Patent Grant
7249979
The present invention relates to a plug-and-socket connector for data transmission cables with a plurality of electrical conductors which, for example, are twisted in pairs. The invention in particular relates to a plug-and-socket connector according to an international standard, for example the standard IEC 60603-7 (called RJ45 for short) or IEC 61076-2-xx (round plug-and-socket connector for the low voltage range, represented here by: M12).
Data transmission systems with a plurality of electrical conductors, in particular of the type with conductors twisted in pairs, are assuming greater and greater significance. It is particularly in the field of the office that the structured building-wiring has had much success. This, amongst other things, is due to standardized plug-and-socket connections.
The increasing digitalization in all fields of everyday life leads to the fact that plug-and-socket connections, also originally designed for the telecommunications- and office field, for example of the type RJ45, are increasingly also used in other fields of application. The great success which structured building-wiring has in the field of the office should also be exploited in other fields of application. Therefore, the field of industry, of building automation and the audio field are to be specifically mentioned.
These new fields of application entail new demands on the product. Two new demands on an RJ45 plug in these fields are, for example, the wiring ability on location without special tools, or the use with different, more robust cables (conductor diameter, construction, size etc.) than are usual in the office field. These plugs, however, should simultaneously also be very compact, so that they remain compatible with existing end apparatus.
In order to be able to ensure a sufficient wiring comfort and a broad field of application, known and commonly used cut-and-clamp technology is particularly suitable for the connection technology. With this connection technology, insulation displacement connectors or insulation displacement contacts (IDCs) are used. Connection blocks with IDCs have been known for some time, for example from EP 0 671 780. These known IDC blocks, however, do not fulfill the demands with regard to the compactness.
Of the existing RJ45 plug-and-socket systems, connection techniques are known which comprise IDCs in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the plug. With these plug-and-socket systems, the connection conductors are introduced into the IDCs by way of a movement in the axial direction, i.e. in the insert direction of the RJ45 plug. Usually, a wiring piece is applied at the same time in which the conductors are previously laid, and which for contacting, is moved relative to the plug housing in the axial direction. Such a wiring piece usually has a central hole through which the cable is led. Thereafter, the conductors are held in the wiring piece, bent at an angle radially to the cable direction, and are presented with the IDCs for contacting (for this, see e.g. EP 0 899 827, DE 102 58 725, U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,647). These connection techniques, although having the potential to fulfill the requirements with regard to size are, however, not suitable with regard to handling ability and stability for covering the total cable cross-sectional range required in the new fields of application.
For this reason, it would be desirable to have a plug-and-socket connection part at one's disposal, which similar to the original IDCs, is radially wired, but which may be designed in a more space-saving manner by way of wiring on both sides. Such a solution with a single-piece wiring block is known from EP 991 149. The disadvantage with such a single-piece wiring block is the fact that the required individual conductor mountings in the IDC chambers must be broken or weakened, so that the IDCs on manufacture of the connection block may be applied at all into chambers envisaged for this. The consequence of this is that either a clean individual conductor strain relief is no longer guaranteed, or that for an adequately large wall thickness, the distances between the individual conductors (also called cable cores or stranded wire conductors or wires) must be selected so large that the connection block no longer meets the initially posed demands with regard to the dimensioning.
It is the object of the invention to provide a plug-and-socket connection part (generally a plug or a socket) for an electrical data transmission cable, which is based for example on cut-and-clamp technology and overcomes disadvantages of plug-and-socket connection parts according to the state of the art. The plug-and-socket connection part in particular should be suitable for plug-and-socket connections of the standard RJ45 and preferably also M12, as well as further standards, as the case may be, permit use with different, more robust cables than is usual in the field of the office (conductor diameter etc.) and/or provide the ability to wire on location without special tools, and/or be very compact so that they remain compatible with existing end apparatus.
Specifically, the invention relates to a plug-and-socket connection part for a data transmission cable with a plurality of electrical conductors, comprising a connection housing, and per electrical conductor, a connection contact element held by the connection housing, in each case with an insulation displacement contact or a piercing contact, for contacting the electrical conductor, as well as in each case a contact for contacting corresponding contacts of a corresponding counter piece with the plug-and-socket connection part. Each insulation displacement contact or each piercing contact is electrically connectable to one of the contacts. The invention is characterized in that the connection housing is shaped such that the connection contact elements may not be introduced into the connection housing from the outside, whereas generally with the wiring, the conductors are led to the housing from the outside.
Since no introduction of contact elements from the outside needs to be provided, it is not necessary to weaken the individual conductor mounting in order to create space for the introduction of the insulation displacement contacts from the outside. A mechanically stable individual conductor mounting may be made without taking up too much space. The connection housing may for example comprise a transverse rib, which runs in the radial direction outside the connection contact elements, and longitudinal ribs between which the insulated conductors are introduced in a mechanically stabilized manner on contacting. The chambers for the e.g. applied insulation displacement contacts may be shaped according to requirements.
Furthermore, insulation displacement contacts with a relatively large cutting width may be used. A given connection block for conductors of different diameters may be used by way of this.
According to a first preferred embodiment, the connection block comprising the insulation displacement contacts or the piercing contacts is at least of two parts. Both parts comprise several connection contact elements in each case with one insulation displacement contact. The two-part design permits the connection contact elements to run in sections between the housing parts, and to be able to be introduced into the connection housing parts from an inner side, on manufacture of the plug-and-socket connection part.
An electrically insulating separating film may be arranged between the mentioned housing connection parts, and may run along a (middle) plane and electrically insulate the connection contact elements of the two parts of the connection block from one another. The mentioned flat sections which are coupled in pairs may be electrically insulated from one another by way of the separating film. This permits the intensity of the capacitative coupling to be predefined by way of the selection of the material and the thickness of the separating film.
Instead of a separating film, the connection block may also comprise distancers which are shaped on the housing parts and which prevent an electrical contact between connection contact elements in the first and the second housing part.
The two housing parts may, but need not be shaped in an essentially identical manner. An identical shaping may be advantageous with regard to manufacturing technology.
According to one alternative embodiment, the connection housing is one piece. The manufacture is effected in that the connection contact elements are positioned, for example, by way of a tool which is especially provided for this, and subsequently is peripherally injection molded with plastic, so that the housing arises.
The procedure according to the invention permits a targeted NEXT (near end crosstalk) compensation between (connection) contact elements which are carried by the first housing part, and (connection) contact elements carried by the second housing part. This may be effected by way of compensation surfaces for example, which are shaped on the (connection) contact elements, run parallel to one another, and at least partly overlap, so that they are capacitatively coupled.
The insulation displacement contacts of the first and the second part of the connection block are open to different—preferably opposite—directions (“the one insulation displacement contacts face “upwards”, the other “downwards”). These opening directions are not axial (with regard to the plug axis), i.e. they form an angle to the axis of the plug-and-socket connection part (or of the cable). The opening directions are preferably perpendicular to the axis of the plug-and-socket connection. Then, a two-sided, radial wiring becomes possible. An analogous construction with radial wiring is also possible in the case of piercing contacts, i.e. the piercing tips project in different—preferably opposite—non-axial directions. In the case of the previously mentioned NEXT-compensation, preferably connection contact elements with different—thus for example opposing—insulation displacement contact opening directions are coupled.
The wiring may be effected with the help of one or two wiring covers. With a first embodiment of the wiring cover, the plug-and-socket connection part (or its connection block) is provided with longitudinal ribs, between which the conductors may be applied. With the wiring cover, the conductors applied between the longitudinal ribs may be introduced from the outside to the inside between the cutting surfaces of the respective insulation displacement contact. The wiring covers in the known manner comprise wiring ribs for this purpose. The wiring cover/covers is/are preferably removable in this embodiment. In this embodiment therefore, the plug-and-socket connection part itself has guide means (the longitudinal ribs) for guiding the conductors, and the wiring cover serves for displacing the conductors within the guide means (for pressing into the channels formed between the guide ribs). Alternatively to this, the wiring cover may also comprise the guide means, and guide the conductors on wiring. For this, according to a first embodiment, two wiring covers are provided which comprise guide means (for example guide holes or insert slots, which are interrupted at the location of the insulation displacement contacts or piercing contacts, i.e. open chambers) for the conductors. The wiring covers according to a first variant, for the wiring, may be translatorily displaceable in opposite directions to one another and towards the plug axis. According to a second variant, they are pivotable and for the wiring are pivoted towards the plug axis. According to a second embodiment, a two-part wiring cover is provided, wherein a hinge-like connection is present between the two parts. The two wiring cover parts in each case have an open chamber in the manner of insert slots. The conductors to be wired are first inserted into the insert slots. The wiring cover parts, as the case may be, are subsequently clipped onto the plug-and-socket connection part or connection block, and tilted toward one another.
According to a particularly preferred embodiment, the connection block (comprising the connection housing and the connection contact elements as well as, where appropriate, the separating film) is formed as a component separate to the contact block. The contact block then contains contact elements on which the plug or socket contacts are shaped. The connection block and the contact block may, for example, be connected to one another by way of a plug-and-socket connection. In each case, a connection contact element is electrically connected to a contact element, for example in a direct manner, via contact surfaces formed on the connection contact elements and contact elements, on bringing together the connection block and the contact block.
This embodiment permits the use of the same connection block for the plugs and sockets and/or for different plug standards. Only the contact block needs to be configured differently with the plug/socket or with different plug standards. This embodiment thus entails advantages with regard to the rationality and variability. Furthermore, under certain circumstances one does not need to wire afresh if an already wired plug-and-socket connection part is to be replaced by a plug-and-socket connection part according to a different standard.
The plug-and-socket connection parts according to the invention are, for example, designed according to the RJ45 or M12 standard. The outer dimensions—measured in a plane perpendicular to the axial direction, advantageously do not exceed 13 mm×13 mm. Embodiments with which the connection block or the complete plug-and-socket connection part do not exceed a diagonal dimension of 14.3 mm, i.e. with which the connection block or the whole plug-and-socket connection part fits into a cylindrical tube with an inner diameter of 14.3 mm, are particularly preferred.
According to a preferred embodiment, the plug-and-socket connection part has a coupling element which capacitatively couples selected conductors of a data transmission cable which are led in parallel in sections, in a targeted manner. Sections of twisted pair conductors extending parallel, next to one another, or of contact elements which are allocated to these produce a crosstalk from one pair to the other one. With two pairs which are led next to one another in a plane, one conductor or contact element of the first pair lies directly next to one conductor or contact element of the second pair. An overweight of capacitative coupling exists between these (the inductive coupling also exists, but is not considered here).
The crosstalk arising by way of this coupling may be influenced or compensated by way of different means. Methods with which e.g. a contact element pair is crossed in the half of the parallel direction of extension, or compensation surfaces are integrally formed on individual contact elements which produce an additional targeted crosstalk between suitable contacts are known. These known methods limit the design freedom on configuring the contacts, and render necessary complex (and thus in many cases expensive) shaping of the contacts necessary.
The new method which is described here assumes that the coupling conductors or contact elements, which do not lie directly next to one another is effected with an additional component which is separated from the pair contacts by way of a dielectric [material] (e.g. air or a film). This additional coupling element contains two surfaces which produces the desired coupling (here e.g. at 1b and at 2b), and a connection part which connects these two coupling surfaces. The connection part has a coupling that is as small as possible to the contact element or the conductor lying therebetween. This may be realized in that the connection part comprises at least one recess, or that the distance to the contact element or conductor lying therebetween is larger than at the coupling surfaces. The coupling element may e.g. be shaped in a hat-like manner, or the contact element lying therebetween or the conductor lying therebetween may be sunk.
The great advantage of this type of compensation is that the pair contacts and the coupling elements may be manufactured separate from one another, and thus remain very simple and inexpensive (e.g. on a plane next to one another). The investment costs for this type of compensation may be kept relatively low on account of the simple tools.
A coupling element of this type, as mentioned, may be used with plug-and-socket connection parts of the previously described type. It may also be used with differently designed plug-and-socket connection parts or also in connection systems, such as, for example, contact elements of terminal strips and distributor strips.
The invention also relates to a connection block for use in a plug-and-socket connection part of the previously described type, as well as to a method for manufacturing a plug-and-socket connection part. Such a method for the embodiment with a two-part connection housing comprises the steps of:
For the embodiment with the peripherally injected connection housing, the method comprises the steps of:
Embodiments of the invention are hereinafter described in more detail by way of the drawings. In the drawings there are shown in:
a and 11b a sectioned representation of a coupling element and of four contact elements as well as a front view of the coupling element;
The same reference numerals in the drawings indicate equal elements.
The plug-and-socket connection part 1 drawn in
An electrically conductive coupling element 14 is also drawn in the Figure, and is insulated from the contact elements by an electrically insulating film 15, and influences the crosstalk between cable pairs in a controlled manner. The coupling element and its function are described in an even more detailed manner in the following.
In the exploded representation according to
The plug is composed of these individual parts in that the connection block 21 and the contact block—thus the plug housing 2 with the inserted contact receiver 12—are led together by way of the wiring cover 16, before or also after the wiring. An electrical contact between the connection contact elements and the contact elements is created by way of this. On assembly, the connection block in the shown embodiments is guided by two wing elements 2.2, and holding elements 11.1 lock into corresponding recesses 2.3 of the wing elements 2.2. The shroud 6 from the front side, thus, from the left side in the Figure, is pushed over the plug housing and the connection block. Finally, the overhousing and the union nut which have already been pushed over the cable before the wiring, are fastened from the rear side. The overhousing has elastic clamping elements 5.1 which, on attachment of the union nut, narrow the passage and clamp the contacted cable and by way of this form the strain relief.
The construction and function of the connection block are explained by way of
The connection contact elements, in each case at the end-face, comprise a contact part 31.2 which projects out of the connection housing and which comprises contact surfaces for contacting the contact elements. In the drawn embodiment, the contact parts 31.2 are pin-like and are designed in order to cooperate with fork-contact-like contact parts of the contact elements. Alternatively to this, they may also act as soldering pins for the connection to a printed circuit. Apart from the contact parts 31.2 of the connection contact elements, two positioning cams 21.4 of the housing parts also project at the end-face. These, on bringing together the connection block and the contact block, cooperate with corresponding recesses in the contact block (for example in the contact receiver) which have not been drawn.
For the drawn embodiment, it is characteristic that the connection housing comprises a transverse rib 21.5 running transversely to an axial direction, which in the radial direction lies outside a section 31.3, 31.4 of the connection contact elements 31. This, in comparison to the state of the art where the insert slots need to be continuous so that the contact elements are capable of being inserted, provides mechanical stability and contributes to rendering a compact construction possible. The transverse rib 21.5 is arranged in the connection block on the plug contact side in the axial direction, whilst the insert slots 22 are open to the cable side.
As is particularly well visible in
On manufacture of the connection block according to the invention, the two housing parts 21 of the connection housing subsequent to the introduction of the connection contact elements 31 and, as the case may be, the placing of the separating film 32, are joined together and are connected in a permanent or reversible manner by way of suitable means. Snap connections, welding, bonding etc. are considered as techniques for joining the housing parts.
On manufacture of a single-part connection housing in contrast, the connection contact elements and, as the case may be, also the separating film, is fixed in an arrangement as is shown for example in
The separating film 32, apart from an increase of the capacitative coupling between the compensation surfaces 31.4 of the connection contact elements 31 (depending on the dielectric constant of the separating film material) and an electrical separation, also effects a precise definition of the distance between the connection contact elements of the first and second group. A necessary minimal distancing between the two groups of connection contact elements is significant with regard to the voltage sustaining capability between the connection contact elements. Also at least one distancer may be provided in place of a separating film, and in the simplest case this distancer is integrally formed on the housing parts 21. As a further variant (which however permits no compensation surfaces), the connection sections of the connection contact elements of the first and second group in the same plane may, however, run at different lateral positions.
The function of the compensation surfaces is illustrated in
The shape and relative position of the connection contact elements 31 and contact elements 13 according to one embodiment of the invention is represented in
The function and possible designs of the coupling element are yet described in the following. Coupling elements 14 as drawn in
As one may particularly recognize in
The coupling element 14 may be recognized in
One may yet see positioning openings 14.4 in
Instead of the recess 17 which separates the two coupling surfaces from one another, other means are also conceivable with which one ensures that the coupling relates to the elements to be coupled and not the contact element K2a lying therebetween. The coupling element 114 in
In one plug-and-socket connection part, as sketched in the
Further variants of wiring means, in particular of wiring covers for a plug-and-socket connection part according to the invention, are described by way of
In contrast to the previously described embodiments, the connection block 11 comprises no insert slots. Rather, in the drawn embodiment, the insulation displacement contacts 31.1, at least partly, project freely to the outside in the radial direction.
For wiring, the shielded cable, for example, is stripped in a first step, and, as the case may be, the shielding braiding is placed back over the outer sheathing of the cable. The individual conductors in the non-stripped condition are subsequently introduced into the through-holes 416.1, and specifically to such an extent that they protrude through the guide-holes 416.3 at the opposite side. With this, the wiring cover is located in its first position. The connection block further comprises a deflection device 11.6 in the form of a deflection surface which under certain circumstances is curved, and which deflects the protruding conductors to the outside, so that they are better accessible to the operator. By way of pulling on the wire conductors or the strand conductors, one may reduce the distance between the outer sheathing and the wiring cover to a necessary minimum. Protruding conductors are subsequently cut off. The wiring cover is then closed by displacing from the first into the second position (in it, the lower wiring cover 416 is drawn in the Figure). Thereby, the insulation displacement contacts project into the open region 416.2. The insulated conductors which are led through the through-holes and guide holes, are introduced between the cutting parts of the insulation displacement contacts 31.1, and at the same time are contacted in the manner known per se.
A wiring cover 516 with through-holes 516.1, an open region and guide holes (not visible) is likewise present in
With regard to the embodiment according to
Strain-relief means which are not shown, are, for example, connected or connectable to the overhousing, and are possibly separate to the connection block, may be present in the embodiment according to
A further variant of a plug-and-socket connection part 1, specifically a plug, is drawn in the
The following procedure is to be selected for the assembly. In a first step, the shielded cable, for example, is stripped at the connection side, and the shielding braiding is placed back over the outer sheathing of the cable. The stripped cable is then led through the cable through-opening 616.2, wherein the connection cover is separated, for example, from the remaining plug-and-socket connection part and is held in a half-open position (according to that drawn in
Also here, additional strain-relief means may be provided, deviating from the shown embodiment. These may, for example, be present on the overhousing and engage on the cable as a whole. Alternatively or to supplement this, an additional strain relief may also be present, for example by way of an axial positive fit between the wiring cover and the connection block in the closed condition. The possibly present holding—and/or clamping means 616.4 may likewise act in a strain-relieving manner.
The embodiment forms of the
The principle of the wiring cover with two parts which may be pivoted towards one another, with a cable through-opening lying therebetween, and with open chambers for inserting the conductors to be wired, may also be used in connection systems other than the plug-and-socket connection system which is described and claimed in this patent application.
The previously described embodiment is only one way of carrying out the invention. Many modifications are conceivable. For example the contact block may be designed according to a plug standard which is different than the RJ45-standard, for example according to the M12-standard which is widespread in industry. The two-part design of the connection block-contact block is not necessary. The connection housing may instead of this also form the plug housing. Separate contact elements are not necessary in this variant, and the (plug) contacts may be formed on the connection contact elements. The drawn shaping of the connection contact elements and contact elements is to be understood merely as examples.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05405196 | Feb 2005 | EP | regional |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20060183359 A1 | Aug 2006 | US |
