KR19990007851A - Electrical connectors and connector assemblies - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a connector assembly comprising a high density, fine-grained, low insertion force electrical connector and a plurality of insertion force electrical connectors with a plurality of rows suitably and a plurality of contacts with a plurality of rows suitably. It is about. The electrical connectors 10 are alternately arranged in rows of one or more contact receiving cavities 21a-21c in the insulating housing 20. The connector assembly includes a pair of connectors each having an insulated housing of female and passive bodies for alternately securing a plurality of male and female contacts.

Description

Electrical connectors and connector assemblies

[Details of Invention]

The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly, to an electrical connector having a plurality of contacts formed in one or more rows.

A typical electrical connector has an insulating housing and at least one contact that is secured to the insulating housing. However, as electrical circuits become increasingly complex and require more advanced functionality, a plurality of contacts are stuck in an insulating housing with less centerline spacing or higher density. In office or business electric machines such as personal computers or copiers, facsimile machines, and the like, a number of closely contacted parts are usually fixed in an insulating housing, forming two or more rows.

One typical embodiment of the connector is a so-called drawer connector. Here, half of one connector is mounted in the main body, while the other connector half is mounted in a module that can be plugged into the module enclosure of the main body. That is, electromechanical devices such as copiers and their accessories have two or more movable parts so that they can be electrically or mechanically integrated for convenience of service and maintenance. One or more drawer connectors are used at the interface between the main body and the module to effectively interconnect the main body modules.

One typical embodiment of the drawer connector is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 276575/89. Typically a hydrous fuselage housing is used in the connector half, where the male contacts are arranged in one row and the female contacts are arranged in the other row.

Another embodiment of a male and female connector is described in US Pat. No. 4,737,118. Here, the plurality of contact portions of the same structure are arranged while forming heat in the connector housing of the same structure. A pair of identical housings formed in opposite vertical directions with each other have mating contacts which engage each other.

The electrical connectors of the conventional drawers or male and female bodies described above use the same elastic contacts that are elastically biased and normally bent in one direction when paired with each other. That is, each of the contacts is the same in structure and acts respectively as a female contact and a male contact. When a pair of the same connectors are in contact with each other, all the contacts in one connector cause the contacts of the other connector and the pivot side to be turned toward the connector housing to which the contacts are fixed.

The conventional connector operates satisfactorily when the number of contact portions is relatively limited and the dimensions of the connector are relatively large. However, in compact, high-performance electronic equipment, the contact portion is usually fixed in the housing while forming a plurality of rows with a small center line contact pitch. In the device, the contacts in one row face in the opposite direction to the contacts in the other row, compensating for the biasing force applied to the contacts. However, the compensation is impossible when the number of contacts is odd, for example, three rows. In addition, the insertion force of the conventional male and female body contacts is relatively high, and is not practical for electrical connectors having a large number of contacts.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector having a plurality of contacts of small spacing.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a low insertion force in an electrical connector assembly having a housing and a contact portion of a female passive body.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having an odd number of rows.

In order to eliminate the above-mentioned problems of the conventional electrical connector and achieve the above object, the electrical connector according to the present invention has a plurality of male and female connectors in which at least one row is alternately arranged in an insulating housing. To compensate or balance any undesirable force that may be applied to the housing.

In addition, the connector assembly according to the invention comprises a pair of identical or female housings having a plurality of contact receiving cavities and a plurality of male and female contacts disposed alternately in respective rows of the contact receiving cavities. Equipped.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, a preferred embodiment of the electrical connector according to the present invention will be described in detail.

1 is an equivalent exploded view according to one suitable embodiment of an electrical connector made in accordance with the present invention.

2 is an equivalent diagram of a number of contacts used in the electrical connector of FIG.

3 is a cross-sectional view of a suitable embodiment of a mating connector assembly of a left and right fuselage electrical connector according to the present invention.

1 shows an equivalent exploded view of the electrical connector of the present invention. The electrical connector 10 includes an insulating housing 20, a plurality of contacts 30, a pin alignment plate 40, and a pair of substrate holding members 50, respectively. Here, the electrical connector 10 is designed to be mounted on a circuit board (not shown in FIG. 1).

The insulating housing 20 has contact receiving cavities 21a, 21b and 21c extending from the mating face 22 to the rear face 23. The first row of contact receiving cavities 21a is arranged in a shroud 24. The second row of contact receiving cavities 21b is disposed at the bottom of the shroud 24, while the third row of contact receiving cavities 21c is parallel to the shroud 24 and is separated rib 25. It is disposed on the upper surface of the.

Slots 26 are formed in the top surface of the shroud 24, while the guide projection 27 is disposed in the bottom surface of the rib 25. A pair of mounting flanges 28a and 28b are formed at both ends of the insulating housing 20 extending rearward in parallel with each other. The pair of openings 29a and 29b extend through the mounting flanges 28a and 28b for accommodating the substrate holding member 50 and are formed therein.

The contact portion 30 has three rows of right-angled contact portions 30a, 30b and 30c, which are accommodated in the contact receiving cavities 21a, 21b and 22c in the insulating housing 20. Each row of contacts 30a to 30c includes a male contact 31 and a female contact 32 which are alternately arranged. Each male contact 31 and female contact 32 has a contact section 33, a retaining section 34 and a weld tail 35 that is curved at approximately right angles.

Each contact 30a-30c is made by stamping and forming a conductive metal plate or strip. The weld tail 35 of each contact 31, 32 is typically a pin contact having a rectangular cross section. The contact section 33 of the male contact 31 is usually straight, but bent downward at the forward or mating end, whereas the contact section 33 of the female contact 32 is raised at the front end. Has

The pin array plate 40 is made of an insulating material and has a flat plate member having a plurality of openings 41 equal to the number of the contact portions 30. As clearly shown in FIG. 1, the openings 41 for receiving the welding tails 35 are arranged in six rows formed in two columns with three openings of alternating shape, while the contacts ( The contact section 33 of 30 is arranged in three rows of the above-mentioned contact receiving cavities 21a to 21c. In addition, the openings 41 of the pin array plates 40 overlap while forming alternating rows so that the openings 41 are oblique in a straight line, or about 45 degrees with respect to the ends of the pin array plates 40. Tilt at an angle.

The pin array plate 40 has a pair of slots or cutouts 42 at both ends for accommodating the substrate holding member 50.

The substrate holding portion 50 is manufactured from a conventional flat metal plate by conventional stamping techniques. Each substrate holding portion 50 is a conventional flat plate or base section 51 having a plurality of barbs 52 on lateral energy, and a pair of elastic leg portions separated by a vertical slot 54. 53).

The outer edge portion of the retaining leg portion 53 has a barb or toothed portion 55 for engaging with an inner wall of a hole formed in a conventional circuit board.

The substrate holding portion 50 suitably penetrates the alignment slot 42 and the opening 29 in the insulating housing 20 to securely fix the pin alignment plate 40 and the insulating housing 20. Certainly, the pin alignment plate 40 is mounted on the insulating housing 20 from the bottom with the weld tail 35 of the contact 30 passing through the opening 41.

Optionally, the pin array plate 40 can be held with a frictional force in the insulating housing 20, so that there is no need for a slot (or cutout portion 42).

2 shows a portion of the contact 30 formed integrally along the carrier strip 39 by stamping a metal strip. The contacts 30 are mutually coupled in the retention section 34 until the contacts 30 and the retention section 34 are separated from the carrier strip 39 to be assembled with the insulating housing 20. The male and female contacts 31 and 32 are formed alternately, and a predetermined number of male and female contacts are moved from the carrier strip 39 and bent at different positions to form different rows of the contacts 30a to 30c. have.

The contact portions 30a to 30c constituted of the first, second and third rows may be made of the same contact portion. That is, the contact parts 30a to 30c are identical to each other except for the length of the weld tail part 35. This means that the contact strips are suitably designed so that they match the contacts 30a with longer weld tails 35 and the rows of the second and third contacts 30b and 30c are in relatively short positions. The part 35 is cut and manufactured. In this way the overall product price can be minimized.

3 is a longitudinal cross sectional view of a mated connector assembly 100 according to the invention.

The connector assembly 100 has a pair of female and passive electrical connectors 200 and 300, which are substantially the same as the electrical connector shown in FIG. 260, 360).

More specifically, the electrical connector 200 is the same as the electrical connector 10, while the electrical connector 300 uses the same insulating housing 320 as the insulating housing 20 shown in FIG. However, it has a relationship between the top and bottom faces. That is, the electrical connectors 200 and 300 become female and passive bodies. The right side of the insulating housing 220 of the first electrical connector 200 is raised, and the shroud 224 is disposed above or remotely from the circuit board 260. On the other hand, the insulating housing 320 of the second insulated connector 300 is up-side-down with respect to the housing 220, and the shroud 324 is in a low position or close to the circuit board 360. Is placed in position. In the above structure, the rib portion 325 of the second insulating housing 320 is accommodated in the shroud 224 of the insulating housing 220, while the rib portion 225 of the first insulating housing 220 is The shroud 324 of the insulating housing 320 is received. Further, the guide protrusions and the slots 26 of the electrical connectors 200 and 300 are paired in the middle of each other. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the pin alignment plate 40 is mounted to the housing 20 on the shroud piece of the housing adjacent circuit board 360. The weld tail 335 of the contact portion 330 is bent to be received in the opening 341 of the plate 340.

As shown in FIG. 3, the contacts 220, 330 of the electrical connectors 200, 300 are respectively mated in the middle. The male contact 231 of the first electrical connector 200 is paired with the female contact 332 of the second insulated connector 300, and the female contact 232 of the first electrical connector 200 is the second insulated connector. Paired with the male contact portion 332 of 300. It should be noted that the male contacts 231 and 331 formed in one row of the contacts 230 and 330 correspond to the adjacent rows or the rows of the contacts 230 and 330. The structure minimizes the stress on the insulating housing 220, 320 by the biasing force applied to the mating contacts 230, 330. The spacing between the rows of adjacent contacts receiving the cavities, ie the spacing between which the contacts are inserted, is kept constant by the arrangement.

In the above, the electrical connector and connector assembly according to the present invention has been described in detail. However, it is well known that the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. As an example, the substrate lock 50 can be another conventional design as described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 42645/89 and US Patent 5336111. The pin plate 40 may have a plurality of slots extending from one (outer) end of the plate instead of the opening. Such pin alignment plates are shown in many prior art publications, including US Pat. Nos. 5,037,334 and 5,167,531 and 5,336,109. In the device, the pin alignment plate may be assembled to be slidable with the substrate holding member of the electrical connector. On the other hand, the pin alignment plate may be integrally formed with the insulating housing rather than the separating plate. In addition, the contact 30 may have a straight weld tail instead of a right welded tail. In this design, the circuit boards 260 and 360 are arranged parallel to each other.

As will be apparent from the above description and drawings, the electrical connector and the electrical connector assembly have a form using a plurality of male and female contacts arranged while alternately forming lines or columns. Thus, any force applied to the insulating housing by the normal force of the mating contacts in the middle can be minimized, forming a high density female / manual connector or a predetermined number of rows such as, for example, three rows. A drawer connector with contacts can be obtained. Most importantly, the mutual mating of alternating female and female contacts can reduce the insertion force of the electrical connector assembly.

Claims (5)

An electrical connector having a plurality of contacts formed in at least one row in an insulating housing, And wherein the contacts comprise male and female contacts that are alternately arranged in a matable connector, alternately forming rows to mate with the female and male contacts. The method of claim 1, The housing includes a mounting flange extending rearward from the termination, the flange having a perforated opening for receiving a substrate holding member, the flange having the pin alignment plate for receiving the weld tail of the contact. Electrical connector, characterized in that suitably accommodated. The method of claim 1, Shrouds and ribs spaced parallel from the shroud extend forwardly at the mailing face of the housing, the shrouds receiving ribs of the other housing that are the same in a direction perpendicular to the housing. Having dimensions for at least two rows, the first row being disposed on the inner wall of the shroud and the second row being disposed on the rib so that when the connector is mated with the other housing, Wherein each of the shroud contacts engages a contact of a rib of an opposing housing. A connector assembly comprising a pair of insulating housings and a plurality of contacts at least one row secured to each of said insulating housings, The insulated housing is a male and female body, and in each of the insulated housings, the contact portions are alternately arranged, forming a row, and having a male contact portion and a female contact portion mated with the female contact portion and the male contact portion of the other insulation housing. Electrical connector. The method of claim 2, Each housing comprises a row of a plurality of contacts, each row comprising alternating male and female contacts, each of which, when paired, rotates and aligns the tow housing for mating. The male and female contacts in rows of electrical connectors arranged to mate with complementary contacts in the other housing.