JP3092467B2 - connector - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector in which a retainer is used to prevent a terminal fitting from coming off.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some conventional connectors employ a so-called double locking structure in order to reliably prevent terminal fittings from coming off and to detect defective insertion. There is a type in which a retainer is inserted in a direction crossing the direction. This is achieved by connecting a terminal fitting with an elastic locking piece called a lance formed in the terminal receiving chamber of the connector housing and a locking piece of a retainer inserted and assembled from the retainer insertion hole of the connector housing. Is made to engage.

[0003]

As shown in FIG. 9, this type of retainer 1 has an end plate 1a for closing a retainer insertion hole 2a formed on a side surface of a connector housing 2. As shown in FIG.
And a pair of side plate portions 2b extending into the connector housing 2 from both ends of the end plate portion 1a, and is generally manufactured by injection molding of plastic. It is.

[0004] For this reason, due to factors such as shrinkage of the resin after molding, the side plate portion 1b is likely to bend and deform in the direction in which the lower end portions approach each other (inward) as shown by the arrow in the figure. When such deformation occurs, when the retainer 1 is inserted into the connector housing 2 from the retainer insertion hole 2a, the tip (lower end) of the side plate portion 1b is easily caught by the partition wall or the lance of the terminal accommodating chamber in the connector housing 2. As a result, the insertion workability of the retainer 1 becomes very poor. Such a decrease in the insertion workability becomes more serious as the terminal housing chambers are provided in multiple stages in the connector housing 2, and this has been a major problem to be solved in the recent trend of multipolarization of connectors.

The present invention has been devised in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a connector capable of efficiently performing a retainer insertion operation.

[0006]

According to the connector of the present invention, a retainer insertion hole is formed in a connector housing provided with a terminal accommodating chamber into which a terminal fitting is inserted, and the terminal is accommodated by the retainer inserted from the retainer insertion hole. A connector for retaining terminal fittings housed in the chamber,
The retainer includes an end plate portion that closes the retainer insertion hole, and side plate portions that extend into the connector housing from both ends of the end plate portion, wherein the end plates are provided on both side plate portions of the retainer. A guide rib protruding in a direction intersecting with the extension direction of the plate portion and extending along the insertion direction of the retainer is provided, and a vertical groove through which the side plate portion can be inserted is formed on an inner wall surface of the retainer insertion hole. A guide groove for fitting the guide rib is formed on an inner wall surface of the vertical groove, and a portion of the upper surface of the connector housing that is continuous with the vertical groove of the retainer insertion hole has an upper surface of the connector housing. Left from center
A slope portion for guiding the side plate portion into the vertical groove is formed by inclining downward toward the vertical groove toward both right sides .

[0007]

[0008]

The retainer is inserted into the retainer insertion hole of the connector housing from the tip of the side plate. At this time, guide ribs extending along the direction of insertion of the retainer are protruded from the side plate portion, and guide grooves for fitting the guide ribs are formed on the inner wall surface of the retainer insertion hole. The guide rib enters the guide groove. Here, since the guide ribs protrude in a direction intersecting with the extension direction of the end plate portion, the side plate portions provided at both ends of the end plate portion are prevented from being deformed and are inserted straight along the guide groove. You.

[0009] A portion connected to the vertical groove of the retainer insertion hole.
Has a slope toward the flute.
If the lower ends of the side plates of the retainer approach each other (inside
Side), even if the retainer is inserted
, The tip of the side plate of the retainer abuts the slope
Therefore, it is guided to the vertical groove by the slope.

[0010]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the retainer is guided along the guide groove, the operation of inserting the retainer can be performed extremely smoothly. In this case, since the tip of the side plate portion of the retainer is guided by itself into the guide groove, the retainer can be inserted more smoothly, and productivity is greatly improved.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

(Construction of Embodiment) In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a housing of a female connector, into which a terminal fitting 13 fixed to the tip of an electric wire 12 is inserted as shown in FIG. Since the terminal fitting 13 has the same configuration as the conventional one, the description will be briefly omitted. However, an insulation barrel 14 is provided at the rear end, and the tip end portion of the wire coating is swaged and fixed. Have been. A wire barrel 15 is formed at the front of the wire barrel 15 to fix the core of the electric wire 12 by caulking. Further, a connection tubular portion 16 having a rectangular tubular shape into which a male terminal fitting (not shown) is inserted is formed in front of the wire barrel 15. A lance 19 to be described later is engaged with the connection tube portion 16 so that the terminal fitting 13 can be temporarily fixed.

The housing 11 is integrally formed of a synthetic resin material, and has a plurality of terminal accommodation chambers 17 for accommodating the above-mentioned terminal fittings 13 in, for example, upper and lower stages. Each terminal accommodating chamber 17 is divided into individual chambers by a partition wall 18 in a lattice shape, and each is opened in both front and rear directions to enable insertion of the terminal fitting 13 or insertion of a male terminal fitting (not shown). It is formed as follows. A lance 19 that can be flexibly deformed and extended is formed in each terminal accommodating chamber 17, and a tip end thereof always projects inwardly of the terminal accommodating chamber 17. After being bent and deformed so as to be retracted, it engages with an engaging hole (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 1, a retainer insertion hole 20 is formed over the entire width of the upper surface of the housing 11, from which a retainer 30 is inserted. As shown in FIG. 2, the retainer insertion hole 20 is continuous with a plurality of vertical grooves 21 extending to the bottom in the housing 11 so as to penetrate each terminal accommodating chamber 17.

On the other hand, the retainer 30 shown in FIG. 5 is also integrally formed of a synthetic resin material similarly to the housing 11, and includes an end plate portion 31 for closing the retainer insertion hole 20 of the housing 11, and an end plate portion 31. And a pair of side plate portions 32 extending into the connector housing 11 from both ends of the housing 11, and each side plate portion 32 is inserted into the vertical grooves 21 on the left and right sides of the housing 11. As shown in FIG. 6, an elastic engaging claw 34 is formed at the lower end of each side plate 32 so as to be deformable by a slit 33. The elastic engaging claw 34 is formed at the bottom of the vertical groove 21 on both the left and right sides. The retainer 30 is fixed to the housing 11 by engaging with the housing 11 (see FIGS. 2 and 3). The retainer 30 is integrally formed with a plurality of locking plates 35 located between the left and right side plate portions 32 along with the side plate portions 32.
A locking projection 36 projecting from the side plate portion 32 and the locking plate 35 enters the terminal accommodating chamber 17 of the housing 11, whereby the terminal fitting inserted into the terminal accommodating chamber 17 is provided. 13 is prevented from falling off (double locking).

Further, guide ribs 37 projecting in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which the end plate portion 31 extends are provided on both front and rear ends (the left and right sides in FIG. 6) of the side plate portion 32.
Projecting in substantially the entire upper and lower regions so as to extend along the insertion direction of the. A guide groove 23 in which a guide rib 37 is fitted is formed on the inner wall surface of the vertical groove 21 of the retainer insertion hole 20 of the housing 11 so as to extend vertically.
Thus, the guide rib 37 can be guided up and down. A portion of the upper surface of the housing 11 that is continuous with the vertical groove 21 of the retainer insertion hole 20 is provided with the housing 1.
A slope portion 38 is formed which is inclined downward toward the vertical groove 21 from the center of the upper surface to the left and right sides (see FIGS. 7 and 8).

According to the above-described embodiment, when assembling the connector, first, the terminal fittings 13 are inserted into the respective terminal accommodating chambers 17 of the housing 11, and the terminal fittings 13 are inserted into the lances of the housing 11. Lock at 19 Next, when all the terminal fittings 13 have been inserted, the retainer 30 is inserted into the retainer insertion hole 20. To do this, the tips of the left and right side plate portions 32 of the retainer 30 may be directed to the left and right vertical grooves 21 of the retainer insertion hole 20, and the retainer 30 may be sunk straight down. At this time, even if the lower end portions of the side plate portions 32 are flexed and deformed in a direction approaching (inside) each other due to, for example, molding distortion, the side plate portions 3 are not deformed.
Since the lower end of 2 abuts on a slope 38 connected to the vertical groove 21, it is guided into the vertical groove 21 by the slope 38.
A guide rib 37 protrudes from the side plate portion 32, while a guide groove 23 into which the guide rib 37 can be fitted is formed in the vertical groove 21, so that the guide rib 37 and thus the retainer 30 are connected to the guide groove 23. It will be guided straight down along.

Therefore, since a large number of locking projections 36 are provided on the side plate portion 32 and the locking plate 35, the locking projections 36 are likely to be caught on the partition wall 18 and the lance 19 of the terminal accommodating chamber 17 in the housing 11. Even if there is, it is difficult for the catch to occur, so that the work of inserting the retainer 30 can be simplified, and the work efficiency can be improved. Moreover, the fact that the retainer 30 can be inserted straight into the regular position means that the amount of engagement of the locking projection 36 with the terminal fitting 13 is set to the designed value, so that the reliability of the holding force with respect to the terminal fitting 13 is improved. Will be.

<Other Embodiments> The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, the following embodiments are possible, and these are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

(1) In this embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a female connector is shown, but the present invention can be applied to a male connector.

(2) The slope portion is not always necessary, and can be omitted when the bending deformation of the retainer expected according to the size of the connector or the like is small.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described with reference to the above description and the drawings, and can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the scope of the invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a connector housing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a housing.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a retainer.

FIG. 6 is a side view of a retainer.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan view of the connector.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the connector.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a conventional connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Connector housing 12 ... Electric wire 13 ... Terminal fitting 16 ... Connection cylinder part 17 ... Terminal accommodating chamber 20 ... Retainer insertion hole 21 ... Vertical groove 23 ... Guide groove 30 ... Retainer 31 ... End plate part 32 ... Side plate part 37 ... Guide rib 38 … Slope

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A retainer insertion hole is formed in a connector housing having a terminal receiving chamber into which a terminal fitting is inserted, and a retainer inserted through the retainer inserting hole prevents the terminal fitting housed in the terminal receiving chamber from coming off. Wherein the retainer includes an end plate portion that closes the retainer insertion hole, and a side plate portion that extends into the connector housing from both ends of the end plate portion. Guide ribs projecting in a direction intersecting the extension direction of the end plate portion and extending along the insertion direction of the retainer are provided on both side plate portions, and the side plate portion is inserted into the inner wall surface of the retainer insertion hole. possible longitudinal groove is formed, and the guide groove the guide rib is fitted on the inner wall surface of the longitudinal groove is formed, further the connector housing Among the surfaces, the portion connected to the longitudinal groove of the retainer insertion hole, the connector
A connector, wherein a slope portion for guiding the side plate portion into the vertical groove is formed by inclining toward the vertical groove from the center of the upper surface of the housing to both left and right sides .