JP3281832B2 - Electrical fittings - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric connecting device such as a joint box mounted on a vehicle, for example, and can securely fix the connecting terminal to a fixing member when insert-molding the connecting terminal by molding. Related to electrical fittings.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows a joint box 30 mounted on a vehicle. This joint box 30
Has a pair of housings 31 and 32 to which connectors (not shown) can be connected. The housings 31 and 32 are formed in a substantially rectangular cylindrical shape, and are arranged such that their axes intersect in a substantially L-shape. Such a joint box 30
The housings 31 and 32 are integrally formed by molding using an appropriate resin such as ABS, for example. The housing 32 has a flat substantially band-shaped fixing member 34 formed in parallel with an opening 33 facing upward in the drawing.
Are provided with a plurality of connection terminals 35.

As shown in FIG. 4, each connection terminal 35 has a substantially rectangular cross section, and a fixing surface 35A on the lower side in the figure is a fixing member 34.
And the ridges 35B that have been chamfered are arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals along the longitudinal direction of the fixing member 34. In the assembling process of assembling the predetermined members into the joint box 30, the ceramic substrate 40 is brought into contact with the upper connection surface 36 in the figure, and the ceramic substrate 40 and the connection terminals 35 are connected by ultrasonic waves using conductors. Wire bonding is used. The connection terminal 35 as described above is connected to the joint box 30.
When molding is performed, it is often provided by insert molding in which the fixing surface 35A is pressed against the surface of the fixing member 34 and fixed by disposing the fixing surface 35A in a predetermined position in the mold in advance.

[0004]

In the joint box 30 described above, the connection terminal 35 is fixed to the surface of the fixing member 34 by insert molding.
As shown in (1), there is a possibility that the connection terminal 35 and the fixing member 34 are separated from each other due to shrinkage (heat shrinkage) after molding (see the connection terminal 35 on the right side in the figure). In this case, connection terminal 35
Also, when interconnecting the ceramic substrates 40, even if wire bonding is performed, ultrasonic waves are difficult to be transmitted to the connection terminals 35, so that a connection failure may occur.

To solve this problem, as shown in FIG. 6, an attempt has been made to bury the connection terminal 35 so that the connection surface 36 is located on the same plane as the surface of the fixing member 34. However, according to this embodiment, since the pair of chamfered edges 35B of the connection terminal 35 is covered with the resin, the plane area exposed on the surface of the fixing member 34 becomes smaller than it actually is. In particular, since the connection terminal 35 has an extremely small outer dimension, the finish of the chamfering process for the ridgeline 35B tends to vary, and the exposed area on the surface of the fixing member 34 also varies. For this reason, in the production of the joint box 30, an image recognition device that detects the arrangement position of the connection terminal 35 with respect to the fixing member 34, the relative position of each connection terminal 35, and the like by image processing determines the position detection failure, and the yield is low. There is a problem that it gets worse.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to reduce the yield and improve the production efficiency, and to securely fix a connection terminal to a fixing member. Is to provide.

[0007]

The problems related to the problem-solving means for the invention, an electrical connector according to claim 1, in a vehicle
Various electric circuits are configured in the mounted joint box
A plurality of connection terminals are provided along the surface of the fixing member to connect the substrates, and a fixing surface of each of the connection terminals that contacts the fixing member is a surface of the fixing member by insert molding. And the connection surface of the connection terminal facing the fixing member is arranged so as to be connectable to the corresponding connection terminal, wherein the fixing surface of each connection terminal is the fixing member. And a ridge line of each of the connection terminals is disposed so as to protrude from a surface of the fixing member.

Here, the surface of the fixing member may be a flat surface, an arc surface, a spherical surface, or the like, and the connection terminal may be formed of a suitable conductive metal in a rod shape having an arbitrary cross-sectional shape. What is necessary is just to select suitably according to embodiment. For example, when a connection terminal having a substantially rectangular cross section and chamfered on a ridge line is adopted, consideration was given so that the ridge line was not covered with resin in molding, in other words, the flat area of the connection terminal was not reduced. Above, one-third or more of the thickness may be buried in the fixing member.

In the electric connecting device having the above-described structure, since the connecting terminal is embedded in the fixing member, there is no possibility that the connecting terminal and the fixing member are separated from each other due to the heat shrinkage. In addition, since the ridge of the connection terminal protrudes from the surface of the fixing member, even if the ridge is chamfered, the exposed area and the like of the connection surface in molding will not differ from the actual plan view. For this reason, it is possible to eliminate the deterioration of the yield due to the conventional image recognition device judging that the position detection is defective, thereby achieving the above object.

[0010] Further, the object is an electric connector,
This can be solved by the fixing member having an inclined surface extending from the side surface of the connection terminal toward the fixing surface. The inclined surface is not limited to a flat surface, but may be a concave or convex arc surface, a spherical surface, or the like. In the electric connecting device having such a configuration, since the fixing member has the inclined surface, even when the thickness of the original fixing member is small, the contact area of the fixing member with the connection terminal can be easily increased. This makes it possible to improve the fixing strength of the fixing member to the connection terminal.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a first embodiment of an electric connector according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a second embodiment of the electric connector according to the present invention. In the embodiments described below, members and the like already described in FIGS. 3 to 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals or corresponding reference numerals in the drawings to simplify or omit the description.

As shown in FIG. 1, a joint box 10 which is an electric connector of the first embodiment of the present invention
The fixing surface 15A is embedded in the fixing member 14 to a predetermined depth, and the ridge 15B of the connection terminal 15 is arranged so as to protrude from the surface of the fixing member 14. The fixing member 14 is a belt-shaped flat surface like the fixing member in the conventional joint box, and each connection terminal 15 has chamfered ridges 15B arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals along the longitudinal direction of the connection surface 14. Are arranged as follows. And, in the joint box 10 of the present embodiment, each connection terminal 15
Is one third of the thickness H from the fixed surface 15A side.
Is embedded in the fixing member 14.

In manufacturing the joint box 10 of this embodiment, each connection terminal 15 is previously arranged at a predetermined position in a mold and molded in the same manner as in the prior art, so that each connection terminal 10 is molded. 15 is insert molded. Each connection terminal 15 is connected to a joint box.
In consideration of the heat shrinkage of the fixing member 14 after the molding of the mold 10, the metal is previously set so that one third of the fixing surface 15 A is buried in the fixing member 14 even after the heat shrinkage of the fixing member 14. It is arranged at an appropriate position in the mold.

According to the joint box 10 of the present embodiment as described above, since the connection terminal 15 is embedded in the fixing member 14, the connection terminal 15
There is no fear that the fixing member 15 and the fixing member 14 are separated from each other. Therefore, even if wire bonding is performed to connect a ceramic substrate (not shown) to the connection terminal 15, the connection terminal 15
The ultrasonic vibration is transmitted to the connection terminals 15 and the ceramic substrate reliably. Also,
In each connection terminal 15, since the ridgeline 15B protrudes from the surface of the fixing member 14, the ridgeline 15B is not covered with the resin at the time of molding, so that there is no possibility that the exposed area of the connection surface 16 is affected. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the deterioration of the yield due to the conventional image recognition device determining that the detection position is defective, and to improve the productivity of the joint box 10.

FIG. 2 shows a joint box 20 which is an electric connector of a second embodiment according to the present invention. In the present embodiment, the fixing member 24 to which the connection terminal 25 is fixed has an inclined surface 27 extending from the side surface 25C of the connection terminal 25 toward the fixing surface 25A. The inclined surface 27 is a flat surface and is formed along the longitudinal direction of the connecting member 25 so that the edge does not contact the ridgeline 25B. Therefore, the connection terminal 25 is moved from the fixed surface 25A side in the thickness direction (vertical direction in the figure)
About two-thirds are embedded in the fixing member 24. The surface of such a fixing member 24 has a substantially corrugated shape with a plurality of inclined surfaces 27.

As described above, according to the joint box 20 of the present embodiment, the connection terminal 25 is fixed to the fixing member 24 basically similarly to the joint box of the first embodiment described above. Therefore, similarly to the first embodiment, the ceramic substrate can be reliably connected to the connection terminal 25 by wire bonding, and the productivity of the joint box 20 can be improved. Further, according to the joint box 20 of the present embodiment, the fixing member 24 is
Since it has the inclined surface 27 extending from 25C toward the fixing surface 25A side, the contact area of the fixing member 24 with the connection terminal 25 is increased as compared with the first embodiment. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the fixing strength of the connection terminal 25 is improved as compared with the first embodiment.

The electric connecting device of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be appropriately modified and improved. For example, in each of the above-described embodiments, as the connection terminal, a connection terminal having a generally rectangular cross-section and a chamfered edge is used, which has been widely used in the related art. Alternatively, connection terminals having a substantially trapezoidal cross section may be employed.

[0018]

As described above, according to the electric connecting device of the present invention, the connecting terminal is fixed so that the ridge protrudes from the surface of the fixing member. Since the connection terminal is buried to a predetermined depth in the member, the connection terminal is securely fixed to the fixing member, and the exposed portion of the connection terminal does not change. Therefore, it is possible to connect another connection terminal to the connection terminal by wire bonding, and it is possible to improve the productivity by eliminating the deterioration of the yield due to erroneous recognition by the automatic inspection machine. Further, according to the electric connector of the second aspect, since the fixing member has the inclined surface extending from the side surface of the connection terminal toward the fixing surface, the contact area of the fixing member with the connection terminal is increased. Thus, the fixing strength of the connection terminal can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part showing a first embodiment of an electric connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a second embodiment of the electric connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an overall perspective view showing a joint box.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a main part showing a connection terminal fixed to a conventional fixing member.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a main part showing a problem in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a main part of the solution shown in FIG. 5;

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 20 Joint box (electrical connection tool) 14, 24 Fixing member 15, 25 Connection terminal 15A, 25A Fixing surface 15B, 25B Ridge 16, 26 Connection surface 27 Inclined surface

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. Inside a joint box mounted on a vehicle
To connect a board on which various electric circuits are configured
A plurality of connection terminals provided along the surface of the fixing member, and a fixing surface of each of the connection terminals that contacts the fixing member is fixed to the surface of the fixing member by insert molding, and In an electric connection tool, each connection surface of the connection terminal facing the fixing member is arranged so as to be connectable to a corresponding connection terminal, wherein the fixing surface of each connection terminal is embedded to a predetermined depth with respect to the fixing member. And an electrical connector, wherein the ridge line of each connection terminal is arranged to protrude from the surface of the fixing member. 2. The electrical connector according to claim 1, wherein the fixing member has an inclined surface extending from a side surface of the connection terminal toward the fixing surface.