This application claims the benefit of Taiwan Patent Application No. 109105537, filed on Feb. 20, 2020, in the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office of the R.O.C, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
The present invention relates to a delatch mechanism. In particular, it relates to a delatch mechanism, which releases the latching status between an optical connector and a receptacle, and the optical connector using the same.
Optical fibers have been widely used as signal transmission media in recent years due to the advantages of high frequency bandwidth and low loss. The use of optical fiber has already had a major revolutionary impact in the communications industry. Nowadays, 100G optical module communication is not enough, and the future will be expected to move towards the era of 400G optical module communications.
In the field of 400G optical communications, there are also many designs for the packaging design of optical fiber modules, one of which is called Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable-Double Density (QSFF-DD). The specification, with a downward compatible design, has attracted the attention of many large manufacturers, and has launched corresponding specifications of optical communication module products.
Among the optical fiber module, in addition to the structure of the receptacle, the design of the optical connector is also very important. There are many types of optical connectors, and different manufacturers have different designs, such as SN connectors, MDC connectors, or LC connectors. Since these connectors are miniaturized in size and densely arranged, when there is a need to repair or replace the connectors, it is difficult for the maintenance personnel to directly use the finger operation to pull the specific connector out of the receptacle or insert it into the receptacle. Therefore, maintenance personnel often have to unplug the connectors for maintenance. Nevertheless, most equipment in the computer room or equipment room is unable to stop. If the optical connectors are unplugged, it would also affect the normal operation of the communication equipment. Therefore, how to solve this problem is an important issue.
The above information disclosed in this section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
The present invention provides a delatch mechanism and an optical connector using the same, through the delatch mechanism with flexible restoring force, the latching status between an optical connector and a receptacle is released. In addition, the delatch mechanism also generates the elastic restoring force to return the buckle structure of the optical connector to its original position to ensure that the buckle structure of the optical connector may return to the initial position.
The present invention provides an optical connector, which has a rotating structure for changing the polarity, so that the optical connector may change the polarity to adapt to the different connectors. In addition, the cover of the optical connector has a double locking mechanism, which ensures that the cover may effectively generate a covering effect.
The present invention provides an optical connector, which has an integrally formed accommodation base. The purpose of the present invention is to avoid multiple assembly elements to form the accommodation base, and avoid to result in reducing the rigidity of the optical connector due to too many assembly elements.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the present invention provides a delatch mechanism, for releasing a latching status between a positioning structure of a connector body and a positioning hole of a receptacle, comprising: a supporting base, disposed on the connector body; a delatching unit, coupled to the supporting base and the connector body; further comprising: a rotating base; rotatably coupled to the supporting base; a pressing structure, disposed on the rotating base and leaned against the connector body; and a release lever, connected to the rotating base.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the present invention provides an optical connector, comprising: a connector body; a delatch mechanism, connected to the connector body, further comprising: a supporting base, disposed on the connector body; a delatching unit, coupled to the supporting base and the connector body; further comprising: a rotating base; rotatably coupled to the supporting base; a pressing structure, disposed on the rotating base and leaned against the connector body; and a release lever, connected to the rotating base.
Many of the attendant features and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings.
The detailed structure, operating principle and effects of the present invention will now be described in more details hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings that show various embodiments of the present invention as follows.
Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the foregoing is illustrative of exemplary embodiments and is not to be construed as limited to the specific embodiments disclosed, and that modifications to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, as well as other exemplary embodiments, are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. These embodiments are provided so that this invention will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the inventive concept to those skilled in the art. The relative proportions and ratios of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated or diminished in size for the sake of clarity and convenience in the drawings, and such arbitrary proportions are only illustrative and not limiting in any way.
For convenience, certain terms employed in the specification, examples and appended claims are collected here. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of the ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs.
Various embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrative embodiments are shown. The inventive concept, however, may be embodied in various different forms, and should not be construed as being limited only to the illustrated embodiments. Rather, these embodiments are provided as examples, to convey the inventive concept to one skilled in the art. Accordingly, known processes, elements, and techniques are not described with respect to some of the embodiments.
The singular forms “a”, “and”, and “the” are used herein to include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
The following descriptions are provided to elucidate a delatch mechanism and an optical connector using the same to aid it of skilled in the art in practicing this invention. These embodiments are merely exemplary embodiments and in no way to be considered to limit the scope of the invention in any manner.
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The cover 22 is disposed on the side of the opening 200 of the accommodation base 20 to seal the opening 200. The cover 22 has an extending cover 220 corresponding to each terminal accommodation portion 202, and a first buckle structure 221 is disposed on an end of the extending cover 220. In this embodiment, the first buckle structure 221 is extended from the supporting arm 221a protruding from an end of the extending cover 220. The supporting arm 221a may be deformed under an interaction force to change the position of the first buckle structure 221. When the interaction force is removed, the first buckle structure 221 can return to the initial position. In this embodiment, the cover 22, the extending cover 220 and the first buckle structure 221 are integrally formed to reduce the number of assembly elements and increase the rigidity of the entire cover 22. In addition, the extending arms 203 are respectively extended from both sides of the accommodation base 20, an end of the extending arm 203 has a first engaging structure 204 corresponding to a second engaging structure 222 on both sides of the cover 22. In this embodiment, a plate body 223 corresponding to the first engaging structure 204 is formed on both sides of the cover 22, and the second engaging structure 222 is formed on the plate body 223. When the cover 22 is disposed on the accommodation base 20, the first engaging structure 204 is engaged with the second engaging structure 222. In this embodiment, the first engaging structure 204 is a convex cylinder, and the second engaging structure 222 is a slot structure corresponding to the convex cylinder. In another embodiment, the second engaging structure 222 may be a convex cylinder, and the first engaging structure 204 may also be a slot structure corresponding to the convex cylinder. It should be noted that the aspect of the first engaging structure and the second engaging structure is not limited thereto, and those skilled in the art may appropriately change according to needs.
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Next, an embodiment of combining the supporting base 250 and the optical connector 3 is going to be described. In this embodiment, referring to
An end of the flexible member 250b is connected with the connecting portion 250a, and another end of the flexible member 250b is leaned against the rotating base 252. In this embodiment, the flexible member 250b further has a first rod 2500b and a second rod 2501b, wherein the first end of the first rod 2500b is connected to the connecting portion 250a, the second end of the first rod 2500b is connected to the second end of the second rod 2501b, and the first end of the second rod 2501b is leaned against the rotating base 252. Since the first rod 2500b is connected to an end of the second rod 2501b, but not connected to another end of the second rod 2501b, the first rod 2500b and another end of the second rod 2501b are separated by a certain distance, so that the flexible member 250b can generate elastic compression and accumulate elastic restoring force through the first rod 2500b and the second rod 2501b. The pair of shaft bases 250c are respectively arranged on both sides of the flexible member 250b and connected to the connecting portion 250a. In this embodiment, a pivot groove 2500c is disposed on the shaft base 250c. On both sides of the rotating base 252, pivot shafts 255 are pivotally connected to the corresponding pivot grooves 2500c on the rotating base 250c, respectively.
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The second way to change the polarity is to use the pressing rod 237 of the polarity adjusting portion 23. In this embodiment, through the interaction force 93 applied to the pressing rod 237, the pressing rod 237 drives the connecting body 237a to apply a force on the supporting arm 221a, so that the supporting arm 221a is deformed downward, and the second buckle structure 230 is separated from the first buckle structure 221. After that, the polarity adjusting portion 23 may be rotated by a predetermined angle, which is 180 degrees in this embodiment, so that the third buckle structure 235 of the polarity adjusting portion 23 corresponds to the first buckle structure 221. Since the interaction force 93 in
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When the connector body 2 is to be taken out from the receptacle 4, the connector body 2 can be pulled out of the receptacle 4 by operating the delatch mechanism 25. In one embodiment, as shown in
It should be noted that while the pressing structure 253 presses the pressing rod 237, the rotating base 252 is synchronously pressed against the flexible member 250b, so that the flexible member 250b is deformed and the elastic restoring force is accumulated. Therefore, after the optical connector is pulled out of the receptacle, once the rotational movement 94 applied to the release lever 254 disappears, the elastic restoring force accumulated by the flexible member 250b can be released. The released elastic restoring force acts on the rotating base 252, so that the rotating base 252 rotates clockwise with the pivot shaft 255 of the shaft base 250c as the rotation axis. When the rotating base 252 rotates clockwise, the pressing rod 237 returns to the initial position counterclockwise shown in
In another embodiment, in addition to the rotation way of
It should be noted that while the pressing structure 253 presses the pressing rod 237, the rotating base 252 is synchronously pressed against the flexible member 250b, so that the flexible member 250b is deformed and the elastic restoring force is accumulated. Therefore, after the optical connector is pulled out of the receptacle, once the rotational movement 95 applied to the release lever 254 disappears, the elastic restoring force accumulated by the flexible member 250b can be released. The released elastic restoring force acts on the rotating base 252, so that the rotating base 252 rotates clockwise with the pivot shaft 255 of the shaft base 250c as the rotation axis. When the rotating base 252 rotates clockwise, the pressing rod 237 is no longer pressed by the pressing structure 253 and returns to the initial position counterclockwise shown in
From the above description of the operation, the present invention provides a delatch mechanism which allows the user to choose the linear or rotating double delatching ways according to the situation, which improves the flexibility of operation. In addition, the present invention also releases the latching status between the optical connector and the receptacle by the delatch mechanism with flexible restoring force. In addition, the delatch mechanism also generates the restoring force to return the buckle structure of the optical connector to the original position, ensuring that the buckle structure of the connector can return to the original position.
It will be understood that the above description of embodiments is given by way of example only and that various modifications may be made by those with ordinary skill in the art. The above specification, examples, and data provide a complete description of the present invention and use of exemplary embodiments of the invention. Although various embodiments of the invention have been described above with a certain degree of particularity, or with reference to one or more individual embodiments, those with ordinary skill in the art could make numerous alterations or modifications to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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109105537 | Feb 2020 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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10067301 | Murray | Sep 2018 | B2 |
20070059953 | Togami | Mar 2007 | A1 |
20160047993 | Hioki | Feb 2016 | A1 |
20170293088 | Manes | Oct 2017 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20210263242 A1 | Aug 2021 | US |