JPH0656777B2 - Socket contact device with closed outlet - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a socket contact device used for a highly reliable connector used for defense and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A socket contact device used for a highly reliable connector usually uses a seamless socket contact device on the outside. A conventional type socket device, such as that shown in FIG. 1, includes a solid body having a cavity formed by machining or impact extrusion,
It forms the solid body that is the front of the tube. The slot is machined in the front of the tube to form a forwardly extending tooth whose front end is bent (permanently bent) to mate with a pin contact inserted into the cavity. The hood is mounted around the body to protect the teeth and to form a closed spigot area that limits the size of the pin contacts between the teeth. Although such socket devices are reliable, they are expensive to manufacture.

Another type of seamless socket, shown in FIG. 2, includes a solid body with a cylindrical cavity, and a clip formed from a tubular wound metal sheet mounted in the cavity. The clip has teeth extending rearward and the front of the clip forms a closed spigot area.
Although this socket device is manufactured at low cost, it suffers from the long distance between the pin contacts and the first and last contact points of the tooth. Connectors used for defense usually must have a short distance between the first and last tips of the contacts.

[0004]

It should be noted that there are many types of low cost socket contacts around which a fully rolled or bent portion of a seamless tubeless metal sheet is formed. is there. However,
Such metal contacts are susceptible to damage during handling, during initial manufacture and shipment to the customer, during customer installation in the connector housing, and the like. With a protected exterior, having protected spring clips with the first and last contact points of the contacts approaching each other,
A socket contact device that has a closed outlet area at the opening to the cavity and is constructed at low cost is of great value.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a socket contact device suitable for high reliability applications has a seamless exterior, closed outlet area, and closely spaced first and final contact points. And a contact device that is configured at a low price. The device includes a seamless tube having a terminating rear portion of the wire and a front portion with a large cylindrical cavity open at the front end. The clip for placement in the cavity is tubularly wound and formed from a metal sheet having an axis that coincides with the axis of the cavity. The clip has a plurality of teeth extending from a rear clip portion that slopes radially inwardly in a forward direction at the front of the tooth with repeated bends. The tip of the tooth has an inner radial edge located on the first imaginary circle. The front portion of the clip has a closed spigot region having an inner diameter that is less than or equal to the diameter of a first imaginary circle that includes the inner edge of the tooth tip.

In one construction of the clip, the front portion of the clip has a flared front portion extending with a smaller diameter than the rest of the clip. In another clip construction, the thick front portion of the clip is substantially cylindrical and has a small inner diameter forming a closed spigot area so that the thick portion of the metal sheet on which the clip is formed is the tooth portion. It is thin.

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be understood from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 shows a conventional high reliability body including a socket body B having a rear portion C which receives a conductor D of a wire and is pleated with E to hold the conductor in place. 1 shows a socket contact device A. The front portion F of the body has a cylindrical cavity G and each tooth J has a slot H separating the front portion. The teeth are pleated or permanently bent so that their front ends are closer to each other than the rear ends for a firm connection to the pin contacts K. The protective hood L, which is press-fitted into the front portion of the socket body, is pressed against the tip end portion N of the tooth and protects the insertion port so that a pin contact with a large diameter that may be damaged does not enter, so that It has flared or chamfered portions M that form a region. When a square end pilot pin contact, indicated by O, is inserted, it joins the tooth at the first point P of the contact. Further considering that a square-ended pin contact K is inserted, this results in outward deflection of the contact and pin coupling at point Q. It is desirable that the points P and Q in the first and final combined states are closely spaced. The length of the pin contacts is preferably as short as possible to prevent their damage. However, a considerable length is required because the depth of pin insertion depends on many factors such as how tight the coupling nut connecting the two connectors is tightened. As a result, points P and Q
It is important that they are located close to each other. The socket device A is highly reliable, but the cutting of the slot H, the annealing of the rear part C to allow the front part to be processed and bonded to the wire due to the elasticity of the teeth, and the exterior being seamless Manufacturing is expensive due to the cost of forming the hood L which is Both the hood and the socket body B must be seamless during handling and to prevent damage to them when the customer installs the contact device in the connector housing.

FIG. 2 shows another conventional socket contact device R, which includes a body S of a seamless socket holding a spring clip T. The spring clip is formed of a rolled piece of metal sheet with a slot U forming a tooth extending rearward. The rear end W of the clip serves as a closed outlet area which limits the size of the contact pin to be inserted. An important drawback of this type of device is that the first point X in contact with the pin O at the square end has a considerable distance Y from the final point of the contact Z which this device is unacceptable in many applications. Is. In other respects, this device has many advantages because the body of the socket with a simple cylindrical cavity is cheaply constructed and the rolled metal sheet clip T is cheaply constructed and mounted.

FIG. 3 shows a socket contact device 10 of the present invention which includes a seamless body or barrel 12 having a front portion 14 with a generally cylindrical cavity 16 which opens toward a front end 18.
Shows a part of. The device is mounted in a cylindrical cavity and is designed to come into contact with a pin contact 22 of the type that has a fully curved end or a conventional type with a square end pilot contact indicated at 24. Including clip 20. The barrel 12 is formed of a solid metal stock such as a metal rod with a cavity 16 formed by machining or impact extrusion to form a strong seamless barrel that can be handled without damaging the spring clips. Similar to the conventional one. The cylinder is
It receives a wire conductor or another type of conductor and has a terminating rear portion 26 of wire similar to the conventional one shown in FIG. 1C for gripping the perimeter.

The cylinder 12 and the spring clip 20 have a shaft 30.
And are coaxial. The clip is pressed firmly against the wall of the tubular cavity 16 (at the recess 102), the rear portion 32, the central portion 34 extending forward from the rear portion in the direction of arrow F, and the front portion pressed firmly inside the cavity. It has a portion 36. The central portion 34 of the clip has four teeth 42a to 42d.
It has a plurality of slots 40 that are separated from each other.

Each tooth has a rear portion 50 which is supported on the rear portion 32 of the clip. For each tooth, the front position is the axis
Bent to extend inwardly as it advances forward to approach 30, and radially inward (in the direction of axis 30) −
It has a central portion 52 with the parts facing in the forward direction.
Each tooth has a front portion 54 that terminates in a tip 56 that points outwardly as it progresses radially forward. Tip
56 has radially inner and outer edges 60,62.

The location 64 where the radial inner surfaces of the central portion and the front portions 52, 54 meet is the location where the tooth mates with the pin contact 22 where it is fully inserted. Position 66 along the front portion 54 of the tooth is where the square end 24 of the test contact first mates with the tooth. The spacing 70 between the first and last points of coupling is relatively small, such as less than one-quarter of the diameter of the pin contact 22 and therefore fulfills the distance requirement as described above.

The front portion 36 of the clip defines a closed outlet area 72 which limits the size (diameter) of the pin contact 22 inserted in the socket device. The closed entry area located on a virtual circle of diameter 74 prevents the passage of pin contacts of diameter 74 and above. If the small diameter closed spigot area 74 is not provided, the substantially square end, large diameter pin contact is inserted into the device to bond to the inner edge 60 of the tooth. Instead of the teeth being deflected outwardly, the pin contacts crush the cylindrical teeth, damaging the contact device. Radial inner end of tip 56
60 is located on a virtual circle with a diameter of 76. The diameter of the insertion area 74 is 76 mm at the inner edge of the tip to protect the teeth.
Must be in the same position as or smaller than.

The front portion 36 of the clip is a flared front portion having radial inner and outer surfaces 82, 84 which taper with a forward-outward slope (ie, a radial inward-rearward direction). Including 80. Both the inner and outer surfaces 82, 84 are tapered because they are formed from a sheet of metal whose opposing surfaces are parallel to each other. The rear end of the flared front portion 80 forms a closed outlet area 72.
The front portion of the clip extends posteriorly from region 72 and is a central portion that is tapered with anterior-inward slope (ie, radially outward-rearward direction) of both interior and exterior surfaces 90,92.
Including 86. The front portion is substantially cylindrical and has a cylindrical cavity 16
Includes a rear portion 94 that is pressed firmly against the inner wall of the.

The flared front portion 80 has a spigot area 72.
It provides a good guiding surface for guiding pin contacts through. The change in diameter along the flare is many times greater than the thickness of the metal sheet. The spigot area 72 has a smooth, curvilinear surface (with a radius of curvature much larger than the thickness of the metal sheet) where the front and center portions 80,86 meet, thus smoothly guiding the contact into the clip.
The outer surface of the clip at a point 96 directly outside the spigot area 72 has a smaller diameter than the rest of the clip and most of the walls of the cavity 16. The front of the barrel has a tapered surface 100 that matches the taper of the flaring front portion 80 of the rigidly supporting clip.

The rear portion 32 of the clip has four recesses 102 that project radially outwardly from the surrounding area of the rear portion and are pressed firmly against the walls of the cavity. The clip is held in position in the cavity by the four recesses 102 in the rear portion and by the front portion 36 by the rear portion 94 which is pressed firmly against the walls of the cavity. The additional holding force forms a protrusion 112 inside the wall of the cavity, thus
It is given by deforming the tube radially inward at 110. The protrusion 112 is located in a protruding ledge, or closed end region 72, on the inside of a clip whose outer surface 96 has a smaller diameter than the wall of the cavity without the protrusion 112.
The protrusions 112 take the form of a plurality of indentations, alternatingly in the form of a continuous annular indentation on the circumference of the tube.

FIG. 8 shows a portion of the metal sheet 114 that lies in a plane and is wrapped to form the clip 20 of FIGS. The front portion 36 has a wide width along at least the flared front portion 80 which has a wider width as the sheet progresses forward in the direction of arrow F, while the flat portion of the metal sheet has a rear portion and a central portion 32. It has a wide constant width along the line 34. The metal sheets are cut first from the larger sheets. Slots 40 are cut in the metal sheet so as to extend in the front and rear directions of arrows F and R, and cut 116 is formed at the front end of the position between adjacent pairs of slots to form teeth 42a-42d. It is formed. Also, the recess is formed to leave the recess 102. A portion of the metal sheet is rolled to form a clip. As shown in FIG. 6, there is a gap 118 on the opposite side of the metal sheet that is wrapped before the clip is attached. However, the clip is inserted into the cavity and the gap 11
The width of the metal sheets is precisely controlled with respect to the diameter of the tube cavity so that 6 are connected at least at the rear portion 94 of the front portion. As a result, the rear portion 94 is pressed firmly against the wall of the cavity, which holds the clip in place (subject to the pressure of the recess against the wall of the cavity).

After the clip is inserted into the barrel, the resulting socket contact device is placed in the container and shipped to the customer. The customer loads the contact device in an insulating container as shown at 120 in FIG. The rear portion 26 where the wires of the barrel terminate is for crimping a conductor as in FIG.
It is inserted and crimped in place before it is inserted into the hole 121 of the second container 120. Contact devices are subject to a great deal of handling when they are removed from the shipping container, loaded into the device to terminate the rear portion and inserted into the connector container. The fact that the barrel is seamless, has thick walls and completely encloses the clip 20 works well and results in high reliability when the attached contact device is first manufactured without defects.

In a single contact device of the type shown in FIG. 3, the outer diameter of the barrel is 0.076 inch and the clip is designed to accept a pin contact having a diameter of 0.040 inch and the first and last contact points of the contact are The distance between 70 is designed to be 0.006 inches. The clips are only gold plated thick and the tubes are only thinly gold plated. Gold plating the tube makes it difficult to deform the front end of the tube used as the insertion area inward because the deformation of the tube of small diameter causes the plating to crack.

The contact device of FIG. 3 has a relatively simple design and can be manufactured at a low cost with a single embossing, but since the front portion has a taper width, the portion of the metal sheet 114 is wound. Requires expensive stamping. 9 to 1
1 shows another socket contact device 130, which is composed of low cost embossing.

The contact device 130 of FIG. 9 has a seamless tube 132 formed by machining or impact extrusion of solid metal stock, with a clip 134 positioned in a cavity 136 formed in the front portion 138 of the tube. Have. The teeth 140 are thinner than the rest of the sheet of metal 142, in particular less than the thickness 144 of the front portion 146 of the clip, and are formed from a portion of the sheet of metal. The thicker thickness 144 of the anterior portion is the inner radial surface 150 (tube and clip axis 152) having a diameter 153 less than or equal to the upper imaginary circle located at the radially inner edge 154 of the tooth tip 156. Is radial). The posterior portion 160 of the tooth has the same outer diameter as the adjacent posterior portion 162 and anterior portion 146. However, the posterior portion 160 of the tooth has an inner surface 164 of greater diameter than the posterior portion 162 of the clip. This results in a tooth extending at a large angle or bevel from the axis 152 of the contact point 166 of the given inner diameter (before the pin is inserted). The center and front portions 170,172 of the teeth are similar to the center and front portions of the clip of FIG. It is preferred that at 174 the front end of the clip be beveled. The beveled portion 174 is not as steep as the large difference in diameter of the clip of FIG. 3, but the clip 134 of FIG. 9 is constructed by simple machining.

FIG. 10 shows a portion of the flat sheet material 180 from which the clip of FIG. 9 is constructed. Portions of the metal sheet are cut into squares from a large sheet. slot
182 is formed of a sheet with a slot-like depression 184 on the opposite side of the sheet. The next step is teeth 140a through
Applying a punch having a shape designated 186 to the area containing 140d. The punch is pressed with sufficient force to reduce the thickness of the region 190 of the sheet to which most of the area for forming the teeth corresponds. Sheets of initial thickness of 0.006 inches are probably punched down to 0.004 inches. After the punch is applied, areas such as 192 on either side of the tooth that have been extended by the punching action are cut out. The next step is to cut the sheet at location 194 to form the ends of the teeth. The next step is to bend the teeth, such as 140a, into the structure shown in FIG. Then, the portion of the metal sheet 180 is rolled into a tubular shape.

Because the front and rear ends are of substantially similar width, a portion of the metal sheet 180 is wound (ie, substantially the axis of which is reversed to form a sharp 90 bend in a square cross section). Bending of all parts) is easily achieved in each case. After being rolled into a tube, the clip is inserted into the cavity of tube 132. The width of the section of metal sheet is rolled and closely controlled as it is inserted, and the rear section 162 and front section 146 of the clip are pressed firmly against the wall of the tube cavity to hold the clip in place. . The opposite sides of the metal sheets contact each other at location 196, as shown in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows a portion of the spring clip of FIG. Clip has 0.004 inch thick 202 teeth 14
Formed from a metal sheet having a thickness of 0 and a thickness of 0.006 inches 200. Radial inner edge of tooth tip 154
Is located radially outside of the inner surface 150 of the front clip portion 146 which is thicker by a minimum distance of 0.001 inches 204 (at least 2% of the inner diameter 153 of the spigot area). The outer edge 206 of the tooth tip deflects outward a distance 210 of 0.004 inches. Contact point 166 is 0.005 inches (0.001 in distance 210 or greater) before teeth are permanently set.
) Is deflected to the outside. The clip is designed to receive 0.040 inch nominal diameter and 0.041 inch maximum diameter pin contacts. The spout area (150 in FIG. 9) has a diameter 153 of 0.044 inches with a tolerance of 0.001 inches.

Thus, the present invention has a seamless exterior and has a front closed outlet area that limits the size of the inserted pin, and the initial mating of the inserted pin contact with the tooth. And to provide a highly reliable socket contact device with a short distance between the end points. The device includes a seamless tube having a wall, the front portion of which forms a substantially cylindrical cavity, and a spring clip formed from a tubularly wound metal sheet. The clip includes a rear portion that is pressed firmly against the wall of the cavity, and a central portion forming a plurality of teeth extending forward, and a front portion that is pressed firmly against the wall of the cavity. .
Each tooth has a central portion that is beveled in an anterior-inward direction and a front portion that is beveled in an anterior-outward direction and ends in a tip. The radially inner edge of the tooth tip is located on an imaginary circle of a first diameter, while the front portion of the clip forms a closed outlet area whose inner diameter is less than or equal to the diameter of the first circle. To do. In one construction, the front portion of the metal sheet clip has a front-outwardly flared front portion and a rear-outwardly tapered central portion having two The intersection is the smallest diameter clip location and forms a closed outlet area. In another construction, the thicker portion of the metal sheet of the anterior clip portion has a smaller inner diameter, forming the clip to act as a closed spigot area to protect the tooth tips. Have a reduced thickness of teeth.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated that variations and modifications can be effected by those skilled in the art. Therefore, the following claims are intended to cover such modifications and equivalents.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a socket contact device constructed in accordance with the prior art.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of another socket contact device constructed in accordance with the prior art.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of a contact device constructed in accordance with the present invention and showing the square ends of partially attached pin contacts.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of a clip of the socket contact device of FIG.

5 is a front view taken along line 5-5 of FIG.

6 is a front view taken along the line 6-6 in FIG.

7 is a partial cross-sectional view of a connector holding a socket contact device of the type shown in FIG.

8 is a plan view of a portion of the metal sheet on which the clip of FIG. 4 is formed.

FIG. 9 is a partial cross-sectional view of a socket contact device constructed in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

10 is a plan view of a portion of the metal sheet on which the clip of the socket contact device of FIG. 9 is formed.

11 is a front view of the socket contact device of FIG. 9. FIG.

12 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion of the socket contact device of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 130 ... Socket contact device, B, S ... Socket body, G, 16, 136 ... Cavity, 40, 182 ... Slot, 22 ... Pin contact, 42 ... Tooth.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An electrically conductive seamless tube having a terminating rear portion of the wire and a front portion having a wall forming an open cavity at the front end, and a hollow tube wound about an axis. Formed from a metal sheet disposed therein, comprising a rear portion, a plurality of teeth extending forward from the rear portion, and a front portion disposed in front of the tip of the tooth. , Each of the teeth comprises a clip having a free tip, each tooth having a central portion extending mainly forward but radially inwardly and radially outwardly. A front portion sloping and extending in the forward direction and ending at the tip, the inner edge of the tip being arranged on a first imaginary circle about the axis and the clip front portion being Forming a closed outlet area having an inner diameter less than or equal to a first imaginary circle, The wall of the tube cavity is seamless and is placed around the front part of the clip to prevent expansion of the closed outlet area and protect the clip during handling of the contact device, ensuring the clip fits in the cavity Socket contact device, characterized in that the clip is pressed against the wall of the cavity to hold it in place. 2. The front portion of the clip of the metal sheet comprises radial inner and outer surfaces tapering in a radial inward-rearward direction, and a first imaginary circle located on the inner edge of the tip. A flared front portion having an inner diameter smaller than a diameter, a rear end portion, and a flared front portion rear end forming an inner surface of the closed front end portion; The partial portion includes a central portion extending posteriorly from a rear end of the flared front portion, the central portion having radial inner and outer surfaces having a taper in a radial inward-rearward direction. The contact device according to claim 1, which is provided. 3. The metal sheet has a smaller thickness at the tooth portion than at the front portion, most of the radial inner surface of the front portion is located on the virtual cylinder, and the closed insertion area is The contact device according to claim 1, which is formed.