Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Limited

Koji Okutani

Yukinori Saka

Atsushi Yamaoka

Kazunori Yamashita

A connector has a housing ( ) with a lock arm ( ) that engages a lock ( ) of a mating housing ( ) when the housings ( ) are connected properly. Resilient members ( ) are movable along a connecting direction (CD) of the housings ( ) and are displaceable along a direction (RDD) intersecting the connecting direction (CD). The resilient members ( ) are pushed back by the mating housing ( ) as the housings ( ) are connected. A spring ( ) between the resilient member ( ) and the housing ( ) accumulates a biasing force to separate the housings ( ) as the resilient member ( ) is moved back. An operable member ( ) is movable along the connecting direction (CD) and has an operating portion ( ) displaceable to an operable position where the lock arm ( ) can be operated to cancel the locked state.

Connector and a connector assembly

A reconfigurable interactive kiosk for producing a printout of a digital image. The interactive kiosk includes: a processor for processing digital images. The processor includes memory, display screen, user input device, updatable stored scalable digital images and a hard copy medium connected to the processor for transferring the combined digital image to a hard copy medium that can be a composite image on a single size/type of medium, or on multiple size/types of medium. A camera captures a digital image and provides the captured image to the processor. At least one of a CD ROM drive, a floppy disk drive and a photo scanner may be connected for adding digital images to the user input. Input devices may include a roller ball, keypad, microphone and joystick and/or laser gun and display screen icons for selecting a desired function represented by the selected icon. The processor displays a menu of operational instructions for a user on the display screen that may be a touch screen, which may include animation to aid the user. The kiosk further includes a web interface providing the owner/operator access in order to facilitate upgrades, maintenance, and for ascertaining operations reports for marketing purposes.

A wire fixing portion ( ) with a substantially U-shaped cross section that projects from an edge section of a wire draw-out opening ( ) of a wire cover ( ). The wire fixing portion ( ) has a pair of bundling holes ( ) through which a bundling band ( ) can be introduced for bundling wires (W). In order to fix the wires (W) to the wire cover ( ), the bundling band ( ) is put on the wires (W) and the wire fixing portion ( ) to fasten the wires (W). At this time, the wires (W) can be firmly fixed to the wire fixing portion ( ) by suitably selecting a mounting path of the bundling band ( ) based on the number of the wires (W) to be fixed and the outer diameter thereof.

Wire cover and a connector provided therewith

A male housing ( ) pushes the front ends of springs ( ), and a pushing portion ( ) at the front end of the male housing ( ) is more backward than the front ends of the springs ( ), and front end portions of the springs ( ) and a front end of the male housing ( ) overlap. Thus, a connector can be made smaller by an overlapping length of the springs ( ) and the male housing ( ).

Connector

A connector assembly has a male housing ( ) with a receptacle ( ) and a female housing ( ) that can be received in the receptacle ( ). The female housing ( ) has a resiliently deformable lock arm ( ) with a projection ( ) for engaging a lock ( ) on the male housing ( ) when the housings ( ) are connected properly. A slider ( ) is movable on the female housing ( ) between a position that permits deformation of the lock arm ( ) and a position that prevents deformation of the lock arm ( ). Coil springs ( ) bias the slider ( ) to the deformation preventing position to lock the properly connected housings ( ) together. The housings ( ) can be separated by deforming the lock arm ( ) and pulling both the slider ( ) and the female housing ( ) back from the male housing ( ).

A connector has male and female housings ( ). A resilient member ( ) is mounted in the female housing ( ) for movement along the connecting direction of the housings ( ), and is biased forwardly toward the male housing ( ) by springs ( ) in the female housing ( ). A front end ( ) of the male housing ( ) pushes the resilient member ( ) rearwardly during a connecting operation and resiliently compresses the springs ( ). A lock arm ( ) on the male housing ( ) locks the housings ( ) together in properly connected state. However, the springs ( ) expand resiliently to separate the housings ( ) if the correcting operation is interrupted prematurely. The female housing ( ) has a cover ( ) that can be moved rearwardly to deflect the lock arm ( ) and to separate the housings ( ).

Connector and use thereof

The invention makes it possible to distinguish between a plurality of types of female terminal fittings. A gold-plated female terminal fitting Au is formed by attaching a shell to a terminal main body and a tin-plated female terminal fitting Sn is formed by attaching a shell to the same kind of terminal main body as used for the gold-plated female terminal fitting. The shells and for the gold-plated female terminal fitting and the tin-plated female terminal fitting, respectively, are provided with mutually differing distinguishing means and The gold-plated female terminal fitting Au and the tin-plated female terminal fitting Sn can be distinguished from one another on the basis of these distinguishing means and

Female terminal fitting

A connector has male and female housings ( ) that are fitted to each other. A pushable portion ( ) is pushed by a pushing portion ( ) of the male housing ( ) so that a slider ( ) resiliently compresses springs ( ) to move the slider ( ) back in the female housing ( ) while accumulating biasing forces that urge the slider ( ) forward. Guidable portions ( ) of the slider ( ) are engaged with guides ( ) in a terminal accommodating portion ( ), and the slider ( ) is inclined about axes of supporting pins ( ) at its rear. When the housings ( ) are connected properly and the slider ( ) is inclined sufficiently, the pushable portion ( ) disengages from the pushing portion ( ), and the biasing forces of the springs ( ) are released. As a result that the slider ( ) is moved forward at an inclined posture.

Connector and a method for assembling a connector

A connector ( ) has a housing ( ) for accommodating female terminal fittings ( ). A resiliently deformable lock arm ( ) is formed separately from the housing ( ) and is adapted to lock the connector ( ) to a mating connector ( ). Coil springs ( ) bias the lock arm ( ) forwardly to a usual position. Insufficient connection preventing portions ( ) project from the housing ( ) toward the lock arm ( ) and the lock arm ( ) is provided with stroke guides ( ). The stroke guides ( ) move onto the insufficient connection preventing portions ( ) during connection of the connectors ( ). The housing ( ) also has an arched press-preventing portion ( ) for preventing the lock arm ( ) from being pressed from above when the lock arm ( ) is at the usual position.

The invention provides a miniaturized female terminal fitting. A female terminal fitting has resilient contacts within a cover When a male tab is inserted into the cover the resilient contacts bend outwards as they make contact therewith. Side walls have recessed members formed therein, the resilient contacts being capable of entering these recessed members Due to these recessed members at least a portion of the bending space for the resilient contacts is provided within the wall thickness of the side walls of the cover Consequently, the side walls can be positioned further inwards by a distance corresponding to the dimensions gained by locating the bending space within the side walls

The invention provides a connector in which the fitting operation and the detection of a half-fitted state can be easily performed. While two connector housings and are being correctly fitted together, coiled springs move a slider from a movement permitting position to a movement preventing position, and the two connector housings and are doubly locked. At this juncture, observing the movement of the slider allows one to detect whether the two connector housings and have been correctly fitted. Since merely fitting the two connector housings and causes these two operations to occur, the operation is simpler. Moreover, the resilient returning force of the coiled springs is less than that required to separate the two connector housings and . Consequently, the fitting force of the connector can be reduced.

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Yokkaichi, Japan

Koji Okutani