Patent Publication Number: US-7896696-B2

Title: Divided connector for regulating a terminal

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a divided connector in which housing component members are divided into a plurality of parts. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     As a connector used in a wiring of a vehicle or the like, there is a divided connector in which housing component members are divided into a plurality of parts to position a terminal (for instance, see Patent document 1). This connector  500  includes, as shown in  FIG. 12 , an inner housing  503  to which a terminal  501  is attached, an outer housing  505  to which the inner housing  503  is attached from a rear part and a front holder  507  attached to a front part of the outer housing  505 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 13(   a ), when the inner housing  503  to which the terminal  501  is attached is inserted into the outer housing  505  from the rear part of the outer housing  505 , a flexible engaging piece  511  of the outer housing  505  is engaged with a protrusion  509  to regulate the separation of the inner housing  503 . When the inner housing  503  is attached to the outer housing, and then, the front holder  507  is inserted into the outer housing from the front part of the outer housing  505  in a main engaging operation, as shown in  FIG. 13(   b ), a fitting hole  513  formed in the front holder  507  is fitted to a front part of a main body part  515  of the terminal  501  so that an end of the terminal  501  may be positioned. 
     Patent Document 1: JP-A-11-86948 
     However, since the housing component members of the usual divided connector  500  include three members of the inner housing  503 , the outer housing  505  and the front holder  507 , when production tolerances of the members are respectively accumulated, a backlash is disadvantageously liable to occur between the components parts. That is, when there is a backlash of δ1 between the inner housing  503  and the outer housing  505 , and there is a backlash of δ2 between the outer housing  505  and the front holder  507 , the backlash of (δ1+δ2) may be possibly accumulated in the terminal  501  and the front holder  507  at the maximum. In a positioning structure of the terminal in which the above-described cumulative backlash arises, when a tension is applied to the terminal  501  through an electric wire, there is a fear that the terminal  501  may be deformed or unevenness may occur in the position of an electric contact part  517  of the end of the terminal as shown by a broken line in  FIG. 13(   b ). Further, since the terminal  501  is held by a plurality of divided members, a sufficient holding strength is inconveniently hardly ensured. 
     The present invention is proposed by considering the above-described circumstances and it is an object of the present invention to provide a divided connector which can regulate the position of a terminal by the small number of parts, so that a positioning accuracy and a holding strength may be improved by eliminating a backlash. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The above-described object of the present invention is achieved by below-described structures. 
     A first aspect of the invention provides with a divided connector, comprising a terminal having an electric contact part protruding from a main body front part and an electric wire attached under pressure to a main body rear part; an inner housing that allows the terminal inserted into an inner part to be engaged with a terminal engaging piece and attached and the main body front part to protrude from a front end; an outer housing that allows the inner housing inserted into an inner part from a rear part to be engaged with a flexible engaging piece and attached; a terminal positioning regulating wall provided in the outer housing and having a contact part inserting hole for inserting the electric contact part; and a front part positioning frame protruding in the rear surface of the terminal positioning regulating wall correspondingly to the contact part inserting hole to enclose and position the main body front part. 
     According to the divided connector of the present invention, when the inner housing to which the terminal is attached is inserted into the outer housing, the main body front part of the terminal protruding from the front end of the inner housing is positioned by the front part positioning frame provided in the outer housing. Thus, the front holder that is usually employed is not required so that the position of the terminal may be regulated with a high strength and no backlash by using the small number of parts. 
     A second aspect of the invention provides with the divided connector, wherein the front part positioning frame includes an engaging piece regulating bottom plate that is inserted into the disengaging space of the terminal engaging piece to regulate the displacement of the terminal engaging piece toward a disengaging direction. 
     According to the divided connector of the present invention, when the inner housing is attached to the outer housing, the engaging piece regulating bottom plate provided in the outer housing enters the disengaging space of the terminal engaging piece of the inner housing to regulate the displacement of the terminal engaging piece toward the disengaging direction. Thus, the double engagement of the terminal is realized. 
     A third aspect of the invention provides with the divided connector, wherein a pair of separated engaging piece regulating bottom plates are inserted into both sides in a lower surface of the terminal engaging piece. 
     According to the divided connector of the present invention, the one pair of engaging piece regulating bottom plates abut on both the sides of the terminal engaging piece so that the terminal engaging piece may be regulated in a horizontal direction where the displacement is small in a distorting direction. Thus, the reliability of the double engagement is enhanced. Further, since a part of the terminal engaging piece can be inserted into the spaced part, the thickness of that part can be increased so that the terminal engaging piece of high strength may be formed. 
     A fourth aspect of the invention provides with the divided connector, wherein the terminal engaging piece has an inclined surface whose thickness is gradually reduced toward an inserting direction of the inner housing and comes into contact with the engaging piece regulating bottom plate through the inclined surface. 
     According to the divided connector of the present invention, when the inner housing is inserted into the outer housing, the inclined surface of the terminal engaging piece is gradually mounted on the engaging piece regulating bottom plate and the terminal engaging piece is bent toward a direction in which the terminal engaging piece is separated from the engaging piece regulating bottom plate, that is, a direction in which the terminal engaging piece is more strongly engaged with the terminal. Thus, the terminal can be more strongly fixed due to the pressure of the terminal engaging piece. 
     Since the divided connector of the present invention includes the inner housing that allows the main body front part of the terminal to protrude and the terminal to be attached, the outer housing that allows the inner housing to be attached and the front part positioning frame protruding in the terminal positioning regulating wall of the outer housing to enclose and position the main body front part of the terminal, the front holder that has been hitherto used is removed and the position of the terminal can be regulated by the small number of parts by using the front part positioning frame directly provided in the outer housing. As a result, the backlash can be eliminated and the positioning accuracy and the holding strength of the terminal can be improved. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an exploded perspective view of a divided connector according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 2(   a ) is an exploded perspective view of the divided connector shown in  FIG. 1  in a temporarily engaged state, and  FIG. 2(   b ) is a perspective view of the divided connector in a normally engaged state. 
         FIG. 3  is a front view of an outer housing. 
         FIG. 4  is a sectional view taken along a line A-A of  FIG. 3 . 
         FIG. 5  is a front view of an inner housing. 
         FIG. 6  is a sectional view taken along a line B-B of  FIG. 5 . 
         FIG. 7  is a front view of the outer housing showing other sectional line. 
         FIG. 8  is a sectional view taken along a line C-C in  FIG. 7 . 
         FIG. 9  is a sectional view taken along a line D-D of  FIG. 4 . 
         FIG. 10  is an enlarged view of a part E of  FIG. 9 . 
         FIG. 11(   a ) is a sectional view of the inner housing in a temporarily engaged state,  FIG. 11(   b ) is a sectional view of the inner housing in a normally engaged state and  FIG. 11(   c ) is an enlarged view of a main part thereof. 
         FIG. 12  is an exploded perspective view of a usual divided connector. 
         FIG. 13(   a ) is a sectional view of a front holder attaching part of the divided connector shown in  FIG. 12  and  FIG. 13(   b ) is an enlarged view of a main part thereof. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Now, a preferred exemplary embodiment of a divided connector according to the present invention will be described below by referring to the drawings. 
       FIG. 1  is an exploded perspective view of the divided connector according to the present invention. 
     In the divided connector  100  according to the present exemplary embodiment, a housing is divided into two parts including an inner housing  11  and an outer housing  13 . Namely, the front holder  507  (see  FIG. 12 ) that has been hitherto used is removed. To the inner housing  11 , a terminal  17  to which an electric wire  15  is attached under pressure is attached. The inner housing  11  to which the terminal  17  is attached is attached to the outer housing  13 . 
     On the upper surface of the inner housing  11 , are provided a temporary engaging hole  19  and a main engaging hole  21  that is provided in the rear part of the temporary engaging hole  19 . In this specification, a connection opening part  23  side to a mate connector of the divided connector  100  is explained as a front part and an opposite side is explained as a rear part. In the rear part of the inner housing  11 , one pair of collar parts  25  and  25  that protrude upward is provided. The collar parts  25  and  25  abut on stepped parts  27   a  and  27   a  of a rear end face of a mounting part  27  of the outer housing  13 . 
     The terminal  17  has an electric contact part  31  protruding from a main body front part  29  and a main body rear part  33  to which the electric wire  15  is attached under pressure. In the present exemplary embodiment, a case is described that the divided connector  100  is a male connector to which the male terminal  17  having the small strip (what is called a tab) shaped electric contact part  31  is attached as an example, however, the present invention may be applied to a female connector to which a female terminal is attached. When the terminal  17  is attached to the inner part of the inner housing  11 , the electric contact part  31  and the main body front part  29  are exposed from an opening  35  of a terminal accommodating chamber in a front end. 
     The outer housing  13  has the above-described mounting part  27  protruding in a main body rear part and a hood part  39  protruding in a main body front part. The hood part  39  has the above-described connection opening part  23  to the mate connector opened in a front surface. A plurality of guide protrusions  41  or a locking protrusion  43  to the mate connector protrudes in the outer periphery of the hood part  39 . 
       FIG. 2(   a ) is an exploded perspective view showing a state that the divided connector shown in  FIG. 1  is temporarily engaged.  FIG. 2(   b ) is a perspective view showing a normally engaged state of the divided connector. 
     In the divided connector  100 , as shown in  FIG. 2(   a ), the terminal  17  to which the electric wire  15  is attached under pressure is attached to the inner housing  11  temporarily engaged with the outer housing  13 . Then, the inner housing  11  to which the terminal  17  is attached is pushed into a position where the collar part  25  and  25  abut on the mounting part  27  as shown in  FIG. 2(   b ). Thus, the inner housing  11  is normally engaged with the outer housing  13 . As described below, by this normal engagement, the main body front part  29  of the terminal  17  is positioned and the double engagement of the terminal  17  is realized. 
       FIG. 3  is a front view of the outer housing. 
     In an interior side of the hood part  39  of the outer housing  13 , a terminal positioning regulating wall  45  is formed. The terminal positioning regulating wall  45  closes a front part of the mounting part  27 . In the terminal positioning regulating wall  45 , a plurality of contact part inserting holes  47  are arranged lengthwise and breadth-wise correspondingly to the plurality of terminals  17  attached to the inner housing  11 . The contact part inserting holes  47  allow the electric contact parts  31  to pass through and be held. 
       FIG. 4  is a sectional view taken along a line A-A of  FIG. 3 . 
     The inner housing  11  allows the terminal  17  inserted into an inner part to be engaged with a terminal engaging piece  49  and attached and the main body front part  29  to protrude from a front end. The outer housing  13  allows, in the normally engaged state, an engaging protrusion  51  of the inner housing  11  inserted into an inner part from a rear part to be engaged with a flexible engaging piece  53  so as not to detach the inner housing  11  from the outer housing  13 . The electric contact part  31  protruding from the inner housing  11  under this state is inserted into the contact part inserting hole  47  of the terminal positioning regulating wall  45  provided in the outer housing  13 . 
     Further, in a rear surface of the terminal positioning regulating wall  45 , a front part positioning frame  55  protrudes correspondingly to the contact part inserting hole  47 . The front part positioning frame  55  encloses the main body front part  29  to position the terminal. 
       FIG. 5  is a front view of the inner housing. 
     In the front end of the inner housing  11 , a plurality of (13 in the present exemplary embodiment) terminal accommodating chambers  57  are opened. In a bottom part of each terminal accommodating chamber  57 , the terminal engaging piece  49  is arranged. An end of the terminal engaging piece  49  can be elastically displaced upward and downward in the drawing. In the drawing, reference numeral  59  designates a reinforcing plate of the collar part  25  and  61  designates a guide protrusion. 
       FIG. 6  is a sectional view taken along a line B-B of  FIG. 5 . 
     The terminal engaging piece  49  protrudes forward from the front end of the terminal accommodating chamber  57 . That is, in the terminal  17  accommodated in the inner housing  11 , the main body front part  29  located in a front part from an engaging part  63  (see  FIG. 4 ) protrudes from the terminal accommodating chamber  57 . The main body front part  29  protruding from the terminal accommodating chamber  57  is enclosed by a peripheral wall  65  provided in the outer periphery of the front end of the inner housing  11 . 
       FIG. 7  is a front view of the outer housing showing other sectional line C-C. 
     The above-described  FIG. 4  shows a A-A section of  FIG. 3 , namely, a section passing a center of an upper part of the outer housing  13  and the contact part inserting holes  47  shifting rightward from the center of the upper part of the outer housing  13 . In this section, as shown in  FIG. 4 , the terminal  17  and the terminal engaging piece  49  form a section in a central part in a horizontal direction (a transverse direction in  FIG. 3 ). On the other hand, in a section shown in  FIG. 7 , since the section is slightly shifted leftward from the contact part inserting holes  47 , the main body front part  29  of the terminal  17  is located at a position deviating from the section, only the electric contact part  31  is shown and the terminal engaging piece  49  has its side part shown. The section is shown in  FIG. 8 . 
       FIG. 8  is a sectional view taken along a line C-C in  FIG. 7 . 
     As shown in the sectional view, the side part of the terminal engaging piece  49  has an inclined surface  67  whose thickness is gradually decreased toward an inserting direction (a direction shown by an arrow mark a) of the inner housing. The inclined surface  67  is provided in both surfaces of the terminal engaging piece  49 . 
       FIG. 9  is a sectional view taken along a line D-D of  FIG. 4 . 
     Under a state that the terminal  17  is accommodated in the terminal accommodating chamber  57 , the engaging part  63  arranged in a lower part is engaged with the terminal engaging piece  49  of the inner housing  11 . The terminal engaging piece  49  is arranged closely to the bottom part of the front part positioning frame  55  of the outer housing  13 . 
       FIG. 10  is an enlarged view of a part E of  FIG. 9 . 
     In the front part positioning frame  55  of the outer housing  13 , engaging piece regulating bottom plates  71  and  71  are formed that are inserted into disengaging spaces  69  (see  FIG. 4 ) of the terminal engaging piece  49 . The engaging piece regulating bottom plate  71  regulates the displacement of the terminal engaging piece  49  toward a disengaging direction. Namely, when the inner housing  11  is attached to the outer housing  13 , the engaging piece regulating bottom plate  71  provided in the outer housing  13  enters the disengaging space  69  of the inner housing  11  to regulate the displacement of the terminal engaging piece  49  toward the disengaging direction (in a downward direction in  FIG. 10 ). As a result, the terminal  17  is double engaged. 
     The terminal engaging piece  49  comes into contact with the engaging piece regulating bottom plate  71  through the inclined surface  67  shown in  FIG. 8 . When the inner housing  11  is inserted into the outer housing  13 , the inclined surface  67  of the terminal engaging piece  49  is gradually mounted on the engaging piece regulating bottom plate  71  as shown in  FIG. 8 . When the inclined surface  67  of the terminal engaging piece  49  is mounted on the engaging piece regulating bottom plate  71 , the terminal engaging piece  49  is bent toward a direction separating from the engaging piece regulating bottom plate  71 , that is, a direction (a direction shown by an arrow mark b in  FIG. 10 ) in which the terminal engaging piece  49  is more strongly engaged with the terminal  17 . Thus, the terminal  17  is more strongly fixed under the pressure of the terminal engaging piece  49 . 
     Further, in the present exemplary embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 10 , one pair of spaced engaging piece regulating bottom plates  71  and  71  are inserted into both sides in the lower surface of the terminal engaging piece  49 . Both the sides of the terminal engaging piece  49  abut on the one pair of engaging piece regulating bottom plates  71  and  71 , so that the displacement of the terminal engaging piece  49  may be regulated in a horizontal direction where the displacement in a distorting direction is small and the reliability of a double engagement is enhanced. Further, since a part  73  of the terminal engaging piece  49  can enter the spaced part, the thickness of that part can be increased and the terminal engaging piece  49  of high strength can be formed. 
     Now, an operation of the divided connector  100  constructed as described above will be described below. 
       FIG. 11(   a ) is a sectional view of a temporarily engaged state of the inner housing,  FIG. 11(   b ) is a sectional view of a normally engaged state of the inner housing and  FIG. 11(   c ) is an enlarged view of a main part thereof. 
     In the divided connector  100 , as shown in  FIG. 11(   a ), under the temporarily engaged state that the inner housing  11  is inserted into the outer housing  13  and the flexible engaging piece  53  is engaged with the temporary engaging hole  19  of the inner housing  11 , the terminal  17  is attached to the inner housing. The terminal  17  may be attached to the inner housing  11  before the inner housing  11  is temporarily engaged with the outer housing  13 . 
     When the inner housing  11  to which the terminal  17  is attached is temporarily engaged with the outer housing  13 , then, as shown in  FIG. 11(   b ), the inner housing  11  is further pushed into the outer housing  13 . When the inner housing  11  is pushed into a final position, as shown in  FIG. 11(   c ), the electric contact part  31  is inserted into the contact part inserting hole  47  of the terminal positioning regulating wall  45  to its base end so that the deflection of the electric contact part  31  is regulated. At the same time, the main body front part  29  of the terminal  17  is fitted to the front part positioning frame  55  provided in the terminal positioning regulating wall  45 . Thus, an entire part of the terminal  17  is directly positioned and held in the outer housing  13  with high strength. 
     In addition thereto, the engaging piece regulating bottom plates  71  and  71  shown in  FIG. 8  enter the disengaging spaces  69  of the inner housing  11  to regulate the displacement of the terminal engaging piece  49  in the disengaging direction. Namely, the terminal  17  is double engaged under a state that the terminal engaging piece  49  engaged with the engaging part  63  is locked so as not to move toward the disengaging direction. 
     As described above, in the divided connector  100 , when the inner housing  11  to which the terminal  17  is attached is inserted into the outer housing  13 , the main body front part  29  of the terminal  17  protruding from the front end of the inner housing  11  is positioned in the front part positioning frame  55  provided in the outer housing  13 . Thus, the front holder that has been hitherto used is not required and the high strength positional regulation of the terminal can be realized without generating a backlash by using the small number of parts. 
     Accordingly, since the divided connector  100  of the present exemplary embodiment includes the inner housing  11  that allows the main body front part  29  of the terminal  17  to protrude and the terminal to be attached, the outer housing  13  that allows the inner housing  11  to be attached and the front part positioning frame  55  protruding in the terminal positioning regulating wall  45  of the outer housing  13  to enclose and position the main body front part  29  of the terminal  17 , the front holder that has been hitherto used is removed and the position of the terminal can be regulated by using the front part positioning frame  55  directly provided in the outer housing  13  and the small number of parts. As a result, the backlash can be eliminated and the positioning accuracy and the holding strength of the terminal  17  can be improved. 
     Further, since the inner housing  11  in the temporarily engaged state is pushed into the outer housing, the double engagement of the terminal  17  can be realized by a simple attaching operation. Further, the number of parts is reduced so that a metal mold operating time may be reduced.