Rotary connector

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016006203-A1
Application number	US-201514790236-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 2, 2015
Priority date	Jul 4, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A rotary connector has a fixed housing, a movable housing that is rotatably linked to the fixed housing, flat cables wound in an annular space formed between the outer tube of the fixed housing and the inner tube of the movable housing, and a first connector connected to ends of the flat cables in their longitudinal directions. The first connector has connection terminals, a base, and, a cable retaining part. Each connection terminal has a cable attaching part at one end and an outer conductor at the other end, and also has one or more connecting parts. The base has a first plane and a second plane, which face each other. A PTC device is placed on the same side as the first plane. The cable retaining part is placed on the same side as the second plane.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A rotary connector comprising:
a fixed housing having an outer tube; a movable housing having an inner tube, the movable housing being rotatably linked to the fixed housing; a plurality of flat cables, each of which has a strip-shaped conductor covered with an insulating film, the plurality of flat cables being wound in an annular space formed between the outer tube and the inner tube; and a connector connected to ends of the flat cables in a longitudinal direction of the flat cables; wherein the connector has a plurality of connection terminals, a base that retains the plurality of connection terminals, and a cable retaining part that retains the flat cables, a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) device is connected in series with at least one of the plurality of connection terminals, each of the plurality of connection terminals has a cable attaching part connected to the strip-shaped conductor at one end and also has an outer conductor at another end, the cable attaching part and the outer conductor being interconnected with a connecting part, the base has a first plane and a second plane, which face each other, a plurality of connecting parts being retained between the first plane and the second plane, the PTC device is connected at an intermediate point on the connecting part and is placed on the same side as the first plane, and the cable retaining part retains the flat cables and a plurality of cable attaching parts, the cable retaining part being placed on the same side as the second plane.

2 . The rotary connector according to claim 1 , wherein the connecting part of the connection terminal is exposed between the base and the cable retaining part.

3 . The rotary connector according to claim 1 , wherein a PTC retaining part, which retains the PTC device, is integrally formed with the first plane of the base.

4 . The rotary connector according to claim 3 , wherein the PTC retaining part has a slit formed along the PTC device.

Assignees

• Alps Electric Co Ltd

Inventors

• Takahashi Seishi
• Tanaka Toru
• Takahashi Yasunori

Classifications

• H01R2201/26

  for vehicles · CPC title

• H01R2103/00

  Two poles · CPC title

• H01R13/6666

  with built-in overvoltage protection · CPC title

• H01R12/592

  connections to contact elements · CPC title

• H01R35/025 Primary

  having a flexible conductor wound around a rotation axis · CPC title