Patent ID: 8083543

Claim:
A joint connector for mutually electrically short-circuiting a plurality of wire-side terminals each provided on an end of each of a plurality of electric wires, comprising: a joint terminal made of an electrically conductive material and adapted to be connected collectively to the wire-side terminals to mutually short-circuit the wire-side terminals; and a connector housing formed of an insulating material to hold the joint terminal in the connector housing, wherein: the joint terminal integrally has a plurality of electric contact portions each having a shape contactable with each of the wire-side terminals, and arranged in a specific direction, and a short-circuiting portion extending in an arrangement direction of the electric contact portions and connected to the electric contact portions, the connector housing has a main body wall surrounding a plurality of terminal insertion spaces into which the wire-side terminals can be inserted respectively so as to contact the respective electric contact portions of the joint terminal inside the connector housing, the body wall including a bottom wall that has an exposed outer surface exposed to an outside of the joint connector, the bottom wall being formed with a plurality of terminal locking pieces and slits which separate the respective terminal locking pieces from the bottom wall, each of the terminal locking pieces having a locking portion capable of being engaged with the wire-side terminal inserted into the terminal insertion space to contact the electric contact portion, each of the terminal locking pieces forms a part of the exposed outer surface of the bottom wall and has a shape capable of being deflected to be retracted from the wire-side terminal perpendicularly to an intension direction thereof and oppositely to the terminal insertion space, and a position of each of the terminal locking pieces is set such that, until the wire-side terminal reaches a proper insertion depth position in the terminal insertion space, the terminal locking piece is deflected, by a pressing force from the wire-side terminal, so as to project from the bottom wall to the outside of the bottom wall beyond the exposed outer surface of the body wall, and, when the wire-side terminal reaches the proper insertion depth position, the wire-side terminal is electrically connected to the joint terminal and the terminal locking piece comes back into the main body wall by an elastic returning force thereof.