The invention relates to the field of electrical connectors and more particularly targets devices allowing the equipotential bonding of equipment used in particular in aeronautics.
Equipotential connection devices (or “bonding devices”) are devices that are common in electrical installations, and their function is to connect electrical equipment to a reference potential. This operation may also be commonly referred to as “grounding”. Equipotential connection operations are essential for obtaining a safe distribution of the charges and intensities over the various metal elements of a structure.
In aeronautics, for example, the majority of the bundles of electrical cables and of the electrical equipment of an aircraft have to be electrically connected to the structure of the aircraft by such equipotential connection devices, with a high level of safety.
Equipotential bonding is generally realized during the assembly of an aircraft by an operation called “metallization” consisting of: sanding or brushing a contact surface of the structure on which the equipotential bonding has to be realized; cleaning this contact surface with a suitable grease; positioning on the contact surface a terminal as one with the equipment to be connected; screwing a fastening of the terminal; applying a protective varnish to the connection zone and allowing this varnish to dry.
These operations are relatively long and meticulous, they require specific equipment and products, and are furthermore based on manual execution which can suffer from random reproducibility.
The aim of the invention is to improve the equipotential connection devices and methods of the prior art.
To this end, the invention targets an electrical equipotential connection device having:
The connector is also able to rotate relative to the socket, around the insertion direction, between: a stable locking position in which the elastic tab is engaged in the recess; an unlocking position in which the elastic tab is elastically deformed and is disposed on the disconnection track.
According to another subject, the invention targets a method for disconnecting a device as described above, this method involving the following steps:
Such a device allows the equipotential connection of equipment to a structure very quickly. The equipotential connection is realized by simply plugging the connector onto the socket.
By way of example, the metallization operations of the prior art require a realization time of the order of 10 to 15 minutes, by an experienced operator, for each equipotential connection, and the manufacture of an airplane requires several hundred of these equipotential connections. In this context, the electrical equipotential connection device provides a significant time saving over all of the equipotential connections, leading to a reduction in costs and in production times.
Furthermore, the device according to the invention allows an equipotential connection that is safe (the risk of anomaly in the connection is very low) and reproducible (it depends little on the person carrying out the operation), and can easily be automated.
The device according to the invention furthermore provides a connection that is more stable over time, having better dynamic resistance, in particular to vibrations.
With regard to the disconnection operations, the invention allows quick and easy disconnection while at the same time providing control safety, because the disconnection movement ensures that disconnection is indeed desired by the operator. Specifically, the operator has to demonstrate his or her intention to disconnect by moving the connector from its stable locking position to its unlocking position, along a precise angular travel; this maneuver cannot be realized by chance.
The invention also makes it possible to move some of the equipotential connection operations further upstream in the industrial supply chain. During the manufacture of an aircraft, the operations relating to the placement of the socket on the structure can be carried out jointly with the production of this structure, on a first production site. During the final assembly of the aircraft, which is generally carried out on another production site, the equipotential connection is simplified. Since operations at the end of the supply chain are generally more constrained and more expensive, this moving of certain operations further upstream thus simplifies the final assembly of an aircraft.
The device according to the invention may have the following additional features, alone or in combination:
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following non-limiting description, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:
The present example refers to an electrical equipotential connection device that has:
The connector 1 illustrated in
The contact rod 2 preferably has, at its base, a sealing means such as an O-ring seal 8 disposed in a suitable groove.
Elastic tabs 4 project from the flange 3, substantially parallel to the contact rod 2. In this example, the elastic tabs are six in number and are angularly distributed in a regular manner all around the contact rod 2. Each elastic tab 4 has at its end a tooth 5 that is provided with an oblique surface 26 and a stop surface 29.
The elastic tabs 4 are made of a flexible material such as a polymer. A particularly economical exemplary embodiment has in this case the connector 1 made of only two pieces: the metal contact rod 2 with its crimping portion 7; and an overmolded or fitted piece, made in one piece from a polymer, which forms the flange 3, as well as the elastic tabs 4. As a variant, the connector can simply be made in one metal piece including the contact rod 2 and the elastic tabs 4.
The socket 9 comprises a head 10 and a threaded portion 11. The head 10 has, at its base and around the threaded portion 11, a contact surface 12. This contact surface 12 is intended to be clamped against a metal structure by virtue of the threaded portion 11. The threaded portion 11 thus constitutes a fastening designed to mechanically and electrically connect the contact surface 12 to such a structure. The structure constitutes in this case the reference potential to which it is desired to connect the braided cable 6.
The contact surface 12 is in this case preferably surrounded by a sealing means such as an O-ring seal 13 disposed in a suitable groove of the head 10. This sealing ensures the protection of the contact surface 12 when it is clamped against the structure by the threaded portion 11.
The threaded portion 11 can be directly screwed into a suitable tapped hole made in the structure, it can also be fastened by a nut, or by any other means for clamping the contact surface 12 against another surface.
The head 10 and the threaded portion 11 are preferably made in one piece, for example by molding and/or machining conductive metallic materials.
The head 10 has a first stage 18, in this case comprising six recesses 14 that are each designed to receive the tooth 5 of an elastic tab 4 of the connector 1. Each of the recesses 14 has a bottom wall 15, as well as two lateral walls 16 extending obliquely from the bottom wall 15.
The head 10 also has, in the present example, six disconnection tracks 17. The disconnection tracks 17 are adjacent to the recesses 14. Each disconnection track 17 is in this case situated between two recesses 14. The disconnection tracks 17 are radially away from the recesses 14. In other words, the disconnection tracks 17 are radially positioned on a diameter of the head 10 that is greater than the diameter on which the bottom walls 15 of the recesses 14 are radially positioned. The lateral walls 16 are oblique walls forming a slope between each bottom wall 15 and one of the disconnections tracks 17 that is adjacent to the corresponding recess 14.
The head 10 has, in the axial direction, a second stage 19 that in this case has a hexagonal shape with six facets 24 of size allowing cooperation with a standard tool. The socket 9 can thus be actuated in rotation, in order to screw the threaded portion 11 or to stop the rotational movement thereof, using common tooling. As a variant, any other shape of the second stage 19 can be implemented so as to cooperate with other tools.
The head 10 also has a collar 28 disposed between the first stage 18 and the second stage 19, so as to form a stop wall facing the recesses 14. The collar 28 is intended to cooperate with the stop surface 29 of each tooth 5 inserted in a recess 14, so as to stop the translational movement of the connector 1 on the socket 9 and prevent disconnection.
Each facet 24 of the hexagonal imprint is connected to the collar 28 by a fillet 27 (or any other type of oblique surface).
The head 10 also has a second electrical connecting element that is in this case constituted of a bore 20 with a diameter adjusted to the contact rod 2. The bore 20 is electrically connected to the contact surface 12, and this is made possible in this case by the production of the socket 9 in one metal piece.
The contact rod 2 of the connector 1 is able to be coupled to the bore 20 in an insertion direction (illustrated by the axis 21). The contact rod 2 and the bore 20 can have simple cylindrical shapes, adjusted to allow electrical contact during the coupling of the contact rod 2 and the bore 20. As a variant, any known element promoting electrical contact in such a configuration can be used, for example elastic contacts at the contact rod 2 or inside the bore 20.
The disconnection tracks 17 extend from a zone 22 situated between each of the recesses 14, and are extended by a portion 23 positioned between the facets 24 of the hexagonal imprint of the second stage 19.
The disconnection track 17, which is formed in this case by its two sections 22, 23, thus extends over the first stage 18 and over the second stage 19 of the head 10 in a direction that is substantially parallel to the insertion direction 21.
A method for equipotential connection of a structure 25 with a conductor 6 is illustrated in
The socket 9 has been previously installed on the structure 25, during the production of the latter, for example by screwing into a tapped hole or fastening using a nut as described above. According to this assembly, the contact surface 12 of the socket 9 is mechanically and electrically in contact with the structure 25 along an interface protected by the O-ring seal 13. The structure 9 is delivered with the socket 9 mounted.
With reference to
The operator then inserts the connector onto the socket, while the elastic tabs 4 meet the second stage 19 of the head 10. The oblique surfaces 26 of the teeth 5 are each positioned on a facet 24 of the hexagonal imprint. This positioning is done automatically by virtue of the elastic nature of the tabs 4 that position the connector 1 in an angular position of equilibrium with one elastic tab 4 on each of the facets 24.
From this position of equilibrium, the operator continues the insertion of the connector 1 in the insertion direction 21, causing the oblique surfaces 26 of the teeth 5 to rise along the fillets 27 of the head 10, and this causes deformation of the elastic tabs 4 that then pass over the collar 28, as far as the connection position in
With reference to
In the position in
The O-ring seal 8 ensures that the contact surfaces providing electrical contact between the contact rod 2 and the bore 20 are protected from moisture and therefore from corrosion.
The equipotential connection, once completed, offers robustness against vibrations because any rotational or translational movement of the connector 1 is elastically brought to the stable position in
A method for disconnecting the described device is also described with reference to
When it is decided to disconnect the equipotential connection (during a maintenance operation, for example), an operator will first pivot the connector 1 by driving it in rotation around the insertion direction 21 (see
This rotation operation is simple, but does however have to be angularly precise, and this ensures that disconnection of the equipotential connection is desired. Specifically, during this rotation, which is illustrated in
The rotational movement realized by the operator must therefore be sufficiently precise to stop the teeth 5 on the disconnection tracks 17, before an excessive angular travel, which would again cause each tooth 5 to reach the next recess 14 following sliding over the next lateral wall 16.
From the position illustrated in
Variant embodiments of the equipotential connection device and method can be envisaged. For example, the number of elastic tabs 4, of teeth 5, and of recesses 14 can be adapted, being reduced or increased to a number more appropriate for a particular application, at least one elastic tab 4 having to be present, being as one with the first electrical connecting element.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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FR2010038 | Oct 2020 | FR | national |
This application is a national stage entry of PCT/EP2021/076425 filed Sep. 26, 2021, under the International Convention claiming priority over French Patent Application No. 2010038 filed Oct. 1, 2020.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2021/076425 | 9/26/2021 | WO |