JP7803772B2 - connector - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a connector.

Conventionally, connectors have been proposed that include a multi-pole male connector and multiple low-pole female connectors that mate with the male connector. One conventional connector allows a user to select a desired female connector that corresponds to the intended use of the connector from a group of female connectors, each with a different number of poles, and mate it with the male connector (see, for example, Patent Document 1). This conventional connector is configured with a removable partition plate that allows for flexible definition of a housing into which the desired female connector can be mated.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-147960

While the conventional connectors described above use partition plates to freely define the receiving compartment into which the desired female connector can be mated, this increases the number of parts and the labor required to install the partition plates. Furthermore, conventional connectors require the preparation of multiple female connectors, each with a different number of poles, so that the desired female connector can be selected from multiple female connectors, leading to a trend toward an increasing number of female connector types. As such, conventional connectors have room for improvement in terms of productivity.

In general, connectors (including conventional connectors) that have a multi-pole male connector and multiple low-pole female connectors are desired to be configured to prevent incorrect insertion of the female connector into the male connector.

The present invention was made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a connector that prevents incorrect insertion of a mating connector into a mating connector and is highly productive.

To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the connector of the present invention has the following features:

A connector comprising: a plurality of mating connectors to which a plurality of electric wire bundles are respectively connected; and a mated connector having a housing portion into which the plurality of mating connectors are inserted and housed,
The mating connector includes:
a spacer that is assembled in a first intersecting direction that intersects with a mating direction with the mated connector, and further comprising a plurality of sub-connectors that are arranged adjacent to each other in a second intersecting direction that intersects with the mating direction and the first intersecting direction, and to which the electric wires of the electric wire bundle are respectively connected;
The spacer is
The sub-connectors are assembled together so as to collectively connect the sub-connectors,
At least one of the plurality of mating connectors includes:
The outer surface shape of the spacer to be assembled is different from the outer surface shape of the spacer of the other mating connector,
The outer surface shape of the one of the mating connectors is different from the outer surface shape of the other of the mating connectors.
It is a connector.
A connector comprising: a plurality of mating connectors to which a plurality of electric wire bundles are respectively connected; and a mated connector having a housing portion into which the plurality of mating connectors are inserted and housed,
The mating connector includes:
a spacer that is assembled in a first intersecting direction that intersects with a mating direction with the mated connector, and further comprising a plurality of sub-connectors that are arranged adjacent to each other in a second intersecting direction that intersects with the mating direction and the first intersecting direction, and to which the electric wires of the electric wire bundle are respectively connected;
The spacer is
assembled to each of the plurality of sub-connectors,
At least one of the plurality of mating connectors includes:
The outer surface shape of the spacer to be assembled is different from the outer surface shape of the spacer of the other mating connector,
The outer surface shape of the one of the mating connectors is different from the outer surface shape of the other of the mating connectors.
It is a connector.
A connector comprising: a plurality of mating connectors to which a plurality of electric wire bundles are respectively connected; and a mated connector having a receiving portion into which the plurality of mating connectors are inserted and received, wherein the mating connector comprises:
a spacer that is assembled in a first intersecting direction that intersects with the mating direction of the mated connector;
At least one of the plurality of mating connectors includes:
The spacer having the same outer surface shape as the spacer of the other mating connector is assembled in the reversed state in the mating direction,
The outer surface shape of the one of the mating connectors is different from the outer surface shape of the other of the mating connectors.
It is a connector.

The connector according to the present invention will be described below.
According to the connector of this configuration, the outer surface shape of the spacer to be assembled in at least one of the multiple mating connectors is different from the outer surface shapes of the spacers of the other mating connectors, so that the one mating connector having a different outer surface shape from the other mating connectors can be easily manufactured. In this way, the connector of this configuration prevents incorrect insertion of the mating connector into the mating connector and is excellent in productivity.

The present invention has been briefly described above. Furthermore, details of the present invention will become clearer by reading the detailed description of the invention (hereinafter referred to as "embodiments") described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a top view of a connector according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 2 is an exploded top view of the main part of the connector shown in FIG. 1. FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of FIG. 2 (however, the wire bundle is not shown). FIG. 4 is a front view of the male connector shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a front view of the multiple female connectors shown in FIG. 6 is an exploded front view of the main parts of the plurality of female connectors shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the sub-connector shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the sub-connector shown in FIG. 7 as viewed from below. FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing an example of the spacer shown in FIG. FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the spacer shown in FIG. 9 as viewed from below. FIG. 11 is a view showing a modification of the female connector shown in FIG. 1, and corresponds to FIG. FIG. 12 is an exploded front view of a main portion of a female connector in a connector according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the first spacer shown in FIG. FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the first spacer shown in FIG. 13 as viewed from below. FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the second spacer shown in FIG. FIG. 16 is a perspective view of the second spacer shown in FIG. 15 as viewed from below.

<Embodiment>
A connector 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention shown in Figures 1 to 3 will be described below with reference to the drawings. The connector 1 is typically a connector mounted on a vehicle. Note that the "mating connector" of the present invention corresponds to the male connector 10, and the "mating connector" of the present invention corresponds to the female connector 20.

For ease of explanation, the following definitions are used to refer to "front," "rear," "left," "right," "top," and "bottom," as shown in Figures 1 to 16. The "front-rear direction," "left-right direction," and "up-down direction" are perpendicular to one another. The front-rear direction corresponds to the "mating direction" of the present invention. The left-right direction corresponds to the "second intersecting direction" of the present invention. The up-down direction corresponds to the "first intersecting direction" of the present invention.

First Embodiment
First, a first embodiment will be described. As shown in Figures 1 to 3, connector 1 is configured to include a plurality of (three in this example) female connectors 20 (female connectors 20a to 20c) to which a plurality of (three in this example) electric wire bundles 40 (40a to 40c) are respectively connected, and a male connector 10 to which the plurality of female connectors are mated. Below, the male connector 10 and the female connector 20 that make up connector 1 will be described in order.

Each wire bundle 40 is made up of multiple wires 41. One end of each wire 41 is connected to a female terminal (not shown), and the other end is connected to, for example, an instrument panel or engine floor. However, the connection destination of the other end of each wire 41 differs for each wire bundle 40. In other words, each wire bundle 40 is made up of a group of wires 41 that have the same connection destination. An electric wire bundle 40 refers to a physical bundle of multiple wires 41, or a group of wires 41 of the same color when the coating or other properties of each connection destination are color-coded.

First, we will explain the male connector 10. As shown in Figures 3 and 4, the male connector 10 is composed of male terminals (not shown) and a housing 11 that holds the male terminals. The housing 11 has a generally rectangular cylindrical shape that is elongated in the left-right direction and has an opening on the front side, and the cylindrical hole of this housing 11 forms the accommodation section 12 into which multiple female connectors 20 are inserted and accommodated.

Within the accommodating portion 12, multiple (seven in this example) protrusions 14 protrude downward from the upper wall of the housing 11, and are arranged side by side at a predetermined interval in the left-right direction. As a result, within the accommodating portion 12, multiple (eight in this example) accommodating chambers 13 are defined between the left wall and the protrusions 14, between adjacent protrusions 14, and between the protrusions 14 and the right wall, each of which accommodates a sub-connector 21 with a spacer 22 attached. Each accommodating chamber 13 has two poles, so the male connector 10 has 16 poles.

In a specific one of the multiple storage chambers 13, one or two guide grooves 15 extending in the front-to-rear direction are provided in the lower wall of the housing 11. When there is one guide groove 15, it is provided in the left-to-right central region of the storage chamber 13, and when there are two guide grooves 15, they are provided at both left and right ends. In this example, the second, fourth, seventh, and eighth storage chambers 13 from the left have one guide groove 15, and the first and fifth storage chambers 13 from the left have two guide grooves 15.

In this way, the shape of the accommodating chamber 13 is determined by the guide groove 15. In other words, the guide groove 15, together with the guide rib 36, functions to guide the insertion of the female connector 20 into the male connector 10, and also functions to prevent erroneous insertion of the female connector 20 into the male connector 10.

An elastically deformable flexible piece 16 is provided on the upper wall of the housing 11. The flexible piece 16 elastically deforms in the vertical direction when the female connector 20 is inserted into or removed from the male connector 10. A short, downwardly protruding latching portion 17 is provided on the lower end surface of the rear end of the flexible piece 16 so as to be positioned within the accommodating portion 12. The latching portion 17 latches onto a latching portion 26a of the sub-connector 21 (described below), thereby preventing the female connector 20 from being detached from the male connector 10.

Next, the female connector 20 will be described. As shown in Figures 2-3 and 5-6, the female connector 20 is composed of a female terminal (not shown), a sub-connector 21 that holds the female terminal, and spacers 22 (22a-22c) that are assembled to the sub-connector 21. Specifically, the female connector 20 is composed of multiple sub-connectors 21 that are arranged adjacent to each other in the left-right direction and to which the wires 41 of the wire bundle 40 are respectively connected, and spacers 22 are assembled along the vertical direction to group the multiple sub-connectors together.

In this example, female connector 20a is composed of two sub-connectors 21 and a spacer 22a assembled to group the two sub-connectors 21, and the wires 41 of wire bundle 40a are each connected to the sub-connectors 21. Similarly, female connector 20b is composed of three sub-connectors 21 and a spacer 22b assembled to group the three sub-connectors 21, and the wires 41 of wire bundle 40b are each connected to the sub-connectors 21. Similarly, female connector 20c is composed of three sub-connectors 21 and a spacer 22c assembled to group the three sub-connectors 21, and the wires 41 of wire bundle 40c are each connected to the sub-connectors 21.

The sub-connectors 21 and spacers 22 that make up the female connector 20 will be described below. The sub-connectors 21 that make up each of the female connectors 20a to 20c are all identical. Regarding the spacers 22, spacer 22b will be used as an example. The only difference between the spacers 22a to 22c is the configuration of the guide rib 36; otherwise, they are all configured identically.

First, we will explain the sub-connector 21. As shown in Figures 7 and 8, the sub-connector 21 has a housing 24 that is a generally rectangular pillar that is long in the front-to-rear direction. Terminal accommodating chambers 25 that penetrate the housing 24 in the front-to-rear direction are arranged side by side at a predetermined interval in the vertical direction. In other words, the sub-connector 21 has two poles.

A pair of ribs 26 protruding upward is provided on the upper wall of the housing 24. The pair of ribs 26 is provided on both left and right ends of the upper wall of the housing 24, and extends across the entire front-to-rear direction of the housing 24. The rear ends of the pair of ribs 26 are connected by a locking portion 26a extending in the left-to-right direction. The locking portion 26a is locked to the locked portion 17 of the male connector 10, and functions to prevent the female connector 20 from coming off the male connector 10.

The lower wall of the housing 24 is formed with a notch in the front-to-rear central region to form an assembly receiving portion 27 to which the spacer 22 is attached, recessed upward. The assembly receiving portion 27 has a pair of generally rectangular U-shaped end faces 28 recessed inward from both left and right end faces of the housing 24. Each of the pair of end faces 28 is provided with an engaging portion 29 consisting of a lower protrusion 29a that protrudes outward and an upper protrusion 29b that protrudes outward. The engaging portion 29 engages with the engaging portion 34 of the spacer 22, preventing the spacer 22 from detaching from the sub-connector 21.

Next, we will explain the spacer 22b. As shown in Figures 9 and 10, the spacer 22b has multiple (three in this example) main body portions 30 arranged side by side in the left-right direction. Each main body portion 30 has a communication passage 31 that forms the central area in the front-to-rear direction of the lower terminal accommodating chamber 25 of the sub-connector 21.

A pair of arms 32 extending upward are provided at both left and right ends of each main body 30. One sub-connector 21 is positioned between the pair of arms 32. In other words, the spacer 22b is assembled to the sub-connectors 21 so as to group the three sub-connectors 21 together.

Adjacent main body portions 30 are connected by integrally forming their adjacent arm pieces 32. Specifically, the right arm piece 32 of the left main body portion 30 and the left arm piece 32 of the central main body portion 30 are adjacent, and these arm pieces 32 are integrally formed. This connects the left main body portion 30 and the central main body portion 30. Similarly, the right arm piece 32 of the central main body portion 30 and the left arm piece 32 of the right main body portion 30 are adjacent, and these arm pieces 32 are integrally formed. This connects the central main body portion 30 and the right main body portion 30.

A pair of arm pieces 32 each have a vertically extending groove 33 in the front-to-rear central region of the opposing side surfaces. Furthermore, locking portions 34 that cover the upper openings of the grooves 33 are provided on the arm pieces 32 at both left-to-right ends of the spacer 22b (the left arm piece 32 of the left main body 30 and the right arm piece 32 of the right main body 30). The locking portions 34 are engaged with the locked portions 29 of the sub-connector 21, thereby preventing the spacer 22 from detaching from the sub-connector 21.

The spacer 22b has a guide rib 36 provided on the main body 30. The guide rib 36 protrudes downward from the bottom wall of the main body 30 and extends in the front-to-rear direction so as to extend rearward beyond the rear end of the main body 30.

In this example, the central main body 30 has one guide rib 36 in the left-right central region of the lower wall of that main body 30. Furthermore, the right-side main body 30 has a guide rib 36 on each of the left and right ends of the lower wall of that main body 30. Note that the left-side main body 30 does not have a guide rib 36.

The guide rib 36, together with the guide groove 15, functions to guide the insertion of the female connector 20 into the male connector 10 and also prevents incorrect insertion of the female connector 20 into the male connector 10.

In this way, spacer 22b is provided with guide ribs 36 that correspond to the shape of each storage chamber 13. Similarly, spacers 22a and 22c are provided with guide ribs 36 that correspond to the shape of each storage chamber 13. In other words, the outer surface shape of each spacer 22a to 22c differs depending on the number and position of guide ribs 36. In other words, the outer surface shape of spacer 22 is determined by the guide ribs 36.

The spacer 22 is equipped with a lance (not shown) and, like known spacers, has the function of detecting the insertion state of the female terminal into the terminal accommodating chamber 25.

The sub-connector 21 and spacer 22 that make up the female connector 20 have been described above. Because the female connector 20 has spacers 22 with different outer surface shapes, the outer surface shapes of the female connectors 20a to 20c are different. In other words, the outer surface shape of the female connector 20 is determined by the spacers 22.

When selecting the spacer 22 for the female connector 20 (i.e., when manufacturing the female connector 20), various conditions must be met for the spacer 22. In this example, these conditions are the number of sub-connectors 21 and the shape of the accommodating chamber 13 of the male connector 10. The number of sub-connectors 21 corresponds to the number of wires 41 in each wire bundle 40 (i.e., the number of poles).

The male connector 10 and female connector 20 that make up the connector 1 have been described above. To obtain a connector 1 consisting of a male connector 10 and a female connector 20, it is necessary to manufacture the female connectors 20, then insert and accommodate multiple female connectors 20 into the housing 12 of the male connector 10, thereby mating the female connectors 20 to the male connector 10. When the female connector 20 is mated to the male connector 10, the male terminal and female terminal are electrically connected. A method for manufacturing the connector 1 is described below.

First, multiple female connectors 20 are manufactured to correspond to the number of wire bundles 40 (the above-mentioned connection destinations). To manufacture each female connector 20, a number of sub-connectors 21 corresponding to the number of wires 41 (i.e., the number of poles) in each wire bundle 40 are prepared, and spacers 22 corresponding to the number of sub-connectors 21 and the shape of each housing chamber 13 are selected.

Next, the spacer 22 is assembled vertically to group the prepared sub-connectors 21 together. The assembly may involve assembling the sub-connectors 21 together, or one by one.

During the above assembly, when the sub-connector 21 and spacer 22 are brought relatively close to a predetermined position in the vertical direction, the locking portion 34 abuts the lower protrusion 29a of the sub-connector 21. As they are brought further closer together in the vertical direction, the locking portion 34 moves over the lower protrusion 29a and is positioned between the upper protrusion 29b and the lower protrusion 29a. In other words, the locking portion 34 of the spacer 22 is locked onto the locked portion 29 of the sub-connector 21, and the spacer 22 is assembled to the sub-connector 21. This completes the assembly of each female connector 20. In the above assembled state, the sub-connectors 21 are positioned adjacent to each other in the left-right direction via the arm piece 32 of the spacer 22.

Next, the female connector 20 is inserted into the housing 12 of the male connector 10 to a predetermined position. During this insertion, the sub-connector 21 is inserted into the housing chamber 13 provided with the flexible piece 16. During insertion, the locking portion 26a of the sub-connector 21 abuts the locked portion 17 of the flexible piece 16, causing the flexible piece 16 to elastically deform upward. Then, when the sub-connector 21 is inserted to the predetermined position, the flexible piece 16 restores its original shape, and the locking portion 26a locks into the locked portion 17. This prevents the female connector 20 from coming off the male connector 10.

When the female connector 20 is inserted to a predetermined position in the accommodating section 12, the female connector 20 (i.e., each sub-connector 21) is accommodated in the accommodating section 12 (i.e., each accommodating chamber 13), and the female connector 20 is mated with the male connector 10. This completes the connector 1. The method for manufacturing the connector 1 has been described above.

If the total number of poles in the male connector 10 is greater than the total number of poles required (i.e., the total number of electric wires 41), a so-called dummy sub-connector 21 is inserted into the empty housing chamber 13. The dummy sub-connector 21 is, for example, assembled to the spacer 22 so that it is grouped together with the sub-connector 21 into which the female terminal is inserted.

<Actions and Effects>
According to the connector 1 of this embodiment, the outer surface shape of the assembled spacer 22 of at least one of the multiple female connectors 20 is different from the outer surface shapes of the spacers 22 of the other female connectors 20, making it easy to manufacture one female connector 20 that has a different outer surface shape from the other female connectors 20. In this way, the connector 1 prevents erroneous insertion of the female connector 20 into the male connector 10 and is highly manufacturable.

Furthermore, according to the connector 1 of this embodiment, the female connector 20 is made up of multiple sub-connectors 21, and the spacer 22 is attached to the multiple sub-connectors 21 so as to group the multiple sub-connectors 21 together. This allows for standardization of the sub-connectors 21.

Furthermore, with the connector 1 according to this embodiment, even if the number of wire bundles 40 or the shape of the accommodating section 12 (i.e., the accommodating chamber 13) is changed, the female connector 20 can be manufactured by appropriately selecting a corresponding spacer 22 and assembling it to the sub-connector 21 (see, for example, Figure 11).

Second Embodiment
Next, a second embodiment will be described. The only difference between the second embodiment and the first embodiment is the configuration of the spacer. Specifically, while the spacer 22 in the first embodiment is assembled to collectively connect a plurality of sub-connectors 21 (see FIG. 6), the spacers 37 and 38 in the second embodiment are assembled to each of the plurality of sub-connectors 21 (see FIG. 12). In other words, while one female connector 20 is composed of one spacer 22 in the first embodiment, one female connector 20 is composed of multiple spacers 37 and 38 in the second embodiment. The number of spacers 37 and 38 corresponds to the number of sub-connectors 21. The second embodiment is otherwise similar in configuration. The spacers 37 and 38 of the second embodiment will now be described.

As shown in Figures 13 and 14, the spacer 37 has a main body 30 with a communication passage 31 that forms the front-to-rear central region of the lower terminal accommodating chamber 25 of the sub-connector 21. A pair of arms 32 extending upward are provided at both left and right ends of the main body 30. Each of the pair of arms 32 has a groove 33 extending vertically in the front-to-rear central region of the side surfaces facing each other in the left-to-right direction. Each of the pair of arms 32 also has a locking portion 34 that closes the upper opening of the groove 33.

A guide rib 39 is provided on the left side of the lower wall of the main body 30, protruding downward and extending in the front-to-rear direction. The guide rib 39 extends forward beyond the front end of the main body 30 and rearward beyond the rear end of the main body 30. The guide rib 39 is also configured symmetrically about a point, which allows it to be used in reverse in the front-to-rear direction depending on the shape of the storage chamber 13.

As an example, spacer 37a is spacer 37 inverted in the front-to-rear direction (see Figure 12). In other words, spacer 37 can accommodate two different shapes of storage chamber 13 thanks to guide ribs 39. In other words, spacer 37 can be standardized thanks to guide ribs 39.

In this case, the shape of the accommodating chamber 13 of the male connector 10 (i.e., the guide groove 15) is configured so that the guide rib 39 can be inserted.

As shown in Figures 15 and 16, the spacer 38 does not have a guide rib 39. Therefore, the sub-connector 21 to which the spacer 38 is attached can be housed in any of the housing chambers 13, but from the perspective of preventing erroneous insertion of the female connector 20 into the male connector 10, it is not preferable for it to be housed in a housing chamber 13 that has a guide groove 15.

Note that spacers 37 and 38 are equipped with lances (not shown) and, like known spacers, have the function of detecting the insertion state of the female terminal into the terminal accommodating chamber 25.

<Actions and Effects>
According to the connector 1 of this embodiment, the female connector 20 is made up of a plurality of sub-connectors 21, and the spacers 37, 38 are assembled to each of the plurality of sub-connectors 21. This allows the sub-connectors 21 to be standardized.

Furthermore, with the connector 1 according to this embodiment, one female connector 20 is assembled with a spacer 37, 37a that has the same outer surface shape as another female connector 20, but is inverted in the front-to-back direction. In other words, one spacer 37, 37a can be used with two different outer surface shapes: the standard shape and the inverted shape. This allows for standardization of the spacers 37, 37a.

<Other forms>
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be appropriately modified, improved, etc. Furthermore, the material, shape, size, number, location, etc. of each component in the above-described embodiments are arbitrary and not limited as long as they can achieve the present invention.

In the first embodiment, the spacer 22 extends in the front-to-rear direction so that the guide rib 36 extends rearward beyond the rear end of the main body 30, but it may also be configured to extend forward beyond the front end of the main body 30. This allows the spacer 22 to be used in reverse in the front-to-rear direction depending on the shape of the storage chamber 13, and allows for standardization of the spacer 22.

Here, the features of the above-described embodiments of the connector according to the present invention will be briefly summarized and listed below in [1] to [5].
[1]
A connector (1) comprising a plurality of mating connectors (female connectors 20) to which a plurality of electric wire bundles are respectively connected, and a mated connector (male connector 10) having a housing portion into which the plurality of mating connectors are inserted and housed,
The mating connector (female connector 20) is
a spacer (22, 37, 38) assembled in a first intersecting direction intersecting with the mating direction of the mated connector;
At least one of the plurality of mating connectors includes:
the outer surface shape of the spacer to be assembled is different from the outer surface shape of the spacer of another mating connector;
The outer surface shape of the one of the mating connectors is different from the outer surface shape of the other of the mating connectors.
Connector (1).
[2]
In the connector (1) described in the above [1],
The mating connector (female connector 20) is
the sub-connectors (21) are arranged adjacent to each other in a second intersecting direction intersecting the fitting direction and the first intersecting direction, and the sub-connectors (21) are connected to the electric wires of the electric wire bundle, respectively;
The spacer (22) is
The sub-connectors (21) are assembled to the sub-connectors (21) so as to collectively connect the sub-connectors (21).
Connector (1).
[3]
In the connector (1) described in the above [1],
The mating connector (female connector 20) is
the sub-connectors (21) are arranged adjacent to each other in a second intersecting direction intersecting the fitting direction and the first intersecting direction, and the sub-connectors (21) are connected to the electric wires of the electric wire bundle, respectively;
The spacers (37, 38) are
Assembled to each of the plurality of sub-connectors (21),
Connector (1).
[4]
In the connector (1) according to any one of the above [1] to [3],
The first mating connector (female connector 20) is
The spacer (37, 37a) having the same outer surface shape as the other mating connector is assembled in a reversed state in the mating direction.
Connector (1).
[5]
In the connector (1) according to any one of the above [1] to [4],
The spacers (22, 37, 38) are
The device has a function of detecting the insertion of a terminal connected to the electric wire (41) of the electric wire bundle (40) into the mating connector (female connector 20).
Connector (1).

With the connector of the configuration [1] above, at least one of the multiple mating connectors has an assembled spacer with a different outer surface shape than the spacers of the other mating connectors, making it easy to manufacture a mating connector with a different outer surface shape from the other mating connectors. In this way, a connector of this configuration prevents incorrect insertion of the mating connector into the mating connector and is highly manufacturable.

According to the connector configuration [2] above, the mating connector is made up of multiple sub-connectors, and the spacer is attached to the multiple sub-connectors so as to group the multiple sub-connectors together. This allows for standardization of the sub-connectors.

According to the connector configuration [3] above, the mating connector is made up of multiple sub-connectors, and a spacer is attached to each of the multiple sub-connectors. This allows for standardization of sub-connectors.

With the connector of the configuration [4] above, a spacer with the same outer surface shape as the other mating connector is installed in one mating connector, inverted in the mating direction. In other words, one spacer can be used with two different outer surface shapes: standard and inverted in the front-to-rear direction. This allows for standardization of spacers.

The connector with the configuration [5] above allows the insertion status of the terminal into the mating connector to be detected, similar to known spacers.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Connector 10 Male connector 11 Housing 12 Accommodating portion 13 Accommodating chamber 14 Protrusion 15 Guide groove 16 Flexible piece 17 Locked portion 20, 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e Female connector 21 Sub-connector 22, 22a, 22b, 22c, 22d, 22e, 37, 37a, 38 Spacer 24 Housing 25 Terminal accommodating chamber 26 Rib 26a Locking portion 27 Mounted portion 28 End face 29 Locked portion 29a Lower protrusion 29b Upper protrusion 30 Main body 31 Communication path 32 Arm piece 33 Groove portion 34 Locking portion 36, 39 Guide rib 39 Guide rib 40, 40a, 40b, 40c Electric wire bundle 41 Electric wire

Claims (4)

A connector comprising: a plurality of mating connectors to which a plurality of electric wire bundles are respectively connected; and a mated connector having a housing portion into which the plurality of mating connectors are inserted and housed,
The mating connector includes:
a spacer that is assembled in a first intersecting direction that intersects with a mating direction with the mated connector, and further comprising a plurality of sub-connectors that are arranged adjacent to each other in a second intersecting direction that intersects with the mating direction and the first intersecting direction, and to which the electric wires of the electric wire bundle are respectively connected;
The spacer is
The sub-connectors are assembled together so as to collectively connect the sub-connectors,
At least one of the plurality of mating connectors includes:
The outer surface shape of the spacer to be assembled is different from the outer surface shape of the spacer of the other mating connector,
The outer surface shape of the one of the mating connectors is different from the outer surface shape of the other of the mating connectors.
connector. A connector comprising: a plurality of mating connectors to which a plurality of electric wire bundles are respectively connected; and a mated connector having a housing portion into which the plurality of mating connectors are inserted and housed,
The mating connector includes:
a spacer that is assembled in a first intersecting direction that intersects with the mating direction of the mated connector;
and further arranged adjacent to each other in a second intersecting direction intersecting the fitting direction and the first intersecting direction.
and a plurality of sub-connectors to which the electric wires of the electric wire bundle are respectively connected,
The spacer is
assembled to each of the plurality of sub-connectors,
At least one of the plurality of mating connectors includes:
The outer surface shape of the spacer to be assembled is different from the outer surface shape of the spacer of the other mating connector,
The outer surface shape of the one of the mating connectors is different from the outer surface shape of the other of the mating connectors.
Ru,
Connector. A connector comprising: a plurality of mating connectors to which a plurality of electric wire bundles are respectively connected; and a mated connector having a housing portion into which the plurality of mating connectors are inserted and housed,
The mating connector includes:
a spacer that is assembled in a first intersecting direction that intersects with the mating direction of the mated connector;
At least one of the plurality of mating connectors includes:
The spacer having the same outer surface shape as the spacer of the other mating connector is assembled in the reversed state in the mating direction,
The outer surface shape of the one of the mating connectors is different from the outer surface shape of the other of the mating connectors.
Connector. The connector according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The spacer is
a function of detecting insertion of a terminal connected to the electric wire of the electric wire bundle into the mating connector;
Connector.