Patent Publication Number: US-11050188-B2

Title: Plug connector assembly

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     1. Field of the Disclosure 
     The present disclosure relates to a plug connector assembly, in particular to a plug connector convenient to insert and pull with regard to the plug connector assembly. 
     2. Description of Related Arts 
     China Patent No. CN3047525725, issued on Jul. 31, 2018, discloses a cable connector which includes a shell, a printed circuit board received in the shell, a cable electrically connected to the printed circuit board, and a locking spring. The shell includes an upper casing and a lower casing cooperating with the upper casing, and the locking spring is mounted on the upper casing. 
     Because the locking spring is a push-type structure, the locking spring must be pressed to unlock the receptacle connector, which is inconvenient to use. 
     Therefore, an improved plug connector is desired. 
     SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a plug connector convenient to insert and pull. 
     To achieve the above object, a plug connector for mating with a receptacle connector, comprises: a shell; and a locking spring mounted on the shell and including a mating curved surface for directly locking to and unlocking from a receptacle connector 
     Other objects, advantages and novel features of the disclosure 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 plug connector is mated with a receptacle connector according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view of the plug connector is not mated with the receptacle connector as shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is another perspective view of the plug connector is not mated with the receptacle connector as shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 4  is an exploded view of the plug connector as shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 5  is another exploded view of the plug connector as shown in  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 6  is a partially exploded view of the plug connector is mated with the receptacle connector as shown in  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 7  is another exploded view of the plug connector as shown in  FIG. 6 ; 
         FIG. 8  is a cross-sectional view of the plug connector is mated with the receptacle connector taken along line  8 - 8  in  FIG. 1 ; and 
         FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional view of the plug connector exiting the receptacle connector taken along line  8 - 8  in  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-9 , a plug connector  100  according to the present invention used for mating with receptacle connector  200 . The plug connector  100  includes a shell  1 , a printed circuit board  2  received in the shell  1 , a cable  3  electrically connected with the printed circuit board  2  and a locking spring  4 . 
     The shell  1  includes an upper casing  11  and a lower casing  12  mated with the upper casing  11 . The upper casing  11  includes protruding section  111  located in the mating end, a groove  112  located in the other end opposite to the mating end, a plurality of protruding ribs  113  between the protruding section  111  and the groove  112 , and clips  114 . The protruding section  111  locates on both sides of the locking spring  4  and hold the locking spring  4 . The protruding ribs  113  are arranged along the mating direction, and fingers can press there to increase the friction force, which facilitates the plug connector  100  to be inserted and removed. The lower casing  12  includes limiting portions  121  extending along the mating direction, positioning posts  122  at the front end of the lower casing  12 , a step portion  123  at the rear end of the lower casing  12 , and projections  124  cooperates with the clips  114 . The limiting portions  121  are located on both sides of the printed circuit board  2  to prevent the plug connector  100  from being inserted obliquely during the mating process with the receptacle connector  200 , thereby reducing the risk of PIN collapse. 
     The printed circuit board  2  includes mating holes  21  aligned with the positioning posts  122  and a plurality of soldering pads  22  on the front and back sides. The positioning posts  122  pass through the mating holes  21  to abut the rear end of the upper casing  11  to fix the printed circuit board  2 , and improve the fitting accuracy of the plug connector  100  and the receptacle connector  200 . The soldering pads  22  are arranged in two rows on the left and right sides, and the soldering pads  22  on both sides of the circuit board  2  are aligned in front and back direction, which is beneficial to the unification of the process standard of the plug connector  100 . 
     The cable  3  is electrically connected to the soldering pads  22  of the printed circuit board  2  in a left-right direction perpendicular to the mating direction and extends in the horizontal direction. 
     The locking spring  4  mounted on the upper casing  11  includes a stationary holding portion  41  held between the protruding sections  111  and a deflectable mating curved surface or locking portion  42 , wherein the mating curved surface  42  allows the plug connector  100  and the receptacle connector  200  can be directly locked and inserted to unlock and pull out. The mating curved surface  42  includes an insertion curved surface  421  extending upward from the holding portion  41 , a protruding portion  422  located at the topmost end, and an exit curved surface or locking protrusion  423  extending downward from the protruding portion  422 . The insertion curved surface  421  forms an insertion angle, and the exit curved surface  423  forms a withdrawal angle. The receptacle connector  200  is provided with a socket shell  201  enclosing the insulative housing (not labeled) with a plurality of contacts (not labeled) therein by two sides of a receiving slot (not labeled) which receives the bottom mating edge of the printed circuit board  2 , and a receiving groove  202  located on the socket shell  201 . The receiving groove  202  is used for receiving the protruding portion  422 . As shown in  FIG. 8 , when the plug connector  100  is mating with the receptacle connector  200 , the locking spring  4  is deformed by the socket shell  201  and is depressed by inserting the curved surface  421  until the protruding portion  422  of the latch spring  4  is located in the receiving groove  202 , the latch spring  4  rebounds upward to return to the normal state, and the mating process of the plug connector  100  and the receptacle connector  200  is completed. As shown in  FIG. 9 , when the plug connector  100  exits the receptacle connector  200 , the latch spring  4  is deformed by the depression of the socket housing  201  through the exit surface  423  until the plug connector  100  and the receptacle connector  200  separate, and the locking spring  4  rebounds upward to return to the normal state. In this embodiment, the shell  201  of the receptacle connector  200  further includes a recess  203  in an upward edge. Correspondingly, the protruding section  111  of the shell  1  of the plug connector  100  further form a pair of restraining bars  117 . During mating, the lower portions of the restraining bars  117   b  are received within the recess  203  while the upper portions  117   a  of the ribs  117  are exposed outside of the recess  203 . The free end  422   a  of the protruding portion  422  does not extend beyond the pair of restraining bars  117  in both the vertical direction and the transverse direction so as not to be inadvertently actuated by an unexpected external piece, thus assuring reliable mating between the plug connector  100  and the receptacle connector  200 . In this embodiment, the dimension of the receiving groove  202  of the shell  201  of the receptacle connector  200  and the corresponding exit curved surface  432  of the lock spring  4  are dimensioned with around one third of the length of the receptacle connector  200  in the longitudinal direction along which the cable  3  extends, thus assuring the required retention force between the plug connector  100  and the receptacle connector  200 . Understandably, the mating curved surface allows the so-called passive latch operation for either insertion or withdrawing in response to the movement of the shell of the plug connector, compared with the active latch operation requiring the manual operation applied upon the deflectable locking spring directly.