Patent Application
20230402789
This application claims the benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) of Chinese Patent Application No. 202221449070.1, filed on Jun. 10, 2022.
The present invention relates to a connector, a mating connector mated to the connector, and a connector assembly comprising the connector and the mating connector.
In the prior art, in order to lock the connector and mating connector in the mating state, an elastic fastener is usually formed on the top wall of the housing of the connector, and the elastic fastener has a convex part protruding along the height direction of the housing, which can be locked into a slot on the top wall of the housing of the mating connector. After the convex part is locked into the slot, the convex part can be separated from the slot by pressing the elastic fastener in the height direction.
When locking or unlocking the convex part, the elastic fastener needs to move in the height direction of the housing. Therefore, the spacing between the elastic fastener and the housing in the height direction is large, which can lead to a larger height dimension of the connector.
A connector includes a housing, a terminal arranged in the housing, and an elastic cantilever on an outside of a top wall of the housing and extending along a length direction of the housing. The elastic cantilever has a pair of sides opposite to each other in a width direction of the housing. A snap protruding along the width direction is formed on one of the sides of the elastic cantilever. The snap engages a mating snap formed on a mating housing of a mating connector to lock the connector and the mating connector together.
Features of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described hereinafter in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will convey the concept of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.
In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.
As shown in
The connector 1, as shown in
The elastic cantilever 111 has a pair of opposite sides in the width direction of the housing 10, and a snap 111a protruding in the width direction is formed on the side of the elastic cantilever 111, as shown in
As shown in
A convex portion 113, shown in
The connector 1 includes a pair of elastic cantilevers 111 and a pair of snaps 111a in the shown embodiment. The pair of elastic cantilevers 111 are spaced apart by a predetermined distance in the width direction, and the pair of snaps 111a are formed on two sides of the pair of elastic cantilevers 111 that face each other or are opposite to each other in a width direction.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
In the illustrated embodiment, the terminal 16 is a female terminal and the connector 1 is a female connector.
In the illustrated embodiment, the elastic cantilever 111 is integrally formed with the housing 10, so that the elastic cantilever 111 is a part of the housing 10. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the elastic cantilever 111 can be formed separately from the housing 10 and connected to the top wall 11 of the housing 10.
As shown in
As shown in
A slot 211, shown in
An observation window 213, shown in
The mating housing 20 has opposite insertion ports and end walls 24 in the length direction. The housing 10 of the connector 1 can be inserted into the insertion cavity 201 of the mating housing 20 through the insertion port. The mating terminal 26 passes through the end wall 24 of the mating housing 20 and is fixed to the end wall 24, as shown in
As shown in
In the illustrated embodiment, the mating terminal 26 of the mating connector 2 is a male terminal, and the mating connector 2 is a male connector.
In the aforementioned exemplary embodiments according to the present invention, during the process of locking or unlocking the snap and mating the snap, the elastic cantilever only needs to move in the width direction of the housing, so it does not need to occupy space in the height direction of the housing, and therefore, it is possible to reduce the height dimension of the connector.
It should be appreciated for those skilled in this art that the above embodiments are intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, many modifications may be made to the above embodiments by those skilled in this art, and various features described in different embodiments may be freely combined with each other without conflicting in configuration or principle.
Although several exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.
As used herein, an element recited in the singular and proceeded with the word “a” or “an” should be understood as not excluding plural of said elements or steps, unless such exclusion is explicitly stated. Furthermore, references to “one embodiment” of the present invention are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features. Moreover, unless explicitly stated to the contrary, embodiments “comprising” or “having” an element or a plurality of elements having a particular property may include additional such elements not having that property.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202221449070.1 | Jun 2022 | CN | national |
