Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to an electrical connector. In particular, this invention relates to a sound-socket electrical connector. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0004]    As electronic products and multi-medium personal computers have developed, sound-socket electrical connectors have become popularly applied to them both. As users desire to have high performance electronic devices, the requirements for and performances of sound-socket electrical connector have become higher and higher. 
         [0005]    Current sound-socket electrical connectors usually include four signal-pins and a grounding-pin. The structure of the grounding-pin is simple and easily manufactured. The sound-socket electrical connector is usually a stacked-type. For example, a sound-socket electrical connector having three stacked plugging interfaces has three sets of signal-pins. Each of the signal-pins has four pins. The signal-pins are arranged from up to down and the height of the bent pins are different from each other. Each of the pins is formed individually. Therefore, each of the pins is respectively plugged into the pin-receiving ditch. 
         [0006]    Taiwan patent TW 545773 discloses a triple sound-socket electrical connector. The triple sound-socket electrical connector includes a base, a glue core, and five pin sets plugged in the base and the glue core. The third pin set is a grounding-pin and the others are signal-pins. Each of the pin sets includes three pins that need to be individually plugged into the corresponding through hole and the plugging-ditch in the base and the glue core. Each of the pins needs to be manufactured individually and have a complex structure. Furthermore, each of the pins needs to be plugged into a corresponding through hole and a plugging-ditch. It is difficult to manufacture the pins and the cost of the pins is high. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    One particular aspect of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector in which the structure of its pins is simple. 
         [0008]    A further particular aspect of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector whose pins can be assembled easily and the manufacturing efficiency is increased. 
         [0009]    The electrical connector includes an insulating body, and at least four pins received in the insulating body, such as the first pin, the second pin, the third pin, and the fourth pin. The height of the first pin and the second pin are higher than the third pin or the fourth pin. The pin has a connecting arm. A flexible arm extends from one end of the connecting arm. The connecting arms are located on the same plane, and the flexible arms are not all located on the same plane. The electrical connector further includes eight pins. Four pins belong to one set, and the pins are divided into three sets. 
         [0010]    The present invention has the following merits. Because the height of the bent pins is different from each other and the connecting arms are located on the same plane, the shape of the pins is versatile and the entire pin&#39;s structure is simple. It is easy to assemble the pins, so the manufacturing efficiency increases, the manufacturing costs are reduced, and the assembly quality is enhanced. 
         [0011]    For further understanding of the invention, reference is made to the following detailed description illustrating the embodiments and examples of the invention. The description is only for illustrating the invention and is not intended to be considered limiting of the scope of the claim. 
     
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    The drawings included herein provide a further understanding of the invention. A brief introduction of the drawings is as follows: 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  is an assembly perspective view of the electrical connector of the present invention; 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  is an exploded perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of the pin of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of the upper row pins connected with the pin material belt of  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram of the middle row pins connected with the pin material belt of  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0018]      FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram of the lower row pins connected with the pin material belt of  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0019]      FIG. 7  is a schematic diagram of the main body of  FIG. 2 ; 
           [0020]      FIG. 8  is another schematic diagram of the main body of  FIG. 7 ; and 
           [0021]      FIG. 9  is a schematic diagram of the rear stopper of  FIG. 2 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0022]    Reference is made to  FIGS. 1-9 . The electrical connector  10  is a sound-socket electrical connector, and is connected with an electronic element (not shown in the figure) to transmit the sound signal. The electrical connector  10  includes a main body  11 , a rear stopper  12 , a covering ring  13 , three rows or three sets of pins  2  that are disposed in upper, middle, and lower rows and each of the rows has at least four pins, a grounding flake  14  having a plurality of grounding-pins, and a sheltering shell  15  covering an outside of the main body  11  and the rear stopper  12 . The sheltering shell  15  is a metallic shell which provides a sheltering function. 
         [0023]    On the front surface of the main body  11 , there are three plugging holes  113 . In the plugging hole  113 , there is a plastic arm  115  that is integrated into one piece with the main body  11 . At the side edge of the plugging hole  113 , there is a concave trench  113   1 . There are two concave gaps  117  between the plugging holes  113  in the vertical direction and they are both disposed at a distance. On the front surface of the main body  11  that is adjacent to the plugging hole  113 , there is a grounding flake receiving slot  116  for receiving the grounding flake  14 . On the rear surface of the main body  11 , there are three rows of pin-receiving slots  111  that are disposed on upper, middle, and lower rows. Each row of the pin-receiving slots  111  has four receiving slots  1110 ,  1111 ,  1112 , and  1113  that respectively receives one pin from the set of pins. A protruding part  118  extends backwards from the adjacent sets of pin-receiving slots  111  on the rear surface of the main body  11 . There are two protruding parts  118  on the rear surface of the main body  11 . The length of the upper protruding part  118  extending away from the main body  11  is larger than the length of the lower protruding part  118 . On the protruding part  118 , there are four sets of fastening points  1181  for fastening the pins  2  located on the upper row and the lower row. The rear stopper  12  also has three rows of pin-receiving holes  121 , and there is a step wall on the body of the rear stopper  12 . The pin-receiving holes  121  are respectively located on the step wall  112 . On the locations of the step wall  112  that correspond to the pin-receiving holes  121  along the vertical direction, there is a protruding part that can position the connecting arms of the upper row of pins and the middle row of pins. In this embodiment, the protruding part is a rib strip  123 . The grounding flake  14  is received in the grounding flake receiving slot  116  of the main body  11 . The grounding flake  14  includes a main body  140  and a plurality of grounding-pins located on the main body  140 , including three first grounding-pins  141  and two second grounding-pins  142 . The first grounding-pins  141  are installed in the concave trench  1131  and contact the electronic element (not shown in the figure). The second grounding-pins  142  are installed in the concave gaps  117  and conduct signals to the sheltering shell  15 . Alternatively, the main body  140  conducts signals to the sheltering shell  15  so as to connect with the grounding. 
         [0024]    The set of pins  2  includes sound pins and signal pins. This means that the sound pins and the signal pins are integrated into one piece on the pin material belt. The upper row of the sound pins and the signal pins  21  are integrated into one piece on the pin material belt  31 . The middle row of the sound pins and the signal pins  22  are integrated into one piece on the pin material belt  32 . The lower row of the sound pins and the signal pins  23  are integrated into one piece on the pin material belt  33 . Four pins on the pin material belt form a set of pins, including the first pin, the second pin, the third pin, and the fourth pin. The shape of the four pins are different from each other. The two sound pins are located on two sides of the pin material belt. The first pin and the second pin are the sound pins. The signal pins are located in middle of the pin material belt. The third pin and the fourth pin are the signal pins. 
         [0025]    The pin material belt  31  is taken as an example. There are four pins that are integrated with the pin material belt  31  into one piece and form one set of upper row sound pins and signal pins  21 . Because the sound pins are located on the outside of the signal pins, the four pins from right to left are respectively the first pin  211 , the third pin  213 , the fourth pin  214 , and the second pin  212 . The four pins  211 ,  212 ,  213 ,  214  respectively have connecting parts  2110 ,  2120 ,  2130 ,  2140  that are connected with the pin material belt  31 . Connecting arms  2111 ,  2121 ,  2131 ,  2141  extend from the upper end of the connecting part, and the front ends of the connecting arms  2111 ,  2121 ,  2131 ,  2141  open to form fastening arms  2112 ,  2122 ,  2132 ,  2142  and flexible arms  2113 ,  2123 ,  2133 ,  2143 . At the middle of the connecting arm, a fastening flake  2100  extends from two sides of the connecting arm. The connecting arm located between the fastening flake  2100  and the connecting part, the connecting arms of the first pin, and the third pin all have a           shape in the vertical plane, and the connecting arms of the second pin and the fourth pin all have an “inverse           shape in the vertical plane that corresponds to the connecting arms of the first pin and the third pin. Therefore, the space occupied by the pins is small and the pins are disposed close together. An included angle or an opening is formed between the connecting arms  2111 ,  2121 ,  2131 ,  2141  and the flexible arms  2113 ,  2123 ,  2133 ,  2143 . The flexible arms  2113 ,  2123 ,  2133 ,  2143  extend to form contacting parts  2114 ,  2124 ,  2134 ,  2144  (the contacting parts  2134 ,  2144  of the signal pins  213 ,  214  can also be called a third contacting part  2134 , and a fourth contacting part  2144 ). The contacting part  2114  of the first pin and the contacting part  2124  of the second pin respectively face towards the inside of the set of pins, are bent inwards, and correspond to each other. The contacting part  2134  of the third pin faces downwards, and extends to the fourth pin and engages to the upper side of the fourth pin. The contacting part  2144  of the fourth pin faces upwards and corresponds to the contacting part  2134  of the third pin. The locations of the fastening arms  2112 ,  2122  of the sound pins  211 ,  212  are opposite to the locations of the flexible arms  2113 ,  2123 . This means that the fastening arm  2113  of the first pin  211  and the fastening arm  2123  of the second pin  212  are respectively located on the opposite outsides of the pin, and the contacting parts  2114 ,  2124  are formed by bending the flexible arms  2113 ,  2123 . However, the shape of the contacting parts  2114  is different from the shape of the contacting parts  2124 . Therefore, the structure of the sound pin  211  is different from the structure of the sound pin  212 . The locations of the fastening arms  2132 ,  2142  of the signal pins  213 ,  214  are opposite to the locations of the flexible arms  2133 ,  2143 . This means that the flexible arm  2113  of the first pin  211  is adjacent to the fastening arm  2132  of the third pin  213 , the flexible arm  2133  of the third pin  213  is adjacent to the flexible arm  2143  of the fourth pin  214 , and the fastening arm  2142  of the fourth pin  214  is adjacent to the flexible arm  2123  of the second pin  212 . The third contacting part  2134  of the third pin  213  is also formed by bending the flexible arm  2133  and has a hook shape. However, the shape of the third contacting art  2134  is different from the shape of the contacting arts  2114 ,  2124  of the sound pins  211 ,  212 . The fourth contacting art  2144  of the fourth pin  214  is located on an end of the flexible arm  2143 . Therefore, the structure of the signal pin  213  is different from the structure of the signal pin  214 , and the structure of the sound pins  211 ,  212  are also different from the structure of the signal pins  213 ,  214 . 
         [0026]    After the pins are formed, the pins are bent so that there is at least one bending point  20  on the pins. The connecting arms  2111 ,  2121 ,  2131 ,  2141  of the bent pin  21  forms a           shape. The fastening flake  2100  is located on the vertical part of the connecting arm. The vertical parts of the connecting arms of the pin set having four pins are located on the same plane. The horizontal parts of the connecting arms are not located on the same plane. The connecting parts  2110 ,  2120 ,  2130 ,  2140  of the upper row pin set are also located on the same plane. The plane for the connecting arms and the plane for the connecting part are the same pane. The height of the bending points of the sound pins  211 ,  212  are higher than the height of the bending points of the signal pins  213 ,  214 . The heights of the bending points of the sound pins  211 ,  212  located on the two ends of the pin material belt are equal. The heights of the bending points of the signal pins  213 ,  214  located in the middle of the pin material belt are unequal. Therefore, the horizontal heights of the flexible arms are different from each other. The height of the bending point of the third pin  213  is higher than the height of the bending point of the fourth pin  214 . Therefore, the third contacting part  2134  of the third pin  213  is located above the fourth contacting part  2144  of the fourth pin  214 . When the electronic element (not shown in the figure) is plugged into the electrical connector  10 , the electronic element pushes and contacts the plastic arm  115  so that the plastic arm  115  is compressed downwards to contact the third pin  213 . Thereby, the third contacting part  2134  of the third pin  213  compresses the fourth contacting part  2144  of the fourth pin  214  downwards to make the signal pins conduct. At this time, the electronic element conducts the sound pins-the first pin  211  and the second pin  212 . 
         [0027]    Similarly, the sound pins and the signal pins  22  of the middle row are also integrated with the pin material belt into one piece. The middle row pins include the other first pin  221  and the other second pin  222  located on two sides of the pin material belt  32 , and the other third pin  223  and the other fourth pin  224  located in the middle of the pin material belt  32 . The structure of the four pins  22  of the middle row is the same as one of the four pins  21  of the upper row, except that the four pins  22  of the middle row are smaller than the four pins  21  of the upper row. 
         [0028]    Similarly, the sound pins and the signal pins  23  of the lower row are also integrated with the pin material belt into one piece. The structure of the four pins  23  of the middle row is the same as one of the four pins  21  of the upper row, except that the four pins  22  of the middle row are the smallest, the connecting arm and the welding arm of the pin  23  are bent into a cubic           shape, and the connecting parts and the vertical part of the connecting arm of the pins  23  are not located on the same plane. 
         [0029]    When the pins are assembled, the pins  21 ,  22 ,  23  connected on the pin material belts  31 ,  32 ,  33  are respectively plugged into the corresponding pin-receiving slots  111  to make the fastening flake of the pin fit with the protruding part  118 . The fastening flake  2100  of the pin fits with the fastening point  1181  of the protruding part  118  to fasten the pins  21 ,  22 . Next, the pin material belts  31 ,  32 ,  33  are broken. The lower end of the connecting arm and the connecting part of the pin are plugged into the corresponding pin-receiving slot  121 . The pins  21 ,  22  sequentially contact and push the rib strips  123 . Thereby, the pins  21 ,  22  are firmly plugged into electrical connector  10 . Because the pins  23  are different from the pins  21 ,  22 , including the connecting parts and the connecting arms are not located on the same plane, and the structure is the smallest, the pins  23  are received in the receiving slots  1110 ,  1111 ,  1112 ,  1113  and are fastened by the pin-receiving holes  121  of the rear stopper  12 . 
         [0030]    Because the pins are directly connected with the pin material belts before they are bent and part of the connecting arms and the connecting parts of the bent pins are located on the same plane, and the flexible arms are not located on the same plane, and the height of the flexible arms are different from each other, the shape of the pins are versatile. Furthermore, the pin includes the connecting part and the contacting part so that the structure of the pin is simple. The pins are integrated with the pin material belt into one piece. It is easy to assemble the pins, the manufacturing efficiency increases, the manufacturing cost is reduced, and the assembly quality is enhanced. 
         [0031]    The description above only illustrates specific embodiments and examples of the invention. The invention should therefore cover various modifications and variations made to the herein-described structure and operations of the invention, provided they fall within the scope of the invention as defined in the following appended claims.

Technology Category: 5