JPH0370350B2 - - Google Patents

Abstract

Multi contact electrical connector (2) comprises a housing (10) having cavities (16) extending therethrough and flat stamped contact terminals (18) in the cavities. Each terminal has an enlarged mounting portion (28). The mounting portion is supported in a rear portion (56) of the cavity between opposed cavity endwalls (62). The endwalls have V-notches (66) that receive the edges (34, 36) of the mounting portion (28). The contact arms (48) of the terminal are twisted relative to the mounting portion (28) and has a thickness which is substantially greater than the thickness of the mounting portion.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to electrical contact terminals, and more particularly to electrical contact terminals made of metal sheets for use in multi-contact type electrical connectors.

High quality multi-contact electrical connectors typically have cylindrical receptacle contacts in their receptacle portions and cylindrical pins in their plug portions. The pins and sockets can be solid thread machined parts or stamped parts formed into hollow cylinders as sockets and pins.

Flat stamped electrical contacts can be produced at a much lower cost than cylindrical contacts, but flat stamped products have limited applications and are used for pins that require good electrical performance and high reliability.・Not normally used for socket-type high-quality connectors. An object of the present invention is to provide an electrical contact terminal for an electrical connector that uses an elastic metal sheet member, has a simple manufacturing process, has good electrical and mechanical performance, is thin and can be mounted at high density. shall be.

The electrical contact terminal of the present invention includes a substantially rectangular mounting portion, a pair of contact arms extending in one direction from one side of the mounting portion, and a connection post extending from the other side of the mounting portion in a different direction from the contact arms. are integrally formed from an elastic metal sheet by shearing, the width of the contact arm is set larger than the thickness of the metal sheet, and at least the contact arm of the contact arm and the connection post is mounted in the vicinity of the mounting portion. It is characterized by a torsional deformation symmetrical and substantially perpendicular to the plane of the section to provide a contact section that is wider and flatter than the shearing edge.

In yet another embodiment, a first pair of stabilizing projections extends laterally of the terminal axis proximate the contact arm, and a second pair of stabilizing projections extends laterally of the terminal axis away from the contact arm. . The second pair of protrusions extend laterally to a greater extent than the first pair of protrusions, and when the terminal is inserted into the cavity, the first pair of protrusions sink into the edge receiving grooves and expand, and the second pair of protrusions also extend sideways. When the terminal is fully inserted into the groove, the mounting portion is held within the cavity by both pairs of protrusions.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 show an electrical connector 2 using electrical contact terminals 18 according to the invention, which serve to connect the compact pins of the mating connector to the conductors 4 on the underside 7 of the circuit board 8. FIG. Connector 2 includes a housing 10 having a mating surface 12, a rear surface 14, and cavities 16 extending through the housing from the mating surface to the rear surface. This housing is molded from an insulating material, particularly a thermoplastic material, and may deform slightly when the terminal is inserted into the cavity, as described below.

The housing is fixed to the surface of the circuit board 8 by means of ears 20 integral with the housing, for which purpose fastening screws 22 are provided as shown. At the front of the housing there is a trapezoidal projection 24, the front of which is the joint surface 12. The illustrated connector also includes a metal sheet shield 2 surrounding the front of the housing.
It has 6.

The contact terminals 18 are each carried by a strip 27.
It is produced in the form of a continuous strip (Fig. 3). These terminals are manufactured as flat stampings and have a central enlarged mounting portion 28, an integral soldering post portion, and at least one contact arm. The enlarged mounting portion 28 has oppositely facing major surfaces 30, 32 (FIG. 6) which are the rolled surfaces of the strip element metal into which the terminals are stamped. The mounting portion has upper and lower side edges 34, 36 which are edges to be sheared, and the width of both sides is equal to the thickness of the raw metal.

Near the left end of the mounting portion of the terminal is a first pair of stabilizing or retaining projections 38 which extend slightly beyond the adjacent edges. A second pair of protrusions 40 are provided to the right of the protrusion 38 in FIG. 3 and extend a little further than the protrusion 38.
These protrusions assist in retaining the terminal within the cavity as described below.

The mounting portion has a trailing edge 42 and a post 44 extending from the center, as shown in FIG. 1, when the terminal is inserted into the housing and the housing is assembled to a circuit board as shown in FIG. twisted into. This post can be soldered to the conductor as shown at 46 (Figure 2).

A pair of contact arms 48 extending from the left end in the drawing of the mounting portion 28 are connected to the portion 5 adjacent to the mounting portion.
At 0, it is twisted in opposite directions by approximately 90 degrees.
Therefore, the rolled surfaces of both arms face each other, and the ends 52 of each arm are bent to form a contact portion 51 on each arm. The width of the contact section perpendicular to the arm is equal to the spacing between the two side edges of the arm. Contact part 5
It is a good idea to plate 1 with a contact metal such as gold, but this plating work can be done while the terminal is in a strip shape, so gold plating is applied only to the contact part of the contact arm and the terminal The plating cost is reduced.

Each cavity 16 has a rear portion 56 for receiving the mounting portion 28 of the terminal and a front portion 58 for receiving the contact arm of the terminal. Each cavity also has a rear surface 14
It has opposing side walls 60 extending from the cavity to an inner cavity end 72 generally adjacent surface 12 . These side walls are approximately parallel but taper toward each other very slightly due to the well molded plastic. Introductory slopes 61 are provided on both side walls adjacent to the rear surface 14 for guiding the terminals into the cavity.

Each cavity has opposing end walls having a rear portion 62 and a front portion 70 (FIG. 5). Inside the cavity rear part 56, the rear parts 62 of both end walls are
It has converging surfaces 64 that approach obliquely from both side walls and form a groove in the shape of a V-notch 66. This V-notch culminates in a triangular slope 68 at each end wall;
At the front of the cavity, the end walls are once again substantially parallel to each other, as shown at 70 in FIG. A circular hole 74 provided at the inner end 72 of the cavity reaches the joint surface 12 and is connected to a conical surface 76 that serves as a guide surface for a pin inserted into this hole. The terminal 18 is inserted into the cavity from the rear surface (contact receiving surface) 14. This work is performed using a contact terminal insertion machine.

As mentioned above, the torsion of the contact arm 48 is applied to the flat rolled surface, not the sheared line surface, to the contact portion 51 of the arm.
Make it. Also, the contact arm can be relatively wide, with a width significantly greater than the thickness of the metal stock into which the terminal is stamped.

In contrast to this width measured between the edges of the contact arm 48, the width measured between the side walls 60 of the cavity 16 is sufficient to allow the arm inserted from the rear to fully insert the terminal. Must be width. This means that the relatively thin mounting portion 28 must be supported in the relatively wide rear part of the cavity. Good support for terminals
V notch 66 and protrusions 38, 40 at the terminal attachment part
This can be obtained by providing As the terminal is inserted, the leading protrusion 38 bites into the V-notch very lightly, creating a groove. As the insertion progresses, the second protrusion 4
When the terminal 0 has penetrated a little further into the previously created groove and the terminal comes to rest, the mounting portion is held by an interference fit around the four protrusions 38 and 40 in total. If the material is a somewhat deformable thermoplastic, it may
2, and the terminal will be held tightly within the cavity.

Another obvious advantage of the illustrated shaped cavity is that during insertion of the terminal into the cavity, edges 34, 36
Although not perfectly aligned with the V-notch 66 in the end wall, the protrusion 38 can be
When engaging the surface adjacent to the notch, the terminal changes orientation slightly and locates its own centerline within the cavity. In other words, this cavity shape compensates for any slight misalignment of the terminals during insertion. To this end, in a complete connector, the terminals are precisely positioned within the cavity. FIG. 7 shows a slightly misaligned terminal at the beginning of the terminal insertion operation. As insertion progresses, the protrusion slides over the ramp 64 until it is sealed into the V-notch 66 in the end wall.

FIG. 8 shows the core pin for forming the cavity of this connector, and the same reference numerals used in the description of the cavity are used on its surface with a prime (') added. This core pin is provided with a wall pillar-like projection 78' at the center of the surface 60', but this is merely for reinforcing the core pin and creates a recess 78 in the cavity (FIG. 5).

Terminals according to the invention can be made to any required size, and in fact can be manufactured to sizes comparable to the size of the smallest conventional pin and socket terminals. For example, one example of the terminal according to the present invention has a total length of 9.76 mm from the tip of the contact arm to the right edge of the attachment portion. The width of the arm is 0.62mm, which is almost twice the thickness of the mounting part, which is 0.32mm.

As is clear from the above description, according to the electrical contact terminal of the present invention, the metal plate is simply punched out (sheared) and the contact arm portion is twisted. However, it can be manufactured extremely easily and quickly using automatic machines. Furthermore, since the thickness of the electrical contact terminal is determined by the width of the twisted contact arm, it can be formed as thin as, for example, about twice the thickness of the metal sheet member, and a large number of electrical contact terminals can be mounted in high density. , it can meet the recent demands for high density and miniaturization. Further, since the contact portion of the electrical contact terminal of the present invention uses the rolled surface of the metal sheet (not the sheared surface), it has excellent effects such as being sufficiently flat and providing sufficient contact area and elasticity.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a perspective view of an electrical connector attached to a circuit board using the electrical contact terminals of the present invention;
3 is a plan view of a metal sheet strip for manufacturing an electrical contact terminal according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 in FIG. 1. , FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 in FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line 6-6 in FIG.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of the state in which the electrical contact terminal of the present invention is aligned with the cavity of the housing, and FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a core pin for molding the cavity of the housing that holds the electrical contact terminal of the present invention. 28...Mounting part, 34, 36...Side edge, 44...
...Post, 48...Contact arm, 51...Contact portion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A substantially rectangular mounting portion, a pair of contact arms extending in one direction from one side of the mounting portion, and a connecting post extending in a direction different from the contact arms from the other side of the mounting portion are formed by shearing an elastic metal sheet. The width of the contact arm is set to be larger than the thickness of the metal sheet, and at least the contact arm of the contact arm and the connection post is symmetrical with respect to the plane of the mounting portion in the vicinity of the mounting portion. An electrical contact terminal characterized in that it is twisted at a substantially right angle to provide a contact portion that is wider and flat than a sheared edge.