1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a circuit board connector and a circuit board provided therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-178992 shows a conventionally available press-fit terminal to be inserted into a through hole formed on a circuit board and electrically connected to the circuit board by a resilient force. In this technique, the press-fit terminals provided side by side in a connector housing are coupled to the circuit board by a terminal press-fitting tool.
In the case of press-fitting terminals of a press-fit structure into through holes formed on a circuit board, the terminals need to be pushed into while being pressed by a tool. In the technique of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-178992, receiving portions protruding toward left and right sides of the terminal are provided and the terminal is pushed into the through hole by pushing the receiving portions by the tool during press-fitting. However, if the receiving portions are provided to protrude from the opposite sides as in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-178992, the receiving portions of the adjacent terminals face each other and a distance (pitch) between the terminals has to be extended by that much.
On the other hand, a technique intended to narrow a distance (pitch) between terminals in a connector in which the terminals of a press-fit structure are provided side by side is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-241193. In this technique, a plurality of terminals provided side by side include the terminals having receiving portions arranged at a low position and those having the receiving portions arranged at a high position, two types of the terminals being alternately provided. By this configuration, the vertical positions of the receiving portions are made different between the adjacent terminals, thereby preventing the mutual interference of the receiving portions between the adjacent terminals.
However, the technique of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-241193 requires the terminals having the receiving portions arranged at the low position and those having the receiving portions arranged at the high position, i.e. requires two types of the terminals largely different in shape. In such a configuration essentially including a plurality of types of terminals largely different in shape in this way, manufacturing burdens due to an increase in the number of types of terminals is unavoidable.
The present invention was developed based on the above situation and aims to realize a configuration capable of improving overall operability.
Overall operability is improved particularly by preventing the mutual interference of receiving portions between adjacent terminals with outer edge shapes of the adjacent terminals approximated in a circuit board connector in which terminals of a press-fit structure are arranged.
The invention relates to a circuit board connector comprising a housing and terminals. Each rminal includes a press-fit portion to be press-fit into a mounting hole of a circuit board and an extending portion extending in a specified direction. The terminal includes receiving portions projecting in a direction intersecting with a press-fitting direction on outer edge parts on substantially opposite sides in an arrangement direction intersecting with the specified direction on a side behind the press-fit portion in the press-fitting direction. The receiving portion is provided on one side in the arrangement direction and the receiving portion provided on the other side in the arrangement direction are located at positions different in the press-fitting direction.
The receiving portions formed on the outer edge parts facing each other may be located at positions different in the press-fitting direction between adjacent terminals adjacent in the arrangement direction.
The press-fit portion of the terminal may be inserted through the housing.
The respective receiving portions of the terminal provided on the opposite sides in the arrangement direction may project in the arrangement direction. In the case of this configuration, when a tool is inserted between the adjacent terminals, this tool is more likely to satisfactorily act on each receiving portion projecting in the arrangement direction. That is, in the case where the respective receiving portions project in the arrangement direction, a tool having a tip shape in conformity with the respective receiving portions between the adjacent terminals is configured and this tool is less likely to be separated from the respective receiving portions and more likely to reliably act to push the respective receiving portions when being inserted between the adjacent terminals.
An inclined portion located more backward in the press-fitting direction toward a tip side of the receiving portion in a projecting direction may be formed on a rear end part of the receiving portion of the terminal in the press-fitting direction. In the case where the inclined portion is provided on the rear end part of the receiving portion in the press-fitting direction, the tool pushing the receiving portion is easily guided to a base end side of the receiving portion in the press-fitting direction when the receiving portion is pushed from the rear side in the press-fitting direction by the tool to press-fit the terminal into the circuit board. Thus, a situation where the tool pushing the receiving portion slips toward the tip side and is separated from the receiving portion can be made less likely to occur and the terminal can be more reliably pushed into.
A recess recessed substantially in the arrangement direction may be formed on or at a boundary part between a rear end part of the receiving portion and a side part on the outer edge part.
A distance along the press-fitting direction between a front end part of the receiving portion formed on one outer edge part of the terminal and a rear end part of the receiving portion formed on the other outer edge part of the adjacent terminal may be larger than 0, and/or a lateral distance between a projecting end part of the receiving portion formed on one outer edge part of the terminal and a projecting end part of the receiving portion formed on an other outer edge part of the adjacent terminal may be larger than 0.
According to another aspect, there is provided a circuit board equipped with the above-described circuit board connector. The circuit board may comprise mounting holes and the circuit board connector may have terminals each including a press-fit portion.
Accordingly, the receiving portions formed on the outer edge parts facing each other are located at the positions different in the press-fitting direction between the adjacent terminals adjacent in the arrangement direction out of the plurality of terminals arranged side by side in the arrangement direction. Thus, the mutual interference of the receiving portions between the adjacent terminals can be prevented and an increase of an inter-terminal distance due to the interference of the receiving portions can be suppressed. In addition, any of the plurality of terminals arranged in the arrangement direction has a common shape in the vicinity of the receiving portions by locating the receiving portion provided on the one side in the arrangement direction and the receiving portion provided on the other side in the arrangement direction at the positions different in the press-fitting direction. Thus, a configuration capable of preventing the mutual interference of the receiving portions between the adjacent terminals can be realized with the outer edge shapes of the adjacent terminals approximated.
Hereinafter, an embodiment is described with reference to
A circuit board connector 1 (hereinafter, also merely referred to as a connector 1) illustrated in
In the following description, a lateral direction of
The housing 2 has a main body portion 2A formed to be long in the lateral direction as shown in
The terminal 10 is configured as a press-fit terminal and/or formed into a long and narrow (substantially rectangular or polygonal) wire shape as a whole by pressing a metal wire excellent in electrical conductivity. The terminal 10 substantially is, for example, bent or L-shaped as shown in
As shown in
The downward extending portion 16 is coupled to an end part of the mounting portion 14 as shown in
As shown in
One terminal group 4A is focused and described below mainly with reference to
As shown in
Note that each terminal 10 of the connector 1 is press-fitted into the mounting hole 102 to be described later with the press-fitting direction PFD or the vertical direction, in which the downward extending portion 16 of each terminal 10 extends, as the press-fitting direction PFD. That is, the vertical direction is the press-fitting direction PFD of the terminal 10 in the connector 1. In the description of this specification, the tip side (i.e. lower side) of the downward extending portion 16 is a front side in the press-fitting direction PFD and a base end side (i.e. upper side) of the downward extending portion 16 is a rear side in the press-fitting direction PFD.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Further, a recess 36A recessed toward the center side (lateral center side) of the terminal 10 in the arrangement direction AD is formed on a boundary between the rear end part 31A of the receiving portion 31 and a side part 34A above this end part 31A on the outer edge part 12A on the one side of the terminal 10 in the arrangement direction AD. A recess 36B recessed toward the center side (lateral center side) of the terminal 10 in the arrangement direction AD is formed on a boundary part between the rear end part 32B of the receiving portion 32 and a side part 34B above this end part 32B on the outer edge part 12B provided on the other side of the terminal 10 in the arrangement direction AD.
In such a terminal group 4A in which the terminals 10 are arranged in the arrangement direction AD (lateral direction), the receiving portions formed on the respective outer edge parts facing each other are located at different positions in the press-fitting direction PFD between the adjacent terminals adjacent in the arrangement direction AD as shown in
Specifically, as shown in
The connector 1 thus configured is used by connecting the aforementioned terminals 10 (press-fit terminals) to the circuit board 100 as shown in
Next, an example of the procedure of mounting the connector 1 on the circuit board 100 is described.
The aforementioned connector 1 is to be mounted on the circuit board 10 using the terminal press-fitting tool 120 as shown in
Specifically, as shown in
In the case of mounting the connector 1 on the circuit board 100, the connector 1 is held by an unillustrated setting device and arranged to be vertically movable in such a posture that the downward extending portions 16 extend downward (or along the press-fitting direction PFD). Further, in the setting device, the circuit board 100 is fixed in a horizontal posture below the connector 1 as shown in
Then, the aforementioned terminal press-fitting tool 120 is inserted from above the connector 1 held in the setting device and the first and second pressing portions 141, 142 formed on each pressing portion 121 of the terminal press-fitting tool 120 are respectively brought into contact with the end parts 31A, 32A of the receiving portions 31, 32 provided between the terminals as shown in
As described above, in the terminal group 4 provided in the aforementioned circuit board connector 1, the receiving portions formed on the respective outer edge parts facing each other are located at the positions different in the press-fitting direction PFD between the adjacent terminals adjacent in the lateral direction (predetermined arrangement direction). Thus, the mutual interference of the receiving portions between the adjacent terminals can be prevented and an increase of an inter-terminal distance due to the interference of the receiving portions can be suppressed. In addition, any of the plurality of terminals 10 arranged in the arrangement direction AD (lateral direction) in the terminal group 4 is shaped such that the receiving portion 31 provided on the one side in or along the arrangement direction AD and the receiving portion 32 provided on the other side in or along the arrangement direction AD are located at the positions different in the press-fitting direction PFD and has a common shape near the receiving portions 31. Thus, a configuration capable of preventing the mutual interference of the receiving portions 31 between the adjacent terminals can be realized with the outer edge shapes of the adjacent terminals 10 approximated.
For example, in the technique of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-178992 described above, a plurality of types of terminals largely different in shape are mixed. Thus, there is a concern for rising mold cost and the like due to an increase of the types of the terminals. Further, in the case of forming terminals by punching by an automatic machine, it is necessary to separately punch a plurality of types of terminals. Thus, there is a concern for the complication of a facility, rising facility cost, an increase of a processing time and the like. In contrast, since the downward extending portions 16 can have a common shape in the terminal group 4 according to the connector 1 described above, these problems can be solved.
Further, the terminal 10 of the connector 1 is configured so that the respective receiving portions 31, 32 provided on the substantially opposite sides in or along the arrangement direction AD (or a direction intersecting with the press-fitting direction PFD) project in the arrangement direction AD (lateral direction). In the case of this configuration, when the tool (pressing portion 121) having a tip shape in conformity with or corresponding to the heights or positions of the receiving portions 31, 32 as shown in
Further, in the connector 1, the end parts 31A, 32A on the rear sides of the respective receiving portions 31, 32 formed on each terminal 10 in the press-fitting direction PFD are respectively formed with the inclined portions 41, 42 configured to be located more backward or offset in or along the press-fitting direction PFD toward the tip sides of the receiving portions in the projecting directions. In the case of providing the above inclined portions 41, 42 on the end parts 31A, 32A on the rear sides of the receiving portions 31, 32 in the press-fitting direction PFD, the tool pushing the receiving portions 31, 32 is easily guided to the base end sides of the receiving portions 31, 32 in the projecting directions when the receiving portions 31, 32 are pushed by the tool from the rear side in the press-fitting direction PFD to press-fit the terminal 10 into the circuit board 100. Thus, a situation where the tool for pushing the receiving portions 31, 32 slips toward the tip sides to be separated from the receiving portions 31, 32 can be made less likely to occur, wherefore the terminal 10 can be more reliably pushed into.
Other embodiments are briefly described below.
Although both of the receiving portions 31, 32 provided on the opposite sides of the terminal 10 constituting each terminal group 4 in the lateral direction (arrangement direction AD) project in the lateral direction (arrangement direction AD) in the aforementioned embodiment, either one or both of the receiving portions may project in a direction oblique to the arrangement direction AD or in the front-back direction instead of projecting in the lateral direction (arrangement direction AD).
Although the lateral distance W1 between the projecting end part (lateral end part) of the receiving portion 32 formed on the outer edge part 12B of the terminal 10A and the projecting end part (lateral end part) of the receiving portion 31 formed on the outer edge part 12A of the terminal 10B is larger than 0 as shown in
The shapes of lower end parts of the receiving portions 31, 32 shown in
1 . . . circuit board connector
2 . . . housing
6A, 6B, 6C terminal row
10 . . . terminal
12A, 12B . . . outer edge part
16 . . . downward extending portion
20 . . . press-fit portion
31, 32 . . . receiving portion
31A, 32A . . . end part
41, 42 . . . inclined portion
100 . . . circuit board
102 . . . mounting hole
120 . . . tool
PFD . . . press-fitting direction
AD . . . arrangement direction
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2015-161743 | Aug 2015 | JP | national |