Patent Application
20230131397
This application claims the benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) of Chinese Patent Application No. 202122578639.6, filed on Oct. 26, 2021.
The present disclosure relates to a connector, and more particularly, to a connector with a terminal locking structure.
A connector generally includes a housing and a terminal; the terminal is mounted and locked in the housing by a certain locking structure. The existing locking structure usually includes a hole formed in the terminal and an elastic arm formed in the housing, and the elastic arm is provided with a latch. When the terminal is inserted into the housing, the latch will fit with the hole of the terminal, for example, the latch will protrude into the hole of the terminal, thus locking the terminal in the housing.
In the existing connector, the latch and the hole of the terminal in the locking structure are usually rectangular or other regular shapes, so if there is a slight offset between the terminal and the housing, the latch may not be able to protrude and fit into the hole, resulting in difficulty of locking the terminal in the housing. In addition, a bending line is usually left on the terminal in order to bend a semi-finished terminal along the bending line to form a finished terminal during the manufacture of the terminal. The existing rectangular or other regularly shaped hole occupies a large area of material, especially when the terminal is small. The hole is very close to the bend line, which leaves relatively less material available for bending of the semi-finished terminal, making it difficult to bend the semi-finished terminal, and in turn making the terminal not well-manufactured.
A connector includes a housing having a latch and a terminal mounted in the housing. The terminal has a locking hole with a locking hole front portion in a terminal insertion direction along which the terminal is inserted into the housing and a locking hole rear portion in the terminal insertion direction. A size of the locking hole front portion is larger than a size of the locking hole rear portion. The latch elastically protrudes into the locking hole to lock the terminal in the housing. The latch has a latch front portion in the terminal insertion direction and a latch rear portion in the terminal insertion direction. A size of the latch front portion is larger than a size of the latch rear portion. The size of the latch rear portion is smaller than the size of the locking hole front portion.
The features of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
In order to illustrate the technical solutions and advantages of the present disclosure more clearly, the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the corresponding drawings. It should be understood that the following description of the embodiments is intended to explain and illustrate the general concept of the present disclosure, and should not be construed as limiting the present disclosure. In the specification and drawings, the same or similar reference numbers refer to the same or similar parts or components. For the purpose of clarity, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and some well-known components and structures may be omitted from the drawings.
Unless otherwise defined, technical or scientific terms used in the present disclosure shall have the ordinary meanings understood by those with ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. The word “a” or “an” used in this disclosure does not exclude a plurality, and the word “include”, “include” or the like means that the elements or items appearing before the word cover the elements or items and their equivalents listed after the word, without excluding other elements or items. The word “connect”, “couple” or the like are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, regardless of direct or indirect. “up”, “down”, “left”, “right”, “top” or “bottom” are only used to indicate relative positional relationship. When the absolute position of the described object changes, its relative positional relationship may also change correspondingly. When an element is referred to as being “above” or “below” another element, it can be directly “above” or “below” the other element, or else, intervening elements may be present.
A connector 100 according to an embodiment is shown in
A latch 13, shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
In order to make the locking of the terminal 2 in the accommodating portion 11 more firm, that is, to increase the firmness of the terminal 2 in the accommodating portion 11, the locking hole 21 and the latch 13 in this embodiment are well matched in shape, for example the shape of the locking hole 21 and that of the latch 13 are basically the same. In an example, the shape of the locking hole 21 and the shape of the latch 13 are both trapezoidal shapes; the size of the locking hole rear portion 212 of the locking hole 21 is slightly larger than that of the latch rear portion 132 of the latch 13, and the size of the locking hole front portion 211 of the locking hole 21 is also slightly larger than that of the latch front portion 131 of the latch 13, as shown in
In addition, as shown in
It could be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described above are all exemplary and can be improved by those skilled in the art, and the structures described in the various embodiments can be freely combined unless they conflict in terms of structure or principle.
Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to the accompanying drawings, the embodiments disclosed in the accompanying drawings are intended to illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure and should not be construed as a limitation of the present disclosure. The dimension ratios in the drawings are only schematic, and should not be construed as limiting the present disclosure.
Those skilled in the art should understand that any changes and improvements made without departing from the general concept of the present disclosure are within the scope of the present disclosure. The protection scope of the present disclosure shall be subject to the scope defined by the claims of the present application.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202122578639.6 | Oct 2021 | CN | national |
