JP2016105384A - connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector by which, even if an interval between neighboring mating connectors is short, a connector fitted to the mating connector can be easily unlocked.SOLUTION: The connector comprises: a connector housing 23 in a square cylindrical shape; a lock arm 33 extending from a rear end of the connector housing along a side face in an axial direction in a cantilevered state and having elasticity; a lock part 41 which is provided in a distal end of the lock arm and formed at a fitting position with a mating connector housing 43 and at a position to be engaged by an engaging part 45 that is formed in the mating connector housing; and a slider 25 which is mounted to be movable along a groove 35 that is formed from a rear end of a side face of the connector housing facing the lock arm in the axial direction, and in which a projection 73 is provided which pushes up the lock arm to engage the lock part to the engaging part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 10

Description

  The present invention relates to a connector.

  Electrical parts such as solenoid valves are mounted on automobile transmissions and the like. In order to supply an electric signal and power to such an electric component, a connector connected to a signal line or a power line (hereinafter simply referred to as an electric wire) is fitted to a mating connector provided in the electric component. It has become.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a lock structure for a connector that is fitted into a mating connector housing formed on a solenoid. The connector is provided with a spring body that is supported on both sides of the connector housing in an axially extending manner. When the connector housing is inserted to the mating position of the mating connector housing, the spring body is inserted into the spring body. A protrusion that is locked in the locking hole of the mating connector housing is provided. This type of locking structure inserts the connector housing into the mating connector housing while pressing the spring body with your finger to bend it toward the housing, and then returns the flexure of the spring body to fit the protrusion into the locking hole in the mating housing. The connector housing is locked to the mating connector housing.

JP 2014-26907 A

  Incidentally, in an automobile transmission or the like, as shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of solenoids 11 are arranged in parallel, and a connector housing 15 is adjacent to a spring body adjacent to a counterpart connector housing 13 provided in each solenoid 11. In some cases, the connector housing 13 may be fitted. In this case, in order to release the lock of the connector housing 15, the finger rest 17 of the spring body is pressed with a finger to bend the spring body, and the protrusion of the spring body is detached from the locking hole of the mating connector housing 13. It will be necessary.

  However, if the adjacent solenoids 11 are close to each other, the interval between the adjacent mating connector housings 13 is also shortened, and the space for inserting a finger when unlocking is narrowed, so the unlocking operation is difficult. There is a problem of becoming.

  This invention is made in view of such a problem, and provides the connector which can cancel | release the lock | rock of the connector fitted to the other party connector easily, even when the space | interval of adjacent mating connectors is short. Let it be an issue.

  The connector of the present invention that solves the above problems includes a rectangular tubular connector housing, an elastic lock arm that is extended in a cantilever shape along the side surface from the rear end of the connector housing, and the lock. A lock portion provided at the tip of the arm and formed at a position where it is engaged with the engagement portion formed on the mating connector housing at the mating position with the mating connector housing, and a side surface of the connector housing facing the lock arm And a slider provided with a protrusion provided so as to be movable along a groove formed in the axial direction from the rear end portion of the rear end, and provided with a protrusion that pushes up the lock arm and engages the lock portion with the engagement portion. Features.

  According to this, the connector housing is inserted into the mating connector housing from the rear and the slider mounted on the connector housing is simply pushed forward from the rear to lock the locking portion of the connector housing to the mating portion of the mating connector housing. Can be locked. Further, by pulling the slider backward, the lock portion can be released from the engaging portion of the mating connector housing, the lock can be released, and the connector housing can be pulled out from the mating connector housing. As described above, since all operations can be performed from the rear side of the mating connector housing, the connector can be easily locked and unlocked even when the mating connector housings are arranged at a short interval. In addition, since the lock portion is pushed up after the connector housing is fitted to the mating connector housing, the force by which the lock portion presses the mating connector housing when the connector housing is inserted can be suppressed, and the insertion force of the connector housing can be reduced. It can also be reduced.

  In this case, a beak that abuts against the protrusion of the slider protrudes from the lock arm, and the slider abuts the beak while the lock portion of the lock arm is engaged with the engagement portion of the mating connector housing. Thus, an inclined surface that restricts the backward movement of the slider can be formed.

  According to this, the slider can be locked and held by bringing the inclined surface of the slider into contact with the beak, and the inclined surface slips through the beak by pulling the slider strongly backward. Can be unlocked.

  In this case, the slider is provided with a temporary locking protrusion that protrudes in a direction intersecting the moving direction, and the front end portion of the temporary locking protrusion is formed so as to be able to get over the restriction protrusion protruding from the connector housing. When the rear end portion of the protrusion comes into contact with the restriction protrusion, the rearward movement is restricted and a temporary locking state can be established.

  According to this, since the connector housing can be inserted into the mating connector housing in a state where the slider is temporarily locked, it is possible to prevent the slider from dropping off and to improve workability.

  According to the connector of the present invention, it is possible to provide a connector that can easily unlock the connector fitted to the mating connector even when the distance between adjacent mating connectors is short.

1 is an external perspective view of a connector to which the present invention is applied. It is sectional drawing along the axial direction of FIG. It is an external appearance perspective view of a connector housing. It is sectional drawing along the axial direction of FIG. It is an external appearance perspective view of a slider. It is sectional drawing along the length direction of FIG. It is an external appearance perspective view of the connector with which the slider was temporarily latched. It is sectional drawing along the axial direction of FIG. It is an external appearance perspective view of the connector fitted by the other party connector. It is sectional drawing along the axial direction of FIG. It is an external appearance perspective view which shows the state by which the conventional connector was fitted by the other party connector formed in the solenoid.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a connector to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS. The connector of this embodiment is adapted to be fitted with a mating connector provided on a solenoid provided in a transmission of an automobile. When the connector is fitted to the mating connector, an electric signal or power is supplied to the solenoid from the outside. In the following description, the X direction in FIG. 1 is the front-rear direction, the Y direction is the width direction, the Z direction is the height direction, and in the front-rear direction, the fitting direction with the mating connector is the front, 1 is defined as the upper side.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the connector 21 according to the present embodiment includes a connector housing 23 made of insulating resin formed in a rectangular tube shape, a slider 25 made of insulating resin attached to the connector housing 23, and a connector. And a plurality of female terminals 27 housed and held in the housing 23. Inside the connector housing 23, a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers 29 penetrating the connector housing 23 in the axial direction are formed. In each terminal accommodating chamber 29, a female terminal 27 to which an electric wire 31 is connected as indicated by an arrow is formed. It is designed to be inserted from the back. The slider 25 is used for a locking operation of the connector 21 while being mounted on the connector housing 23. In addition, although the female terminal 27 is inserted in the connector housing 23, the connector 21 of this embodiment can also insert a male terminal.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the connector housing 23 has an elastic lock arm 33 that is cantilevered in the axial direction along the side surface from the rear end of the connector housing 23, and is opposed to the lock arm 33. A groove 35 is formed in the axial direction from the rear end of the side surface.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the lock arm 33 is provided by extending a base portion 39 linking a leg portion 37 erected from the upper portions of the left and right side surfaces of the connector housing 23, from a normal horizontal position. Elastic deformation is possible in the height direction. A lock portion 41 that protrudes upward is provided at the upper front end of the lock arm 33. The lock portion 41 is raised in a circular arc shape toward the rear, and is locked to a locking portion 45 of the mating connector housing 43 as described later. On the other hand, a beak 47 protruding downward is provided at the lower front end of the lock arm 33. The beak 47 is formed with a slider receiving surface 49 that is inclined upward toward the rear.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the groove 35 of the connector housing 23 is formed by a lower plate 51 and an upper plate 53 that face the lock arm 33. That is, in the groove 35, the inner surface of the notch 55 obtained by cutting the upper plate 53 into a rectangular shape forms a groove side surface, and the lower plate 51 forms a groove bottom surface. The lower plate 51 is formed from the rear end to the front end of the connector housing 23 and forms a sliding surface of the slider 25. The upper plate 53 is provided so as to cover the upper surface excluding the rear end portion of the lower plate 51, and is provided from the rear end of the leg portion 37 of the lock arm 33 to the front end of the connector housing 23. The cutout portion 55 of the upper plate 53 is formed to extend forward from the tip of the lock arm 33. A gap 57 is provided between the upper plate 53 and the lower plate 51, and an opening 59 having a rectangular cross section that communicates with the gap 57 is provided on the distal end surface of the connector housing 23. The dimension of the gap 57 in the width direction is set larger than the dimension of the notch 55 in the width direction.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the connector housing 23 is formed in a stepped shape by exposing the lower plate 51 to the rear from the upper plate 53, and the lower surface of the rear end portion has a stepped plate with a small plate thickness. Is set. And the control protrusion 61 which protrudes in L shape at each corner | angular part of a rear-end part is provided. Each regulation protrusion 61 has a front end surface that rises substantially perpendicularly from the outer surface of the connector housing 23, and a rear end surface that is an inclined surface 63 that inclines toward the outer surface of the connector housing 23.

  As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the slider 25 includes a substrate 65 whose longitudinal direction is the longitudinal direction, a protrusion 67 projecting upward from the center of the width direction of the substrate 65, and a moving direction of the slider 25. A pair of temporary locking projections 69 projecting in the intersecting direction and a finger pad 71 standing on an arc in the rear are connected to the rear ends of the substrate 65 and the ridge 67.

  The width dimension of the board 65 is set larger than the width dimension of the groove 35, and the thickness dimension of the board 65 is set slightly smaller than the thickness of the gap 57 of the connector housing 23. As a result, the substrate 65 can move in the front-rear direction through the gap. The protrusion 67 is provided with a stepped protrusion 73 at the upper front end. The protrusion 73 is formed with a main locking protrusion 75 and a beak contact surface 77. The main locking projection 75 is formed at the upper part of the front end of the protrusion 73, and a rear lower beak contact surface 77 connected to the main locking projection 75 in a stepped manner is provided behind the main locking projection 75. It is formed. The surface that continues from the locking protrusion 75 to the beak contact surface 77 is an inclined surface 79 that is downwardly inclined downward.

  The pair of temporary locking projections 69 are formed in a symmetrical triangle shape at the same position in the length direction of the slider 25, and protrude horizontally from the substrate 65. The front end surface of the temporary locking protrusion 69 has an inclined surface 81 that is inclined rearward, and the rear end surface extends substantially perpendicularly to the side surface of the substrate 65. The inclined surface 81 can get over the restricting protrusion 61 as will be described later.

  The slider 25 configured as described above is inserted along the groove 35 from the rear of the connector housing 23 as shown in FIGS. The slider 25 is inserted into the groove 35 along the lower plate 51 from the rear of the connector housing 23. At this time, in the slider 25, the substrate 65 is inserted into the gap 57 between the lower plate 51 and the upper plate 53 of the connector housing 23, and the protrusion 73 is inserted along the notch 55. In addition, the slider 25 has a pair of temporary locking projections 69 abutting against the restricting projections 61, but the slider 25 is elastically deformed so that the inclined surfaces 81 of the temporary locking projections 69 are inclined surfaces 63 of the limiting projections 61. It is possible to get over the restricting projection 61 by climbing on.

  Thus, once the temporary locking protrusion 69 of the slider 25 gets over the restricting protrusion 61, the rear end surface of the pair of temporarily engaging protrusions 69 is the tip surface of the restricting protrusion 61 even if the slider 25 is pulled backward. The rearward movement is restricted. Therefore, the slider 25 is not detached from the connector housing 23 and is temporarily locked to the connector housing 23. In this temporarily locked state, the finger rest 71 of the slider 25 is positioned behind the rear end of the connector housing 23, and the protrusion 73 of the slider 25 is positioned behind the beak 47 of the lock arm 33. . In other words, since the protrusion 73 is not in contact with the lock arm 33, the slider 25 is maintained in a horizontal state without being lifted.

  The connector housing 23 to which the slider 25 is temporarily locked in this way is inserted into the mating connector housing 43 from the rear as shown in FIGS. When the connector housing 23 is inserted into the mating connector housing 43, even if the lock arm 33 is not in contact with or in contact with the inner surface of the mating connector housing 43, the inner surface hardly presses the inner surface. It will be a thing.

  As shown in FIG. 10, when the front end surface of the connector housing is in a proper fitting state where the front end surface abuts against the back surface of the front end surface of the mating connector housing, the lock portion 41 of the lock arm 33 is engaged with the mating connector housing 43. It arrange | positions in the position which can be latched with the stop part 45. FIG.

  Subsequently, when the slider 25 is pressed from the rear and moved forward, the slider 25 moves while pushing up the lock arm 33 with the main locking projection 75 coming into contact with the slider receiving surface 49 of the lock arm 33. Then, when the locking protrusion 75 moves forward from the beak 47 of the lock arm 33 and the beak 47 comes into contact with the beak contact surface 77 of the lock arm 33, the front end surface of the slider 25 becomes the notch 55. The forward movement is stopped by contacting the front end surface. As a result, the lock arm 33 is in a locked state in which the lock portion 41 is lifted and locked in the locking portion 45 of the mating connector housing 43, and the connector housing 23 is coupled to the mating connector housing 43. The slider 25 is locked to the connector housing 23 because the rearward movement of the slider 25 is restricted by the beak 47 of the lock arm 33 coming into contact with the inclined surface 79 of the slider 25.

  On the other hand, when the connector housing 23 is unlocked, the finger rest 71 of the slider 25 is grasped, the slider 25 is pulled backward strongly and returned to the temporarily locked state, whereby the lock portion 41 of the lock arm 33 is released. The original level state is restored and the lock is released. That is, the inclined surface 79 formed on the protrusion 73 of the slider 25 normally abuts against the beak 47 of the lock arm 33 and restricts the movement of the slider 25, but the inclined surface is obtained by pulling the slider 25 strongly. 79, slips under the beak 47 while elastically deforming the lock arm 33 in the direction in which the beak 47 is lifted, and the protrusion 73 moves behind the beak 47. The connector housing 23 in which the slider 25 is temporarily locked is extracted from the mating connector housing 43 by, for example, grasping the four restricting projections 61 and pulling them backward.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a plurality of solenoids are arranged close to each other in parallel, and the connector 11 is locked to the adjacent mating connector housing 43 with respect to the mating connector provided on each solenoid. Even if the connector housing 23 is configured so that the slider 25 is fitted, the connector housing 23 to which the slider 25 is temporarily locked is inserted into the mating connector housing 43 from the rear, and the slider 25 is pushed in from the rear. The lock portion 41 can be locked by being locked to the locking portion 45 of the mating connector housing 43.

  On the other hand, when releasing the lock, the lock portion 41 can be detached from the locking portion 45 of the mating connector housing 43 simply by pulling the slider 25 backward, and by pulling the connector housing 23 backward, the connector housing 23 can be extracted from the mating connector housing 43. That is, in this embodiment, the conventional configuration in which the lock arm 33 is pressed with a finger is abolished, and a configuration in which the slider 25 is moved in the front-rear direction is adopted. Without locking, all the locking operations can be easily performed from the rear of the mating connector housing 43. As a result, even if the gap between the mating connector housings 43 is set short, the locking operation of the connector can be easily performed. Is possible.

  In the present embodiment, the connector housing 23 is fitted to the mating connector housing 43 and then the lock portion 41 is pushed up. Therefore, when the connector housing 23 is inserted, the lock portion 41 is inserted into the mating connector housing 43. It is possible to reduce the insertion force of the connector housing 23 without pressing strongly.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was explained in full detail with drawing, said embodiment is only the illustration of this invention, It can change and change within the range described in the claim. is there.

21 Connector 23 Connector housing 25 Slider 33 Lock arm 35 Groove 41 Lock portion 43 Mating connector housing 45 Locking portion 47 Beak 49 Slider receiving surface 51 Lower plate 53 Upper plate 55 Notch portion 57 Clearance 61 Restriction projection 63 Inclined surface 69 Temporary engagement Stop projection 71 Finger contact portion 73 Projection portion 75 Locking projection 77 Beak contact surface 79, 81 Inclined surface 81 Inclined surface

Claims (3)

  A rectangular tubular connector housing, a resilient lock arm extending in a cantilevered manner along the side surface from the rear end of the connector housing, and a mating connector housing provided at the distal end of the lock arm And a locking portion formed at a position to be locked to a locking portion formed on the mating connector housing at a fitting position, and an axial direction from a rear end portion of the side surface of the connector housing facing the lock arm. A connector provided with a slider that is mounted so as to be movable along the formed groove and is provided with a protrusion that pushes up the lock arm and engages the lock portion with the engagement portion. The lock arm is provided with a beak that abuts against the protrusion of the slider,
The slider is formed with an inclined surface that abuts against the beak while the lock portion of the lock arm is locked to the locking portion of the mating connector housing and restricts the backward movement of the slider. The connector according to claim 1. The slider is provided with a temporary locking protrusion that protrudes in a direction intersecting the moving direction,
The front end portion of the temporary locking projection is formed so as to be able to get over the restriction projection protruding from the connector housing, and when the rear end portion of the temporary locking projection comes into contact with the restriction projection, the rearward movement is prevented. The connector according to claim 1, wherein the connector is temporarily locked by being restricted.

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