Electrical connector assemblies with releasable latching device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10218121-B2
Application number	US-201715821824-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 23, 2017
Priority date	Nov 23, 2016
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

An electrical cable connector includes a case forming a front receiving cavity, and a rear receiving cavity. An upward room is formed in an upper face of the case. A latch is pivotally mounted in the room with an upward locking hook at a front end thereof in an up-and-down moveable manner. An actuator is engaged with the latch to actuate the latch to be unlatched from the locking hole in the cage via a rearward pulling. An engagement between the latch and the actuator is performed by a latch slot in the latch and a T-shaped lug on the underside of the actuator moving along the latch slot. A curve structure is formed on the latch along a front-to-back direction so as to have the latch to be pivoted during rearward pulling the actuator, thus having the upward locking hook downward moved for unlatching.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrical cable connector assembly comprising:
a metallic cage defining a receiving space under a top wall, and a locking hole formed in the top wall and downwardly facing the receiving space in a vertical direction;
an electrical cable connector including:
a case defining a front receiving cavity and a rear receiving cavity along a front-to-back direction perpendicular to said vertical direction;
a receiving room formed in an upper face of the case;
a latch pivotally mounted to the upper face and disposed in the receiving room, and defining a front region, a rear region and a middle region between the front region and the rear region in the front-to-back direction;
a pivot axis located in said middle region of the latch and extending along a transverse direction perpendicular to both said vertical direction and said front-to-back direction;
an upward locking hook formed on said front region of the latch;
an obliquely extending structure formed on the rear region; and
an actuator being back and forth moveable along the front-to-back direction, positioned upon the latch and having a lug engaged with the latch; wherein when the electrical cable connector is received within the receiving space, the locking hook is engaged within the locking hole; when said actuator is rearwardly moved, the lug upwardly urges the obliquely extending structure to have the latch pivot about the pivot axis and have the locking hook downwardly move to leave the locking hole, thus allowing withdrawal of the electrical cable connector from the cage; and
said latch forms a latch slot extending along the front-to-back direction, and said lug extends downwardly through the latch slot and moveable along said latch slot.

2. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said latch forms a pair of pivotal shaft to define said pivot axis.

3. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a printed circuit board is located in the front receiving cavity, and a cable having a plurality of wires disposed in the rear receiving cavity.

4. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said obliquely extending structure extends either curvedly or linearly.

5. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said lug is located at a front region of the actuator.

6. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said lug forms two opposite transversely extending side portions respectively abutting against an underside of the obliquely extending structure of the latch.

7. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the latch slot defines transversely expansive loading zone, the two opposite transversely extending side portions of the lug assembled into the latch slot via the expansive loading zone.

8. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 6 , wherein said actuator forms two through holes in alignment with the corresponding side portions of the lug, respectively, in the vertical direction.

9. An electrical cable connector assembly comprising:
a metallic cage defining a receiving space under a top wall, and a locking hole formed in the top wall and downwardly facing the receiving space in a vertical direction;
an electrical cable connector including:
a case defining a front receiving cavity and a rear receiving cavity along a front-to-back direction perpendicular to said vertical direction;
a receiving room formed in an upper face of the case;
a latch pivotally mounted to the upper face and disposed in the receiving room, and defining a front region, a rear region and a middle region between the front region and the rear region in the front-to-back direction;
a pivot axis located in said middle region of the latch and extending along a transverse direction perpendicular to both said vertical direction and said front-to-back direction;
an upward locking hook formed on said front region of the latch;
an actuator being back and forth moveable along the front-to-back direction, positioned upon the latch and having a lug engaged with the latch; and
a metallic cover assembled to the case to hold the latch and the actuator in position without upward withdrawal from the receiving room; wherein
an obliquely extending structure is formed on either a front region of the actuator or the rear region of the latch; and
when the electrical cable connector is received within the receiving space, the locking hook is engaged within the locking hole; when said actuator is rearwardly moved to have the lug urge the rear region of the latch upwardly, via the obliquely extending structure the rear region of the latch is upwardly lifted, the latch is pivoted about the pivot axis and the locking hook is downwardly moved to leave the locking hole, thus allowing withdrawal of the electrical cable connector from the cage.

10. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said metallic cage comprises a rubber ring surrounding the periphery of the locking hole.

11. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the metallic cover is assembled to the case via screws.

12. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said obliquely extending structure is formed on the rear region of the latch.

13. The electrical cable connector assembly as claimed in claim 12 , wherein said obliquely extending structure extends curvedly.

Assignees

• Foxconn Interconnect Technology Ltd

Inventors

• Little Terrance F
• Khorrami Kamyar
• Zhang Yuan

Classifications

• H01R13/6582

  with resilient means for engaging mating connector · CPC title

• H01R13/6335 Primary

  comprising a handle · CPC title

• G02B6/4293

  hybrid electrical and optical connections for transmitting electrical and optical signals · CPC title

• H01R13/6275

  Latching arms not integral with the housing (H01R13/6276, H01R13/6277, H01R13/6278 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01R13/6581

  Shield structure · CPC title