The present invention relates to an electrical connector to easily and surely perform an electrical connection and disconnection. This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-9929, filed on Jan. 20, 2012, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-6912, filed on Jan. 18, 2013, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
For example, an electrical connector connecting a female connector and a male connector in a freely engageable and detachable manner is used for an electrical connection of a vehicle, an electronic equipment, and so on. When the electrical connector is connected and disconnected, a male tab at the male connector side inserted into the female connector and a contact piece which is electrically connected to the male tab at the female connector side slide with each other, and wear debris are generated.
In general, Sn plating is performed for the male tab at the male connector side and the contact piece at the female connector side, and therefore, Sn wear debris are generated by the slide between the contact piece at the female connector side and the male tab at the male connector side. Electrical resistance of the Sn wear debris becomes high when it is oxidized, and therefore, there is a worry in which contact resistance of the electrical connector becomes high by the wear debris.
In Patent Document 1, a technology in which a projecting part and a hole part are formed at a male terminal and a female terminal which are electrically connected with each other, and the projecting part and the hole part are fitted to thereby prevent the slide is disclosed. Besides, in Patent Document 2, a technology in which a holding part is provided in addition to a contact part to thereby prevent minute slide wear is disclosed. In Patent Document 3, a technology in which a spring piece reinforcing a contact pressure of an elastic contact piece is provided in addition to the elastic contact piece which is in contact with a tab terminal is disclosed. In Patent Document 4, a technology in which plural grooves are provided at a connector contact part to enable a multipoint contact to secure a stable contact is disclosed. In Patent Document 5, a technology in which a slide distance is suppressed to be a distance smaller than a slide trace to thereby secure a gas-tight surface which is not exposed to atmosphere is disclosed. Further, in Patent Document 6, a technology in which a thin Ag—Sn alloy layer is formed on Sn plating to thereby improve minute slide wear resistance is disclosed.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-277197
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-80004
Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-134681
Patent Document 4: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-266990
Patent Document 5: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-141993
Patent Document 6: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-37629
Incidentally, in recent years, the number of terminals (the number of pins) of the electrical connector tends to increase, and small-sizing of the terminal is required in accordance with the increase in the number of terminals. However, in a small-sized terminal, sheet thicknesses of materials used for the male tab at the male connector side and the contact piece at the female connector side become thin, and therefore, a contact load becomes small, further, it is impossible to keep an enough displacement amount, and therefore, the contact load between both becomes small. In case of the Sn plating which is widely used to guarantee electrical reliability at a terminal contact point, it is known that the electrical reliability is damaged by minute slide wear caused by minute slide if the contact load is small.
Cost increase is incurred when an expensive noble metal plating such as Au, Ag is used, and the contact load is enlarged by using a high-strength material as measures for a problem as stated above. Besides, a measure to enable a standstill contact point by devising a terminal shape can be cited, but the contact point is easy to move when the contact load is small, and it is difficult to suppress the minute slide wear because the slide wear is generated by the slide in a minute distance. In particular, in the technologies of Patent Documents 1, 3, a contact point between the female terminal and the male terminal to be an electric contact is made to be a combination of recession and projection to suppress the slide distance, and therefore, the contact is easy to be unstable. Besides, in the technologies of Patent Documents 2, 3 the contact point to suppress the slide distance and the electric contact are separately provided, but a complicated spring structure is required to add a high contact load to suppress the slide distance. In particular, in Patent Document 2, there is a description saying “the holding part is an elastic contact, and a frictional resistance is small . . . ”, and it is conceivable that an effect to suppress the slide distance is not sufficient.
An object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector capable of reducing slide wear as much as possible even when a contact load is small, and enabling stable conduction.
To solve the above-stated problems, according to the present invention, an electrical connector connecting a female connector and a male connector in a freely engageable and detachable manner, including: a male tab provided at the male connector; a housing part where the male tab is inserted provided at the female connector; a contact piece and a beat piece to hold and press the male tab to enable electrical connection provided at the housing part; a protrusion provided at least at one of the contact piece and the beat piece; and a recessed part capable of accepting the protrusion provided at the male tab, wherein the contact piece, the beat piece, and the protrusion are constituted to be one component, is provided.
Besides, according to the present invention, an electrical connector connecting a female connector and a male connector in a freely engageable and detachable manner, including: a male tab provided at the male connector; a housing part where the male tab is inserted provided at the female connector; a contact piece and a beat piece to hold and press the male tab to enable electrical connection provided at the housing part; a protrusion provided at the male tab; and a recessed part capable of accepting the protrusion provided at least at one of the contact piece and the beat piece, wherein the contact piece, the beat piece, and the recessed part are constituted to be one component, is provided.
In these electrical connectors, a cross sectional shape of the protrusion is, for example, a hemisphere shape, a triangle shape, and a quadrangle shape. Besides, Sn plating may be performed on a surface of the protrusion. Further, plural recessed parts and projecting parts may be provided at a tip surface of the protrusion. Besides, a shape of the protrusion and a shape of the recessed part capable of accepting the protrusion are preferably approximately the same shape.
According to the present invention, a manufacturing method of these electrical connectors, including: forming the protrusion by the press work using a metal mold is provided.
According to the electrical connector of the present invention, in an electrically connected state in which the male tab of the male connector is inserted into the housing part of the female connector, the protrusion is accepted by the recessed part, and thereby, a move of the male tab sandwiched between the contact piece and the beat piece is prevented. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the slide wear as much as possible. Besides, the slide is prevented by the combination of the protrusion and the recessed part at a part different from a part enabling an electrical contact to separate two functions of an electric contact part and a fixed part. As a result, both the surely suppression of the slide distance by the fixed part, and the stable conduction by the electric contact part are enabled, and electrical reliability improves.
Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to the drawings. Note that in the description and the drawings, the same reference numerals and symbols are used to designate components having substantially the same functional configuration, and the redundant description thereof will not be given. As illustrated in
The male connector 2 illustrated at a left side in
On the other hand, at the female connector 3 illustrated at a right side in
As illustrated in
Note that in
The housing part 21 is covered with a cylindrical female side cover 35. A female side engaging lock 36 which is supported to be freely elastically deformed relative to the female side resin molding part 20 is provided toward outside at an outer peripheral surface of the female side cover 35. As illustrated in
Note that a release protrusion 37 formed at an outer peripheral surface of the female side resin molding part (cavity) 20 is pressed, and thereby, the female side engaging lock 36 is pushed, and it becomes a state in which engagement between the male side engaging lock 13 and the female side engaging lock 36 is disengaged. It is thereby possible to pull out the male connector 2 from the female connector 3, and the electrical connection between the male terminal (male tab 11) of the male connector 2 and the female terminal 22 of the female connector 3 is released.
Further, a protrusion 40 protruding toward an upper surface of the male tab 11 inserted into the housing part 21 is provided at the inner surface (the surface facing the male tab 11 inserted into the housing part 21, and the lower surface of the contact piece 30 in
As illustrated in
On the other hand, as illustrated in
Besides, it is preferable that a shape of the protrusion 40 and a shape of the recessed part 41 are approximately the same shape. Namely, for example, as illustrated in
The shape of the protrusion 40 and the shape of the recessed part 41 are approximately the same shape, and thereby, the top part of the protrusion 40, the bottom part of the recessed part 41, and the side parts with each other are in close contact states when the protrusion 40 is accepted by the recessed part 41, and they are fixed by the fit and the frictional force. As a result, it is possible not only to prevent the move (slide) in the X1 direction and X2 direction but also to suppress the slide in a direction perpendicular to the X1 direction and the X2 direction, and in the other directions.
Besides, it is possible to prevent minute slide which is easy to occur when a contact load at the contact point is a minute load such as, for example, 3 N or less by enabling the above-stated state, and therefore, it is possible to suppress the minute slide wear in particular.
In recent years, owing to requirements particularly for small-sizing in a terminal, and for making plate-state terminal materials of the female terminal and the male terminal thinner, sheet-thicknesses of the contact piece, the beat piece, and the male tab become thin such as 0.20 mm or less, further 0.15 mm or less. However, the protrusion 40 and the recessed part 41 of the present invention are formed, and thereby, it is possible to enough suppress the slide even though the sheet-thicknesses become thinner, and to obtain effects of the present invention.
In the electrical connector 1 constituted as stated above, the move of the male tab 11 sandwiched between the contact piece 30 and the beat piece 31 is prevented under the state in which the male connector 2 and the female connector 3 are electrically connected, and the slide wear can be reduced as much as possible. Accordingly, it is possible to avoid problems such as an increase of contact resistance and heat generation caused by generation of wear debris, and to enable a good electrical connection. Besides, a part where the electrical contact is enabled by sandwiching the male tab 11 between the contact point 32 and the beat protrusion 33 and a part where the slide is prevented by the protrusion 40 accepted by the recessed part 41 are separately provided. Accordingly, two functions of the electric contact part and the fixed part are separated, and both the surely suppression of the slide distance by the fixed part and the stable conduction by the electric contact part are enabled, and the electric reliability improves.
Hereinabove, the embodiments of the present invention are exemplified to be described, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described here. For example, the cross sectional shape of the protrusion 40 may be a hemisphere shape as illustrated in
Besides, as stated above, if the shape of the protrusion 40 and the shape of the recessed part 41 are approximately the same shape, it is possible to further suppress the slide distance.
Besides, as illustrated in
Each of the female terminal 22 and the male tab 11 made up of metal materials as stated above can be constituted to be one component by performing the press work using a metal mold to be integrally molded. Note that one component means that each of the female terminal 22 and the male tab 11 is made up of one continuous material. The shapes of the female terminal 22 and the male tab 11 are simplified, and thereby, it becomes possible to reduce a manufacturing cost and shorten manufacturing processes. Note that the female terminal 22 and the male tab 11 may be manufactured by the other methods without being limited to the press work.
Besides, the Sn plating or the like may be performed on uppermost surfaces of the female terminal 22 and the male tab 11. If the Sn plating is used, it is not necessary to perform the expensive noble metal plating such as Au, Ag, so it is preferable in cost phase. As a film structure, only the Sn plating, an Ni base plating-a Cu plating-the Sn plating, the Ni base plating-the Cu plating-a CuSn compound-the Sn plating, the CuSn compound-the Sn plating, the Ni base plating-the Sn plating and so on from a surface side of the conductive base material for the female terminal 22, the male tab 11, and so on are exemplified. Besides, the reflow treatment, the gloss treatment, and so on may be performed according to need. The CuSn compound is able to be formed by performing the heat treatment such as the reflow for the Sn plating. Besides, the Cu—Ni—Sn based alloy is selected as the conductive base material, and the Sn plating and so on is formed, it is preferable because recycling of the materials becomes easy. The press work to manufacture the female terminal 22 and the male tab 11 may be performed before or after the plating process. The Sn plating 45 illustrated in
Besides, as stated above, if the shape of the protrusion 40 and the shape of the recessed part 41 are approximately the same shape, it is possible to further suppress the slide distance.
Note that as illustrated in
Besides, as illustrated in
Besides, as stated above, if the shape of the protrusion 40 and the shape of the recessed part 41 are approximately the same shape, it is possible to further suppress the slide distance.
In the embodiment illustrated in
Besides, the protrusion 40 and the recessed part 41 may be provided at the beat piece 31 without being limited to the contact piece 30. For example, the protrusion 40 may be provided at the beat piece 31, and the recessed part 41 may be provided at the male tab 11. Besides, the recessed part 41 may be provided at the beat piece 31, and the protrusion 40 may be provided at the male tab 11. Similarly, according to the mode, the protrusion 40 is accepted by the recessed part 41 under the connection state of the electrical connector 1, and the move of the male tab 11 sandwiched between the contact piece 30 and the beat piece 31 is prevented. It is thereby possible to enable both the surely suppression of the slide distance and the stable conduction, and the electrical reliability improves.
X1 insertion direction
X2 extraction direction
1 electrical connector
2 male connector
3 female connector
10 male side resin molding part
11 male tab
12 male side cover
13 male side engaging lock
20 female side resin molding part
21 housing part
22 female terminal
23 electric wire
24 lance
30 contact piece
31 beat piece
32 contact point
33 beat protrusion
35 female side cover
36 female side engaging lock
37 release protrusion
40 protrusion
41 recessed part
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2012-009929 | Jan 2012 | JP | national |
2013-006912 | Jan 2013 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3858957 | Harwood | Jan 1975 | A |
7845993 | Falchetti | Dec 2010 | B2 |
20020022412 | Alonson Merino et al. | Feb 2002 | A1 |
20020065005 | Renkes et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
20090036004 | Bowen et al. | Feb 2009 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
1184344 | Jun 1998 | CN |
1881700 | Dec 2006 | CN |
90 15 110 | Jan 1991 | DE |
0 098 650 | Jan 1984 | EP |
0 387 683 | Sep 1990 | EP |
1 953 872 | Aug 2008 | EP |
2000-277197 | Oct 2000 | JP |
2001-266990 | Sep 2001 | JP |
2005-141993 | Jun 2005 | JP |
2006-080004 | Mar 2006 | JP |
2006-134681 | May 2006 | JP |
2010-037629 | Feb 2010 | JP |
WO-8602206 | Apr 1986 | WO |
WO-2011154116 | Dec 2011 | WO |
Entry |
---|
International Search Report issued in Application No. PCT/JP2013/050931, mailed Mar. 19, 2013. |
Extended Search Report issued in European Application No. 13738174.5, dated Sep. 2, 2015. |
Office Action issued in Chinese Application No. 201380005679.7, dated Dec. 29, 2015. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20140322992 A1 | Oct 2014 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | PCT/JP2013/050931 | Jan 2013 | US |
Child | 14327103 | US |