This application claims the benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) of German Patent Application No. 102016104992.1, filed on Mar. 17, 2016.
The present invention relates to a waterproof electrical connector, and more particularly, to a housing assembly of a waterproof electrical connector.
Known electrical connectors transfer electrical currents, voltages, signals, and data with a large bandwidth of currents, voltages, frequencies, and data rates. In low, medium, or high voltage or current ranges, and in particular in the automotive industry, such connectors must guarantee the transfer of electrical power, signals, and data in hot, contaminated, humid, or chemically aggressive environments. Due to the large range of applications, a large number of specifically configured connectors are known.
Known electrical connectors throughout the range of applications have housings assembled with an electrical member, such as an electrical cable or a circuit board of an electrical component, for mating with a mating electrical connector. An electrical connector must reliably secure an electrical contact within the housing for connecting to the electrical member. Furthermore, the electrical connector must reliably transmit electrical signals, and consequently, known electrical connectors have fasteners for detachably fastening to the mating electrical connector. The housings of known electrical connectors are mostly subject to a particular standardization, for example the FAKRA standard, so the most important dimensions of the housings have the same dimensions with different manufacturers. Known electrical connectors, however, are too large and expensive to produce for a given maximum current load capacity of the cable. Furthermore, known miniaturized electrical connectors cannot pass a splash water test (IPX4 standard) or water jet test (IPX5 standard) which are required in particular in the automotive sector.
An object of the invention, among others, is to provide a housing assembly for a waterproof electrical connector which has small dimensions. The housing assembly according to the invention includes a housing, a sealing device, and a protective cover. The housing has a sealing chamber receiving a seal. The sealing device is movable to cover the seal in the sealing chamber. The protective cover covers the seal and the sealing device.
The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying Figures, of which:
Embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinafter in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that the disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art.
An electrical connector 1 according to a first embodiment of the invention is shown in
The assembled cable 5 includes a cable 50 and a connection mechanism 60 electrically connected to the cable 50. The cable 50 is a coaxial cable and has a copper conductor or an aluminum conductor. The connection mechanism 60 has a ferrule, a first contact, and a second contact, each of which is crimpable.
The housing assembly 10 includes a housing 100 and a protective cover 200.
The housing 100, as shown in
The protecting cover 200, as shown in
As a result of the cable recess 240 of the protective cover 200 extending from the radial exterior to the radial interior, the seal 112 in the sealing chamber 110 would be axially Ax accessible from the exterior at a rear of the seal 112, which may result in problems with water-tightness of the connector 1 in the case of water being sprayed from a corresponding direction. Accordingly, a sealing device 120 covers the rear of the seal 112. In the embodiment shown in
In a pre-assembly state of the sealing device 120 shown in
So that the sealing device 120 can readily be assembled over the cable 50, the sealing device 120 has a cable recess 124 which extends through the entire sealing device 120 in the axial direction Ax. The cable recess 124 is radial such that the sealing device 120 can be pushed over the cable 50 from an exterior of the cable 50 and can be received, in a chronological sequence, at or in the sealing chamber 110.
The protective cover 200 is subsequently assembled on the housing 100, achieving a final assembly position of the housing assembly 10 shown in
The cable recess 124 of the sealing device 120 and the cable recess 240 of the protective cover 200 constitute a cable bushing 124, 240 at the rear end 101 of the housing 100, terminating the sealing chamber 110 axially Ax towards the rear end 101. The cable recess 124 and the cable recess 240 overlap only in the axial direction Ax. The radial Ra directions of the cable recesses 124, 240 to the exterior are arranged so as to be offset relative to each other; the two cable recesses 124, 240 are provided so as to be rotated relative to each other radially Ra at an angle. In the shown embodiment, the cable recess 124 of the sealing device 120 and the cable recess 240 of the protective cover 200 are approximately 180° from each other. In other embodiments, other non-zero angles could be used. When the cable 50 is received in the cable bushing 124, 240, the rear end 101 of the housing 100 is sealed in a substantially light-impermeable manner.
An electrical connector 1 according to a second embodiment of the invention is shown in
Instead of connecting the sealing device 120 to the housing 100 as in the first embodiment, in the second embodiment, a sealing device 220 shown in
In a pre-assembly state of the sealing device 220 shown in
Two additional variations of the first embodiment of the invention, in which the sealing device 120 is connected to the housing 100, are shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2016 104 992 | Mar 2016 | DE | national |
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Entry |
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German Office Action, dated Nov. 16, 2016, 14 pages. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20170271810 A1 | Sep 2017 | US |