JPH0351257B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A. Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a zero insertion/extraction force (ZIF) connector for flexible printed circuit boards.

B. Prior Art Connectors for electrically connecting a film-like conductor, that is, a flexible printed circuit board, to another electrical element, such as a normal printed wiring board, are available in various types of non-insertion/extraction force connectors to facilitate insertion and removal. has been proposed, but in particular, the conventional example of a small-sized no-insertion/extraction-force connector for flexible printed circuit boards has been proposed in the 7th article.
This is shown in FIGS. 9 to 9. In these figures, figure A shows the state before the flexible printed circuit board 70 is attached,
Figure B shows the state after installation. These illustrated non-insertion/extraction force connectors are connected to printed wiring board 71.
Slider 78, 88 or 98 in a direction parallel to the plane of connector housing 79, 89 or 9
9 and the inner wall of the slider engages with the spring contact 77, 87 or 97, thereby achieving electrical connection and mechanical fixation between the substrate 70 and the contact.

C. Problems to be Solved by the Invention With the trend toward miniaturization of electronic devices, the demand for ultra-miniaturization of connectors is also increasing. As is clear from Figures 7 to 9, in the above-mentioned conventional connector for a flexible printed circuit board with no insertion/extraction force, the ceiling of the connector and the ceiling of the slider overlap and slide, pressing the spring contact. Because of the structure, lowering the overall height of the connector means
The thickness of the ceiling of the housing and slider must be reduced, and the reduction of the thickness of the ceiling degrades the mechanical strength of the connector for contradictory reasons.
This has been a bottleneck in reducing the height of this type of connector.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a novel ultra-thin, no-insertion-and-extraction-force multipolar connector that achieves a further reduction in the height dimension of the no-insertion-and-extraction-force connector for flexible printed circuit boards.

D. Means for Solving the Problems The forceless insertion/extraction connector of the present invention has an end portion of a holding plate for pressing a flexible printed circuit board against a spring contact, an end portion of an upper wall portion of an insulating housing of the connector, and The flexible printed circuit board is provided with an engaging means, and the operation direction for the presser plate to press the flexible printed circuit board is different from the operation direction for locking the presser plate to maintain the pressed state.

E Embodiment FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a 10-pole no-insertion/extraction-force connector assembly 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the connector assembly 1 has an insulating housing 4 and a spring contact 5.
It is shown that it is composed of three members: and a presser cover 8. 2 is a perspective view of the insulating housing 4 in which ten spring contacts 5 are installed, FIG. 3 is a side view of the assembly 1 of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a view of the assembly 1 shown in FIG. 1. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line X-X', and FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the flexible printed circuit board with a two-dot broken line, for explaining the state of use of the no-insertion/extraction-force connector of FIG. 1.

Hereinafter, even if the drawing numbers are different, the same parts are given the same reference numerals to avoid redundant explanations, and in order to make the present invention easier to understand, With the connector assembly 1 shown in Figure 1 as a reference, the right side is the front or front part,
The left side will be referred to as the rear or rear, the upper side will be referred to as the upper part, and the lower side will be referred to as the lower part.

Referring to FIGS. 2 to 4, the insulating housing 4 of the present invention includes a bottom portion 20 and a pair of side wall portions 21.
The top wall 22 is an insulator block integrally molded of plastic material, and the bottom 2
0, it can be seen that it has a space 23 surrounded by a side wall 21 and an upper wall 22. The bottom portion 20 of the insulating housing 4 is provided with ten inverted T-shaped contact receiving grooves 7 for inserting and fixing the spring contacts 5 therein. The spring contact 5 is bent into a U-shape as shown in the fourth figure, and one end thereof constitutes a contact portion 6 for making an electrical connection with a conductor (not shown) of the flexible printed circuit board, and the contact portion 6 is connected to the base. In a manner that projects upward from the upper surface 16 of 20,
It is fixed in the contact receiving groove 7 by appropriate means. The other end of the spring contact 5 projects from the base 20 forming a solder tail 31 that is inserted into a through hole in a conventional printed circuit board 49 (FIG. 4) and soldered. The bottom surface of the base 20 is the fourth
As shown in the figure, it is mounted on the surface of a printed circuit board 49.

Referring to FIG. 4 to explain the top wall 22 of the insulating housing 4, the depth of the top wall 22 is the same as that of the bottom 2.
It can be seen that the depth dimension is less than half of the depth dimension of 0. That is, the rear end portion of the top wall portion 22 and the bottom portion 20
The rear end portion is substantially aligned on a vertical plane and constitutes the back portion of the insulating housing 4, but the front edge of the top wall portion 22 is set back considerably from the front edge of the bottom portion 20. , the contact portion 6 of the spring contact 5 is exposed without being covered by the upper wall portion 22. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 6, a convex arcuate portion 42 formed at the front end of the lower surface of the upper wall portion 22 is provided over the entire width, and this is a presser plate portion to be described later. It becomes a part of the engagement means for engaging with the curved portion 43 of No. 12. The space defined by the lower surface of the top wall portion 22 and the upper surface of the bottom portion 20 is indicated by the reference numeral 23 in FIG.

Space 2 defined by bottom 20 and top wall 22
A pair of side wall portions 21 for configuring the device 3 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. The rear portion of the side wall portion 21 is substantially aligned with the rear end portions of the bottom portion 20 and the top wall portion 22, and constitutes the back surface of the insulating housing 4.
As can be seen from FIG. 2, the front end portion of the side wall portion 21 is
A first vertical surface 29 forming a zigzag surface and located at a position set back from the front end surface of the bottom section 20 through a first vertical surface 29 that is approximately equal to the front end surface of the top wall section 22 and a horizontal surface extending from the first vertical surface. second vertical plane 19
and a third vertical surface 17 via a downward horizontal surface provided perpendicular to the second vertical surface. The downwardly facing horizontal surface connecting the second vertical surface 19 and the third vertical surface 17 is named the locking surface 18. While the inner surface of the side wall portion 21 is a flat surface, the outer surface thereof has a pair of platform portions 14 having an approximately semicircular cross-sectional shape and a pair of small protrusions 15 having a spherical surface. It is provided. These effects will be described later.

As can be understood from Fig. 1, the presser foot cover 8 is
The member is integrally molded from plastic and has a substantially square-shaped plan view, consisting of a pair of side plate parts 11 and a presser plate part 12 that connects the side plate parts. The holding plate portion 12 refers to the area of the holding cover 8 that presses the flexible printed circuit board, and therefore has a width that fits into the inner surfaces of the pair of side walls of the insulating housing 4. The cross-sectional shape of the presser plate portion 12 is the fourth
As shown in the figure, the details of the structure will be described below. Referring to FIG. 4, a concave curved portion 43 cut out in an arc shape is formed on the upper surface of the rear end of the presser plate portion 12 over the entire width of the presser plate portion 12. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, this engages with an arcuate portion 42 provided at the lower front edge of the upper wall portion 22 of the insulating housing 4 to form an engaging portion. Therefore, the curvature of the curved portion 43 is the same as that of the arcuate portion 4.
It is preferable that the curvature is greater than 2, and that the tip thereof terminates in a plane substantially parallel to the lower surface of the presser plate portion 12. The engaging portion constructed with the above-mentioned structure maintains the engagement relationship between the front end of the upper wall portion 22 and the rear end of the presser plate portion 12, and the retainer plate portion 12.
It is possible to allow free movement of the body. The detailed operation of the engaging portion will be described later. As can be seen from the embodiments of FIGS. 5 and 6, when the connector is in use, the depth of the retainer plate 12 is approximately
1 and the front edge 41 of the bottom 20 of the housing 4 are selected so that they are aligned in substantially the same vertical plane.

Next, the side plate portion 11 of the presser cover 8 will be explained with reference to FIG. A pair of ears 9 are provided.
On the opposite side of the ear portion 9, that is, on the inside of the rear end portion of the side plate portion 11, there is a pair of depressions 32 (indicated by dotted lines in FIG. 3) that broadly surround the platform portion 14 of the insulating housing 4. is provided. The combination of the depression 32 and the platform 14 provides a means for preventing the presser cover 8 from coming off easily from the insulating housing 4, and the curved portion of the presser plate portion 12
3 slides along the arcuate portion 42, and the presser cover 8
It has a structure that allows the angle or position of the to be changed freely. Further, a recess 33 (Fig. 3) is provided inside the side plate 11 surrounding the small protrusion 15 of the side wall 21, and cooperates with the protrusion 15 to prevent the side plate 11 from being forced downward. It is a holding means that resists external forces.

At the front lower part of the presser foot cover 8 is a locking protrusion 4 for providing a locking means in cooperation with the locking surface 18.
4 is shown in FIG. The front surface 45 of this locking protrusion 44 is located on the side wall 2.
1, the presser cover 8 is not pushed further diagonally than the state shown in FIG. 3 or 4. Furthermore, the third
Even if the inclination angle of the presser foot cover is slightly larger than that shown in Fig. 4 and the surfaces 45 and 19 are disengaged,
Due to the combination of the platform part 14 and the depression 32, the tip of the curved part 43 of the presser cover 8 is prevented from being pushed into the space part 23 excessively or coming off from the engaging part. .

In the illustrated embodiment, the presser plate portion 12 is the side plate portion 11.
Although the presser cover 8 is constructed by holding the presser cover 8, it is necessary to draw attention to the fact that the present invention can be practiced by omitting the side plate portion 11 and using only the presser plate portion 12. In such an embodiment, the holding plate portion 12 must be provided with suitable locking means.

Next, in order to explain the operation of the forceless insertion/extraction connector assembly 1 of the present invention, reference will first be made to FIG. 4. The position of the presser cover shown in FIG.
When in the first position, which has a gap for inserting the end of the flexible printed circuit board between the lower surface of the holding plate part 12 and the lower surface of the holding plate part 12, the arcuate part 42 and the curved part 4
Since the engaging portion consisting of 3 is not receiving any external force, it is in a loosely engaged state. In this first position,
The end 3 of the flexible printed circuit board 2 is inserted into the space 23 through the above-mentioned gap, and the conductor of the end 3 and the spring contact are aligned. Next, the presser cover 8 is moved against the elastic repulsive force of the spring contact 5.
Press the front edge portion of the holder downward (in the first direction). At this time, as can be easily inferred from FIG. 4 showing a cross-sectional view of the presser plate part 12,
A lever is constructed such that the engaging part constituted by the spring contact is a fixed point, and the contact part 6 of the spring contact 5 and the pressing point of the presser cover 8 are moving points. It strongly engages against the elastic force of 5. If the dimensions of the presser plate part 12 are constant, if the distance between the contact part 6 and the engaging parts 42 and 43 is shortened, pressing becomes easier according to the principle of leverage; If the value is increased, the force applied to the engaging portion will be reduced, so the relative positions of the contacts are determined by considering the advantages and disadvantages of both.

When the hold-down cover 8 is pressed until it is substantially parallel to the bottom 20 of the insulating housing 4, the upper surface of the locking projection 44 of the hold-down cover 8 is placed in a second position in which it can engage the locking surface 18 of the insulating housing 4.
In this second position of the presser plate part 12 or the presser cover 8, the presser plate part 12 is pushed upward by the elastic repulsive force of the spring contact, so that the curved part 43 of the presser plate part 12 arcuate portion 42 of
As already mentioned, this is referred to as strong engagement of the engaging portion in this specification. Therefore, when the presser plate part 12 is in the second position, (i) the engaging part is strongly engaged, and (ii) the presser plate part 12 butts against the upper wall part 22 via the engaging part. This means that they are in a state of "butt juxtaposition" where they are arranged on almost the same plane. Therefore, the “protrusion juxtaposition” state of the presser plate portion 12 means that the lower surface of the presser plate portion 12 and the upper wall portion 22
This also means that the holding plate portion 12 is placed substantially in the same plane as the lower surface of the insulating housing 4 and is in a position where the holding plate portion 12 can be locked with the insulating housing 4.

Next, when the presser cover 8 in the second position is pressed in the horizontal direction (second direction) toward the insulating housing 4, the engaging portions of the arcuate portion 42 and the curved portion 43 engage in a sliding engagement (that is, a strong the presser cover 8 and the insulating housing 4 are locked by the locking means described above, that is, by the engagement of the locking protrusion 44 and the locking surface 18, The presser cover 8 is placed in the third position.
At this time, care must be taken that the shape of the depression 32 surrounding the platform portion 14 is selected to have sufficient space so as not to impede the above-mentioned sliding engagement. A cross-sectional view of the connector assembly in the third position in which the insulating housing 4 and retainer cover 8 are locked is shown in FIG. The flexible printed circuit board establishes a reliable electrical connection with the contact portion 6 of the spring contact 5 at the third position of the holding plate portion 12, and is firmly fixed to the no-insertion/extraction force connector assembly 1. It is clear that the removal of the board 2 is carried out by reversing the previously described procedure, but the ears 9 of the presser cover 8 serve as a removal knob to facilitate the operation when moving the presser cover 8 from the third position. .

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, the shape of the elements constituting the engaging portion can take various other shapes, and the presser cover and locking means can be changed to other types. These changes and modifications are obvious to ordinary experts in this field, so I won't explain them any further.

F. Effects of the Invention The connector of the present invention (i) has good workability because the flexible printed circuit board can be inserted diagonally, and especially in the case of a connector located in the central area of the printed wiring board, it is extremely easy to attach and remove the flexible printed circuit board. (ii) The presser cover can be pressed from above with one touch, which improves work efficiency. (iii) The slider guide part is unnecessary, so it can be made thinner. (iv) The presser plate part of the presser cover is Since it is embedded in a part of the insulating housing body, it is possible to minimize the warping of the connector due to the elastic force of the spring contact. The cover has effects such as being able to be opened.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a compact connector assembly with no insertion/extraction force for flexible printed circuit boards according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an insulating housing used in the connector assembly of FIG. 1, and FIG. 1 is a side view of the connector assembly shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the connector assembly shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a perspective view for explaining the usage state of the connector assembly, FIG. 6 is a sectional view for explaining the usage state of the no-insertion/extraction force connector assembly according to the present invention, and FIGS. 7 to 9 are the conventional FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flexible printed circuit board. 1... No insertion/extraction force connector assembly, 2... Flexible printed circuit board, 4... Insulating housing, 5
... Spring contact, 6 ... Contact part, 8 ... Holder cover, 11 ... Side plate part, 12 ... Holder plate part, 1
4...Platelet, 15...Protrusion, 20...Base,
21... Side wall portion, 22... Upper wall portion, 23... Space portion, 32... Hollow portion, 33... Concave portion, 42... Arc-shaped portion, 43... Curved portion.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An insulating housing in which a base, a pair of side walls, and a top wall are integrally molded; a plurality of spring contacts fixed in parallel to the base; a lower surface of the top wall; a holding plate portion for pressing a conductor on a flexible printed circuit board inserted into a space formed by an upper surface of the base and an inner surface of the side wall portion to a contact portion of the spring contact;
The flexible device comprises an engaging portion constituted by a front end of the lower surface of the upper wall portion and a rear end of the upper surface of the presser plate portion, and a locking means for integrally locking the presser plate portion and the insulating housing; In order to insert and remove the printed circuit board without any insertion/extraction force, when the presser plate is in the first position diagonally engaged with the upper wall of the insulating housing, the contact portion of the spring contact and the presser plate are in contact with each other. The engaging portions are loosely engaged so as to create a gap between the bottom surface and the flexible printed circuit board, and one end of the holding plate portion is pressed down to press the flexible printed circuit board against the contact portion of the spring contact. When the device is in the second position, the engaging portion strongly engages against the elastic repulsive force of the spring contact, and the holding plate portion is placed in the third position for locking to the insulating housing. , when the presser plate portion is moved from the second position to the third position,
A no-insertion/extraction-force connector characterized in that the engaging portion engages by sliding. 2. The forceless insertion/extraction connector according to claim 1, wherein the engaging portion is comprised of an arcuate portion of the upper wall portion and a curved portion of the holding plate portion. 3. The forceless insertion/extraction connector according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the holding plate portion is a holding cover having a side plate portion. 4. The forceless insertion/extraction connector according to claim 3, wherein the pair of side wall portions and the pair of side plate portions of the presser cover have means for preventing the presser cover from falling off. 5. The falling-off prevention means includes a platform portion of the side wall portion;
5. The no-insertion/extraction-force connector according to claim 4, wherein the connector includes a recess in the side plate portion. 6. Claim 4, wherein the pair of side wall portions and the pair of side plate portions of the presser cover have holding means.
The no-insertion/extraction-force connector described in Items 1 and 5.