Information
-
Patent Grant
-
6447329
-
Patent Number
6,447,329
-
Date Filed
Friday, October 19, 200122 years ago
-
Date Issued
Tuesday, September 10, 200221 years ago
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Inventors
-
Original Assignees
-
Examiners
Agents
-
CPC
-
US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 439 492
- 439 499
- 439 67
- 439 77
- 439 456
- 439 459
- 439 874
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International Classifications
-
Abstract
A connector includes an insulated base having a plurality of conductive terminals inserted onto a top thereof, and an insulated cover being structured to firmly hold a flat cable to the base. The base is provided at the top with a row of spacers to form a plurality of parallelly spaced slots, into which the conductive terminals are separately seated to partially expose from the top of the base. The flat cable is stripped at a predetermined section to expose a length of naked cores that are separately located in the spaced slots above the conductive terminals and are welded to the latter to provide increased contact areas between the terminals and the flat cable to ensure stable signal transmission at high speed. The spacers prevent the occurrence of short circuit during welding of the terminals to the naked cores of the flat cable.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector that includes spacers to prevent short circuit during welding of terminals on the connector to cores of a flat cable and provides increased contact areas between the welded terminals and cores of the flat cable to ensure stable signal transmission at high speed without causing signal fluctuation.
With the increasing development of computer-related technologies, the currently available computers all have a central processing unit (CPU) with almost incredibly powerful digital operation function. Under this condition, all other peripherals, including driving and driven components thereof, must be structured to match with the high processing speed of the CPU. A flat cable, which is located between the CPU and the driving and driven peripherals to transmit signals, therefore plays a very important role in the signal transmission, and connectors provided at two ends of the flat cable have direct influence on the successful signal transmission.
FIG. 1
is an exploded perspective view of a conventional connector
1
for use with a flat cable
2
. The connector
1
mainly includes an electrically insulated base
11
and an electrically insulated cover
12
structured to firmly hold the flat cable
2
to the base
11
. The base
11
is provided at a top with several rows of staggered piercing terminals
13
. Each of the piercing terminals
13
includes piercing prongs
131
formed at a top thereof. When the flat cable
2
is firmly held between the base
11
and the cover
12
, the piercing prongs
131
pierce through a skin
21
of the flat cable
2
, as shown in
FIGS. 2 and 3
, to electrically connect cores
22
of the flat cable
2
to the terminals
13
. It is noted that the piercing prongs
131
are in point contact or line contact with the cores
22
to transmit signals. Since the flat cable
2
has very closely arranged cores
22
, it is possible the prongs
131
do not accurately pierce the flat cable
2
at the skin
21
or the prongs
131
pierce through the cores
22
to break the same, resulting in poor signal transmission. Moreover, the point contact or line contact between the prongs
131
of the piercing terminals
13
and the cores
22
of the flat cable
2
is too feeble to ensure good signal transmission via the flat cable
2
and the connectors
1
provided at two ends of the flat cable
2
. Lowered transmission efficiency and unstable signals might occur.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved connector that includes spacers to prevent short circuit during welding of terminals on the connector to cores of a flat cable and provides increased contact areas between the welded terminals and cores of the flat cable to ensure stable signal transmission at high speed without causing signal fluctuation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a connector that is able to prevent short circuit during connection of terminals on the connector to cores of a flat cable.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a connector that provides increased contact areas between terminals on the connector and cores of the flat cable to ensure stable signal transmission at high speed without causing signal fluctuation.
To achieve the above and other objects, the connector of the present invention mainly includes an electrically insulated base having a plurality of conductive terminals in the shape of an inverted letter “L” inserted onto a top thereof, and an electrically insulated cover being structured to firmly hold a flat cable to the insulated base. The insulated base is provided at the top with a row of spacers to form a plurality of parallelly spaced slots, into which horizontal contact parts of the conductive terminals are separately seated to partially expose from the top of the insulated base. The insulated base is also provided at two longitudinal sides of the row of spacers with two rows of staggered terminal holes corresponding to the spaced slots. The conductive terminals are sequentially seated in the spaced slots with vertical insertion parts thereof alternately inserted into the two rows of terminal holes. And, the flat cable is stripped at a predetermined section to expose a length of naked cores that are separately located in the spaced slots above the conductive terminals and are welded to the latter to provide increased contact areas between them. The increased contact areas between the terminals and the naked cores ensure stable signal transmission via the flat cable at high speed without causing signal fluctuation, and the spacers prevent the occurrence of short circuit during welding of the terminals to the naked cores of the flat cable.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
FIG. 1
is an exploded perspective view of a conventional connector;
FIG. 2
is a partially assembled perspective view of the conventional connector of
FIG. 1
;
FIG. 3
is a fragmentary and enlarged sectional view showing the partially assembled conventional connector of
FIG. 1
;
FIG. 4
is an exploded perspective view of a connector according to the present invention;
FIG. 5
is a partially assembled perspective view of the connector of
FIG. 5
;
FIG. 6
is another partially assembled perspective view of the connector of
FIG. 5
; and
FIG. 7
is a fragmentary and enlarged sectional view of the connector of the present invention in as assembled state.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Please refer to
FIG. 4
that is an exploded perspective view of a connector
3
according to the present invention. As shown, the connector
3
mainly includes an electrically insulated base
31
, a plurality of electrically conductive terminals
32
, and an electrically insulated cover
33
. A flat cable
4
is connected to the connector
3
and fixedly held between the base
31
and the cover
33
.
The electrically insulated base
31
is provided at a top with a row of spacers
311
to form a plurality of parallelly spaced slots
312
. Two rows of staggered terminal holes
313
are formed on the base
31
at two longitudinal sides of the plurality of spaced slots
312
, so that each terminal hole
313
corresponds to a spaced slot
312
.
Each of the electrically conductive terminals
32
is in the shape of an inverted letter “L” to include a horizontal top serving as a contact part
321
and a vertical body serving as an insertion part
322
. The contact parts
321
are sequentially seated in the spaced slots
312
on the top of the base
31
with the insertion parts
322
alternately inserted into the two rows of terminal holes
313
at two sides of the spaced slots
312
, as shown in
FIGS. 5 and 7
.
The electrically insulated cover
33
is structured to be fitly disposed on the top of the base
31
, so as to firmly hold the flat cable
4
between the base
31
and the cover
33
without the risk of a loosened flat cable
4
due to any improper pull at the flat cable
4
.
The flat cable
4
is partially stripped at a small section near a front end thereof to expose a plurality of naked cores
41
. The flat cable
4
is connected to the connector
3
with the naked cores
41
sequentially seated in the spaced slots
312
above and welded to the contact parts
321
of the electrically conductive terminals
32
, as shown in
FIGS. 6 and 7
.
With the above arrangements, the spacers
311
effectively prevent any short circuit during the welding of the naked cores
41
of the flat cable
4
to the contact parts
321
of the terminals
32
. Moreover, there is an increased contact area between the naked cores
41
and the contact parts
321
of the terminals
32
to enable transmission of electric signals at high speed without causing signal fluctuation.
The following are some advantages of the connector of the present invention having the above-described structure:
1. The contact parts
321
of the electrically conductive terminals
32
and the naked cores
41
of the flat cable
4
are welded together to provide increased contact areas between them. The increased contact areas enable stable signal transmission at high speed without causing signal fluctuation.
2. The spacers
311
between any two adjacent conductive terminals
32
effectively prevent the occurrence of short circuit at neighboring conductive terminals or flat cables during the welding of the naked cores
41
of the flat cable
4
to the contact parts
321
of the conductive terminals
32
.
Claims
- 1. A connector, comprising an electrically insulated base having a plurality of electrically conductive terminals inserted through a top thereof, and an electrically insulated cover being structured to firmly hold a flat cable to said base; said connector being characterized in that said insulated base is provided at the top with a row of spacers to form a plurality of parallelly spaced slots, that said conductive terminals are separately seated in said spaced slots to be partially exposed at the top of said insulated base; and that said flat cable is stripped at a predetermined section to expose naked cores of said flat cable, and said naked cores of said flat cable are held to said insulated base by said insulated cover and are separately located in said spaced slots above said conductive terminals to electrically contact with said conductive terminals.
- 2. The connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said electrically conductive terminals is in the shape of an inverted letter “L” to include a horizontal top that serves as a contact part and is seated in one of said spaced slots on said insulated base, and a vertical body that serves as a insertion part for inserting into said insulated base.
- 3. The connector as claimed in claim 2, wherein said insulated base is provided at two longitudinal sides of said one row of spacers with two rows of staggered terminal holes, so that each of said terminal holes corresponds to one of said spaced slots, and wherein said contact parts of said conductive terminals are sequentially seated in said spaced slots with said insertion parts alternately inserted into said two rows of terminal holes.
US Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
4973264 |
Kamono et al. |
Nov 1990 |
A |
6033238 |
Fogg et al. |
Mar 2000 |
A |