Patent Grant
11217955
This non-provisional application claims priority to and the benefit of, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(a), patent application Serial No. CN202011510996.2 filed in China on Dec. 18, 2020. The disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Some references, which may include patents, patent applications and various publications, are cited and discussed in the description of this disclosure. The citation and/or discussion of such references is provided merely to clarify the description of the present disclosure and is not an admission that any such reference is “prior art” to the disclosure described herein. All references cited and discussed in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and to the same extent as if each reference were individually incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electrical connector, and particularly to method for manufacturing an electrical connector in which the terminals are arranged densely.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
An electrical connector includes an insulating body and a plurality of terminals accommodated in the insulating body. Each terminal has a fixing portion used to be fixed to the insulating body; an elastic arm formed by bending upward and extending from the fixing portion, and used to upward elastically abut a mating component, where the insulating body is provided with a through hole to expose the elastic arm; and a soldering portion formed by bending downward and extending from the fixing portion, where the soldering portion is exposed in the insulating body and is used to be soldered to a circuit board. A method for manufacturing the electrical connector includes: firstly, providing a metal plate, and cutting the elastic arm, the fixing portion and the soldering portion of each terminal on the metal plate, such that the metal plate has a through slot surrounding the elastic arm; next, providing a mold, where an upper positioning post and a lower positioning post vertically clamp the elastic arm and cover the through slot, and then injecting a plastic material to the metal plate, thereby forming an insulating body to wrap the metal plate; and then, bending upward the elastic arm, such that the elastic arm protrudes out of the insulating body. However, due to the accuracy being limited, the upper and lower positioning posts may slightly deviate vertically, causing the through slot not to be covered by the positioning posts, thereby allowing the molten plastic material to enter the through slot (which is the molten plastic overflowing). The plastic material, after being solidified, may fix the elastic arm, such that the elastic arm does not easily bend upward, and the elastic characteristics of the elastic arm become worse, causing ill contact between the elastic arm and the mating component. To prevent the molten plastic from overflowing when injecting the plastic material to the metal plate, the positioning posts may pass beyond the through slot with a greater distance along a horizontal direction, thereby causing the through hole to become larger, such that a pitch between the terminals becomes larger, which is not conducive to dense arrangement of the terminals.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need to design a novel method for manufacturing the electrical connector exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.
In view of the deficiency of the background, the present invention is directed to a method for manufacturing an electrical connector, which prevents molten plastic from overflowing and allows the terminals to be arranged densely, thereby enhance the effective contact between the terminals and a mating component.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions.
A method for manufacturing an electrical connector is provide. The method includes: providing a metal plate in a flat plate shape, wherein the metal plate defines a plurality of terminals in a selected area, each of the terminals has a base portion and an elastic arm connected to the base portion, the elastic arm is configured to be in contact with a mating component, and a portion of a lower surface of the base portion defines a conducting area configured to be conductively connected to a circuit board; and cutting the base portion on the metal plate according to a predetermined contour of the base portion, thereby forming a cutting slot on the metal plate located at a side edge of the base portion; after cutting the base portion, forming an insulating body on the metal plate by injection molding, such that the insulating body fills the cutting slot, wherein the insulating body covers the base portion but does not cover the conducting area, and the insulating body does not cover the elastic arm, thereby forming a through hole on the insulating body to expose the elastic arm; and after forming the insulating body, cutting the elastic arm on the metal plate according to a predetermined contour of the elastic arm, thereby forming a through slot on the metal plate surrounding the elastic arm.
In certain embodiments, the insulating body forms an accommodating slot to expose the conducting area, a lower end of the accommodating slot is lower than the conducting area, along an upward direction from a bottom thereof, the accommodating slot gradually becomes smaller, and the insulating body is provided with a stopping block located between the accommodating slot and the through hole, such that the accommodating slot and the through hole are not in communication.
In certain embodiments, the method further includes: prior to forming the insulating body, forming a plurality of positioning holes on the metal plate, wherein after forming the insulating body, the insulating body does not fill the positioning holes, such that portions of the metal plate surrounding the positioning holes are exposed by the insulating body.
In certain embodiments, after forming the insulating body, the insulating body does not cover at least one outer edge of the metal plate, such that the at least one outer edge of the metal plate is exposed by the insulating body.
In certain embodiments, after forming the insulating body, the cutting slot is partially exposed in the through hole.
In certain embodiments, the method further includes: after cutting the base portion and prior to forming the insulating body, bending the conducting area downward.
In certain embodiments, the terminals include a plurality of signal terminals and a plurality of ground terminals, and after cutting the elastic arm, each of the ground terminals forms a connecting portion between the corresponding through slot and the cutting slot, wherein the connecting portion is connected to the elastic arm.
In certain embodiments, after cutting the elastic arm, a connecting portion of each of the terminals is formed between the corresponding through slot and the cutting slot and is connected to the elastic arm of each of the terminals, and after cutting the elastic arm, the connecting portion of each of the signal terminals is removed, and the connecting portion of each of the ground terminals is reserved.
In certain embodiments, the method further includes: after removing the connecting portion of each of the signal terminals, bending the elastic arm of each of the terminals upward, such that the elastic arm protrudes out of the insulating body.
In certain embodiments, the method further includes: after cutting the elastic arm and prior to removing the connecting portion of each of the signal terminals, electroplating the metal plate.
In certain embodiments, after cutting the elastic arm, the elastic arm is cut along a location spaced apart from an edge of the through hole by a distance, thereby staggering the edge of the through hole and the through slot.
Compared with the related art, certain embodiments of the present invention has the following beneficial effects. By firstly injection molding the insulating body and the metal plate, and then cutting the elastic arm on the metal plate, the through slot is formed after the injection molding, thereby not causing the plastic material to enter the through slot and fix the elastic arm, ensuring the elastic characteristics of the elastic arm, and preventing from the ill contact between the elastic arm and the mating component. Further, since there is no molten plastic overflow, the positioning posts of the mold do not need to pass beyond the through slot with a greater distance along the horizontal direction, thereby reducing the pitch between the terminals, which is conducive to the dense arrangement of the terminals.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the following drawings, although variations and modifications therein may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.
The accompanying drawings illustrate one or more embodiments of the disclosure and together with the written description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like elements of an embodiment, and wherein:
The present invention is more particularly described in the following examples that are intended as illustrative only since numerous modifications and variations therein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Various embodiments of the invention are now described in detail. Referring to the drawings, like numbers indicate like components throughout the views. As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a”, “an”, and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Moreover, titles or subtitles may be used in the specification for the convenience of a reader, which shall have no influence on the scope of the present invention.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on” another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may be present therebetween. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on” another element, there are no intervening elements present. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Furthermore, relative terms, such as “lower” or “bottom” and “upper” or “top,” may be used herein to describe one element's relationship to another element as illustrated in the Figures. It will be understood that relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in addition to the orientation depicted in the Figures. For example, if the device in one of the figures is turned over, elements described as being on the “lower” side of other elements would then be oriented on “upper” sides of the other elements. The exemplary term “lower”, can therefore, encompasses both an orientation of “lower” and “upper,” depending of the particular orientation of the figure. Similarly, if the device in one of the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements would then be oriented “above” the other elements. The exemplary terms “below” or “beneath” can, therefore, encompass both an orientation of above and below.
As used herein, “around”, “about” or “approximately” shall generally mean within 20 percent, preferably within 10 percent, and more preferably within 5 percent of a given value or range. Numerical quantities given herein are approximate, meaning that the term “around”, “about” or “approximately” can be inferred if not expressly stated.
As used herein, the terms “comprising”, “including”, “carrying”, “having”, “containing”, “involving”, and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to.
The description will be made as to the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in
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In sum, the method for manufacturing the electrical connector according to certain embodiments of the present invention has the following beneficial effects:
1. By firstly injection molding the insulating body and the metal plate, and then cutting the elastic arm on the metal plate, the through slot is formed after the injection molding, thereby not causing the plastic material to enter the through slot and fix the elastic arm, ensuring the elastic characteristics of the elastic arm, and preventing from the ill contact between the elastic arm and the mating component. Further, since there is no molten plastic overflow, the positioning posts of the mold do not need to pass beyond the through slot with a greater distance along the horizontal direction, thereby reducing the pitch between the terminals, which is conducive to the dense arrangement of the terminals.
2. The insulating body is provided with a stopping block located between the accommodating slot and the through hole, such that the through slot and the cutting slot are not in communication, effectively preventing the solder accommodated in the accommodating slot from entering the through hole to be in contact with the elastic arm and affecting the electrical connection between the elastic arm and the mating component.
3. During the injection molding in the step 2, the insulating body does not fill at least one outer edge of the metal plate, such that the at least one outer edge of the metal plate is exposed by the insulating body. Further, the insulating body does not fill the positioning holes, such that the portions of the metal plate surrounding the positioning holes are exposed in the insulating body, thereby allowing the metal plate to be injection molded and then electroplated conveniently.
4. The cutting slot is partially exposed in the through hole, such that when the connecting portion of each signal terminal is cut, it is ensured that the connecting portion of each signal terminal is cut cleanly, preventing the signal terminals from being indirectly connected together and short-circuiting due to the connecting portion of each signal terminal not being cut cleanly.
5. After cutting the connecting portion of each signal terminal, the elastic arm bends upward, which is conducive to laser focusing in the cutting process, such that the cutting location is more accurate, enhancing the accuracy of the forming of the terminals.
6. When the elastic arm is cut in the step 3, the elastic arm is cut along a location separated from an edge of the through hole, and after cutting, a through slot is formed at a side edge of the elastic arm. The edge of the through hole and the through slot are separated, thus preventing from burning the edge of the through hole in the laser cutting process due to the excessively high temperature of the laser.
The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the invention has been presented only for the purposes of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching.
The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and their practical application so as to activate others skilled in the art to utilize the invention and various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from its spirit and scope. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description and the exemplary embodiments described therein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202011510996.2 | Dec 2020 | CN | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4635359 | Nozick | Jan 1987 | A |
| 5462440 | Rothenberger | Oct 1995 | A |
| 6146151 | Li | Nov 2000 | A |
| 6204065 | Ochiai | Mar 2001 | B1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2409632 | Dec 2000 | CN |
| 1082265 | Apr 2002 | CN |
