Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Kenichiro Nishikigi

Nobuo Matsuzaki

Yoshihiro Ohashi

Yoshiro Honda

Hideshi Sasaki

A flat cable connecting structure including a flat cable having a film, a connecting portion, and securing portions; and an external connecting part having a body, a connecting terminal, and engaging portions. The connecting terminal is connected to the connecting portion at a conductor portion, and the engaging portions are made to engage the securing portions, in order to connect the external connecting part to the flat cable 10. The flat cable further includes a bent portion formed so as to be disposed between the connecting portion and the engaging portions. The flat cable connecting structure further includes a strain relief portion disposed between the connecting portion and the engaging portions. The flat cable connecting structure of the invention overcomes a problem in conventional flat cable connecting structures. In the conventional connecting structures, when a pulling force, with a torque greater than a predetermined value, is exerted on the connecting portion at a conductor portion of a flat cable and a connecting terminal of an external connecting part even once, the reliability with which the flat cable and the external connecting part are connected together at the connecting portion is reduced. Therefore, those products found to have unsuitable rotation ranges, during shipment inspection, are thrown away, instead of being adjusted.

Flat cable connecting structure with strain relief

A rotary connector is disclosed. In the rotary connector, a movable housing having a second top plate is rotatably connected to a fixed housing having a first top plate, and a part of the second top plate is overlapped on the first top plate. At the overlapping portion of the first and second top plates, a ring-shaped first projection projecting upward is formed on the inner periphery of the first top plate, and ring-shaped second and third projections each projecting downward are formed on the second top plate. The third projection is in abutment with the inner peripheral surface of the first top plate so as to serve as a rotary slide sections for the first and second housings, and the second projection is arranged outside of the third and first projections.

Rotary connector

A rotary connector including a stationary housing, a rotating housing and a lock member. When the lock member is mounted on the rotary connector, both housings are reliably locked with no free rotation therebetween permitted. The lock member is easily broken at a thin portion to release the locked state. A holder having a slot is integrally formed with the outer cylindrical portion of the stationary housing, while a projection is formed on the top surface of the rotating housing. The lock member is integrally formed of a horizontally extending arm portion, a ring-shaped finger-hook portion integrally connected to one end of the arm portion, and a coupling portion that extends downward from the other end of the arm portion. Formed on the border between the arm portion and the coupling portion is a V-shaped groove, as the thin portion, which is mechanically weaker than the rest of the lock member. The coupling portion of the lock member is snapped in the slot while the hole formed in the arm portion receives the projection of the rotating housing, and thus a relative rotation between both housings is blocked. By pivoting upward the finger-hook portion and the arm portion about the thin portion as a fulcrum, the arm portion is broken at the thin portion away from the coupling portion, and the coupling portion remains snapped in the slot.

Growing community of inventors

Miyagi-ken, Japan

Kenichiro Nishikigi