1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors, and more particularly to electrical connectors with improved engaging arms for abutting against plugs inserted therein.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,773 discloses a conventional electrical connector comprising an insulative housing with a plurality of contacts retained therein and a pair of front and rear metal shield enclosing the insulative housing. The insulative housing comprises a base portion and a horizontal tongue plate portion extending forwardly from a front face of the base portion. The front metal shield encloses the tongue plate portion to define a receiving cavity for accommodating a plug therein. The front metal shield is stamped from a unitary one-piece metal sheet to have a generally rectangular configuration with four peripheral walls including an upper wall, a bottom wall and a pair of side walls. Each of the upper and the lower walls has a pair of engaging arms stamped therefrom and extending into the receiving cavity for abutting against the inserted plug to provide a stable mating status. Nowadays, in order to provide longtime mating cycles with the plug inserted/removable into/from the receiving cavity, the engaging arms are need to be made of material with excellent mechanical property, such as stainless steel. However, under this circumstance, if the engaging arms are integrally stamped from the front metal shield as disclosed in the prior art, the four peripheral walls might use the same material as that of the engaging arms because the front metal shield are formed of a one-piece metal sheet. In fact, the four peripheral walls needn't to be made of such excellent, but expensive, material, thereby increasing the cost of the electrical connector.
Hence, an electrical connector with improved engaging arms is needed to solve the problem above.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having an engaging arm and a metal shield which are made of different material in order to decrease the cost of the electrical connector.
An electrical connector for mating with a plug includes an insulative housing, a plurality of contacts retained in the insulative housing, a metal shield and at least one metal spring fixed to the metal shield. The insulative housing comprises a base portion and a tongue plate portion integrally extending forwardly from the base portion. The metal shield encloses the insulative housing to define a receiving cavity into which the tongue plate portion extends. The receiving cavity is formed by a plurality of peripheral walls. One of the peripheral walls defines a slot communicating with the receiving cavity. The metal spring is securely fixed to the peripheral wall and includes an engaging arm extending into the receiving cavity through the slot. The metal spring and the metal shield are made of different materials wherein the material of the metal spring is much better than that of the metal shield. For example, the metal shield is made of common iron sheet while the metal spring is made of stainless steel in order to provide longtime mating cycles while mating with the plug. Since iron is much cheaper than stainless steel, thereby, the cost of the electrical connector is decreased.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without such specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits have been shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. For the most part, details concerning timing considerations and the like have been omitted inasmuch as such details are not necessary to obtain a complete understanding of the present invention and are within the skills of persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art.
Referring to
Referring to
The plurality of contacts 2 are divided into two groups which will be retained in the pair of tongue plate portions 12, respectively. Each of the contacts 2 is formed to have a generally L-shaped configuration with a retaining portion 22, a contact portion 21 extending forwardly from one end of the retaining portion 22 and a tail portion 23 bending downwardly from the other end of the retaining portion 22.
The front metal shield 3 is stamped from a unitary one-piece metal sheet to have a generally rectangular configuration. The front metal shield 3 includes four peripheral walls designated respectively a top wall 31, a bottom wall 32 and a pair of side walls 33. The peripheral walls cooperatively define an inner space 310 for receiving the insulative housing 1. The top wall 31 defines a pair of upper slots 311 and a pair of hollow protrusions 312 located at the rear of the corresponding upper slots 311. The protrusions 312 are stamped upwardly from the top wall 31 and perpendicular to the top wall 31 along the vertical direction. The bottom wall 32 defines a pair of lower slots 321 corresponding to the upper slots 311 and another pair of hollow protrusions 322 located at the rear of the corresponding lower slots 321. The protrusions 322 are stamped downwardly from the bottom wall 32 and perpendicular to the bottom wall 32 along the vertical direction. The side walls 33 define a plurality of slits 331 for receiving the ribs 111 of the insulative housing 1 and a tab 332 extending into the inner space 310 for abutting against the depression 112 of the insulative housing 1. The front metal shield 3 is assembled to the insulative housing 1 to form a pair of upper and lower receiving cavities 34, 35 for the pair of tongue plate portions 11 respectively extending therethrough as shown in
Referring to
The metal springs 4 comprise a first metal spring 41 attached to an outer surface of the upper wall 31 of the front metal shield 3 and a pair of second metal springs 42 attached to the bottom wall 32 of the front metal shield 3. The first metal spring 41 comprises a first retaining base 411 and a pair of first engaging arms 412 cantileveredly extending from lateral edges of the first retaining base 411. The first retaining base 411 defines a pair of first through holes 413 for the protrusions 312 extending therethrough. Each second metal spring 42 comprises a second retaining base 421 and a second engaging arm 422 extending forwardly from the second retaining base 421. The second retaining base 421 defines a second through hole 423 on a rear end thereof for the another protrusions 322 extending therethrough. All the protrusions 312, 322 are riveted to abut against the corresponding first and second metal springs 41, 42 in order that the first and second metal springs 41, 42 can be fixed on the top and bottom walls 31, 32, respectively. The first and the second engaging arms 412, 422 extend into the first and the second receiving cavities 34, 35, respectively, for abutting against the plugs. Each second retaining base 421 defines another second through hole 424 adjacent to the second through 423 wherein the another second through hole 424 is much smaller than the second through 423. The bottom wall 32 further defines a pair of projections 323 for receiving the another second through holes 424 so that the pair of second metal springs 42 can be fixed in a preliminary position before rivet process. The front metal shield 3 includes four peripheral walls among which one of the peripheral wall is a mounting wall to which the metal springs 4 is attached. In the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mounting wall is the top wall 31 or the bottom wall 32 of the front metal shield 3. However, in other embodiments, the mounting wall can be the pair of side walls 33 of the front metal shield 3.
Referring to
Referring to
The insulative housing 1″ comprises a base portion 11″ and an extending portion 12″ protruding forwardly from the base portion 11″ as shown in
The plurality of contacts 2″ comprise a plurality of contact portions 21″ protruding into the receiving cavity 120″ for mating with an inserted plug.
The metal springs 3″ are inserted into the slits 110″ along a rear-to-front direction. Each metal spring 3″ comprises a retaining portion 31″ fixed to the base portion 11″ and an engaging arm 32″ integrally extending forwardly from the retaining portion 31″. The engaging arm 32″ comprises an engaging portion 321″ protruding into the receiving cavity 120″ for abutting against the plug and a grounding contact portion 322″ on a distal end thereof as shown in
Referring to
According to the present invention, the metal shields 3, 3′, 4″, 4″′ and the metal springs 4, 4′, 3″, 3″′ are made of different materials. The metal shields 3, 3′, 4″, 4″′ are made of common iron sheet while the metal springs 4, 4′, 3″, 3″′ are made of material with excellent mechanical property, such as stainless steel in order to provide longtime mating cycles while mating with corresponding plug. It is obvious that iron is much cheaper that stainless steel, thereby, the cost of the electrical connectors 100, 100′, 100″, 100″′ is decreased.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous, characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set fourth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosed is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of number, shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6053773 | Wu | Apr 2000 | A |
6478622 | Hwang | Nov 2002 | B1 |
7097507 | Zhang et al. | Aug 2006 | B1 |
7445506 | Ma | Nov 2008 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2507155 | Aug 2002 | CN |
2783559 | May 2006 | CN |
438097 | May 2001 | TW |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20080057786 A1 | Mar 2008 | US |