part, (5)...Plasti layer,
(6) Forming material.

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) An electrical contact forming material characterized by laminating a plastic layer and a metal layer. (2) A contact forming material according to claim 1, characterized in that the metal layer has conductivity and spring properties. (3) A contact forming material according to claim 1, characterized in that the metal layer is made of a conductive material and the plastic layer has spring properties. (4) The contact forming material according to claim 1, characterized in that the plastic layer has electrical conductivity. (5) A contact forming material according to claim 1, characterized in that a layer having required properties such as an environmentally resistant material is provided on the metal layer.