JP3390334B2 - Female terminal fitting - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a female terminal fitting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional female terminal fitting has a barrel portion for crimping an electric wire formed at the rear end of a terminal body portion,
A rectangular tube part is formed on the front part of the terminal body to make contact with the tab of the male terminal fitting, and a spring piece is formed at the front end edge of the lower surface of the rectangular tube part so as to be folded back backward. .
In the state of connection with the male terminal fitting, the tab is brought into contact with the ceiling surface of the square tube portion, and the spring piece elastically presses the tab from below, so that a predetermined contact pressure is applied between the square tube portion and the tab. Is secured.

[0003]

When such a female terminal fitting is to be used in a circuit in which a large current flows, such as a charging device for an electric vehicle, in order to prevent heat generation, a portion which becomes a main conductive path of the current, that is, It is necessary to increase the plate thickness of the ceiling portion, the terminal main body portion, and the barrel portion of the rectangular tube portion that come into contact with the tabs. However, in the conventional terminal fitting, the non-conductive portion that does not need to be thick, that is, the bottom surface and both side surfaces of the square tube portion and the spring piece are integrally formed with the conductive path portion. Also becomes thick, and as a result, there arises a problem that the entire size becomes large. The present invention was devised in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to be applicable to a large current circuit and to be downsized.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a contact portion which can be directly contacted with a tab of a double-ply shape provided on a male terminal fitting so as to project forward, and a conductive path is formed. And a terminal body having the same shape as the male terminal fitting and having a portion corresponding to the tab that functions as the contact portion, and the terminal body is disposed so as to face the contact portion.
And a spring piece formed between the contact portion and the spring piece.
Push the tab that has entered into the contact portion with the spring piece.
The spring piece is a separate component from the terminal body, and the plate thickness of the spring piece is smaller than that of the terminal body. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the terminal body and the spring piece can be attached to the connector housing independently of each other.

The invention of claim 3 relates to claim 1 or claim 2.
In the invention described above, the spring piece is provided so as to project inside a rectangular tubular mounting portion that can be locked to the connector housing, and the contact portion is provided along an inner surface of the rectangular tubular mounting portion that faces the spring piece. Is arranged.

[0006]

<Advantages and Effects of the Invention><Invention of Claim 1> When a large current is passed through the female terminal fitting of the present invention, the plate thickness of the terminal main body serving as a conductive path is large, so that heat generation can be prevented. Further, since the plate thickness of the spring piece not used for the conductive path is thin, the size can be reduced. Also, fit with the male terminal
In the mated state, the tab equivalent of the terminal body and the male terminal
The tabs overlap and make contact. Connect the terminal body to the male terminal fitting.
Since it has the same shape as, the number of types of parts is reduced,
The cost can be reduced. <Invention of Claim 2> Since the spring piece is attached to the connector housing independently of the terminal body, the terminal body does not need a holding structure for holding the spring piece. Therefore, comparing the spring piece holding structure with that of the terminal body,
It is possible to reduce the size of the terminal body, and thus the overall size of the female terminal fitting.

<Invention of Claim 3> The pressing action of the spring piece is exerted by elastically pinching the tab of the male terminal fitting with the contact portion. At this time,
Since the contact portion abuts the inner surface of the rectangular tubular mounting portion, it does not move in the direction away from the pressing force of the spring piece. Therefore, a predetermined contact pressure is secured between the tab and the contact portion.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

<First Embodiment> Hereinafter, a first preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The female terminal fitting 20F of the present embodiment is attached to the female connector housing 10F and is fitted to the male terminal fitting 20M of the male connector housing 10M. First,
The male connector housing 10M and the male terminal fitting 20M will be described. The male side connector housing 10M has a double cylinder structure in which a circular inner cylinder portion 11M and an outer cylinder portion 12M are concentrically integrally formed by a connecting portion 13M at a front end portion of the inner cylinder portion 11M. A cavity 14M for accommodating the male terminal fitting 20M is formed in the inner cylinder portion 11M so as to penetrate therethrough in the front-rear direction, and an inclined front end portion 15 for stopping the male terminal fitting 20M on the upper surface of the cavity 14M.
M is formed, and a lance 16M for preventing the male terminal fitting 20M from being pulled out is provided on the lower surface of the cavity 14M.
Are formed.

The male terminal fitting 20M is the same part as the terminal body 20Fa of the female terminal fitting 20F described later, and can be used as either the male terminal fitting 20M or the terminal body 20Fa. That is, male terminal fitting 20M
Is formed by bending a conductive metal plate material having a thickness (for example, 2 mm), has a tab 21M protruding forward, and has a barrel portion 22M at a rear end portion. Barrel part 22
The conductor 46 of the shielded electric wire 45 is connected to M by crimping. The tabs 21M are doubled by folding both left and right edges inward toward the upper surface side, and the shielded wire 45
It is located above the axis of. On the upper surface of the male terminal fitting 20M, an inclined portion 23M that can be engaged with the front blind portion 15M
And a locking hole 24M for engaging with the lance 16M is formed on the lower surface. Such male terminal fitting 20M
Is inserted into the cavity 14M from the rear, and the inclined portion 23M on the upper surface is engaged with the front stop portion 15M of the cavity 14M, and the locking hole 24M is locked with the lance 16M, thereby restricting the loose movement in both directions. It is attached to the regular inserted state. In the attached state, the tab 21M projects from the inner cylindrical portion 11M and prepares for fitting with a female terminal fitting 20F described later.

Next, the female connector housing 10F and the female terminal fitting 20F will be described. The female connector housing 10F has a double cylinder structure in which a circular inner cylinder portion 11F and an outer cylinder portion 12F are integrally formed concentrically by a connecting portion 13F at a front end portion of the inner cylinder portion 11F. Inner tube part 11
A cavity 14F for accommodating the female terminal fitting 20F is formed through the front and rear in F, and an inclined front stop portion 15F for stopping the female terminal fitting 20F is formed on the lower surface of the cavity 14F. In addition, a lance 16F for preventing the female terminal fitting 20F from being pulled out is formed on the upper surface of the cavity 14F. The front stop 15F and the lance 16F are vertically symmetrical with respect to the front stop 15M and the lance 16M of the male connector housing 10M.

Unlike the cavity 14M on the male side, in the cavity 14F on the female side, a region in front of the front stop portion 15F and the lance 16F is a pressing member 2 to be described later.
The accommodation space 17F has a rectangular cross section for accommodating 0Fb. The accommodation space 17F is largely opened forward, and the pressing member 20Fb is accommodated therein. A pair of left and right guide grooves 18F extending inward from the opening at the front end is formed on the left and right side surfaces of the accommodation space 17F, and the rear end of the guide groove 18F restricts the movement of the pressing member 20Fb to the rear side. Has become. The lower surface of the accommodation space 17F is formed with a low floor portion 30F which is lowered stepwise with respect to a region behind the accommodation space 17F. The depth dimension and the step dimension of the low floor portion 30F are set to be the same as the length dimension of the rectangular tubular mounting portion 25F and the plate thickness of the lower surface plate portion 40F of the rectangular tubular mounting portion 25F, which will be described later, respectively. .

Further, a retainer 31 is fitted to the front end of the inner cylindrical portion 11F and is retained and retained by a locking means (not shown). The retainer 31 includes a tubular portion 32 fitted on the outer peripheral surface of the inner tubular portion 11F, and the accommodation space 1 of the cavity 14F.
The front plate portion 33 that partially closes the opening at the front end of the 7F, and the restriction piece 34 that is fitted along the upper surface of the cavity 14F are configured. The restriction piece 34 restricts the displacement of the lance 16F in the disengagement direction by entering into the gap between the upper surface of the cavity 14F and the upper surface of the lance 16F, and thereby double-locks the female terminal fitting 20F. Further, the front plate portion 33 has an opening 35 for opening the tab 21M of the male terminal fitting 20M. The peripheral portion of the entrance 35 of the front plate portion 33 serves as a slip-off restricting portion 36 for preventing the pressing member 20Fb from coming off.

The female terminal fitting 20F is composed of a terminal main body (which constitutes a conductive path which is a constituent of the present invention) 20Fa and a pressing member 20Fb which are molded as separate parts. The terminal body 20Fa is the same component as the male terminal fitting 20M, and the terminal body 20Fa and the male terminal fitting 20M are
It can be used as any of M, and when used as the terminal body 20Fa, the male terminal fitting 20M
And are upside down. That is, the terminal body 20
Fa is formed by bending a conductive metal plate material having a thickness (for example, 2 mm), has a contact portion 21F protruding forward, and has a barrel portion 22F at the rear end portion. The conductor 46 of the shielded electric wire 45 is connected to the barrel portion 22F by crimping. The contact portion 21F corresponds to the tab 21M in the male terminal fitting 20M, and is formed by stacking two left and right edge portions inwardly on the lower surface side. The contact portion 21F is located below the axis of the shielded electric wire 45, opposite to the tab 21M of the male terminal fitting 20M. Also,
A locking hole 24F for engaging with the lance 16F is formed on the upper surface of the terminal body 20Fa, and the front stop portion 15 is formed on the lower surface.
An inclined portion 23F that can be engaged with F is formed. The terminal body 20Fa is inserted into the cavity 14F from the rear.

The pressing member 20Fb is formed by bending a plate material thinner than the terminal main body 20Fa (for example, 0.3 mm), and is provided with a rectangular tube-shaped mounting portion 25F and a spring piece 26F. The material of the pressing member 20Fb is the terminal body 20.
Unlike Fa, it may be conductive or non-conductive.
Now, the rectangular tubular mounting portion 25F is sized so as to be fitted tightly inside the accommodation space 17F, and the locking edge portion 27Fa at the upper end of the one side wall portion 27F is attached to the edge portion of the upper surface plate portion 28F from the outside. The square tube shape is maintained by locking. The left and right side wall portions 27F are formed with cut-and-raised pieces 29F that are engageable with the guide grooves 18F and engageable with the stoppers 19F.

The lower surface plate portion 40 of the square tubular mounting portion 25F
F is fitted in the low floor portion 30F of the accommodation space 17F, and in the fitted state, the upper surface of the lower plate portion 40F and the cavity 14
The bottom surface of F is flush with the bottom surface. The contact portion 21F of the terminal body 20Fa is placed on the lower surface plate portion 40F so as to be placed thereon. The lower surface plate portion 40F exerts a function of receiving a downward elastic pressing force acting on the tab 21M and the contact portion 21F from the spring piece 26F from below as described later. Further, an abutting portion 41F extending upward is formed on the front edge of the lower surface plate portion 40F.
When the terminal body 20Fa and the pressing member 20Fb are assembled in the 1F in the female side connector housing 10F, the tip of the contact portion 21F is butted.

The spring piece 26F is integrally formed by bending a portion extending from the front edge of the upper surface plate portion 28F of the rectangular tubular mounting portion 25F so as to be folded back downward (inwardly) and bulged downward. Has been formed. The spring piece 26F is located above the contact portion 21F inside the rectangular tubular mounting portion 25F, and the tab 21 is provided between the spring piece 26F and the contact portion 21F.
M enters. The distance between the lower end of the spring piece 26F and the upper surface of the contact portion 21F in the free state is set to be slightly smaller than the thickness dimension of the tab 21M. Therefore, when the tab 21M enters between the spring piece 26F and the contact portion 21F,
Due to the elastic restoring force of the spring piece 26F, the tab 21M and the contact portion 2
A downward elastic pressing force acts on 1F.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When attaching the female terminal fitting 20F to the female connector housing 10F, first, the terminal main body 20Fa is inserted into the cavity 14F from the rear with the retainer 31 removed. When the terminal body 20Fa reaches the normal insertion position, the inclined portion 23F engages with the front stop portion 15F and the locking lance 16F engages with the engagement hole 24F, so that the terminal body 20F.
a is pulled out and inserted, and is held in a floating regulation state in both directions. In the attached state, the contact portion 21F projects to a lower position in the accommodation space 17F and waits for the pressing member 20Fb. Next, the pressing member 20Fb is inserted into the accommodation space 17F from the front.
At this time, the locking piece 29F is fitted into the guide groove 18F, and the lower surface plate portion 40F is attached to the low floor portion 30F and the contact portion 21.
Insert it in a slight gap with F. Pressing member 20
When Fb reaches the regular mounting position, the locking piece 29F comes into contact with the stopper 19F at the back of the guide groove 18F, and thus further insertion of the pressing member 20Fb is restricted. In this state, the front end of the square tubular mounting portion 25F is substantially flush with the front end of the inner tubular portion 11F.

After that, the retainer 31 is attached to the inner cylindrical portion 1 from the front.
It is attached to 1F and locked irremovably by a locking means (not shown). In this state, the retainer 31's removal restricting portion 36 abuts on the front end of the rectangular tubular mounting portion 25F, thereby restricting the pressing member 20Fb from being removed forward. As described above, the pressing member 20Fb is held in a state where it cannot be inserted into and removed from the female connector housing 10F independently of the terminal body 20Fa. The pressing member 20Fb and the terminal body 2
In the state in which 0Fa is assembled, the contact portion 21F is positioned so as to be placed on the lower surface plate portion 40F.
Above the F, the spring piece 26F waits for the tab 21M to enter.

Male and female connector housings 10F, 10M
When the tabs are fitted, the tabs 21M are inserted into the entrance 35 of the retainer 31.
Through the rectangular tube-shaped mounting portion 25F, and the spring piece 26F
And the contact portion 21F. At this time, since the spring piece 26F is elastically bent by the tab 21M,
Due to the elastic restoring force of the spring piece 26F, the tab 21M and the contact portion 21F are electrically connected to each other with an appropriate contact pressure. If a large current is applied in this state, the female terminal fitting 20
In F, the electric current flows through the terminal body 20Fa serving as a conductive path, and the thin pressing member 20F having the spring piece 26F is provided.
Since it hardly flows into b, the heat generation amount is slightly suppressed. In addition, the pressing member 20F not used for the conductive path
Since the plate thickness of b is thin, the width dimension and the height dimension of the rectangular tubular mounting portion 25F are suppressed to be small. That is, the female terminal fitting 20F of the present embodiment is suitable for use in a large current circuit in terms of prevention of heat generation, but is also downsized.

Since the spring piece 26F is attached to the female connector housing 10F independently of the terminal body 20Fa, the spring piece 26F is attached to the terminal body 20Fa.
A holding structure for holding is unnecessary. Therefore,
In the case where the terminal body is formed of a plate material that is considerably thicker than the spring piece, as compared with a female terminal fitting having a thick holding structure, in the present embodiment, the terminal body 20
Fa has been reduced in size, and in turn, the entire female terminal fitting 20F has been reduced in size. Further, the elastic pressing force of the spring piece 26F acts on the contact portion 21F via the tab 21M, but the force acting on the contact portion 21F is received by the lower surface plate portion 40F of the rectangular tubular mounting portion 25F, so that the contact portion 21F does not move downward so as to escape from the elastic pressing force. Therefore, a predetermined contact pressure can be reliably obtained between the tab 21M and the contact portion 21F. Further, in the present embodiment, the terminal body 20Fa is the same component as the male terminal fitting 20M, so that the number of types of components is reduced and the cost can be reduced.

<Second Embodiment> Next, a second preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In the first embodiment, the terminal body and the spring piece can be attached to the connector housing independently of each other, whereas in the female terminal fitting 54 of the second embodiment, the spring piece 56 has the terminal body (the main body). It constitutes a conductive path which is a constituent of the invention) 55. That is, the female terminal fitting 54 is
A barrel portion 55A for crimping an electric wire (not shown),
A terminal main body 55 in which a square tubular portion 55B for making contact with the tab 53 of the male terminal fitting 51 is integrated, and a ceiling plate portion 58 of the square tubular portion 55B which is a separate component from the terminal main body 55.
It is composed of a spring piece 56 locked to the front end portion of B. The bottom surface of the rectangular tubular portion 55B is a contact portion 57 that bulges slightly upward (inward), and the lower surface of the tab 53 is in contact therewith so as to overlap it. Further, the spring piece 56 is curved so as to project downward (inward), and has a smaller plate thickness than the terminal main body 55. The spring piece 56 elastically contacts the upper surface of the tab 53, so that a predetermined contact pressure is secured between the tab 53 and the contact portion 57.

When both terminal fittings 51 and 54 are connected, a large current is mainly caused by a thick conductive path, that is, the barrel portion 52, the tab 53, the contact portion 57 and the barrel portion 5 of the male terminal fitting.
5A in sequence, and the heat generation in this conductive path is suppressed to a small level. On the other hand, the current flowing through the spring piece 56 is small. Further, since the spring piece 56 is thin, the dimension in the height direction is smaller than that in the case where the spring piece is made as thick as the terminal body.

<Other Embodiments> The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and illustrated in the drawings. For example, the following embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. In addition to the above, various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. (1) In the above embodiment, the case where the spring piece can be attached to the connector housing independently of the terminal body has been described. However, according to the present invention, the spring piece is supported by the terminal fitting. You can also do it.

(2) In the above embodiment, the spring piece is provided on the rectangular tube-shaped mounting portion. However, according to the present invention, the spring piece is not limited to the tubular shape, but may be a plate-shaped or other mounting portion. Can be provided. (3) In the above embodiment, the spring piece is formed by folding back from the front end edge of the rectangular tubular mounting portion, but according to the present invention, the ceiling surface of the rectangular tubular mounting portion is cut and raised to form the spring piece. May be. (4) In the above embodiment, the spring piece is integrated with the rectangular tube-shaped mounting portion, but according to the present invention, the rectangular tube-shaped mounting portion and the spring piece may be assembled as separate parts.

(5) In the above embodiment, the case where the invention is applied to the shield connector has been described, but the present invention can be applied to a connector other than the shield connector.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a male connector according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the female connector according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a fitted state of both connectors of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the female terminal fitting of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged vertical sectional view of the female terminal fitting of the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view of the female terminal fitting of the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a fitted state of the male terminal fitting and the female terminal fitting according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a front view of the female terminal fitting of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10F ... Female connector housing (connector housing) 21F ... Contact part 20M ... Male terminal metal fitting 20F ... Female terminal metal fitting 20Fa ... Terminal body 21M ... Tab 25F ... Square tubular mounting part 26F ... Spring piece 51 ... Male terminal metal fitting 53 ... Tab 54 ... Female terminal fitting 55 ... Terminal body 56 ... Spring piece 57 ... Contact part

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── --- Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A 63-266785 (JP, A) JP-A 8-162191 (JP, A) JP-A 8-45589 (JP, A) JP-A 59- 3877 (JP, A) JP 58-169784 (JP, A) JP 51-18884 (JP, A) JP 58-87789 (JP, A) JP 48-99683 (JP, A) Actually open 61-126575 (JP, U) Actually open 3-101889 (JP, U) Actually open 63-73869 (JP, U) Actually open 4-61775 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01R 13/187 H01R 23/02

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A male terminal fitting provided so as to project forward
With configuring the conductive path are directly contactable contact portion is formed with respect to two-ply shaped tab that is, the portion of <br/> the contact male terminal fitting is the same shape as that and corresponding to said tab A terminal body that functions as a portion, and a spring piece that is arranged so as to face the contact portion, and the tab that has entered between the contact portion and the spring piece
The spring piece presses against the contact part.
The female terminal fitting is characterized in that the spring piece is a separate component from the terminal body, and the plate thickness of the spring piece is smaller than that of the terminal body. 2. The female terminal fitting according to claim 1, wherein the terminal body and the spring piece can be attached to the connector housing independently of each other. 3. The spring piece is provided so as to project inside a rectangular tube-shaped mounting portion that can be locked to the connector housing,
The female terminal fitting according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the contact portion is arranged along an inner surface of the rectangular tubular mounting portion facing the spring piece.