Patent Application
20240030659
This application claims the benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) of German Patent Application No. 102022118421.8, filed on Jul. 22, 2022.
The present invention relates to a shielding spring contact, a plug-in connector comprising a shielding spring contact, a cable shield connection and a plug-in connector system comprising a shielding spring contact.
Plug-in connector systems which have a shielding system designed to allow shielding currents to flow are known from the prior art. Shielding currents can be capacitively or inductively coupled into a shield when high-frequency electric currents flow through an electrical conductor. If a first plug-in connector of a plug-in connector system is integrated, for example, into a conductive housing of an assembly, shielding currents can be conducted to a housing wall of the housing.
For this purpose, the housing wall typically has a hollow-cylindrical dome which is arranged in the region around a cutout in the housing wall. Such a dome on the housing wall can be produced by a die-casting process. The dome is intended to shield an electrical conductor arranged in the cutout and to divert shielding currents.
Apart from complicated production of the housing, safe electrical contacting between the dome and a shielding structure of the second plug-in connector may additionally require machining of the dome.
A shielding spring contact for an electrical plug-in connector for an electrical plug-in connector system includes a sleeve-shaped main body having a cylindrical base portion, a conical shielding portion, and a plurality of passage openings by which the shielding spring contact is arranged on a cable of the electrical plug-in connector. The shielding spring contact is connectable to a braid of the cable via the cylindrical base portion by a crimp connection. The conical shielding portion has a plurality of apertures extending along a longitudinal direction of the shielding spring contact and is elastically deformable. The shielding spring contact is contactable with an assembly housing of a cable shield connection of the plug-in connector system via the conical shielding portion. A current of the braid can be diverted to the assembly housing via contact between the conical shielding portion and the assembly housing.
The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to schematic figures, of which:
The shielding spring contact 100 has a sleeve-shaped main body 101 with a cylindrical base portion 103 and a conical shielding portion 105. The sleeve-shaped main body 101 has two passage openings 111, 113 arranged opposite one another along a longitudinal direction 119.
By inserting a cable 201 of a plug-in connector 200 according to the embodiment in
When the shielding spring contact 100 is positioned on the cable 201 of the plug-in connector 200 and the plug-in connector 200 is inserted into an insertion opening 305 of an assembly housing 303 of a cable shield connection 300, connected to the plug-in connector 200, of a plug-in connector system 400 shown in
This electrical connection enables electric currents of the braid 203 of the cable 201 of the plug-in connector 200 to be diverted to the assembly housing 303 of the cable shield connection 300.
According to the invention, the shielding portion 105 has apertures 107, shown in
According to the embodiment in
According to the embodiment in
According to the embodiment in
By the apertures 107, elastic deformability of the conical shielding portion 105 is ensured. By the elastic deformability, the conical shielding portion 105 is configured, when deformed by an edge region of an insertion opening of an assembly housing of a cable shield connection, to exert a corresponding contact force on the respective edge region and thereby to improve electrical contacting between the shielding spring contact 100 and the assembly housing.
The number and arrangement of the apertures 107 can differ from those in the embodiments shown. The same applies to the length of the apertures 107. These too can differ from the illustrative embodiments in
According to the invention, the shielding spring contact 100 is manufactured from a metallic material. The shielding spring contact 100 may be manufactured from a copper alloy.
A thickness of the shielding spring contact 100 can be adapted to the respective application in accordance with the desired electrical conductivity and the desired robustness of the shielding spring contact 100.
The shielding spring contact 100 can be manufactured by a cold drawing method. Alternatively, the shielding spring contact 100 can be manufactured by a punching-bending process.
In the embodiment in
In the embodiment in
The shielding spring contact 100 shown can be manufactured with different cross-sections. As a result, the shielding spring contact 100 can be provided for cables 201 of different cross-sections. Alternatively or in addition, a compensation of the cross-section can also be achieved by means of ferrules of different thickness.
In the embodiment shown, the connecting portion 213 has a screw element 215 for a screwed connection to the cable shield connection 300. However, this is only illustrative. There is no intention to limit the invention to a screw connection.
The plug-in connector 200 shown in
In the embodiment shown, the crimp connection is implemented by two ferrules 209, 211. In this case, an inner ferrule 209 is arranged between the cable 201 and the shielding spring contact 100. An outer ferrule 211, on the other hand, covers the outer cylindrical surface 115 of the base portion 103. In this arrangement, the braid 203 is arranged between the base portion 103 of the shielding spring contact 100 and the outer ferrule 211. In this case, the braid 203 contacts the outer cylindrical surface 115 of the base portion 103 of the shielding spring contact 100. Another alternative is an arrangement in which the braid 203 contacts an inner cylindrical surface of the base portion.
In the embodiment shown in
The conical shielding portion 105 thus rests at least partially on the connecting element 125. The connecting element 125 is thus arranged between the cable 201 and the shielding spring contact 100. By the connecting element 125, the shielding spring contact 100 can be fixed firmly on the cable 201 of the plug-in connector 200.
The connecting element 125 allows vibration-proofing of the shielding spring contact 100 on the cable 201 or on the plug-in connector 200. According to one embodiment, the connecting element 125 is manufactured from a plastics material. This allows electrical insulation of the shielding spring contact 100 with respect to the cable 201. In the embodiment shown, the connecting element 125 is arranged on the inner insulator 205 of the cable 201.
The cable shield connection 300 shown in
The connecting portion 301 of the cable shield connection 300 is arranged in the internal space 313 of the assembly housing 303. Thus, for connection, the plug-in connector 200 is inserted through the insertion opening 305 into the internal space 313 of the assembly housing 303. The electrical and also mechanical connection between the plug-in connector 200 and the cable shield connection 300 via the connecting portion 213 of the plug-in connector 200 and the connecting portion 301 of the cable shield connection 300 thus takes place in the internal space 313 of the assembly housing 303.
The connection between the plug-in connector 200 and the cable shield connection 300 is thus protected from environmental influences by the assembly housing 303 of the cable shield connection 300.
In
This electrical connection or contacting between the assembly housing 303 and the shielding spring contact 100 enables currents of the braid 203 of the cable 201 of the plug-in connector 200 to be diverted to the assembly housing 303 of the cable shield connection 300.
The elastic deformability of the conical shielding portion 105 enables the shielding portion 105 to exert a pressure on the assembly housing 303. This allows optimum electrical contacting.
The conical shape, in which the shielding portion 105 decreases in diameter from the base portion 103 towards the passage opening 113, enables contacting between the shielding portion 105 and an edge portion of the insertion opening 305 of various diameters to be achieved. The conical shape of the shielding portion 105 enables contacting with the edge portion of the insertion opening 305 over the entire length of the shielding portion 105 in the longitudinal direction 129.
By virtue of the rectilinear design of the surface of the conical shielding portion 105, the shielding portion 105 can be contacted at any desired locations and, by virtue of the elastic deformation by the contacting edge region 307, 309, is capable at any contact location of exerting a contact force sufficient for electrical contacting on the edge region 307, 309, contacting the shielding portion 105, of the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303. Here, the intensity of the contact force depends only on the extent of elastic deformation but is independent of the respective contact point. The shielding spring contact 105 can thus be used for assembly housings 303 with insertion openings 305 of different sizes while achieving the same performance. The only prerequisite is that a diameter of the insertion opening 305 is smaller than a maximum diameter of the shielding portion 105.
This makes it possible to eliminate the need for contacting between the shielding portion 105 and the assembly housing 303 to take place at one contact point provided for this purpose; instead, contacting can take place at any desired points on the conical shielding portion 105.
At each contact point, the optimum contact pressure required for optimum electrical contacting can in this case be achieved by the elastic deformation of the conical shielding portion 105. The elastic deformation of the conical shielding portion 105 can be achieved by inserting the plug-in connector 200 so far into the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303 that contacting is brought about between the edge region 307, 309 of the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303 and the conical shielding portion 105. This assumes that a cross-section or diameter of the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303 is smaller than a maximum cross-section or diameter of the conical shielding portion 105.
Insertion of the plug-in connector 200 into the insertion opening 305 in the longitudinal direction 129 enables contacting. The further the plug-in connector 200 is inserted, the further the conical shielding portion 105 of the shielding spring contact 100 can be pressed in or elastically deformed by the edge region 307, 309 of the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303. The contact force that is correspondingly exerted on the edge region 307, 309 by the deformed shielding portion 105 can be correspondingly increased.
Here, the elastic deformation or elastic component of the deformation has the effect that a contact force is exerted by the conical shielding portion 105 on the edge region 307, 309 of the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303. The greater the contact pressure by the conical shielding spring contact 100, the better is the electrical contacting between the shielding spring contact 100 and the assembly housing 303, and the better is the capacity for diverting the current of the braid 203 of the cable 201 of the plug-in connector 200 to the assembly housing 303 of the cable shield connection 300.
In the embodiments in
In the embodiment in
FIGS. 6A1, 6B1, and 6C1 show three different embodiments of the edge region 307, 309 of the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303.
In FIG. 6A1, the edge region 307 is designed as an edge region 307 that is bent in. Here, the bent-in edge region 307 is formed into the inner region 313 of the assembly housing 303. The edge region 307 thus has a rounded region 311 which faces outwards. The outward-facing rounded region 311 enables the plug-in connector 100 to be inserted without problems into the insertion opening 305. During this process, the shielding spring contact 100 slides over the conical shielding portion 105 along the outward-facing rounded region 311 and into the appropriate contact position. In the embodiment shown, the bent-in edge region 307 curves into the internal space 313 of the assembly housing 303 at an angle less than or equal to 90° with respect to an outer surface 315 of the assembly housing 303.
In FIG. 6C1, the insertion opening 305 likewise has a bent-in edge region 307, which extends into the internal space 313 of the assembly housing 303. The bent-in edge region 307 once again has an outward-facing rounded region 311, via which the shielding spring contact 100 can be inserted into the internal space 313 of the assembly housing 303 by the conical shielding portion 105 through the insertion opening 305. In the embodiment shown, the bent-in edge region 307 curves into the internal space of the assembly housing 303 at an angle of more than 90° with respect to the outer surface 315 of the assembly housing 303.
In the embodiment in FIG. 6B1, in contrast, the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303 has an edge region 309 which is bent outwards. In contrast to the bent-in edge region 307 of the embodiments in FIGS. 6A1 and 6C1, the bent-out edge region 309 is bent away from the internal region 313 of the assembly housing 303. The edge region 309 thus has a rounded region 315 which faces into the internal region 313 of the assembly housing 303.
The bent-in and bent-out edge regions 307, 309 of the embodiments in FIGS. 6A1, 6B1, and 6C1 can be produced by a bending process or a punching process.
In the embodiment in
In the embodiments of the plug-in connector 200 which are described above with reference to
In an embodiment, the sleeve-shaped main body 101 of the shielding spring contact 100 has a round cross-section in accordance with the conventional cross-sections of commercially available cables. The conical shielding portion 105 thus likewise has a round cross-section. According to one embodiment, the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303 likewise has a round cross-section matching the cross-section of the shielding portion 105.
The embodiments of the shielding spring contact 100 can also be combined with one another. In an embodiment, the shielding spring contact 100 can also be formed on the cable 201 of the plug-in connector 200, without a connecting element 125.
The shielding spring contact 100 according to the invention can be used for plug-in connectors 200 having cables 201 with many different cable cross-sections.
The corresponding plug-in connectors 200 or plug-in connector systems 400 can be used for a power line, e.g. for high-current connections. The plug-in connectors 200 or plug-in connector systems 400 can also be used for data connections for transferring data.
The shielding spring contact 100, the plug-in connector 200, the cable shield connection 300 and the plug-in connector system 400 can be used in many different areas of application. In an embodiment, the components mentioned can be used in the vehicle sector.
The sleeve-shaped structure makes the shielding spring contact 100 simple to manufacture and simple to fix on the cable 201 of the plug-in connector 200 by insertion of the cable 201 into the passage openings 113. The conical shielding portion 105 enables contact to be made with the assembly housing 303 of a cable shield connection 300 by inserting the plug-in connector 200 into an insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303.
The contacting enables the current of the braid 203 of the cable 201 to be diverted to the assembly housing 303. The cylindrical base portion 103 enables the shielding spring contact 100 to be connected to the braid 203 and thus fixed on the cable 201 by a crimp connection that is technically easy to implement.
The elastic flexibility of the conical shielding portion 105 enables optimized contacting with the assembly housing 303. Here, the flexibility enables contacting between the shielding portion 105 and assembly housings 303 that have insertion openings 305 with cross-sections of different sizes. Here, the flexibility of the shielding portion 105 ensures a constant contact force of the shielding portion 105 against the edges of the insertion opening 305 of the assembly housing 303, thereby enabling optimum contacting.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102022118421.8 | Jul 2022 | DE | national |
