KR20130106306A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A connector is provided to make a housing thereof laterally and longitudinally symmetric, thereby improving production efficiency and reducing manufacturing cost. CONSTITUTION: A connector includes a housing. The housing has a first opening (18, the front view (A) of the housing) and a second opening (19, the rear view (B) of the housing). The connecting part of a counterpart is inserted into the first opening, and the second opening communicates with the first opening. One side of the housing is a front side (12), and the first opening is horizontally formed at the front side. Communicating holes formed at the housing, and are laterally and longitudinally symmetric based on a side (28) vertically passing the front side of the housing.

Description

Connector {CONNECTOR}

The present invention relates to a connector to which a flexible printed circuit board (hereinafter referred to simply as "FPC") and a flexible flat cable (hereinafter referred to simply as "FFC") are connected. The present invention relates to a connector capable of increasing production efficiency and suppressing manufacturing costs by omitting the step of discriminating the vertical direction of the housing in the automated connector assembly step.

In recent years, with the progress of electronic devices, portable terminals and other portable terminals have been improved in performance and miniaturized. In order to connect between the various electronic component modules mounted on such an electronic device, or a printed circuit board, FPC and FFC which are flat flexible cables are used. In order to reduce the space in the electronic device to which the FPC or FFC connector is also mounted in accordance with the progress of the electronic device, the reduction of the thickness is progressing.

For example, Patent Literature 1 below discloses an FPC connector in which an FPC is inserted and inserted. According to the FPC connector disclosed in Patent Document 1 below, a terminal inlet for inserting an FPC is formed, and the socket housing is provided with an insulative socket housing mounted on a printed board to be a contact object. The mounting height in the printed circuit board used as a contact object is 1.5 mm or less.

And in the FPC connector of the following patent document 1, in addition to a socket housing, the several contactor welded to a printed circuit board and a regulation tab are provided, and the FPC connector is assembled by these components. At present, assembly of a connector is often performed by an automated device. This assembly is performed to flow a housing to a manufacturing line, for example, and to assemble a contactor, a regulation tab, etc. sequentially in this flowed housing.

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-213917

In this way, when the connector is assembled by the automation device, the automation device is required to supply the underlying components, for example, the housing, in a state in which the direction thereof is constant. In the connector assembly process, a parts feeder for automatically supplying a housing is generally used. A mechanism for determining the direction of the housing or a mechanism for providing a common direction is provided in the part feeder. It is.

When the direction of the housing is determined using a part feeder or the common direction is used, if the direction of the housing is reversed from left to right, for example, the part feeder is provided with a rod-shaped member, and the housing is provided with a rod-shaped member. By arranging the structure to be applied, the left and right inversion is performed and the correct direction can be achieved. This is because the shapes of many housings represented by the housing of the FPC connector disclosed in Patent Document 1 are formed in left-right symmetry.

On the other hand, as represented by the housing of the FPC connector disclosed in the patent document 1, the shape of the housing is deliberately formed upside down. This is to make it easy to discriminate the vertical direction of the housing. Thus, when the housing formed asymmetrically in the up-down direction is judged to be in the up-down direction during the conveyance of the part feeder in the assembling process, the housing is once departed from the line, and is transferred to the part feeder again to determine the up-down direction. For this reason, it takes time to determine the up-and-down direction of the plurality of housings, and there is a problem that the amount of housing supplied to the next assembling step is reduced. As a result, the production efficiency is lowered and the production cost is increased. It will rise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the problems inherent in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to form a housing constituting the connector with a shape symmetrical with respect to a vertical surface passing through the center of the housing. In addition, by providing a horizontally symmetrical shape on the basis of the horizontal surface, it is possible to omit the step of discriminating the upper and lower parts in the part feeder, to increase the production efficiency, and to provide a connector with reduced manufacturing cost.

MEANS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM In order to solve the said subject, the connector of the 1st aspect of this invention is provided with the 1st wide opening which the connection part of the partner side fitted in one surface is inserted, and the other surface which opposes the said one surface. A connector having a housing provided with a second opening in communication with the first opening,

When the one side of the housing is the front face and the wide first opening is arranged to be horizontal, the housing is configured to be symmetrical with respect to the face passing vertically through the center of the front face. In addition, it characterized in that it is configured up and down symmetry with respect to the surface passing horizontally through the center of the front surface.

In the connector of the second aspect, in the connector of the first aspect, the housing is provided with a plurality of communication holes in which the first opening and the second opening communicate.

And a contact is attached to the communication hole.

In the connector of the third aspect, the mating side of the connector of the first aspect is FPC or FFC.

In the connector of the fourth aspect, in the connector of any one of the first to third aspects, a pair of meshing portions are provided at both ends of any one of the surfaces provided with the first opening or the second opening in the housing. And an reinforcing tab is attached to the engaging portion.

According to the connector of the first aspect, the housings are symmetrically formed not only in appearance, but also in the internal structure, respectively, so that when the wide openings into which the connecting portions on the opposite side of the housing are inserted are arranged horizontally, Since the same shape is obtained even in either direction, the determination of the up and down direction of the housing, which is performed until the operation of attaching other components to the housing in the manufacturing process of the connector, becomes unnecessary, thereby improving work efficiency. I can raise it. For this reason, more housings can be moved to the next process in a short time compared with the former, and manufacturing efficiency can be improved and manufacturing cost can be reduced.

In addition, according to the second aspect of the connector, since the communication holes of the housing on which the contact is mounted are also formed up and down and left and right symmetrically, mounting of the contact can be performed regardless of the up and down direction of the housing, thereby improving the production efficiency. The manufacturing cost can be reduced.

In addition, according to the third aspect of the connector, a highly versatile connector fitted with an FPC or FFC can be obtained, and the width of the design can be widened.

In addition, according to the connector of the fourth aspect, when the reinforcing tab to be joined when the connector is mounted on the board or the like is mounted, the engaging portion of the housing to which the reinforcing tab is mounted is formed in up-down and left-right symmetry. It is possible to perform irrespective of the up and down direction of the housing, thereby increasing the production efficiency and reducing the manufacturing cost.

FIG. 1A is a perspective view seen from one side of the connector according to Embodiment 1, and FIG. 1B is a connector seen from the other side.
FIG. 2A is a perspective view seen from one side of the housing of Embodiment 1, and FIG. 2B is a perspective view seen from the other side.
FIG. 3A is a front view of the housing, and FIG. 3B is a rear view.
FIG. 4A is a top view of the housing, and FIG. 4B is a bottom view.
FIG. 5A is a side view seen from one side of the housing, and FIG. 5B is a side view seen from the other side.
FIG. 6: (A) is sectional drawing in the VIA-VIA line of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 6B is sectional drawing in the VIB-VIB line of FIG.
FIG. 7A is a perspective view of the contact, and FIG. 7B is a side view.
FIG. 8A is a perspective view of the reinforcing tab, and FIG. 8B is a side view.
FIG. 9A is a cross-sectional view corresponding to FIG. 6A illustrating an assembling process for attaching a contact to a housing, and FIG. 9B is a diagram illustrating an assembling process for mounting a reinforcing tab in a housing. It is sectional drawing corresponding to 6 (B).
FIG. 10A is a sectional view corresponding to FIG. 6A of the housing of Embodiment 2, FIG. 10B is a side view corresponding to FIG. 7B of the contact of Embodiment 2, and FIG. FIG. 10C is a cross-sectional view corresponding to FIG. 9A of the connector of Embodiment 2. FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, embodiment shown below illustrates the connector for incorporating the technical thought of this invention, and does not intend to specify this invention to this, but is also another embodiment contained in a claim. The same can be adapted.

[Embodiment 1]

With reference to FIGS. 1-9, the connector which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention is demonstrated. The connector 10 according to the first embodiment is connected to an FPC (not shown), and as shown in FIG. 1, a housing 11 into which an FPC is inserted and connected, and a plurality of contacts mounted in the housing 11 ( 30 and a pair of reinforcing tabs 36 attached to both end portions of the housing 11.

In the connector 10, a plurality of contacts 30 are welded and mounted on a printed board or the like, and the FPC is inserted into the housing 11 to be connected to the contacts 30. At this time, if the reinforcing tab 36 attached to both ends of the housing 11 is also welded to a printed board or the like, the contact 10 can be mounted more firmly. Hereinafter, each component is demonstrated.

First, the housing 11 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 6. The housing 11 is formed into a rectangular parallelepiped shape having a low thickness (低 背: thin thickness), and includes a front face 12, a rear face 13, one side or another side face 14 and 15, an upper face 16, and a bottom face. It consists of (17). The front surface 12 is formed with a wide first opening 18 to be a portion into which the FPC is inserted, and a plurality of agents into which a plurality of contacts 30 are inserted into the rear surface 13 facing the front surface 12. Two openings 19 are formed (see FIG. 3B). In addition, a communication hole 20 through which the first opening 18 of the front surface 12 and the second opening 19 of the rear surface 13 communicate with each other is formed in the housing 11.

In the communication hole 20 formed in the housing 11, partition walls 21 are formed in the housing 11 to correspond to the plurality of second openings 19 formed in the rear surface 13, and the plurality of contacts 30 are formed. It is compartmentd for mounting. Further, each partition wall 21 is formed from the rear surface 13 of the housing to the inner side of the front surface 12 slightly, and the center portion thereof has a connecting groove 22 into which the FPC can be inserted. It is formed between the center and the rear surface of the housing 11 of each partition wall 21 (refer FIG. 6 (A)).

In addition, the communication hole 20 is provided with a contact holding part 24 to which the contact 30 is mounted. The contact holding part maintains the contact 30 by a part of the upper part and the lower part of each partition wall 21 in which the partition wall 21 and the connection groove 22 in the back side 13 were formed. Moreover, the 1st opening 18 provided in the front surface 12 is formed in the width | variety width and thickness of the FPC inserted, and is formed narrower than the width | variety of the height direction of the communication hole 20. As shown in FIG. In addition, the inlet of the first opening 18 has a taper 23 formed up and down along the width of the first opening 18 so that the FPC can be inserted easily.

In addition, the upper surface 16 and the lower surface 17 of the housing 11 have the largest surface area because the housing 11 has a low rectangular parallelepiped shape. Moreover, the engaging part 25 to which the reinforcement tab 36 mentioned later is mounted is provided in one or the other side surface 14 and 15, respectively. The engagement portion 25 is formed at both ends of the first opening 18 of the front surface 12 of the housing 11, and the slit-shaped engagement groove 26 formed at the upper side and the lower side of the housing 11 is provided with the housing 11. ) Is formed to approximately the center portion, and the engaging projection 27 is formed in the center of these engaging grooves 26.

In addition, when the housing 11 of Embodiment 1 is arrange | positioned with the bottom face 17 down, it is comprised by the left-right symmetry with respect to the surface 28 which passes through the center of the front surface 12 perpendicularly, It consists of up-down symmetry with respect to the surface 29 which horizontally passes through the center of 12). For this reason, as shown in FIGS. 3-6, the housing 11 has the upper and lower sides and the left-right symmetry with the same shape with respect to each surface 28 and 29 of a vertical and horizontal direction. 3 and 5, and one side surface 14 and the other side surface 15 are also formed in the same shape up and down, left and right symmetrical, the reinforcing tab 36 is a pair The engaging portion 25 is also formed in a symmetrical shape vertically and horizontally (see FIGS. 3 and 4). In addition, the shape of the inside of the housing 11 is also formed in the same shape up-down and left-right symmetrically, and is formed in the 1st opening 18, the 2nd opening 19, and the communication hole 20, and also the communication hole 20. FIG. Each shape of the contact holding part 24 used is also formed symmetrically up and down and left and right (refer FIG. 3 and FIG. 6).

Next, the contact 30 will be described with reference to FIG. 7. The contact 30 is formed of the plate-shaped body of predetermined thickness, the contact body 31, the contact part 32 formed in both legs, extending from the upper side and the lower side of this contact body 31, and the contact body 31 The projection part 33 which protruded to the opposite side to the contact part 32 of this, and the fixing part 35 which extends below this projection part 33, and is welded by a printed board, solder, etc. are comprised.

When the FPC is inserted into the contact portions 32a and 32b formed with both legs, the contact portion 32 is fitted with the FPC by the upper and lower contact portions 32a and 32b. At this time, the gap between the contact portions 32a and 32b of both legs is formed to be slightly narrower than the thickness of the FPC. When the FPC is inserted, the upper and lower contact portions 32a and 32b are enlarged, and the FPC is inserted by the elastic force generated at this time. Will be supported.

The fixing part 35 is formed by extending downward of the protruding part 33 which protrudes from the opposite side of the contact part 32 of the contact main body 31, and is formed. When the connector 10 is mounted on the printed board, the fixing portion 35 is welded and fixed by soldering or the like to the printed board, and becomes a part to be electrically connected.

Moreover, the protrusion part 34 is formed in the upper part of the contact main body 31, When the contact 30 is inserted into the housing 11, this protrusion part 34 press-fits into the housing 11, The contact 30 is positioned and fixed to the housing 11 to be mounted.

Next, the reinforcement tab 36 is demonstrated with reference to FIG. The reinforcing tab 36 is a reinforcing tab main body 37 formed of a plate-like body made of a metal material, and a recess 38 formed in a concave shape from one side surface of the reinforcing tab main body 37 to a substantially central portion. And a pair of clamping portions 39 provided above and below the fitting portion 38. Moreover, the projection 40 is formed in the indentation part 38 side of the upper gripping part 39a, and the predetermined length is extended in the lower part of the lower gripping part 39b and the reinforcement tab main body 37, and is provided. The fixing part 41 is formed. Moreover, the fitting part 38 is a part fitted with the engaging protrusion 27 of the engaging part 25 of the housing 11, and the pair of clamping parts 39a and 39b are engaging with the housing 11, respectively. The engagement protrusion 27 of the part 25 becomes a part which is supported.

Next, assembling of the connector 10 will be mainly described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 9. The connector 10 of Embodiment 1 arrange | positions each component formed by mold shaping | molding or a rolling punching process in a production line, and an assembly is performed by an automated machine.

First, in order to mount the contact 30 and the reinforcement tab 36 in the housing 11, the plurality of housings 11 are aligned in the same direction. At this time, the housing 11 is supplied to the part feeder and the conveying line is conveyed, and the conveying line is aligned in a predetermined direction during the conveying to proceed to the next process. At this time, the housing 11 of Embodiment 1 is formed symmetrically with respect to the vertical and horizontal surfaces 28 and 29 with respect to the center of the front surface 12 as mentioned above. For this reason, since the housing 11 becomes the same shape even if the structure of the upper and lower sides is reversed, it is not necessary to discriminate the upper and lower sides by the part feeder. There is no need for the step of supplying the feeder again to determine the top and bottom.

In addition, since the housing 11 is formed in left-right symmetry with respect to the right-and-left discrimination of the housing 11, it does not need to carry out, and only the front and back determination can be performed only by rotating horizontally like conventionally. Therefore, the quantity which can export the housing 11 to a next process per unit time increases, production efficiency improves, and manufacturing cost can be suppressed.

Next, the housing 11 is transferred to the process of mounting the contact 30. Then, the contact 30 is inserted and mounted from the contact portion 32 formed with both legs from the plurality of second openings 19 formed on the rear surface of the housing 11. At this time, the contact 30 is inserted in the longitudinal direction, and the contact holding portions 24 formed at the communication holes 20 of the housing 11 have upper and lower contact portions 32a and 32b of both legs formed in the contact 30. Accordingly, the projection 40 is inserted into the housing 11 by inserting the projection 40 formed at the contact portion 32a on the upper portion of the contact body 31 to complete the mounting of the contact 30. By this contact holding part 24 and the protrusion 40, the contact 30 is retained from the housing 11, and is positioned. In addition, in the direction in which the contact 30 is mounted, the fixing part 35 formed in the contact 30 becomes the lower side (see FIG. 9A).

Next, the housing 11 is transferred to the process of mounting the reinforcement tab 36. The reinforcement tab 36 is mounted to the engaging portion 25 formed on one side and the other side 14, 15 of the housing 11. This mounting causes the fitting portion 38 of the reinforcing tab 36 to fit into the engaging projection 27 of the engaging portion 25 of the housing 11, and the engaging projection 27 is narrowed by the reinforcing tab 36. It is performed by the branch part 39 being clamped. At this time, the engaging groove 26 provided in the engaging portion 25 of the housing 11 is engaged by the upper and lower clamping portions 39a and 39b. Moreover, the projection 40 formed in the inside of the clamping part 39a of the upper side of the reinforcement tab 36 is fixed by press-fitting into the engagement projection 27 of the housing 11. In addition, in the direction in which the reinforcing tab 36 is mounted, the clamping portion 41b formed below the reinforcing tab 36 and the fixing portion 41 formed below the reinforcing tab body 37 become the lower side (Fig. 9). (B)). This completes the assembly of the connector 10.

Moreover, although the case where FPC was connected to the connector was demonstrated in the connector of Embodiment 1, it is not limited to this, It can also be made to connect with FFC etc .. FIG.

[Embodiment 2]

In the connector of the first embodiment, in order to connect the FPC and the FFC to the opposite side, the case in which the housing is formed so as to mount a contact having a contact portion formed on both legs has been described. A case of having a housing formed to mount a contact will be described. According to Embodiment 2, the counterpart side shows the Example which can be connected not only to FPC and FFC but also to a board | substrate connector or an electric wire connector. In addition, the connector of Embodiment 2 attaches | subjects the same code | symbol to the part common to the connector of Embodiment 1, and detailed description is abbreviate | omitted.

As shown in FIG. 10, the connector 10A of the second embodiment includes a housing 11A to which a mating connector (not shown) is inserted and connected, a plurality of contacts 30A mounted in the housing 11A, It consists of a pair of reinforcement tabs 36 attached to the both ends of the housing 11A.

As shown in Fig. 10A, the housing 11A is formed in a low rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a wide first opening 18A is formed in the front surface 12A to be a portion into which a contact on the opposite side is inserted. A plurality of second openings 19A into which the plurality of contacts 30A are inserted are formed in the rear surface 13A facing the front surface 12A (see FIG. 3B). In addition, a communication hole 20A in which the first opening 18A of the front surface 12A and the second opening 19A of the rear surface 13A communicate with each other is formed inside the housing 11A.

In the communication hole 20A formed in the housing 11A, a partition 21A is formed inside the housing 11A so as to correspond to the plurality of second openings 19A formed in the rear surface 13A, and the plurality of contacts 30A. It is compartmentd for mounting. Moreover, the contact holding part 24A to which the contact 30A is attached is provided in the communication hole 20A.

In addition, since the engagement part 25 to which the reinforcement tab 36 is attached is provided in one side or the other side surface of 11 A of housings, it is common to the housing 11 of Embodiment 1, and description is abbreviate | omitted.

And the housing 11A of Embodiment 2 is the surface 28 which passes vertically through the center of the front surface 12A, when the bottom surface 17A is arrange | positioned similarly to the housing 11 of Embodiment 1, and is arranged. It is comprised by the left-right symmetry with respect to (refer FIG. 3), and is comprised by the up-down symmetry with respect to the surface 29 which horizontally passes through the center of 12 A of front surfaces. By doing in this way, the effect of the housing of Embodiment 1 can also be acquired also about the housing of Embodiment 2.

Next, as shown in FIG. 10B, the contact 30A is formed of a plate-shaped body having a predetermined thickness, and is provided with a contact body 31A extending from the substantially center portion of the contact body 31A. A contact portion 32A having a shape, a protrusion 33 protruding to the opposite side to the contact portion 32A of the contact body 31A, and a fixing portion which extends below the protrusion 33 and is welded by a printed board, solder or the like. It consists of 35.

The contact portion 32A is formed in a rod shape, and when the mating connector is inserted, the contact on the mating side comes into contact with the contact portion 32A. In addition, since the fixing part 35 and the protrusion part 34 are common with the contact 30 of Embodiment 1, description is abbreviate | omitted. In addition, since the reinforcement tab of Embodiment 2 is also common with the reinforcement tab 36 of Embodiment 1, description is abbreviate | omitted.

And the assembly of the connector 10A of Embodiment 2 can be performed by the same assembly process as the connector of Embodiment 1 (refer FIG. 10 (C)), and the same effect as the assembly of the connector 10 of Embodiment 1 is carried out. Can be obtained.

In addition, although the contact part 32A was formed in rod shape in Embodiment 2, the shape of a contact part is not limited to this, You may change according to a partner side.

In addition, the shape of the housing of Embodiment 1, 2 is not limited to said shape, As long as it has a structure which is symmetrical in upper and lower sides, it can be formed in arbitrary shapes.

In addition, the contacts of Embodiments 1 and 2 may not all be the same size. For example, a long contact and a short contact may be prepared, and these may be alternately mounted in the housing. By doing in this way, when FPC etc. are connected to a connector, since the clamping part of the contact arrange | positioned alternately will hold | pin FPC etc., high holding force can be obtained and a stable connection is attained.

10, 10A: connector 11, 11A: housing
12, 12A: front 13, 13A: rear
14: side of one side 15: side of the other side
16: top 17, 17A: bottom
18, 18A: first opening 19, 19A: second opening
20, 20A: communication hole 21, 21A: bulkhead
22: connection groove 23: taper
24, 24A: contact holding portion 25: engaging portion
26: meshing groove 27: meshing projection
28: vertical plane 29: horizontal plane
30, 30A: contact 31, 31A: contact body
32, 32A: contact part 33: protrusion part
34: projection part 35: fixed part
36: reinforcement tab 37: reinforcement tab body
38: indentation part 39: narrowing part
40: protrusion 41: fastening part

Claims (4)

A connector having a housing provided with a first opening into which a connecting portion of a mating side fitted to one surface is inserted, and a second opening communicating with the first opening on the other surface facing the one surface,
When the said one surface of the said housing is made into the front surface, and when the said 1st opening is arrange | positioned so that the said 1st opening may be horizontal, the said housing may be comprised by right and left symmetry with respect to the surface which perpendicularly passes through the center of the said front surface, And a connector configured to be symmetrical with respect to a surface passing horizontally through the center of the front surface. The method according to claim 1,
The housing is provided with a plurality of communication holes for communicating the first opening and the second opening,
And a contact is attached to the communication hole. The method according to claim 1,
The mating side to be fitted is a flexible printed circuit board or a flexible flat cable. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The housing is provided with a pair of engaging portions at both ends of either surface of the surface provided with the first opening or the second opening,
And the reinforcing tab is mounted on the engaging portion.

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