Connector

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11101601-B2
Application number	US-201816495222-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2018
Priority date	Apr 28, 2017
Publication date	Aug 24, 2021
Grant date	Aug 24, 2021

Abstract

A connector that can accommodate displacement and tilting at the time of fitting into a counterpart connector and that can avoid an increase in the size of the connector is provided. A movable contact of a connector has: upper-side contact points; lower-side contact points; upper-side gripping sections; lower-side gripping sections; an upper-side spring part; a lower-side spring part; and two joining sections. The upper-side contact points and the lower-side contact points can move independently of each other due to elastic deformation of the upper-side spring part and the lower-side spring part. An upper-side second width of the upper-side spring part at a second position is smaller than an upper-side first width of the upper-side spring part at a first position. A lower-side second width of the lower-side spring part at the second position is smaller than a first lower-side width of the lower-side spring part at the first position.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A connector comprising a fixed contact, a fixed housing, a movable contact and a movable housing, wherein:
the movable housing has an opening portion;
the movable housing is attached to the fixed housing so as to be movable in an up-down direction;
the fixed housing and the movable housing define an accommodation portion;
the opening portion communicates with the accommodation portion and opens forward in a front-rear direction perpendicular to the up-down direction;
the fixed contact has a gripped portion;
the fixed contact is fixed to and held by the fixed housing;
the gripped portion is positioned in the accommodation portion and extends forward in the front-rear direction;
the movable contact comprises a first contact member and a second contact member;
each of the first contact member and the second contact member has an upper-side contact point, a lower-side contact point, an upper-side gripping section, a lower-side gripping section, an upper-side spring piece, a lower-side spring piece and a joining section;
the upper-side spring piece is resiliently deformable and supports the upper-side contact point and the upper-side gripping section;
the lower-side spring piece is resiliently deformable and supports the lower-side contact point and the lower-side gripping section;
the upper-side contact point and the lower-side contact point face each other in the up-down direction;
the upper-side contact point is movable due to resilient deformation of the upper-side spring piece;
the lower-side contact point is movable due to resilient deformation of the lower-side spring piece;
the upper-side gripping section and the lower-side gripping section grip the gripped portion of the fixed contact in the up-down direction;
the joining section joins the upper-side spring piece and the lower-side spring piece to each other;
a size of the joining section in the front-rear direction is smaller than a size of each of the upper-side spring piece and the lower-side spring piece in the front-rear direction;
in the front-rear direction, the joining section is positioned at a first position;
in the front-rear direction, the upper-side contact point and the lower-side contact point are positioned at a second position positioned frontward of the first position;
in the front-rear direction, the upper-side gripping section and the lower-side gripping section are positioned at a third position positioned rearward of the first position;
in a lateral direction perpendicular to both of the up-down direction and the front-rear direction, the upper-side spring piece has an upper-side first width in the first position and an upper-side second width in the second position;
a size of the upper-side second width is smaller than a size of the upper-side first width;
the first contact member and the second contact member are arranged in the lateral direction;
in the lateral direction, the upper-side contact point of the first contact member and the upper-side contact point of the second contact member are positioned between the joining section of the first contact member and the joining section of the second contact member;
in the lateral direction, the lower-side spring piece of the first contact member and the lower-side spring piece of the second contact member have a lower-side first width in the first position and a lower-side second width in the second position;
a size of the lower-side second width is smaller than a size of the lower-side first width;
in the lateral direction, the lower-side contact point of the first contact member and the lower-side contact point of the second contact member are positioned between the joining sections;
the upper-side spring piece of the first contact member and the upper-side spring piece of the second contact member have an upper-side third width in the third position;
the size of the upper-side second width is smaller than a size of the upper-side third width;
the lower-side spring piece of the first contact member and the lower-side spring piece of the second contact member have a lower-side third width in the third position; and
the size of the lower-side second width is smaller than a size of the lower-side third width.

2. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein, in the front-rear direction, a distance dimension between the first position and the second position is larger than a distance dimension between the first position and the third position.

3. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
a size of the joining section in the up-down direction is smaller than a size of the upper spring piece in the front-rear direction; and
the size of the joining section in the front-rear direction is larger than a size of the upper spring piece in the lateral direction.

4. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
the fixed housing is provided with two first regulating portions and two second regulating portions;
the movable housing is provided with two arm portions, two third regulating portions and two regulated portions;
each of the arm portions supports one of the third regulation portions and one of the regulated portions;
the joining section of the first contact member and the joining section of the second contact member are positioned between the first regulating portions and the third regulating portions, and movement of the joining section of the first contact member and the joining section of the second contact member in the front-rear direction is regulated by the first regulating portions and the third regulating portions; and
the second regulating portions allow the regulated portions to move within a predetermined range in the up-down direction and regulate movement of the regulated portions that is beyond the predetermined range.

5. The connector as recited in claim 4 , wherein:
the fixed housing has two sidewalls;
the second regulating portions are apertures pierced through the sidewalls in the lateral direction;
the regulated portions are protrusions protruding outward in the lateral direction; and
the regulated portions are positioned in the second regulating portions.

6. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
the fixed housing has a fourth regulating portion and a fifth regulating portion; and
in the first position, each of the first contact member and the second contact member is positioned between the fourth regulating portion and the fifth regulating portion.

7. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
the movable housing has a sixth regulating portion and a seventh regulating portion;
the upper-side spring piece has a first front end;
the lower-side spring piece has a second front end;
the sixth regulating portion receives the first front end and regulates movement of the first front end; and
the seventh regulating portion receives the second front end and regulates movement of the second front end.

8. A connector assembly comprising the connector as recited claim 1 and a mating connector, wherein:
the connector has two of the opening portions, two of the accommodation portions, two of the fixed contacts and two of the movable contacts;
the opening portions are juxtaposed with each other in the up-down direction;
the movable housing has a protruding portion which is positioned between the opening portions and which protrudes forward in the front-rear direction;
the mating connector is provided with two busbars and a busbar holder;
the busbars are integrally held by the busbar holder;
the busbar holder has a recess portion positioned between the busbars; and
when the mating connector is connected to the connector, the protruding portion is received by the recess portion at least in part.

Assignees

• Japan Aviation Electronics Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Itou Yasukazu

Classifications

• H01R13/6315 Primary

  allowing relative movement between coupling parts, e.g. floating connection (for coupling devices specially adapted for printed circuits, flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures, H01R12/91 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01R13/113

  co-operating with pins or blades having a rectangular transverse section · CPC title

• H01R13/112

  forked sockets having two legs · CPC title

• H01R13/502

  composed of different pieces (H01R13/514 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01R13/506

  assembled by snap action of the parts · CPC title