Patent Publication Number: US-9413094-B2

Title: Terminal for an electrical connector

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a terminal, and more particularly to a terminal mounted in an electrical connector for signal transmission. The terminal has a resilient contacting arm for excellent electrically contacting and mechanically clamping functions without material fatigue after repeated plugging and pulling actions of the electrical connector. Furthermore, the terminal is manufactured easily such that the manufacturing cost is lowered. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Electrical connectors are common components of electrical devices and are used to electrically connect different electrical devices such that signal transmission or power supply between the electrical devices is implemented through the electrical connectors. 
     Taiwan utility model patent No. M415441 discloses an improved terminal mounted in an electrical connector on one end of a signal cable. The electrical connector may be engaged with a corresponding connector fabricated on a motherboard of an electrical device. The terminal has a base, a tail, two conducting portions, two contacting portions and two clamping portions. The tail protrudes from a rear end of the base. The conducting portions protrude from a front end of the base. The contacting portions protrude inward respectively from the conducting portions and extend forward. Each clamping portion extends from one of two sides of a corresponding conducting portion to the other side. Thus, the terminal is able to provide conducting and resiliently clamping effects. 
     However, the contacting portions of the aforementioned terminal are thin and elongated such that contacting and positioning functions thereof are not ideal. When the electrical connector on which the terminal is mounted suffers repeated plugging and pulling operations, the contacting portions of the terminal are fatigued and become too loose to maintain their original positions. Thus, the terminal cannot provide sufficient contacting force and results in contacting failure. Furthermore, the clamping portions of the terminal are hollow and U-shaped to decrease the clamping ability. The clamping portions are also too structurally complicated to manufacture. Therefore, the terminal has high manufacturing cost and low production yield rate. 
     To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a terminal for an electrical connector to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The main objective of the invention is to provide a terminal mounted in an electrical connector for signal transmission. The terminal has a resilient contacting arm for excellent electrically contacting and mechanically clamping functions without material fatigue after repeated plugging and pulling actions of the electrical connector. Furthermore, the terminal is manufactured easily such that the manufacturing cost is lowered. 
     A terminal in accordance with the present invention has a base, a wire covering portion, two connecting portions and two resilient arms. The resilient arms are formed on and protrude forward respectively from front ends of the connecting portions and each resilient arm has an extension section, a U-turn portion and a folding contacting section. The extension section is formed on and protrudes forward from the front end of one of the connecting portions. The U-turn portion is formed on the extension section. The folding contacting section is formed on and extends from the U-turn portion, is parallel to the other folding contacting section, and abuts an inside surface of the extension section. The terminal is structurally strong and durable. 
     Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a terminal for an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is another perspective view of the terminal in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a top view of the terminal in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a bottom view of the terminal in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a cross sectional side view of the terminal in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  is an operational and cross sectional side view of the terminal in  FIG. 1  mounted in an insulative housing of an electrical connector; 
         FIG. 7  is a perspective view of a second embodiment of a terminal for an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 8  is another perspective view of the terminal in  FIG. 7 ; 
         FIG. 9  is a top view of the terminal in  FIG. 7 ; 
         FIG. 10  is a bottom view of the terminal in  FIG. 7 ; 
         FIG. 11  is a cross sectional side view of the terminal in  FIG. 7 ; and 
         FIG. 12  is an operational and cross sectional side view of the terminal in  FIG. 7  mounted in an insulative housing of an electrical connector. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With reference to  FIGS. 1 and 6 , a first embodiment of a terminal  1  in accordance with the present invention is mounted on an insulative housing  90  of an electrical connector and comprises a base  11 , a wire covering portion  16 , two connecting portions  12 , two resilient arms  13  and an abutting portion  14 . 
     With further reference to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the wire covering portion  16  is formed on and protrudes backward from the base  11  and has multiple pairs of clamping tabs  161 . The pairs of the clamping tabs are formed on and protrude downward from the wire covering portion  16  and may be curved to tightly clamp copper wires of a cable connected to the electrical connector. 
     The connecting portions  12  are formed on and protrude downward respectively from two opposite sides of the base  11 . 
     With further reference to  FIGS. 4 and 5 , the resilient arms  13  are formed by stamping processes, are formed on and protrude forward respectively from front ends of the connecting portions  12 , and each resilient arm  13  has an extension section  131 , a U-turn portion  133  and a folding contacting section  132 . 
     The extension section  131  is formed on and protrudes forward from the front end of one of the connecting portions  12 . 
     The U-turn portion  133  may be curved, and is formed on the extension section  131 . In the first embodiment, the U-turn portion  133  is formed on a front end of the extension section  131 . 
     The folding contacting section  132  is formed on and extends from the U-turn portion  133 , is parallel to an inside surface of the extension section  131 , and abuts the inside surface of the extension section  131 . In the first embodiment, the folding contacting section  132  protrudes backward from the U-turn portion  133 . An inserting space  130  is defined between the folding contacting sections  132  of the resilient arms  13 . The folding contacting section  132  may further have a guiding slope surface  134  and a contacting bump  136 . The guiding slope surface  134  is formed in a bottom edge of the folding contacting section  132  to guide a corresponding terminal of an external electrical connector to smoothly enter the inserting space  130 . The contacting bump  136  is formed on and protrudes from an inside surface of the folding contacting section  132  to improve contacting effect. 
     Preferably, a length of the folding contacting section  132  is substantially equal to a length of the extension section  131 . 
     The abutting portion  14  is formed on and protrudes forward from the base  11  and is located above the resilient arms  13 . A front end of the abutting portion  14  may be substantially flush with front ends of the resilient arms  13 . The abutting portion  14  may have an embedding protrusion  15  formed on and protruding from the abutting portion  14 . The embedding protrusion  15  is embedded into the insulative housing  90  to firmly mount the terminal  1  on the insulative housing  90 . 
     With reference to  FIGS. 7 to 12 , a second embodiment of the terminal la in accordance with the present invention comprises a base  11 , a wire covering portion  16 , two connecting portions  12   a,  two resilient arms  13   a  and an abutting portion  14 . Each resilient arm  13   a  has an extension section  131 , a U-turn portion  133   a,  a folding contacting section  132  and a guiding slope surface  134   a.  The U-turn portion  133   a  of each resilient arm  13   a  is formed on a bottom edge of the extension section  131 . The folding contacting section  132  of each resilient arm  13   a  protrudes upward from the U-turn portion  133   a.  Furthermore, a length of the connecting portion  12   a  is longer than a length of the resilient arm  13   a.    
     The terminal  1 ,  1   a  of the present invention has the following advantages. 
     1. The terminal  1 ,  1   a  is manufactured from a one-piece metal sheet by stamping processes. Each resilient arm  13 ,  13   a  is made by folding an elongated metal sheet to form the abutting extension section  131  and the folding contacting section  132  such that the resilient arm  13 ,  13   a  has a thickness twice the thickness of the metal sheet. Therefore, structural strength of the resilient arm  13 ,  13   a  of the present invention is twice the structural strength of a conventional one and is able to provide excellent contacting, clamping and electrical conductive functions. The terminal  1 ,  1   a  of the present invention is durable. When the terminal  1 ,  1   a  is engaged with a corresponding terminal of another electrical connector, the inserting space  130  of the resilient arms  13 ,  13   a  accommodates and tightly clamps a contacting portion of the corresponding terminal to achieve excellent contacting and positioning purposes. 
     2. The resilient arms are formed by bending reversely without any complicated structures of holes or U-shaped configurations, which improves the structural strength, facilitates the manufacture processing and lowers the cost of the resilient arms 
     Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.