Patent Publication Number: US-9905946-B2

Title: Receptacle electrical connector for improving manufacturing process efficiency

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The instant disclosure relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a receptacle electrical connector that improves manufacturing process efficiency. During a batch manufacturing process of the receptacle electrical connector, metallic beltings are employed to connect multiple shielding plates, and multiple sets of terminals and multiple insulative housing are formed and assembled respectively onto the shielding plates simultaneously by an insert-molding process, which enhances the productivity of the receptacle electrical connector. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Electrical connectors are general electrical components on electronic devices widely used for connecting to other matching connectors on the other electrical devices. For example universal serial bus (USB) 3.1 connectors are conventional and products that are available and equipped in a variety of electronic devices. 
     USB 3.1 protocol has been further developed to include USB Type C connector that is able to provide ultrahigh data transmission speed of 10 Gbps and has a light and compact structure especially suitable for portable devices. The USB Type C connector is also featured with a reversible socket for reversible connection for extensive applications on different electrical devices. 
     A USB type C receptacle connector has an insulative housing, a metal plate, two terminal sets and a metallic shell. The insulative housing is made of plastic and has a tongue portion formed on and protrudes from the insulative housing. The metal plate is embedded in the insulative housing by an insert-molding process. The terminal sets are mounted on the insulative housing and are able to transmit signals. The metallic shell covers the insulative housing and the terminal sets. 
     However, each insert-molding process only forms one insulative housing onto one metal plate. To implement batch production of multiple insulative housings, multiple sequential insert-molding processes are required to attach each insulative housing to each metal plate, which is low efficient and disadvantages mass production of the receptacle connectors. 
     To overcome the shortcomings, the instant disclosure provides a receptacle electrical connector for improving manufacturing process efficiency to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The main objective of the invention is to provide a receptacle electrical connector that improves manufacturing process efficiency. During a batch manufacturing process of the receptacle electrical connector, metallic beltings are employed to connect multiple shielding plates, and multiple sets of terminals and multiple insulative housing are formed and assembled respectively onto the shielding plates simultaneously by an insert-molding process, which enhances the productivity of the receptacle electrical connector. 
     A receptacle electrical connector in accordance with the instant disclosure comprises an insulated housing, a first terminal set, a second terminal set, a shielding plate and a metallic shell. The shielding plate has two connection portions formed respectively on two opposite sides of the shielding plate and each connection portion has a cutting surface. The cutting surface is formed on the connection portion, and the two cutting surfaces of the connection portions are exposed out of two opposite sides of the insulated housing. During the insert-molding processes of insulated housings, the connection beltings of metallic beltings are connected to multiple shielding plates for simultaneously forming multiple insulated housings. Therefore, production efficiency and yield rate of the receptacle electrical connectors are enhanced. 
     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 receptacle electrical connector for improving manufacturing process efficiency in accordance with the instant disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view of a semi-finished product of the receptacle electrical connector in  FIG. 1  showing connected metallic belting connected to a shielding plate by connection beltings, wherein the shielding plate is embedded in an insulated housing after two insert-molding processes are performed; 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective view of the shielding plate connected to the metallic belting by connection beltings as shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a top view of the shielding plate connected to the metallic belting by connection beltings as shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view of the receptacle electrical connector in  FIG. 1  omitting a metallic shell and an outer metallic shell; 
         FIG. 6  is an exploded perspective view of the receptacle electrical connector in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 7  is another exploded perspective view of the receptacle electrical connector in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 8  is a front view of the semi-finished product of the receptacle electrical connector in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 9  is a cross sectional side view of the receptacle electrical connector in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 10  is a perspective view of a semi-finished product of a second embodiment of a receptacle electrical connector for improving manufacturing process efficiency in accordance with the instant disclosure showing the shielding plate embedded in an insulated housing after two insert-molding processes are performed and the metallic belting and the connection beltings are removed; 
         FIG. 11  is a perspective view of the shielding plate and the metallic belting of the receptacle electrical connector in  FIG. 10 ; and 
         FIG. 12  is a top view of the shielding plate and the metallic belting of the receptacle electrical connector in  FIG. 10 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With reference to  FIGS. 1 and 6 , a first embodiment of a receptacle electrical connector for improving manufacturing process efficiency in accordance with the instant disclosure comprises an insulated housing, a first terminal set, a second terminal set, a shielding plate  50 , a metallic shell  60  and an outer metallic shell  70 . 
     The insulated housing has a first insulated housing  10  and a second insulated housing  20 . 
     The second insulated housing  20  is mounted on the first insulated housing  10  to form the insulated housing. The second insulated housing  20  has a base portion  21  and a tongue portion  22 . The tongue portion  22  is formed on and protrudes forward from the base portion  21 . 
     The first terminal set is held in the insulated housing, may be mounted on the first insulated housing  10 , and has multiple first terminals  30 . The first terminals  30  are held in the insulated housing, may be mounted on the first insulated housing  10 , and each first terminal  30  has a first electrical contact section  32 . The first electrical contact section  32  is formed on a front end of the first terminal  30  and is disposed on a bottom surface of the tongue portion  22 . 
     With further reference to  FIGS. 7 and 8 , the second terminal set is held in the insulated housing, may be mounted on the second insulated housing  20 , and has multiple second terminals  40 . The second terminals  40  are held in the insulated housing, may be mounted on the second insulated housing  20 , and each second terminal  40  has a second electrical contact section  42 . The second electrical contact section  42  is formed on a front end of the second terminal  40  and is disposed on a top surface of the tongue portion  22 . 
     The first terminal set and the second terminal set are substantially pointing symmetrical to each other with respect to a centre of symmetry of the tongue portion  22 . According to point symmetrical configuration of the first and second terminal sets, when the first and second terminal sets are rotated for 180 degrees with respect to the centre of symmetry, the rotated first and second terminal sets coincide with and are identical to the first and second terminal sets without rotation of 180 degrees. By the point symmetrical configuration of the first and second terminal sets, an electrical plug connector can extend reversely into the reinforced electrical receptacle connector to normally implement high speed signal transmission. 
     With further reference to  FIG. 9 , the shielding plate  50  is made of metal, is embedded in the tongue portion  22  of the insulated housing, may be embedded in the first insulated housing  10 , is embedded in the tongue portion  22  of the second insulated housing  30  of the insulated housing and is located between the first terminal set and the second terminal set. The shielding plate  50  has two connection portions  53  and two corner reinforcing elements  55 . 
     The connection portions  53  are formed respectively on two opposite sides  51  of the shielding plate  50  and each connection portion  53  has a cutting surface  531  after removing the beltings or linkages. The cutting surface  531  is formed on the connection portion  53 , and the two cutting surfaces  531  of the connection portions  53  are exposed out of two opposite side edges  221  of the tongue portion  22 . In the first embodiment, the connection portions  53  are formed respectively on and protrude outward from two opposite middle portions of the sides of the shielding plate  50 . 
     The corner reinforcing elements  55  are formed respectively on the sides  51  of the shielding plate  50  adjacent to a front end of the shielding plate  50 . 
     Preferably, the first terminal set and the shielding plate  50  are mounted on the first insulated housing  10  by a first insert-molding process. After the first insert-molding process, the combined first terminal set, the shielding plate  50  and the first insulated housing  10  are further mounted on the second insulated housing  20  by a second insert-molding process. 
     The metallic shell  60  has a receiving cavity  600  defined through the metallic shell  60  and accommodating the first insulated housing  10  and the second insulated housing  20  of the insulated housing, the first terminal set and the second terminal set. 
     The outer metallic shell  70  encloses the metallic shell  60  and has two soldering legs formed on and protruding downward respectively from two opposite sides of the outer metallic shell  70  to be soldered on a printed circuit board. 
     With further reference to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , during the manufacturing process of the receptacle electrical connector, the cutting surfaces  531  of the connection portions  53  of the shielding plate  50  are connected integrally to a metallic belting  80 . The metallic belting  80  has a connection plate  81  and a pair of connection beltings  82 . The connection beltings  82  are formed on and protrude from the connection plate  81  and are integrally connected respectively to the shielding plate  50 . According to requirement of a batch manufacturing process, the connection plate  81  may be elongated and has multiple pairs of connection beltings  82  to simultaneously connect to multiple shielding plates  50 . The metallic belting  80  may be mounted on a fixture device. 
     With further reference to  FIG. 2 , during the batch manufacturing process of the receptacle electrical connector, first of all, multiple first terminal sets are positioned to match multiple shielding plates  50 . Then, a first insert-molding process is performed on the multiple first terminal sets and the multiple shielding plates  50  by an insert-molding apparatus to simultaneously form multiple first insulated housings  10 . Then, multiple second terminal sets are positioned to match the first insulated housings  10 . A second insert-molding process is performed to simultaneously form multiple second insulated housings  20  on the first insulated housings and the second terminal sets. Finally, a cutting tool is used to cut connecting portions between the shielding plates  50  and the metallic beltings  80  such that cutting surface  531  on two opposite sides  51  of each shielding plate  50  are formed. 
     With reference to  FIGS. 10 to 12 , in a second embodiment of the receptacle electrical connector for improving manufacturing process efficiency in accordance with the instant disclosure, the shielding plate  50   a  has two corner reinforcing elements  55  formed respectively on the opposite sides  51  adjacent to a front end of the shielding plate  50   a . The connection portions  550  are formed respectively on the corner reinforcing elements  55 . The cutting surfaces  551  are formed respectively on the connection portions  550  of the corner reinforcing elements  55  and are exposed out of the side edges  221  of the tongue portion  22  adjacent to a front edge  222  of the tongue portion  22 . During the insert-molding processes, the connection beltings  82  of the metallic belting  80   a  are connected to the cutting surfaces  551  of the corner reinforcing elements  55 . 
     The receptacle electrical connectors in accordance with the instant disclosure are made by connecting a single metallic belting  80  integrally to multiple shielding plates  50  to simultaneously insert-mold and form multiple first insulated housing  10  and multiple outer insulative houses  20 . Therefore, the insert-molding time is decreased drastically to achieve batch production of the receptacle electrical connector. 
     Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the instant disclosure 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.