This application claims under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2014-0172308, filed on Dec. 3, 2014 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
(a) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a lever type connector, and more particularly, to a lever type connector provided with a plate capable of protecting a male terminal of a male housing and allowing a female housing to return to an original position as soon as the female housing is separated from the male housing.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a connector is used to connect wirings of a brake, a headlight, and the like of a vehicle.
In connection with the connector used in vehicles, the number of connector circuits for circuit processing generally has increased due to an increase in electric components according to an increase in convenience devices such as multimedia, GPS, and information communication equipment, along with an increase in the number of wirings for various data and signals for driving vehicles and operating devices.
An increase in the number of circuits requires a multi-pole circuit connector, and as a result, a cross sectional area of the open portion for receiving the female housing (not shown) of the male housing 110 is increased. Therefore, the male terminal 150 on the bottom surface of the male housing 110 is more likely to be exposed to external environments, which leads to problems of damage, deformation, and warpage of the terminal 150, a mixing of foreign materials, and the like.
An aspect of the present invention provides a lever type connector provided with a plate capable of protecting a male terminal of a male housing.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a lever type connector, includes: a male housing configured to have a box shape in which one side is open and has a bottom surface from which a plurality of male terminals protrude; a plate configured to be inserted into the male housing and cover the male terminal; a female housing configured to be inserted into the male housing; and a lever configured to be rotatably coupled with the female housing, wherein a plate support member supports the plate so that the plate support member which protrudes from an inner side wall of the male housing to be inserted into the male housing is not inserted up to the bottom surface of the male housing, the plate is provided with a support part which is locked and supported by the plate support member, and the plate support member of the male housing is unlocked from the support part of the plate when the female housing is inserted into the male housing and the plate moves to the bottom surface of the male housing along with the female housing.
The plate support member may be made of an elastic material.
The lever type connector may further include: a releasing protrusion configured to protrude from an outer side of the female housing and press the plate support member when the female housing is inserted into the male housing to release the locking of the plate support member and the support part.
The plate support member may be spaced apart from the inner side wall of the male housing at a predetermined distance and the plate support member may be deformed toward the inner side wall of the male housing when the female housing is inserted into the male housing and is unlocked from the support part of the plate.
The lever type connector may further include: a plate separation preventing protrusion configured to protrude from an upper portion of the plate support member of the male housing, being spaced apart from the plate support member at a predetermined distance and support the plate so that the plate inserted into the male housing is not separated from the inside of male housing, wherein the plate may be provided with a separation preventing part which is supported by the plate separation preventing protrusion and the plate may move along with the female housing when the female housing is separated from an inner side of the male housing and the separation preventing part of the plate may be supported by the plate separation preventing protrusion of the male housing to prevent the plate from being completely separated.
The lever type connector may further include: a returning protrusion configured to protrude between the support part of the plate and the separation preventing part, and plate tow protrusions configured to protrude from an outer side of the female housing and be locked to the returning protrusion when the female housing is separated from the inner side of the male housing to move the plate along with the female housing.
The plate tow protrusions may be formed at both sides of the releasing protrusion, having the releasing protrusion disposed therebetween.
The returning protrusion may be made of an elastic material.
A lever type connector can include: a male housing having a box shape in which one side is open and a bottom surface for receiving at least a male terminal; a plate configured to be inserted into the male housing for covering the male terminal; a female housing configured to be inserted into the male housing; a lever configured to be rotatably coupled with the female housing; and a plate support member that supports the plate, wherein the plate support member is not inserted up to the bottom surface of the male housing, the plate is provided with a support part which is locked and supported by the plate support member, and the plate support member of the male housing is unlocked from the support part of the plate when the female housing is inserted into the male housing.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
It is understood that the tem “vehicle” or “vehicular” or other similar tem as used herein is inclusive of motor vehicles in general such as passenger automobiles including sports utility vehicles (SUV), buses, trucks, various commercial vehicles, watercraft including a variety of boats and ships, aircraft, and the like, and includes hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles (e.g. fuels derived from resources other than petroleum). As referred to herein, a hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that has two or more sources of power, for example both gasoline-powered and electric-powered vehicles.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the tem “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. Throughout the specification, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the word “comprise” and variations such as “comprises” or “comprising” will be understood to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of any other elements. In addition, the terms “unit”, “-er”, “-or”, and “module” described in the specification mean units for processing at least one function and operation, and can be implemented by hardware components or software components and combinations thereof.
Further, the control logic of the present invention may be embodied as non-transitory computer readable media on a computer readable medium containing executable program instructions executed by a processor, controller or the like. Examples of computer readable media include, but are not limited to, ROM, RAM, compact disc (CD)-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, flash drives, smart cards and optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed in network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable media is stored and executed in a distributed fashion, e.g., by a telematics server or a Controller Area Network (CAN).
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in
As shown in
Meanwhile, a plate separation preventing protrusion 11 protrudes from an upper portion of the plate support member 15 of the male housing 10, and is spaced apart from the plate support member 15. The plate separation preventing member 11 supports the plate so that the plate inserted into the male housing 10 is not separated from the inside of the male housing 10. In particular, the plate support member 15 stops the plate from moving toward the bottom surface of the male housing 10, and the plate separation preventing protrusion 11 stops the plate from moving toward an opposite direction to the bottom surface of the male housing 10, that is, the open portion. The plate separation preventing protrusion 11 contacts a separation preventing part 33 of the plate, to be described below, to stop the plate from being separated upwardly.
The plate is arranged to cover the male terminal (not shown) and is configured to be inserted into the male housing 10. The plate is provided with the support part 31 which is locked and supported by the plate support member 15 and the upper portion of the support part 31 is provided with the separation preventing part 33 which is configured to be spaced apart from the support part 31 at a predetermined distance (see
The bottom surface of the plate is provided with a plurality of holes (not shown) through which the male terminal (not shown) of the bottom surface of the male housing 10 passes. To be locked to the plate support member 15 of the male housing 10 at the time of the insertion, a position corresponding to the plate support member 15 on the side wall of the plate is provided with the male hole. The support part 31 contacting the plate support member 15 of the male housing 10 based on the hole on the side wall of the plate and the separation preventing part 33 contacting the separation preventing protrusion 11 of the male housing 10 are integrally formed. In particular, the upper surface of the side wall of the plate becomes the separation preventing part 33 which contacts the separation preventing protrusion 11 of the male housing 10.
A returning protrusion 35 is integrally formed between the support part 31 of the plate and the separation preventing part 33. The returning protrusion 35 protrudes from the plate and contacts an outer side of the female housing 20. The returning protrusion 35 is locked to a plate tow protrusion 21 of the female housing 20 to be described below to allow the plate to be spaced apart from the male housing 10 by a predetermined distance as soon as the female housing 20 is separated from the inner side of the male housing 10.
As shown in
The outer side of the female housing 20 is provided with a releasing protrusion 23 and the plate tow protrusions 21 protruding at both sides of the releasing protrusion 23.
The releasing protrusion 23 protrudes from the outer side and when the female housing 20 is inserted into the male housing 10, presses the plate support member 15 of the inner side of the male housing 10. The releasing protrusion 23 is preferably provided in a shape corresponding to the plate support member 15 and the plate support member 15 of the elastic material is deformed toward the side wall of the male housing 10. Therefore, the locking to the support part 31 of the plate which is supported by the plate support member 15 is released, and thus the plate 30 may be inserted into the bottom surface of the male housing 10.
Unlike the releasing protrusion 23, the plate tow protrusion 21 is locked to the returning protrusion 35 of the plate 30 when the female housing 20 is separated from the male housing 10 to move the plate 30 in the separation direction along with the female housing 20. Therefore, when the female housing 20 is separated from the male housing 10, the plate 30 automatically returns to an original position to allow the plate 30 to protect the male terminal (not shown).
The use of the lever type connector according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention provided as described above will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First, as shown in
Next, as shown in
When the female housing 20 is separated from the male housing 10, the lever 40 connected to the female housing 20 rotates to move the female housing 20 to a position at which the female housing 20 is easily separated from the male housing 10 (see
As described above, according to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to provide the lever type connector provided with the plate capable of protecting the male terminal of the male housing and allowing the female housing return to an original position as soon as the female housing is separated from the male housing.
It is to be understood that the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments are illustrative rather than being restrictive in all aspects, and the scope of the present invention will be defined by the claims rather than the above-mentioned detained description. In addition, all modifications and alternations derived from the claims and their equivalents are to be interpreted to be included in the scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2014-0172308 | Dec 2014 | KR | national |
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