ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a wire-trap electrical connector and for directly receiving and latching a plurality of cable leads without soldering.
Description of the Prior Art
Fig. 1 shows a prior art connector including a main body 51 and an operating member 62 which is detachably coupled to the main body 51. The main body 51 is provided at its upper section with a plurality of cable lead receiving holes 61 which receive individual cable leads and are separated from each other by a plurality of vertical partitions 52. In order to detachably mount the operating member 62 on the main body 51, the main body 51 has an elastic stopper 55 as well as a guider 57 on each side end thereof. The operating member 62 has a gripe 69 and an insert 64 on each side end thereof. Each of the insert 64 is inserted into a corresponding receiving hole 60 of the main body 51. At this time, the operating member 62 is reliably prevented from an accidental separation from the main body 51 by a stop protrusion 67 and an auxiliary protrusion 68. A pair of protrusions 67 and 68 is provided on the outer surface of each insert 64 of the operating member 62. In addition, a plurality of terminals 53 is upwardly inserted into the corresponding lead receiving holes 61 of the main body 51.
Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view along the section line I - I of Fig. 1 of the prior art connector, which is provided with the cable leads 72. A lead 72 of cable 71 inserted into the connector is reliably positioned by an elastic part 59 of a corresponding terminal 53 as well as by a corresponding projections 66 of the operating member 62. In order to place the cable leads 72 at a predetermined position, the cable leads 72 are inserted into the connector before the projections 66 and the terminal 53 are inserted into the main body 51. After the cable lead insertion, the projections 66 of the operating member 62 are inserted in order to fixedly support the cable leads 72 at their predetermined position with respect to the main body 51. Finally, the terminals 53 having individual elastic parts 59 are inserted from the bottom into a terminal inserting hole 54 of he main body 51 so as to fixate the cable leads 72 at their predetermined position in cooperation with the projections 66 of the operation member 62. At this time, each of the inserted terminals 53 is prevented from accidental separation from the main body 51 since an elastic projection 58 of the terminal 53 is elastically engaging a corresponding recess 61a formed on an inner surface of a side wall of the main body 51.
Fig. 3 shows a side view of the prior art connector in which the inserts 64 of the operating member 62 are received by the main body 51. When the inserts 64 of the operating member 62 are fully received in the receiving hole 60 of the main body 51, the upper end of the auxiliary protrusion 68 is latched by the elastic stopper 55 of the operating member 62 so that the operating member 62 is reliably prevented from the upward movement to separate separation from the main body 51.
However, the prior art connector has a undesirably large gap between the terminals 53 and the side wall of the main body 51 such that the terminals 53 are apt to be bent.
Another problem of the prior art connector is that the lower section of the main body 51 where the terminals are inserted, is wildly open so that the terminals may be accidentally separated from the connector. Furthermore, the contact area of each terminal with a corresponding cable lead is relatively small so that a desired contact of the terminal with the cable lead may not be achieved when the connector is used in an environment where vibration frequently occurs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector which overcomes the aforementioned problems. A main body has a closed bottom except for a plurality of terminal inserting slots, and the main body is provided with a terminal inserting hole at the top for allowing a plurality of terminals having individual elastic parts to be downwardly inserted into the main body.
In order to accomplish the above object, an electrical connector in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a main body having a plurality of lead receiving holes provided at an upper section of the main body in order to receive individual cable leads; a large opening provided on the upper section of the main body in order to receive a terminal, the terminal having an elastic part as well as an elastic projection; a terminal guide groove provided on a side wall of the main body in order to guide insertion of the terminal; a terminal inserting slot provided on a bottom of the main body in order to seat a lower shoulder of the terminal thereon for preventing a downward separation of the terminal from the main body; a hole provided on the side wall of the main body in order to receive the elastic projection of the terminal for preventing an upward separation of the terminal from the main body; and a guider and a stop protrusion, both being provided on each side end surface of the main body, the guider having a stopper at its upper section; and an operating member detachably coupled to the main body and including: an insert guide and a locking guide, both guides being provided on each side end of the operating member, and the locking guide having a locking shoulder at its lower end.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a prior art electrical connector. Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view along the section line I - I of Fig. 1 of the prior art connector showing that a main body is coupled to an operating member.
Fig. 3 is a side view of the prior art connector showing that an insert of the operating member is inserted in the main body.
Fig. 4 is an exploded perspective view of an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention.
Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view of the connector taken along the section line II - II of Fig. 4, Showing a main body coupled to an operating member.
Fig. 6 is a plan view of a connector terminal of Fig. 5.
Fig. 7 is a side view of the connector of the present invention, showing that the operating member is coupled to the main body.
Fig, 8 is a bottom view of the connector of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Fig. 4 shows one embodiment of an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention. The connector includes a main body 1 and an operating member to which is detachably coupled to the main body 1. The main body is < provided at its upper section with a plurality of lead receiving holes 4 which receive individual cable leads and are separated from each other by a plurality of vertical partitions 2. In order to detachably mount the operating member 10, having a plurality of projections 13, on the main body 1, a stopper 8 is farmed on the upper section of a guider 9 which is provided at each side end of the main body 1. The main body 1 also includes stop protrusions 12a which is formed on each side end surface of the main body 1. The operating member 10 has an insert guide 14 and a locking guide 15 on each side end thereof. The locking guide 15 of the operating member 10 is provided at its distal end with a locking shoulder 12 for engaging the stopper 8 of the guider 9 of the main body 1 so as to prevent the operating member 10 from accidentally or undesirably separating from the main body 1. The main body 1 also has a large opening at its upper section where a plurality of terminals 3 having individual elastic parts is downwardly inserted into the main body 1 along individual terminal guide grooves 6 of the main body 1. In order to prevent the inserted terminals 3 from undesirably separating from the main body 1, the main body 1 has at its side wall with the same number of holes 7 as that of the terminals 3. Each of the holes 7 of the main body 1 receives an elastic projection 17 of a corresponding terminal 3 which will be described with reference to Figure 5.
Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view along the section line II - II of the connector of Fig. 4. A lead 26 of a cable 24 is inserted into the connector and accurately positioned on its place by an elastic part 18 of a corresponding terminal 3 as well as by a corresponding projection 13 of the operating member 10. In order to position the cable leads 26 at these positions, the cable leads 26 are inserted into the connector before the projections 13 of the operating member 10 are not inserted in the main body 1. After each of the cable leads is inserted into the connector, the corresponding projections 13 of the operating member 10 are inserted in order to fixedly support the cable leads 26 at a desirable position by urging the cable leads against the corresponding terminal 3. Each terminal 3 having the elastic part 18 is also inserted into the main body 1 through a terminal inserting hole provided on the upper section of the main body 1. The main body 1 has a terminal inserting slot 27 where a lower shoulder of a corresponding terminal 3 is seated so as to prevent a downward movement of the terminal 3 with respect to an undesirable separation from the main body 1. The elastic projection 17 of the terminal 3 is latched in a corresponding elastic projection receiving hole 7 of the main body 1 so that the terminal 3 is prevented from undesirably moving in an upward direction or separating from the main body 1. The bottom surface of the main body 1 except for the terminal inserting slots 27 is closed. The main body 1 is provided at its bottom section with a bending part 16, which is adapted for supporting the terminal 3 at a predetermined angle. The main body is also at its top section with a recess 20 for allowing the elastic part 18 of the terminal 3 to be smoothly pushed backwards towards the recess 20 when the cable lead 26 is inserted into the connector. Fig. 6 shows a plan view of the terminal 3 including the lower shoulder 21, the elastic projection 17 and the elastic part 18.
As shown in Fig. 7, when the operating member 10 is inserted in the main body 1, the locking shoulder 12 of the locking guide 15 of the operating member 10 is latched by the stop protrusion 12a of the main body 1. Even when the operating member 10 is accidentally moved upwardly from the main body 1, the locking shoulder 12 of the locking guide 15 is caught by the stopper 8 formed on the upper section of the guider 9 of the main body 1, so as to prevent the accidental separation of the operating member 10 from the main body 1.
Fig. 8 shows the bottom surface of the main body 1, which is closed except for the terminal inserting slots 27 and a depressed portion of the bending part 16 which is adapted for supporting the terminal 3 angled at a predetermined angle.
As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of terminals inserted in the main body of the connector is in close contact with an inner surface of a side wall of the main body so as to substantially prevent the terminals from being bent as well as from accidentally separating from the main body. In addition, according to the current invention the contact area of each terminal with a corresponding cable lead is substantially larger than the prior art connector so that a desired contact between a terminal and a corresponding cable lead is maintained even when the connector is substantially vibrated.
Another advantage of the present invention is that each terminal is inserted into the main body along a terminal guide groove of the main body to substantially avoid misalignment during insertion.
Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.