EP0310382A2

EP0310382A2 - Connector

Info

Publication number: EP0310382A2
Application number: EP88309031A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Masao Suzuki; Yoshio Yamada; Toshimitsu Sonobe
Original assignee: Thomas and Betts Corp
Current assignee: ABB Installation Products Inc
Priority date: 1987-09-30
Filing date: 1988-09-29
Publication date: 1989-04-05
Also published as: JPH0193077A; JPH0519267B2; EP0310382A3

Abstract

A connector has a housing (10) having a cavity (11) for storing a pin (100) to be connected and a contact (20) for making electrical contact with the pin (100). The contact (20) has a body portion (22) extending outside the cavity and a bent distal end portion (21) deformably extending through an opening (12) of said cavity from outside the cavity.

Description

The present invention relates to a connector mainly used for a printed circuit board and, more particularly, to a low-profile connector.
A typical conventional connector has a structure as shown in Figures 8 and 9. That is, a receptacle contact is arranged in a housing to receive a pin to be connected. However, if the connector having such a structure is miniaturised, the stroke of the contact is shortened, and deformation of a spring of the contact is reduced. As a result, an inserted pin cannot be satisfactorily held. Thus, miniaturisation of the conventional contact is limited.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to eliminate the conventional drawbacks and to provide a low-profile connector or a connector which can decrease an interval of cavities in which pins are inserted.
According to the invention, there is provided a connector comprising a housing having a cavity for storing a conductive portion to be connected, and a contact having a body portion extending outside said cavity and a bent distal end portion deformably extending through an opening of said cavity from outside said cavity, wherein when said portion to be connected is inserted in said cavity, said distal end portion of said contact is brought into contact with said portion to be connected, thus achieving an electrical connection, the body portion engaging a groove formed in said housing, a portion of said groove being obliquely formed outside a bottom portion of a side wall defining the cavity and the body portion of the contact having an inclined portion corresponding to said oblique portion of said groove whereby the body portion and the bent distal end portion can be preformed and then located in said housing by insertion obliquely from above the housing.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a connector comprising a housing having a cavity for storing a conductive portion to be connected, and a contact having a body portion extending outside said cavity and a bent distal end portion extending through an opening of said cavity from outside the cavity, wherein when said portion to be connected is inserted into said cavity, said distal end portion of said contact is brought into contact with said portion to be connected, thus achieving electrical connection, consequent deflection of the distal end portion being achieved at least in part by bending of the contact outside and away from the cavity.
By way of example, two embodiments of a connector according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 is a partially cutaway, exploded, perspective view showing a first embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an assembled state of the embodiment;
Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the embodiment shown in Figure 2;
Figure 4 is a sectional view taken along a line A-A in Figure 3;
Figure 5 is a side view of the embodiment shown in Figure 3;
Figure 6 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of the second embodiment;
Figure 8 is a longitudinal sectional view of a prior art; and
Figure 9 is a side view of the prior art.

Figures 1 to 5 show a first embodiment of the present invention. In Figure 1 showing an exploded view of a connector according to the first embodiment, reference numeral 20 denotes contacts constituted by deformably bent distal end portions 21, connecting portions 23, and body portions 22 connecting them. Reference numeral 10 denotes a housing in which a plurality of cavities 11 for receiving pins of members 100 to be connected are arrayed.
Fig. 2 shows a state wherein the contacts are mounted on the housing. As shown in Fig. 2, the distal end portion 21 of each contact extends in an opening 12 of the corresponding cavity of the housing, so that the body portion 22 is fixed outside the cavity 11, and the connecting portion 23 extends outwardly from the housing.
The connecting portion 23 of each contact is inserted in a hole formed in a printed circuit board or is in contact with a pad provided thereon, and is fixed thereto by soldering.
The housing and the contact mounted thereon will be described in more detail with reference to the sectional views of Figs. 3 to 5.
Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of Fig. 2, and shows procedures for mounting the contact on the housing. A groove 32 is formed on the outer surface of the housing so as to receive the contact from obliquely above as indicated by an arrow in Fig. 3 and to engage with and hold it. A broken line in Fig. 3 indicates a state during insertion of the contact in the groove 32.
One of opposing side walls of the housing defining the opening of each cavity is notched, as shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, when the contact is inserted in the groove 32 obliquely from above the housing, the bent distal end portion 21 of the contact extends in the opening of the cavity 11 over the notched opening.
A portion of the groove 32 of the housing is obliquely formed outside a bottom portion of a side wall defining the cavity. The body portion 22 of the contact has an inclined portion 22a engaged with the inclined portion of the groove.
Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along a line A - A in Fig. 3. As can be seen from Fig. 4, a narrowed portion 23a is formed in the connecting portion contiguous with the body portion 22 of the contact.
Fig. 5 is a side view of Fig. 3. In Fig. 5, reference numeral 32a denotes a gap provided outside the groove 32 of the housing to communicate therewith. The gap 32a is formed to be slightly wider than the narrowed portion 23a of the contact.
In Figs. 3 and 5, reference numeral 22b denotes a projection 22b projecting from the body portion 22 of the contact. When the contact is inserted in the groove 32 of the housing, the projection 22b abuts against the gap 32a, thus fixing the contact to the housing.
Referring again to Fig. 3, the shape of the contact will be explained below. In the illustrated embodiment, the shape of the contact before it is inserted in the housing is as follows. That is, the body portion 22 and the connecting portion 23 are linearly and integrally formed, as indicated by a broken line. After the contact is mounted on the housing, the connecting portion 23 is bent clockwise, as indicated by the arrow in Fig. 3, so as to extend vertically. Since the narrowed portion 23a has a smaller width than that of the gap 32a even in the contact with the bent connecting portion 23, when the contact is inserted in the groove 32 of the housing, the narrowed portion 23a can pass through the gap. Thus, the contact can be easily mounted on the housing.
When a pin of the portion 100 to be connected is inserted in the housing with the contact, the pin is brought into contact with the bent distal end portion 21 of the contact in the opening 12 of the cavity. Along with insertion of the pin, the distal end portion 21 of the contact is extended, and holds the pin stored in the cavity 11 by its elastic force.
Figs. 6 and 7 show a second embodiment of a connector according to the present invention. This embodiment can be realized such that after a contact indicated by a broken line in Fig. 3 is mounted on the housing, the contact is bent counterclockwise. In this case, the width of the housing corresponds to a height of the connector in use (see Fig. 6). Therefore, in this embodiment, a connector having a lower profile than that in the first embodiment can be realized. As can be seen from Fig. 6, the insertion direction of a pin is parallel to a printed circuit board to be mounted.

Effect of the Invention

The structure of the connector according to the present invention has been described. With this structure, the present invention can provide the following effects.
Since the contact is fixed outside the cavity of the housing and its distal end portion extends in the opening of the cavity, the profile of the housing itself can be lowered without decreasing the elastic force of the distal end portion. Therefore, a low-profile connector can be realized.
When the contact is mounted on the housing, it can only be engaged with the groove of the housing obliquely from above the housing, resulting in very easy assembly of the connector.
When the member to be connected is received in the cavity, the distal end portion of the contact can be deformed until it abuts against the inner wall of the cavity. Thereafter, the deformation of the distal end portion is restricted by the inner wall. In other words, this contact can be an anti-overstress contact.
Since the pin of the member to be connected is brought into contact with the connecting portion of the contact in the opening of the cavity, a stroke until the pin reaches the bottom of the cavity is long, and hence, a wiping effect for removing contamination of the pin is enhanced.
Since the contact is fixed outside the cavity, the contact body need not be inserted in the cavity, and the cavity does not have an open bottom (in a conventional type, the bottom of the cavity is commonly used as an insertion hole of the contact, as shown in Fig. 8). Therefore, the problem of the open bottom of the cavity, e.g., entrance of flux of solder can be prevented.

Claims

1. A connector comprising a housing (10) having a cavity (11) for storing a conductive portion (100) to be connected, and a contact (20) having a body portion (22) extending outside said cavity and a bent distal end portion (21) deformably extending through an opening (12) of said cavity from outside said cavity (12), wherein when said portion to be connected is inserted in said cavity, said distal end portion of said contact is brought into contact with said portion to be connected, thus achieving an electrical connection, the body portion (22) engaging a groove (32) formed in said housing, a portion of said groove being obliquely formed outside a bottom portion of a side wall defining the cavity and the body portion (22) of the contact having an inclined portion (22a) corresponding to said oblique portion of said groove (32) whereby the body portion and the bent distal end portion can be preformed and then located in said housing by insertion obliquely from above the housing.

2. A connector comprising a housing (10) having a cavity (11) for storing a conductive portion (100) to be connected, and a contact (20) having a body portion (22) extending outside said cavity (11) and a bent distal end portion (21) extending through an opening (12) of said cavity (11) from outside the cavity (11), wherein when said portion to be connected is inserted into saidcavity (11), said distal end portion (21) of said contact is brought into contact with said portion to be connected, thus achieving electrical connection, consequent deflection of the distal end portion (21) being achieved at least in part by bending of the contact outside and away from the cavity.

3. A connector as claimed in Claim 2 wherein the body portion (22) engages a groove (32) formed in said housing.

4. A connector as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 3 wherein a narrowed portion (23a) is formed in said connecting portion contiguous with said body portion of said contact, a gap (32a) being formed to communicate with said groove (32) so that, when the contact is mounted on said housing, said narrowed portion can pass through said groove of said housing.

5. A connector as claimed in Claim 4 wherein the body portion (22) has a projection (22b) which abuts against said gap (32a) when the body portion is engaged with said groove (32).

6. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 5 wherein said contact further comprises a connecting portion (23) extending outwardly from said housing.

7. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 6 wherein the distal end portion (21) extends into the cavity no further than the region of the cavity opening.