Information
-
Patent Grant
-
6413114
-
Patent Number
6,413,114
-
Date Filed
Friday, January 5, 200123 years ago
-
Date Issued
Tuesday, July 2, 200222 years ago
-
Inventors
-
Original Assignees
-
Examiners
- Paumen; Gary
- McCamey; Ann
Agents
-
CPC
-
US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 439 374
- 439 680
- 439 9241
- 439 79
- 439 934
- 439 181
- 439 186
-
International Classifications
-
Abstract
The present invention prevents a female connector that has been inserted in an inclined manner from interfering with male terminal fittings within a connector having long male terminal fittings provided in a central location within a hood. A cylindrical member 13 surrounding long male terminal fittings 12L protrudes from an inner side face 11 of the hood 10. Interferences between the long male terminal fittings 12L, and a comer Fb of a female connector F is prevented by appropriately determining the length to which the cylindrical member 13 will protrude. Interference between the female connector F and the long male terminal fittings 12 does not need to be taken into consideration in determining the protruding length of the hood 10. Consequently, the protruding length of the hood 10 can be relatively short.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an electrical connector.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
An example of a conventional connector is shown in
FIGS. 4 and 5
of this specification. This is a male connector in which a plurality of male terminal fittings protrude from an inner end face of a hood formed within a housing, a female connector being fitted into this hood. Since long and wide male terminal fittings
101
L and narrow and short male terminal fittings
101
S are mixed within a single hood
102
, this connector is termed a hybrid.
When this connector
100
is to be fitted with a female connector
105
, the long male terminal fittings
101
L are first engaged with female terminal fittings (not shown) then the short male terminal fittings
101
S are engaged with female terminal fittings. Since two differing sets of terminal fittings are fitted together, there is a time lapse between the onset of fitting resistance of the long and short terminal fittings
101
L and
101
S. As a result, if the long terminal fittings
101
L are provided on either a left or a right side (relative to the fitting direction of the hood
102
), when fitting commences either a left or right edge (whichever edge does not receive fitting resistance) of the female connector
105
will protrude more deeply, in an inclined manner, into the interior of the hood
102
, thereby impeding the fitting operation.
In order to deal with this problem, a configuration has been employed whereby the long male terminal fittings
101
L are provided as a group in a central location relative to the up-down and left-right directions (relative to the fitting direction of the hood
102
), and the short male terminal fittings
101
S are provided around these centrally located long male terminal fittings
101
L (see FIG.
4
). Alternatively, the short male terminal fittings
101
S are provided in the central location, and the long male terminal fittings
101
L are provided therearound (not shown).
However, the female connector
105
may be inserted in an inclined manner into the hood
102
, not due to fitting resistance, but because the operator inserts the female connector
105
in a misaligned manner. As a result, in order to prevent the female connector
105
and the male terminal fittings
101
L and
101
S from interfering with one another, it is necessary to extend the length B of the hood
102
so that an open end
102
A of this hood
102
comes to be located to the anterior of tips of the male terminal fittings
101
L and
101
S.
In this case, as shown in
FIG. 5
, if the female connector
105
is fitted in an inclined manner and is in a state whereby it makes contact with the open end
102
A of the hood
102
(in the most deeply inserted state), a corner
105
A can be located at any position along a semicircle
104
(shown by the broken line in
FIG. 5
) along the open end
102
A of the hood
102
. That is, the deepest insertion depth of the corner
105
A corresponds to the centre of the open side of the hood
102
(the central location in the up-down direction of FIG.
5
).
In order to prevent interference between the female connector
105
and the male terminal fittings
101
L and
101
S whilst simultaneously keeping the extending length B of the hood
102
short, the short male terminal fittings
101
S should be provided in the central location and the long male terminal fittings
101
L should be provided therearound (in the up-down direction of FIG.
5
). This configuration is not shown. By providing the two male terminal fittings
101
S and
101
L of differing lengths in this manner, the female connector
105
will not incline due to the existence of a time lapse between the onset of the fitting resistance of the male terminal fittings
101
S and
101
L.
However, in the case where there are many more long male terminal fittings
101
L than short male terminals fittings
101
S, or when there are few long male terminal fittings
101
L but they must be provided in the central location (as shown in FIG.
4
), the extending length B of the hood
102
must be made relatively long in order to prevent the long male terminal fittings
101
L from interfering with the corner
105
A of the female connector
105
.
The present invention has taken the above problem into consideration, and aims to prevent a female connector that has been inserted in an inclined manner from interfering with male terminal fittings within a connector having long male terminal fittings provided in a central location within a hood that extends for as short a length as possible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention there is provided an electrical connector having a body, long and short terminal fittings protruding from said body in a fitting direction, and a hood surrounding said terminal fittings, the long terminal fittings being provided centrally in a group, and the short terminal fittings substantially surrounding the long terminal fittings, characterised in that a substantially tubular member extends around and projects beyond at least some of said long terminal fittings, said tubular member projecting in the same direction as said hood, and being adapted to prevent contact between a mating connector and said long terminal fittings.
Such a tubular member protects the long terminal fittings against contact damage due to incorrect assembly. The tubular member may be circumferentially incomplete, for example it may have axial slots, whilst still providing the required degree of protection.
Preferably the tubular member is circumferentially complete, and in the preferred embodiment the tubular member surrounds all of the long terminal fittings, and only the long terminal fittings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment shown by way of example only in the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1
is a front view of an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2
is a partially cut-away plan view of the embodiment of
FIG. 1
showing a female connector being inserted in an inclined state.
FIG. 3
is a cross-sectional view corresponding to FIG.
1
.
FIG. 4
is a front view of a prior art example.
FIG. 5
is a cross-sectional view of the prior art example.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
An embodiment of the present invention is described below with the aid of
FIGS. 1
to
3
.
A connector M of the present embodiment is provided with an angular tubular hood
10
that protrudes in an anterior direction (towards the right in FIG.
2
). A female connector F is inserted into this hood
10
, thereby fitting the two connectors M and F together.
The hood
10
houses two types of terminal fittings, wide and long male terminal fittings
12
L, and narrow and short male terminal fittings
12
S. These protrude towards the anterior from an inner side face
11
of the hood
10
.
Viewed from the fitting direction of the female connector F (that is, viewing the hood
10
from the anterior), the long male terminal fittings
12
L, are provided as a group in a central location relative to the up-down and left-right directions of the hood
10
, and the short male terminal fittings
12
S are provided around these centrally-located long male terminal fittings
12
L. This type of positioning is possible because there are few long male terminal fittings
12
L (there are four in the present embodiment), whereas the short male terminal fittings
12
S are much more numerous (there are forty-four in the present embodiment.
A cylindrical member
13
protrudes towards the anterior from the inner side face
11
of the hood
10
(in the same direction as the direction of protrusion of the hood
10
). Like the hood
10
, this cylindrical member
13
has an angular tubular shape. Upper, lower, left, and right side walls thereof are parallel to upper, lower, left, and right side walls of the hood
10
. Viewed from the fitting direction of the female connector F, the long male terminal fittings
12
L alone are enclosed by the cylindrical member
13
. The short male terminal fittings
12
S are present in the space between the upper, lower, left and right side walls of the cylindrical member
13
and the upper, lower, left and right side walls of the hood
10
. A protruding end of the cylindrical member
13
is situated at the same location as an open end
10
A (a protruding end) of the hood
10
, this open end
10
A being open in the fitting direction of the female connector F.
The opening size and protruding size of the cylindrical member
13
are as follows: the opening size
13
a
of the cylindrical member
13
in the up-down direction is smaller than the left-right opening size
13
b
thereof. Furthermore, the distance S between a protruding end
13
A of the cylindrical member
13
(this protruding in the fitting direction of the female connector F) and protruding ends of the long male terminal fittings
12
L is greater than half of the opening size
13
a
(the opening size of the cylindrical member
13
in the up-down direction, this being smaller than the left-right opening size
13
b
).
The female connector F has a groove (not shown) for preventing interference with the cylindrical member
13
.
When the female connector F is in an inclined state relative to the connector M of the present embodiment (but parallel to the plane of the page that has FIG.
2
), a left anterior corner Fa thereof approaches the long male terminal fittings
12
L (see FIG.
2
).
Since the up-down opening size
13
a
of the cylindrical member
13
is less than an up-down opening size
10
a
of the hood
10
(corresponding to the thickness of the female connector F), the left anterior corner Fa makes contact with upper or lower edges of the protruding end
13
A of the cylindrical member
13
and, consequently, the corner Fa cannot enter the cylindrical member
13
. As a result, the female connector F does not interfere with the long male terminal fittings
12
L.
When the female connector F is in a state whereby it is inclined in an up-down direction relative to the connector M, either the upper or lower corner thereof approaches the long male terminal fittings
12
L. Since the left-right opening size
13
b
of the cylindrical member
13
is less than a left-right opening size
10
b
of the hood
10
(corresponding to the left-right width of the female connector F), as in the case above, its corner makes contact with left and right edges of the protruding end
13
A of the cylindrical member
13
and, consequently, the corner cannot enter the cylindrical member
13
. As a result, in this case also, the female connector F does not interfere with the long male terminal fittings
12
L.
As shown in
FIG. 3
, if the female connector F is inclined in both the up-down and left-right directions relative to the hood
10
, it may seem that a corner Fb of the anterior end face of the female connector F will enter the cylindrical member
13
. However, the up-down opening size
13
a
is the smaller of the opening sizes
13
a
and
13
b
of the cylindrical member
13
. This opening size
13
a
is less than double the distance S (from the protruding end
13
A of the cylindrical member
13
to the protruding ends of the long male terminal fittings
12
L). Consequently, even if the corner Fb is inserted as deeply as possible into the cylindrical member
13
(see FIG.
3
), this corner Fb will not reach the long male terminal fittings
12
L. As a result, the corner Fb of the female connector F will not interfere with the long male terminal fittings
12
L.
In the present embodiment, the corner Fb of the female connector F is prevented from interfering with the long male terminal fittings
12
L by appropriately determining the length to which the cylindrical member
13
will protrude, taking into consideration the opening sizes
13
a
and
13
b
of the cylindrical member
13
, and the distance S from the opening end of the cylindrical member
13
to the protruding ends of the long male terminal fittings
12
L. That is, preventing interference between the female connector F and the long male terminal fittings
12
does not need to be taken into consideration in determining the protruding length of the hood
10
. Consequently, the protruding length of the hood
10
can be shorter compared to a case where the cylindrical member
13
is not provided and the female connector F and the long male terminal fittings
12
are prevented from mutually interfering only by increasing the protruding length of the hood
10
.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above with the aid of figures. For example, the possibilities described below also lie within the technical range of the present invention. In addition, the present invention may be embodied in various other ways without deviating from the scope thereof.
(1) In the embodiment described above, the cylindrical member entirely surrounds the long male terminal fittings. However, according to the present invention, the cylindrical member may equally well surround only a central portion of the long male terminal fittings that have been provided as a group. Additionally, the cylindrical member may surround all the long male terminal fittings and a portion of the short male terminal fittings that are adjacent thereto.
(2) In the embodiment described above, the connector is provided with only two types of male terminal fittings, long male terminal fittings and short male terminal fittings. However, the present invention is equally suitable for a connector provided with male terminal fittings of a length that is intermediate between these long male terminal fittings and short male terminal fittings.
(3) In the embodiment described above, the cylindrical member protrudes to the same position as the opening end of the hood. However, according to the present invention, the protruding end of the cylindrical member may be located inwards relative to the opening end of the hood (viewed from the fitting direction of the female connector).
Conversely, the protruding end of the cylindrical member may protrude further than the opening end of the hood.
Claims
- 1. An electrical connector having a body, long and short terminal fittings protruding from said body in a fitting direction, and a hood located on an exterior of said connector and surrounding said terminal fittings, the long terminal fittings being provided centrally in a group, and the short terminal fittings substantially surrounding the long terminal fittings, wherein a substantially tubular member, which is separate from said hood and surrounded by said hood, extends around and projects beyond at least some of said long terminal fittings, and at least one of the short terminal fittings is outside of the tubular member, said tubular member projecting in the same direction as said hood and defining a smaller opening than said hood, and being adapted to prevent contact between a mating connector and said long terminal fittings.
- 2. A connector according to claim 1 wherein said tubular member extends around all of said long terminal fittings.
- 3. A connector according to claim 1 wherein said tubular member encompasses only long terminal fittings.
- 4. A connector according to claim 1 wherein said hood and tubular member projects to the same extent.
- 5. A connector according to claim 1 wherein said tubular member has a continuous circumference.
- 6. A connector according to claim 5 wherein said tubular member extends around all of said long terminal fittings.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
2000-026138 |
Feb 2000 |
JP |
|
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A |
4229064 |
Vetter et al. |
Oct 1980 |
A |
5238413 |
McCaffrey et al. |
Aug 1993 |
A |
5263872 |
Marpoe, Jr. et al. |
Nov 1993 |
A |
5613871 |
Akeda |
Mar 1997 |
A |