JPH0129076B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a flexible wiring board that is useful when applied to electrical components such as motors and various sensors that are incorporated into variable damping force type hydraulic shock absorbers and the like.

In recent years, this type of variable damping force hydraulic shock absorber has a piston rod that seals one end of the cylinder in a liquid-tight manner and extends inside the piston rod. An insulator with a relatively large inertial mass is installed between the electric components such as the motor and the position detection sensor that detects the rotation angle position of the motor, and the connector connected to the power supply section on the vehicle body via the power supply harness. Instead of a cable, a flexible wiring board with an extremely small inertial mass and a highly flexible structure is installed to prevent damage to the harness inside the piston rod caused by various vibrations that occur when driving a car. This is to prevent accidents such as short circuits.

FIG. 1 shows a state in which such a flexible wiring board is assembled into a piston rod, in which one end of the cylinder 1 is sealed liquid-tightly and the flexible wiring board is formed in the axial direction of the piston rod 2 extending inside the cylinder 1. A flexible wiring board 5 is inserted into the wiring path 3, which is connected to electrical components 4 such as a motor for adjusting damping force and a position detection sensor for detecting the rotation angle position of this motor. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, this flexible wiring board 5 has a connector 8 at one end of a large number of conductor portions 7 along the longitudinal direction of a thin film-like elongated flexible support member 6. Terminal insertion holes 10 into which a plurality of terminals 9 disposed in terminals 9 are inserted,
A conductive pattern 11 extending from each conductive part 7 is provided at each terminal insertion hole 10 position, and an electrical component connecting part 12 connected to the electrical component 4 is provided at the other end. . In FIG. 1, 13 is a nut for fixing the end of the piston rod 2 to the vehicle body 13a, and 14 is a power supply side connector electrically connected to a power supply section (not shown) via a power supply side harness 15. A connector hold cap 17 is attached to the power supply side connector 14 for insulating and protecting the connection part with the socket part 16 provided at the end of the piston rod 2.

To attach the flexible wiring board 5 having such a configuration to a predetermined position in the wiring passage 3 of the piston rod 2, first, the entire approximately disk-shaped connector connection portion 19 having a plurality of terminal insertion holes 10 is folded. Music section 2
0 at a nearly right angle, and insert the terminal insertion hole 10...
The terminals 9 of the connector 8 are inserted into the terminals, and then the terminals 9 and the conductor patterns 11 are electrically connected to each other by solder 18 at the terminal insertion holes 10. Next, the flexible wiring board 5 and the connector 8, which have been connected to each other in this manner, are simultaneously inserted into the wiring passage 3 and integrally attached at a predetermined position inside the wiring passage 3.

By the way, the terminals 9 of the connector 8 are generally arranged at predetermined intervals on the outer circumferential side of the distal end surface thereof. In the case of such a configuration, the terminal insertion holes 10 provided in the flexible wiring board 5 must be provided at the connector connecting portion 19 corresponding to each of the terminals 9. Therefore, when each terminal 9 of the connector 8 is inserted into each of the terminal insertion holes 10, the bent portion 20 will be located outside of each terminal 9. Therefore, when these connectors 8 and flexible wiring boards 5 are inserted into the wiring passage 3 in a connected state, the periphery of the bent portion 20 elastically contacts the inner circumferential surface 3a of the wiring passage 3, as shown in FIG. It will come into contact with. Therefore,
Due to the contact reaction force, an unreasonable force is applied to the entire connector connection part 19, which deteriorates the electrical connection between the terminal 9 of the connector 8 and the terminal insertion hole 10 due to the solder 18. It was hot.

In addition, since the entire flexible wiring board 5 is highly flexible, the wiring passage 3 of the piston rod 2
When inserting the flexible wiring board 5 and the connector 8 inside, a part of the flexible wiring board 5, especially around the bending part 20 where the connector connection part 19 is bent, is connected to the outer circumferential surface 8a of the connector 8 on the side of the terminals 9 and the wiring passage. In an extreme case, if it is sandwiched between the inner peripheral surface 3a of 3.
There was a drawback that the wire broke locally in that part.

Furthermore, as described above, the connector connection portion 19
3, each terminal insertion hole 10 is arranged on the circumference as shown in FIG. When attempting to extend ..., a part 1 of the conductor pattern 11 that extends long on the opposite side of the electrical component connection section 12 among the terminal insertion holes 10 ...
1a... may have to be formed thin locally due to the influence of the adjacent conductor patterns 11.... In such cases, there were drawbacks such as the thin portions causing breakage.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventional drawbacks, and includes a first bent portion extending in the longitudinal direction at one end of a flexible support member, and a first bent portion extending in the width direction on both sides of the first bent portion. A pair of protruding joint pieces and a tongue piece projecting from each joint piece to the longitudinal end via the second bent part are formed, and a plurality of terminal insertion holes and conductor patterns are respectively distributed in these tongue pieces. arranged,
By allowing all the terminals of the connector to be inserted into the terminal insertion holes when each of the bent portions is folded back, excessive force is not applied to the connection portion of the flexible support member with the connector terminal. In addition, it is possible to prevent damage to the conductor portion due to a portion of the flexible support member being caught when inserting the flexible support member and the connector into the wiring passage of the piston rod. It is an object of the present invention to propose a flexible wiring board in which a large area of conductor patterns can be formed around each terminal insertion hole.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. Note that the same constituent parts as in the conventional example are given the same designation numbers and redundant explanation thereof will be omitted.

Fig. 4 is a partially omitted plan view showing an embodiment of the flexible wiring board according to the present invention, Fig. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the state before connecting the connector and the flexible wiring board, and Fig. 6 is the piston rod. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a flexible wiring board is installed in a wiring path, and FIG. 7 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the flexible wiring board of the present invention.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, one end 6a of the flexible support member 6 made of an insulating film, etc.
A pair of joining pieces 22a and 22b are continuously formed to protrude in the width direction, sandwiching the first bent part 21 along the longitudinal direction of the flexible support member 6 therebetween. Furthermore, tongue pieces 24a, 24b protrude from the respective joint pieces 22a, 22b through second bent portions 23a, 23b along the width direction, respectively, at the longitudinal ends of the joint pieces 22a, 22b. are also formed continuously.

A plurality of terminal insertion holes 10 . . . and conductor patterns 11 . In this example,
3 pieces on one tongue piece 24a, 2 pieces on the other tongue piece 24b.
The terminal insertion holes 10 and the conductor patterns 11 are arranged in a distributed manner. Each of these tongue pieces 2
4a and 24b are parts that become the connector connection part 24 to the connector 8. Moreover, centering holes 27a, 27a and 27b are provided on each of the second bending parts 23a and 23b, respectively, so that they are equidistant from the first bending part 21.
27b is provided.

Next, a procedure for connecting the flexible wiring board according to the present invention having such a configuration to a connector terminal will be described.

First, the pair of joining pieces 22a and 22b are bent from the first bending part 21 so that the centering holes 27a and 27b overlap so that their backs are aligned.

Next, from the second bent portions 23a, 23b, each tongue piece 2 is
4a, 24b are bent outward, respectively, so that these tongues 24a, 24b are substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the flexible support member 6, as shown in FIG. Then, one end 6 of the flexible support member 6
The tongue pieces 24a and 24b form a connector connecting portion 24 having an approximately disk shape as a whole. Note that this connector connecting portion 24 has a notch 2 for positioning the connector 8 in the circumferential direction.
A connector 8 is formed in the notch 28.
By aligning the positioning pins (not shown) provided in the terminals and inserting the terminals 9 of the connector 8 into the respective terminal insertion holes 10 and applying solder 18 between them, the connector connecting portion 24 can be connected to the connector. 8 can be electrically connected.

According to the flexible wiring board 25 of the present invention having the above configuration, unlike the conventional example shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, as shown in FIG. Tongue piece 24a, 2
From the second bending parts 23a and 23b that bend 4b,
The flexible support member 6 can extend substantially perpendicular to the plane of the connector connection portion 24. Therefore, after inserting the terminals 9 of the connector 8 into the terminal insertion holes 10, solder 18 is applied to connect the integrated connector 8 and flexible wiring board 25 to the wiring passage of the piston rod 2. When inserted into the wiring path 3, no part of the flexible support member 6 comes into contact with the inner circumferential surface 3a of the wiring passageway 3. Therefore, no unreasonable force is applied to the connector connection portion 24 due to the contact reaction force, and the conductor patterns 11 are formed around the terminals 9 of the connector 8 and the terminal insertion holes 10 by the solder 18.
While it is possible to avoid any adverse effects on the electrical connection between the Since a situation in which a part of the member 6 is not caught will not occur, accidents such as wire breakage due to the part being caught can be avoided.

Moreover, according to the flexible wiring board 25 of the present invention, the plurality of terminal insertion holes 10 are provided in each of the tongue pieces 24a and 24b that respectively protrude from the pair of joint pieces 22a and 22b that protrude in the width direction of the flexible support member 6. ... and the conductor patterns 11 ... can be arranged in a distributed manner. Therefore, the conductor pattern 11
... pattern width l ₁ and each adjacent conductor pattern 1
1... The interval _l2 between them can be made sufficiently large.

Further, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, if the adhesive 26 is applied in advance to the back surface of at least one (in this embodiment, both) of the pair of joint pieces 22a and 22b, the joint piece Even after 22a and 22b are placed back to back, they will not be separated from each other, which has the effect of facilitating post-process work.

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, when the connector terminals are inserted into the terminal insertion holes of the flexible wiring board and the connector and the flexible wiring board are connected, the connector terminals can be The flexible support member can extend in the axial direction of the connector. Therefore, when the connector and flexible wiring board are inserted into the wiring passage of the piston rod, a part of the flexible support member may come into contact with the inner peripheral surface of the wiring passage, or the inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface of the connector may come into contact with each other. It is possible to avoid a situation where the conductor portion is caught between the two, and therefore, breakage of the conductor portion, poor soldering, etc. can be prevented.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to secure a sufficient area for each tongue piece that serves as a connection part to a connector terminal, so the pattern width of each conductor pattern and the interval between adjacent conductor patterns can be made sufficiently large. You can take it. Therefore, deterioration of electrical continuity due to breakage of each conductor pattern can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a partially cutaway sectional view showing how a conventional flexible wiring board is installed inside a piston rod, Figure 2 is a plan view of a conventional flexible wiring board, and Figure 3 is an enlarged view of the vicinity of the terminal insertion hole. FIG. 4 is a partially omitted plan view showing an embodiment of the flexible wiring board according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the state before connecting the connector and the flexible wiring board. , FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway cross-sectional view showing a flexible wiring board installed in the wiring passage of the piston rod, and FIG. 7 is a partially omitted plan view showing another embodiment of the flexible wiring board according to the present invention. be. 6... Flexible support member, 6a... One end, 7... Conductor portion, 8... Connector, 9... Terminal, 10... Terminal insertion hole, 11... Conductor pattern, 12... Electrical component connection part, 21... First bent part , 22a, 22b...joint piece, 23a, 23b...second bent part, 24a, 24
b... Tongue piece.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of terminals arranged in a connector are inserted into one end of a plurality of conductor portions arranged in parallel along the longitudinal direction of a thin film-like long flexible support member. a terminal insertion hole, and a conductor pattern extending from each conductor part and electrically connected to each terminal at the position of each terminal insertion hole, and an electrical component connection that is connected to an electrical component at the other end. In the flexible wiring board, a pair of joining pieces protrudes in the width direction with a first bent part along the longitudinal direction of the flexible supporting member interposed therebetween, at one end of the flexible supporting member. are continuously formed, and at the longitudinal end of each joint piece, a second
A tongue piece is continuously formed that protrudes from each of the joint pieces through a bent portion, and the plurality of terminal insertion holes and the conductor pattern are disposed in a distributed manner on each tongue piece, and When the first bent portion is folded back so that the joint pieces are back to back, and the second bent portion is folded back outward, the plurality of terminal insertion holes formed in each tongue piece are inserted. A flexible wiring board characterized in that it is configured such that all of the plurality of terminals can be inserted. 2. The flexible wiring board according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the joint pieces has an adhesive applied to the folded back surface.