Wire connection terminal stage for electric apparatus

In a terminal stage for connecting a wire terminal thereto for use in an electrical apparatus comprising an electrically conductive terminal plate having at least two threaded holes at least two terminal screws to be screwed in the respective threaded holes, and an electrically insulating supporting member having a first wall portion substantially perpendicular to the terminal plate and for supporting the terminal plate, there are provided at least two movable members each being movable in the direction substantially perpendicular to the terminal plate and each having a first portion extending in the direction substantially parallel to the terminal plate and supporting the terminal screws, a second portion formed integrally with the first portion substantially perpendicularly to the terminal plate, and a third portion integrally formed with the second portion and extending in the direction substantially parallel to the terminal plate, each of the movable members being adapted to be stably held in at least one predetermined position by an elastic member provided in the vicinity of a central portion of the first wall portion.

The present invention relates to a wire terminal connector for an electric 
apparatus and, more particularly, to a wire connection terminal stage for 
an electric apparatus. 
Conventionally, when an electric wire provided with a solderless terminal 
was connected to a wire connection terminal stage in an electric 
apparatus, it was necessary that a terminal screw was once removed from a 
terminal plate of the terminal stage and attached again after the 
solderless terminal was disposed on the terminal plate. Further, also when 
such a solderless terminal was removed from the terminal connecting 
portion, it was necesary to remove the terminal screw from the terminal 
plate so that the operation of the connecting or removing the terminal 
screw was very troublesome and the terminal screw may be missed during the 
connecting/removing operation. 
In order to prevent the missing of the terminal screw, a conventional wire 
connection terminal stage is arranged such that a movable member 
supporting a wire terminal fixing screw and slidably supported while 
intersecting a terminal plate is always biased in the direction (outward) 
to keep the movable member away from the terminal plate by means of a 
helical spring or the like. 
In such a wire connection terminal stage employing a helical spring or the 
like as described above, however, the movable member is always urged 
outward by the helical spring so that when the terminal screw is screwed 
in the female threaded hole to fix a wire terminal, it is necessary to fix 
the wire terminal while pushing the terminal screw against the return 
force of the helical spring, resulting in a disadvantage that when numbers 
of wire connection terminal stages are collectively provided, the work is 
very troublesome because it is necessary to fix numbers of wire terminals 
one by one against the return force of the respective helical spring. 
An object of the present invention is to provide a wire connection terminal 
stage in which the disadvantage in the prior art can be eliminated, the 
missing terminal screw can be prevented, and wire connecting/removing work 
can be easily surely performed.

Referring to the drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention 
will be described hereunder. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, and FIGS. 4A to 4C, a terminal stage body 1 is 
integrally molded with a plastic material and includes a partition portion 
or wall 2 for surely defining electrical insulation between the terminal 
stage and another terminal stage disposed adjacent the terminal stage in 
question, a central separation wall 3 dividing the partition portion 2 
into two, left and right, portions, left and right side chambers 4 and 5 
provided at the opposite, left and right, sides of the partition portion 2 
respectively, a central chamber 6 provided at the lower portion of the 
separation wall 3, left and right end pedestals 41 and 51 defining part of 
the chambers 4 and 5 respectively, left and right side walls 61 and 62 
defining the central chamber 6, a seat 65 slightly forwardly projected and 
having a transverse width in which vertically extending grooves 63 and 64 
are formed between the seat 65 and the left and right side walls 61 and 62 
respectively in the central chamber 6, slit grooves 63a and 64a upwardly 
extending from the vertical grooves 63 and 64 respectively, a groove 67 
formed between a forwardly projecting cylindrical protrusion 66 and a 
bottom wall of the chamber 6, a protrusion 7 for the use of connection of 
the terminal stage with another terminal stage to be coupled adjacent the 
terminal stage in question, a recessed portion (not-shown) formed at the 
rear of the protrusion 7, etc. An elastic member 8 is constituted by a 
generally U-shaped metal plate and has a bottom portion 83 and a pair of 
leg portions respectively extending from the opposite ends of the bottom 
portion and respectively provided with outwardly projecting V-shaped 
expansion portions 81 and 82. The bottom portion 83 is fitted in the 
groove 67 so that the U-shaped member 8 is attached at a predetermined 
position in the central chamber 6. A terminal plate 9 is constituted by a 
rectangular electrically conductive flat plate and formed with female 
threaded holes 91 and 92 at the left and right end portions thereof. The 
terminal plate 9 is further formed with a pair of slots 93 and 94 which 
are to be disposed to face the partition wall 2 with movable members 10 
and 11 slidably received in the slots 93 and 94 respectively. The terminal 
plate 9 is supported by the central chamber 6 and the pedestals 41 and 51. 
The movable members 11 and 12 are made to be symmetric and have 
horizontally extending wire terminal pressing portions 101 and 111 
respectively. A terminal screw 12 formed with a comming-off preventing 
portion and a spring washer 13 are rotatably supported in a hole formed at 
a central portion of each of the terminal pressing portions 101 and 111. 
The movable members 11 and 12 respectively have leg portions 102 and 112 
vertically downwardly extending from the terminal pressing portions 101 
and 111, which have middle portions slightly outwardly projected to form 
guide portions 103 and 113 slidably fitted into the slit grooves 63a and 
64a respectively, and V-shaped foot portions 104 and 114 substantially 
horizontally extending from the respective lower ends of the vertically 
extending leg portions 102 and 112 respectively. FIG. 3 shows the movable 
member 10 with the guide portion 103 fitted in the slit groove 63a. These 
movable members 10 and 11 are attached to the terminal stage body 1 in 
such a manner that they are put in the position symmetrical with each 
other as shown in FIG. 2, and are pushed together with the terminal plate 
9 from the front side of the terminal stage body 1 under the condition 
that the leg portions 102 and 112 are respectively fitted in the slots 93 
and 94 of the terminal plate 9. 
At the left side in FIG. 1, shown in the state in which no wire is 
connected and in which the lower end foot portion 104 of the movable 
member 10 is in its upper limit position where it rides on the upper 
surface portion of the V-shaped expansion portion 81 of the elastic member 
8 and in contact with the terminal plate 9. Under the condition, the 
elastic force of the elastic member 8 acts in the direction indicated by 
an arrow A so that the movable member 10 is somewhat slanted toward A'. 
Thus, the movable member 10 is prevented from falling down outward, that 
is toward A. Under this condition, the terminal screw 12 does not come off 
from the terminal pressing portion 101 of the movable member 10 and the 
tip end of the terminal screw 12 faces the female threaded hole 91 with a 
distance l.sub.1 maintained between the tip end of the terminal screw 12 
and the upper surface of the terminal plate 9. The state where a wire 14 
is connected is shown at the right side in FIG. 1. The wire terminal is 
sandwiched between the terminal plate 9 and the terminal pressing portion 
111 and the movable member 11 is put at its lower limit position. 
The terminal stage according to the present invention has a feature that 
the movable member has two kinds of stable positions in the state where no 
wire is connected to the movable member. That is, as shown in FIG. 4A, the 
movable member 10 is stably held at a first stable position where the 
V-shaped foot portion 104 of the movable member 10 rides on the upper side 
surface of the V-shaped expansion portion 81 of the elastic member 8 since 
the V-shaped foot portion 104 is urged by the V-shaped expansion portion 
81 toward the left side wall 61, that is in the direction A. Further, if 
the movable member 10 is pressed down from the first stable position of 
the movable member 10 shown in FIG. 4A, the foot portion 104 comes down 
over the V-shaped expansion portion 81 to a second stable position of the 
movable member 10 where the V-shaped foot portion 104 rests on the lower 
side surface of the V-shaped expansion portion 81 and the movable member 
10 is stably held in the same manner as described above. 
Thus, when the worker inserts a wire 14 between the terminal screw 12 and 
the terminal plate 9 and pushes down the movable member 10 in the first 
stable position shown in FIG. 4A, the movable member 10 is readily 
displaced to the second stable position shown in FIG. 4B where the worker 
can readily fasten the screw 12. As the screw 12 comes down, the guide 
portion 103 slides down along the slit groove 63a because it is fitted in 
the slit groove 63a and reaches the position as shown in FIG. 4C. During 
the fastening operation of the terminal screw 12, the movable member is 
not affected by the elastic member 8 so that the screw fastening work can 
be readily performed. 
As the material for the elastic member, any suitable elastic material other 
than a metal material, such as a plastic material, may of course be used. 
Next, reference is made to FIGS. 5, 6, 7A, 7B and 7C. The same reference 
numerals as used in FIGS. 1 and 2 are used in these figures to designate 
the same or corresponding components or elements. 
A stage seat CF is projected from a partition portion 2 so that an elastic 
member 8X can be supported on the seat CF. A projecting portion CV is 
provided for adjacently connecting the terminal stage in question to 
another terminal stage. A rail attachment portion RM is provided for 
attaching the terminal stage onto a support rail. The elastic member 8X is 
made of a substantially inverted-U-shaped metal material and has 
outward-expansion portions P and P formed at its respective leg portions 
and slots 8XA and 8XB formed in the top portion connecting the respective 
leg portions for fitting movable members 10 and 11 in the slots 8XA and 
8XB respectively. The movable members 10 and 11 are attached to the 
terminal stage in such a manner that they are put in the position 
symmetrical with each other as shown in FIG. 2, and are pushed together 
with the terminal plate 9 and the elastic member 8X into the space between 
a central separation wall 3 and the stage seat CF, from the front side of 
the terminal stage body 1 with vertically extending leg portions 102 and 
112 of the movable members 10 and 11 respectively fitted in the slots 93 
and 94 of the terminal plate 9 as well as in the slots 8XA and 8XB 
respectively. 
Next, the operation of the movable members 10 and 11 will be described 
hereunder. The movable member 10 is held at a first stable position where 
the lower end foot portion 104 of the movable member 10 is sandwiched 
between outward expansion portion P of the elastic member 8X and the stage 
seat CF. Further, if the movable member 10 is pressed down from its first 
stable position, the lower end foot 104 portion comes down over the inward 
projecting portion under the outward projecting portion to a second stable 
position of the movable member 10 where the lower end foot portion 104 
rests on the lower side surface of the inward projecting portion and the 
movable member 10 is stably held in its second stable position as shown in 
FIG. 7B. A wire terminal 14 is inserted between a terminal screw 12 and 
the terminal plate 9 in the first stable position shown in FIG. 7A and the 
movable member 10 is pushed down. The movable member 10 is readily 
displaced to the second stable position shown in FIG. 7B where the 
terminal screw 12 is fastened. As the terminal screw 12 comes down, the 
movable member 10 slides down along the slit groove 63a because the guide 
portion 103 of the movable member 10 is fitted in th slit groove 63a. 
As the material for the elastic member 8X, any suitable elastic material 
other than a metal material, such as a plastic material, may of course be 
used, similarly to the first embodiment. 
Next, reference is made to FIGS. 8, 9, 10A, 10B and 10C to describe a third 
embodiment. The same numerals as that used in the first and second 
embodiments are used in the third embodiment to designate the same or 
coresponding components or elements. The third embodiment is featured in 
by elastic walls 68 and 69 formed integrally with a terminal stage body 1. 
A movable membe 10 is supported between a left side wall 61 and the 
elastic wall 68 while another movable member 11 is supported between a 
right side wall 62 and the elastic wall 69. That is, in a central chamber 
6, the elastic walls 68 and 69 are separated from the left side wall 61 
and the right side wall 62 respectively to form spaces 63' and 64' 
therebetween respectively. The width L of a lower end foot portios 104 
(114) of the movable members 10 (11) is made slightly larger than the 
distance L' between the wall 61 (62) and the elastic wall 68 (69) and the 
movable member 10 (11) is vertically slidably attached to the terminal 
stage body 1 in such a manner that the lower end foot portion 104 (114) is 
sandwiched between the walls 61 and 68 (62 and 69). Each of the movable 
members 10 and 11 may be held in a first and a second stable position 
shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B respectively. FIG. 10C shows the state in which 
a wire 14 is connected in the terminal stage. 
FIG. 11 shows a modification of the third embodiment. That is, grooves 68g 
and 69g are formed in the elastic walls 68 and 69 respectively. These 
grooves 68g and 69g receive the lower end foot portions 104 and 114 
respectively when the movable membes 10 and 11 are in the first stable 
position to thereby obtain a further stable condition of each of the 
movable members 10 and 11.