JP2005190886A - Electric connector assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric connector assembly with comparatively high durability, wherein a smooth operation can be performed, and two housings can automatically return after relative turn. <P>SOLUTION: This electric connector assembly has a first housing 2 having a plurality of leaf contacts 16 which are fixed to a substrate 24 and a second housing 4 including a plurality of pin contacts 58. The pin contacts 58 have contact parts 66 contacting with the leaf contacts 16 at one ends and movable pins 64 electrically contacting with a counter member 88 to be contacted and by which energized by a spring on the other ends. The second housing 4 is rotatably connected with the first housing 2 by a return spring 30. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, and more particularly, to an electrical connector assembly having a rotation mechanism used for a fitting part of a mounting part to be attached to the equipment, which is used in office equipment such as a printer. Is.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electrical connector assembly is known that is disposed so as to slide relative to a contacted member of a counterpart (Patent Document 1). This electrical connector assembly is used for a steering wheel mechanism of an automobile. A coil in which a pin-shaped contact member having a circular cross section is accommodated at both ends of a cylindrical housing and the contact member is accommodated in the housing. It has a structure in which the spring is biased from the inside by a spring and protrudes from both ends of the housing. These contact members are in sliding contact with the contacted member.
JP-A-64-44361 (FIGS. 6 and 7)

 In the above-described conventional electrical connector assembly, since the contact member and the contacted member are always in sliding contact with each other, the wear is intense, and smooth rotation may not be obtained due to the progress of wear. In addition, the connector itself does not have a means to return to the original position when there is no load, so if it is necessary to return automatically, a separate return means must be provided outside the connector assembly. The assembly cost on the side increases.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector assembly that allows a smooth operation with high durability with a relatively simple configuration.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector assembly that can automatically return to its original position before rotation when no load is applied.

   An electrical connector assembly of the present invention has a first housing having a plurality of leaf contacts, the leaf contacts being fixed to the substrate, a contact portion that contacts the leaf contacts at one end, and a contacted member at the other end at the other end And a second housing including a plurality of pin contacts having spring-biased movable pins that are in electrical contact with the second housing, the second housing being pivotally connected to the first housing. Is.

  In addition, the first and second housings have a first through hole and a second through hole that respectively pass through the rotation centers of the first and second housings, and the second housing is provided in the first and second through holes. And a rotation shaft that is loosely fitted into the second through hole and press-fitted into the first through hole.

  Furthermore, the leaf contact can be configured to be positioned at a predetermined rotation angle so that the electrical connection with the pin contact is switched before and after the second housing is rotated and after the predetermined angle is rotated.

  Further, the second housing can be configured to be connected to the first housing so as to be able to return to the position before the rotation by the return spring.

  The second housing is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape having a circular recess opened to the outside on the first housing side, and the pin contact is on the virtual inner peripheral surface of the circular recess where the contact point with the leaf contact of the contact portion is You may arrange | position so that it may be located in.

  The distance between the contact of the pin contact and the edge in the circular recess of the pin contact insertion hole is preferably narrower than the width of the leaf contact.

  In addition, the electrical connector assembly of the present invention includes a first housing and a second housing that are connected to each other so as to be relatively rotatable around the same rotation axis, and the first housing is connected to the rotation axis. A plurality of first contacts located on a circumference of a predetermined distance, and the second housing has a plurality of second contacts that can contact the first contact, and the relative relationship between the first housing and the second housing The electrical connection between the first contact and the second contact can be switched by automatic rotation.

 The second housing may be connected to the first housing by a return spring disposed around the first housing so as to wind the first housing.

 Furthermore, the second housing has a guided portion on the contacted member side that is guided so as to rotate around the rotation shaft when attached to the counterpart device, and the first contact and The electrical connection with the second contact can be switched by turning the guided portion.

  The electrical connector assembly of the present invention has a first housing in which a plurality of leaf contacts are fixed to a substrate, a contact portion that contacts the leaf contact at one end, and an electrical contact with a contacted member at the other end at the other end. And a second housing including a plurality of pin contacts having spring-biased movable pins, and the second housing is pivotally connected to the first housing. .

  That is, since the leaf contact and the pin contact do not make sliding contact with an external contacted member, an electrical connector assembly having high durability and smooth operation can be obtained.

  Further, the first and second housings have first and second through holes that pass through the respective rotation centers, and the first and second through holes prevent the second housing from coming out to the outside. When a rotating shaft that is loosely fitted into the second through hole and is press-fitted into the first through hole is mounted, the first housing and the second housing are relatively simple in structure. An electrical connector assembly that pivots in the direction is obtained.

  Further, when the leaf contact is arranged at a predetermined rotation angle so that the electrical connection with the pin contact is switched before and after the rotation of the second housing and after the predetermined angle of rotation, The circuit can be switched automatically before and after mounting.

  In addition, when the second housing is configured to be connected to the first housing so that the second housing can be returned before turning by the return spring, the second housing may automatically return to the original position when there is no load. it can.

   Further, the second housing is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape having a circular recess opened to the outside on the first housing side, and the pin contact has a contact point with the leaf contact of the contact portion on the virtual inner peripheral surface of the circular recess. When the second housing is rotated, the leaf contact is not caught by the second housing even when the second housing is rotated, and the second housing can be smoothly rotated.

  Preferred embodiments of an electrical connector assembly (hereinafter simply referred to as an assembly) of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a side view of the assembly of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view, and FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIGS.

  As best shown in FIG. 3, the assembly 1 has two housings, a first housing 2 and a second housing 4. The first housing 2 has a circular shape in plan view, a circular flange 6 extending in the lateral direction is formed on the outer periphery of the lower portion, and a circular recess 8 is formed on the upper portion. A circular peripheral wall 10 extending upward from the bottom surface 26 of the recess 8 is formed between the flange 6 and the recess 8. Note that the expressions “upper” and “lower” refer to the upper and lower directions in FIG. A first through hole 12 extending in the vertical direction is formed in the center of the recess 8.

  In addition, on the inner side of the peripheral wall 10, the first contact insertion holes 14 (14 a, 14 b) vertically penetrate the first housing 2 at four locations on the same circumference centered on the first through hole 12. It is formed (FIGS. 3 and 4). As shown in FIG. 4, the first contact insertion hole 14 includes a pair of first contact insertion holes 14 a and 14 a arranged to face each other on the same circumference, and the pair of first contact insertions. A pair of first contact insertion holes 14b and 14b are formed to face the position rotated from the holes 14a and 14a by a predetermined angle α, in the case of this embodiment, 85 °, counterclockwise. The first contact insertion holes 14a and 14b have the same shape except for the positions. A leaf contact (first contact) 16 is press-fitted from above into the first contact insertion hole 14 and fixed.

  Next, the leaf contact 16 will be described with reference to FIG. 5 shows the leaf contact 16, FIG. 5 (a) is a side view, and FIG. 5 (b) is a front view. The leaf contact 16 is formed by punching and bending from a single metal plate having elasticity, and is formed above and along a plate-like base 18 and a central axis (not shown) extending in the vertical direction of the base 18. Contact piece 20 extending obliquely in the plate thickness direction and tine 22 extending downward from base 18. After the contact piece 20 is bent inward, it is further bent to the opposite side, and the innermost portion becomes a contact 20a with a pin contact 58 described later. When the leaf contact 16 is press-fitted into the first contact insertion hole 14, both sides of the base portion 18 interfere with the inner wall of the first contact insertion hole 14, and the leaf contact 16 is locked to the first housing 2. . The tine 22 of the leaf contact 16 is inserted into the substrate 24 on which the assembly 1 is placed and soldered. Accordingly, the first housing 2 is fixed to the substrate 24 via the leaf contact 16.

  A rectangular convex portion 28 is formed on the upper surface 6 a of the flange 6 along the outer periphery of the flange 6. The function of the convex portion 28 will be described later. The flange 6 is formed with a mounting hole 32 for attaching the coiled return spring 30 downward from the upper surface 6a. Next, the return spring 30 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the assembly 1, and the outer shape of the return spring 30 is clearly shown. The return spring 30 is formed by winding an elastic metal wire in a coil shape and bending both ends in opposite directions along the longitudinal direction of the assembly 1. The return spring 30 is disposed outside the peripheral wall 10, and one bent end portion 34 is inserted into the mounting hole 32 of the flange 6 described above. The other end 35 is attached to the attachment hole 36 (FIG. 3) of the second housing 4.

  Next, the second housing 4 will be described. The second housing 4 has a generally cylindrical shape that is long in the vertical direction, and has a circular base end 40 that is crowned by the first housing 2, a main body 42 that extends upward from the base end 40, and a main body A rectangular plate (guided portion) 44 formed integrally with the main body portion 42 is provided at the upper end portion of the portion 42. A second through hole 46 is formed in the center of the second housing 4 along the longitudinal direction of the second housing 4. A circular recess 50 having a larger diameter than the second through hole 46 opened upward is formed in the upper part of the second through hole 46. A fixing pin (rotating shaft) 48 to be described later is inserted into the second through hole 46.

  As best shown in FIG. 3, the base end portion 40 has the same outer diameter as the outer diameter of the flange 6 of the first housing 2, and the peripheral wall 10 of the first housing 2 and the above-described return spring 30 are disposed on the inner side. A circular recess <circular recess> 52 for accommodating is formed. The depth of the recess 52 to the downward first shoulder portion 52 a is formed to have substantially the same dimension as the height of the peripheral wall 10. The aforementioned mounting hole 36 is formed in the first shoulder 52a. Also, the downward second shoulder 52b is located further upward and is sized to accommodate the leaf contact 16.

  A cutout 55 is formed in the outer peripheral wall 53 that defines the recess 52 of the base end portion 40 along the circumferential direction of the outer peripheral wall 53 (FIG. 1). This notch 55 is for receiving the above-described convex portion 28 and restricting the movement range of the convex portion 28, that is, the rotation angle α to a predetermined angle of 85 °.

  A convex portion 54 is formed at the central portion of the recess 52 including the through hole 46 so as to contact or face the bottom surface 26 of the recess 8 of the first housing 2. A second contact insertion hole 56 is formed in the convex portion 54 at a circumferential position corresponding to the first contact insertion hole 14 along the longitudinal direction of the second housing 4. The second contact insertion hole 56 includes a large diameter portion 56 a located in the main body portion 42 and a small diameter portion 56 b located on the plate 44 side. A spring / probe pin, that is, a pin contact <second contact> 58 described later is inserted through the second contact insertion hole 56.

  The plate 44 positioned at the upper end of the main body 42 of the second housing 4 is formed with a taper 44a facing upward on the outer periphery. When the plate 44 is received by the counterpart device 60, the plate 44 is guided to rotate by a guide mechanism (not shown) on the device 60 side. The aforementioned taper 44 a facilitates the fitting with the device 60.

  The fixing pin 48 is a rod-shaped metal member having a head (stopper) 59 at the top, as best shown in FIG. The head 59 has a circular shape having a diameter that can be disposed in the aforementioned recess 50, and the main body 61 extending downward from the head 59 is press-fitted into the first through hole 12 and loosely fitted into the second through hole 46. Have a diameter and a length greater than the height of the assembly. In other words, the fixing pin 48 is inserted from above the second housing 4 and is press-fitted and fixed to the first housing 2 so that the second housing 4 can be rotated between the head 59 and the first housing 2. . Thereby, the rotation mechanism of the assembly 1 is obtained.

  Next, the pin contact 58 will be described mainly with reference to FIG. The pin contact 58 has a main body 62 accommodated in the second contact insertion hole 56 of the second housing 4 and a movable pin 64 protruding from the second housing 4. The main body 62 is a cylindrical conductive member, has a cylindrical contact portion 66 at the lower end, has a cylindrical shape with a cavity 70 from the middle to the upper portion, and has a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the cavity 70 at the upper end. The opening 68 is provided. The movable pin 64 is slidably disposed in the cavity 70 in the vertical direction. The movable pin 64 has a main portion 72 accommodated in the cavity 70 so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and a contact convex portion 74 protruding from the opening 68 through the second contact insertion hole 56 and above the plate 44. The contact convex portion 74 has a smaller diameter than the main portion 72 and is formed through an upward shoulder 72a. Then, the shoulder 72a comes into contact with the periphery of the opening 68 to prevent the movable pin 64 from being pulled upward. A bottom surface 76 of the main portion 72 is inclined, and a compression coil spring 80 is interposed between the bottom surface 76 and the bottom surface 78 of the cavity 70. As a result, when the movable pin 64 comes into contact with the counterpart contacted member 88 <FIG. 3>, the compression coil spring 80 is bent and comes into contact with the contacted member 88. The contacted member 88 is shown as a reference, and is actually in the back of the device 60, and the dimensional relationship is not proportional to the shape of FIG.

  Next, the contact state between the contact portion 66 of the pin contact 58 and the leaf contact 16 will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the contact piece 20 of the leaf contact 16 contacts the side surface of the contact portion 66 of the pin contact 58. This contact state is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the contact 84 of the pin contact 58 is located on the virtual inner peripheral surface 57 of the recess 52. That is, the lower end portion of the second contact insertion hole 56 is opened to the side, and the contact 20a of the leaf contact 16 is in contact with the contact 84 of the contact portion 66 of the pin contact 58 at the opened portion. As shown in FIG. 4, the distance between the contact 84 and the edge 82 in the recess 52 of the second contact insertion hole 56 is smaller than the width W of the contact piece 20. In other words, the width W of the contact piece 20 is sized so as not to enter between the contact 84 and the edge 82. Thereby, even if the second housing 4 rotates, the contact piece 20 is prevented from being caught between the contact 84 and the edge 82. Further, since the contact point 20a and the contact point 84 are on arc surfaces orthogonal to each other, the contact pressure becomes high, and the mutual electrical connection is ensured.

  Next, an aspect when the assembly 1 is fitted to the counterpart device 60 will be described. When the component 86 to which the assembly 1 is attached is inserted into the apparatus 60 with the plate 44 as a tip, the plate 44 is guided to be rotated around the rotation shaft 48. Before the second housing 4 is rotated, the pin contact 58 is in contact with the leaf contacts 14a and 14a as shown in FIG. When the second housing 4 rotates by a predetermined angle of 85 °, the pin contact 58 rotates counterclockwise and moves to a position indicated by an imaginary line. And it contacts with the other leaf contacts 14b and 14b. Thus, the electrical path can be switched between before and after the assembly 1 is inserted. After the assembly 1 is completely attached to the device 60, the movable pin 64 only comes into contact with the contacted member 88 in a pressure contact state, so that sliding wear is not caused between the movable pin 64 and the contacted member 88. Does not occur or is extremely small. In addition, since the tine 22 of the leaf contact 16 is fixed to the substrate 24, the tine 22 of the leaf contact 16 does not slide and wear.

  Although the assembly 1 of the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications and changes can be considered. For example, the relative rotation angle α of the first housing 2 and the second housing 4 is not limited to 85 °, and it goes without saying that it can be increased or decreased depending on the application.

Side view of electrical connector assembly of the present invention Top view of the electrical connector assembly of FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line III-III of the electrical connector assembly of FIG. The expanded sectional view which follows the IV-IV line of the electrical connector assembly of FIG. The leaf contact used for the electrical connector assembly of this invention is shown, Fig.5 (a) shows a side view, FIG.5 (b) shows a front view, respectively. Perspective view of electrical connector assembly of the present invention

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electrical connector assembly 2 1st housing 4 2nd housing 12 1st through-hole 16 Leaf contact 24 Board | substrate 30 Return spring 46 2nd through-hole 48 Rotating shaft (fixing pin)
52 circular recess 57 virtual inner peripheral surface 58 pin contact 66 contact portion 74 movable pin 84 contact 88 contacted member

Claims (5)

A first housing having a plurality of leaf contacts, the leaf contacts being fixed to the substrate, a contact portion that contacts the leaf contact at one end, and a spring that electrically contacts the contacted member at the other end at the other end A second housing including a plurality of pin contacts having a biased movable pin;
The electrical connector assembly, wherein the second housing is rotatably connected to the first housing. The first and second housings each have a first through hole and a second through hole that pass through the rotation centers of the first and second housings, respectively, and the first and second through holes have the first through holes. 2. A rotary shaft that has a stopper for preventing the housing from coming off and is loosely fitted into the second through hole and press-fitted into the first through hole is mounted. Electrical connector assembly. The leaf contact is disposed at a predetermined rotation angle so that electrical connection with the pin contact is switched before and after the second housing is rotated and a predetermined angle is rotated. The electrical connector assembly according to 1 or 2. 4. The electrical connector assembly according to claim 1, wherein the second housing is connected to the first housing by a return spring so that the second housing can be returned to the position before the rotation. 5. The second housing is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape having a circular recess opened to the outside on the first housing side,
The said pin contact is arrange | positioned so that the contact with the said leaf contact of the said contact part may be located on the virtual internal peripheral surface of the said circular recess. Electrical connector assembly.

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