ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR

Abstract: An electrical connector, particularly adapted for use in motor vehicles, having an outer wall, a housing cap (14) adapted to cover the front end of the housing (1), and one or more wire assemblies each having a terminal recess (21) on the inside surface thereof. The assembly is adapted to be inserted into the housing (1) from the rear and the housing (1) has a corresponding number of receiving passages (2) extending longitudinally therethrough. There is a narrowed portion of the passages (2) which forces the assemblies being inserted outwardly against a deflectable arm (19) in the outer wall. When the assembly is completely in place, the narrowed portion fits into the terminal recess (21), thereby permitting the flexible portion of the outer wall to return to its normal position. Thus, unless the assemblies are fully seated, the housing cap (14) cannot be fitted over the housing (1), thereby preventing misassembly of the connector.

Description: This invention relates to an electrical connector which is especially suitable for use in an engine room of motor vehicles. In EP-A-O 091 770 there have been disclosed a conventional electrical connector assembly comprising two housings which are mateable with a sealing ring between them. The sealing ring is located in a blind cavity in one of the housings and is compressed between them in order to prevent electrical connection from ingress of moisture. According to US-A-4 621 883 it is understood that the surfaces of the sealing ring facing the inner wall of the housing are formed with an annular groove which receives an annularly extending rib on the opposed inner wall, thereby securing the sealing ring in the cavity in the housing. According to US-A-4 621 883, (in particular Fig. 2 and Fig. 5) the sealing ring is compressed in the direction of inserton of the projecting shroud of the mating connector housing (the second housing) into the cavity. The wall of the shroud is received between the rib on the sealing ring and the outer wall of the first housing. The compression of the sealing ring by the wall of the shroud urges the ring into sealing engagement with the inner wall of the cavity and the projecting wall of the shroud causes compression of the rib. US-A-3 686 619 teaches an electrical connector construction having a plurality of rows of parallel openings adapted for the accomodation of interfitting electrical terminals. Each terminal has a zone of reduced cross section. The wall of each opening of each body member is constituted in part by a resilient, deflectable arm having projection thereon which extends inwardly of its associated opening so as to be accomodated in a reduced cross sectional zone of the associated terminal, thereby letting each terminal be secured in its associated opening. In this reference a locking block is used in order to prevent movement of the latch projections outwardly of their associated openings and thus provides a positive lock for each terminal. Refering to US-A-3 601 760, a locking device is attached to the block to prevent the flexible arm from the free flexing when a tab has positioned the terminal within the aperture. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electric connector with sealing member which provides secured terminal insertion, reliable double lock structure for the inserted terminal, water resistance and easy connecting operations. According to the present invention an electric connector comprises a sealing member having reduced space in terminal passage, means for holding the sealing member undetachably within the connector housing without compression by the wall of the housing, even after it was detached out of its mating connector and having means for securing the electric terminals in a predetermined position by a lock arrangement and further an application of a housing provides a detection means for normal insertion of any of the electrical terminals into terminal receiving passages. According to the present invention there is provided an electrical connector comprising a connector housing having pairs of passages for electrical terminals and a deflectable arm structure extending along the direction of terminal insertion of terminal and comes down when an terminal recess mates with a projection on side wall of the housing for locking purpose, and having a sealing member which is surrounding peripheral surface of wall of the housing and is held in a recess formed by both flanges of the connector housing and a housing cap which is fitted with the front face of the connector housing after the deflectable arm has restored to the original position. Connector identifying mechanism such as mating grooves on the outer surface may be useful for preventing an operator from chosing erroneous connector for a counter electric or electronic device such as head lamp circuit of automobile. Accordingly, grooves in the outer wall of the housing cap will be coupled to a coupling member which is located in an interface connector housing in an electrical device. By identifying the number of grooves, for instance, one can not fail to choose the mating electrical connector for the specific electric device or electric circuit. The electrical connector of the present invention provides secured terminal insertion, reliable double lock structure for the inserted terminal, water resistance and easy connecting operation. A prefered embodiment, and further details and advantages of the present invention is described in more details as below by refering the drawings in which: Fig. 1 is an explosion view of the components to be assembled in order to form the electrical connector of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the electrical connector of the present invention. Fig. 3 is a perspective sectional view of the electrical connector of the present invention. Fig. 4 illustrates a mating connector means which will be engaged with the electrical connector of the present invention. Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show front views of the electrical connector of the present invention and its mating connectors. Fig. 5 (A) and (B) show two pairs of coupling grooves for identification of two connectors. Fig. 6 (A) and (B) show a pair of grooves for the same purpose. Fig. 7 illustrates locking arrangements provided on the electrical connector of the present invention and another mating one. As best understood in Fig. 1, an electrical connector of the present invention consists of a connector housing 1, an electrical terminal 12, a sealing member 22, and a housing cap 14. Fig. 1 illustrates an electrical connector 1 having a pair of terminal receiving passages 2, 2′ and a flange 4 on central portion of wall 3. There is a pocket 9 being surrounded by a side wall 6 of the receiving passages 2 and 2′. In one side inner of the wall there is a projection 5 latching a terminal recess 13 of the terminals 12, 12′. On outer wall of the connector housing 1 a deflectable arm 8 is stemmed from the flange 4 and extends along the terminal passages. A free end 7 of the deflectable arm 8 can be bent toward in the outward direction when the terminal 12 or 12' is inserted in the passage 2 or 2' and engages with the projection 5. The pocket 9 has two openings 10 as its top and bottom. The opening 10 engages with a lock projection 18 of a fork-shaped resilient deflectable latch arm 19. The housing cap 14 is attached to the connector housing 1. As shown in Fig. 2 terminals 12, 12′ are inserted into the cavity 2, 2′ respectively through rear side opening of the passages 2, 2′. When terminals 12, 12′ are inserted incompletely that is, when one of the terminals stays in the middle of its passage, the deflectable arm 8 is bent upwardly and the housing cap 14 does not fit to the housing 1. On the contrary, when the terminal 12 proceeds along the passage until it reaches a predetermined position the projection 5 on the side wall 6 meets with a terminal recess 13 and the deflectable arm 8 comes back to the original alignment. Reference numeral 14 depicts the housing cap which is attached to the front opening of the connector housing 1. The cap 14 comprises a bottom wall 15 and the cylindrical side wall 16. The bottom wall 15 has a pair of the openings 17, 17′ and the fork-shaped resilient deflectable latch arm 19 extends longitudinally that opening to its opposing open end 20 and with the projection. When the terminal is located in a wrong position, that is, when the projection 5 of the side wall 6 is not engaged with the recess 13 of the terminal 12, operator will not mate the cap 14 with the connector housing as the open end 20 of the cap 14 comes into contact with the free end 7 of the deflectable arm 8 bending outside of the connector housing 1. Thus, the assembler will find that at least one of the terminals 12, 12′ is located in a wrong position in the passage 2 or 2′. An annular recess 21 is formed between the open end 20 of the housing cap 14 and the flange 4 of the housing 1. A sealing ring 22 which is preferably made of a elastomeric material such as rubber is located in the annular recess 21 so as not to be removed off in the axis direction when the connector is disconnected with its mated one. Electrical lead wires 23 and 23′ which are grasped respectively by the terminal ends which pass through sealing plug members 25 and 25′ for protecting the terminals against water invasion. Their rear ends are protected against water invasion by a plug member 25, 25′. In the outer surface of the cap 14 there are formed a pair of grooves 26, 26′. As shown in Fig. 4, when the connector 1 is mated with another connector 27 through the cap 14, the grooves 26, 26′ are engaged with coupling member 29, 29′ and thus two connectors are selected correctly and they can be mated. Fig. 5(A), Fig. 5(B), Fig. 6(A) and Fig. 6(B) show the end views of the assembled connector of the present invention and mating connectors and are intended solely for use in explaining the number and alignment of the grooves 26 and mating longitudinal ribs 29 for preventing mismating of connector halves. As shown in Fig. 7 the lock 30 arm of the connector 1 is engaged with the projection 31 of the connector 27 and they are coupled. List of reference signs: 1. connector housing 2. terminal receiving passage 3. central portion of wall 4. flange 5. projection 6. side wall 7. free end portion 8. deflectable arm 9. a pocket 10. opening 11. mating lock portion 12. electrical terminal 13. terminal recess 14. housing cap 15. bottom wall of cap 16. side wall of cap 17. opening 18. lock projection 19. deflectable arm 20. cap flange 21. recess 22. sealing member 23. electrical lead wire 24. ferrulue portion 25. sealing plug member 26. groove 27. mating connector housing 28. mating portion of housing 29. coupling member 30. lock arrangement 31. lock projection

Claims: An electrical connector consisting of a connector housing (1) of thermo-plastic material having a pair of passages (2) for inserting electrical terminals (12) along its longitudinal direction, a flange (4) which is positioned on the outer wall of the housing and is molded together with the housing body, a cylindrical, mateable housing cap (14) of thermoplastic material having openings (17) on its bottom wall (15) and having a flange (20) around the periphery of its outer wall (16) at its open end, a sealing member (22) made of elastic material such as rubber surrounding the outer wall of the connector housing (1), a pair of electrical terminals (12) each having a receiving recess (13) which is mateable with a locking projection (5) located on an inside wall (6) of the corresponding passage (2) of the electrical terminal (12), chatacterized in that the sealing member (22) is positioned in a recess (21) between the two flange portions (4, 20) on the connector housing (1) and the housing cap (14) when they are mated, while the electrical terminals (12) proceed along the longitudinal passages (2) in the connector housing (1), a deflectable arm (8) on each outside wall of the terminal passages (2) is bent outwardly until the subject electrical terminal (12) reaches the predetermined, final position which simultaneously causes mating engagement of the terminal recess (13) with the projection (5) on the side wall (6), followed by returning of bent outside wall to the original position allowing an open end of the housing cap (14) to be coupled with the housing end portion by covering the outer wall of the housing (1) under the inner surface of the cylindrical side wall (16) of the housing cap (14) and thus provides a recess (21) for the sealing member (22) in the outer wall of the connector housing (1) between two flanges (4, 20) of the connector housing (1) and the housing cap (14). An electrical connector according to claim 1 in which there is provided a deflectable arm (19) in the housing cap (14) extending in paralell to the cylindrical side wall (16), stemming from the center if the bottom toward the mating direction within the housing, for the purpose of making a lock engagement with connector housing (1) by mating outwardly directed lock portion (18) with an opening (10) on the inside wall of the terminal receiving passage (2) in the connector housing (1). An electrical connector according to claim 1 or 2 in which outwardly movement of the free end portion (7) on the deflectable arm (8) of the housing is restrained by the housing cap (14) which holds the arm within its wall. An electrical connector according to one of the claims 1 to 3 in which the housing cap (14) is provided with at least one identification groove (26) on the wall which is mateable with another connector having an identically mateable coupling member.

Inventors: OGAWA, HIDEKI, SUZUKI, IZUMI
Applicants: SUMITOMO WIRING SYSTEMS, LTD.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: H01R13
IPC codes: H01R13