Yazaki Corporation

Nobuyuki Tsujino

Satoshi Ishikawa

Hidehiro Ichikawa

Takashi Yanagihara

Yoshiyuki Tanaka

Masataka Suzuki

Hiroyuki Ashiya

Hiraku Tanaka

Hiroaki Iizuka

A protective structure for junctions consists of a terminal holder including a mount, a plurality of joint terminals arranged on the mount, and a hood which receives one end of the joint terminals; an auxiliary terminal holder including a fixing frame and a plurality of auxiliary terminals arranged on the fixing frame in compliance with the joint terminals; a flat cable held between the terminal holder and the auxiliary terminal holder such that its exposed conductors, the joint terminals and the auxiliary terminals are subjected to welding to provide a junction; a hold-down member fittable to the terminal holder transversely to the flat cable; and a protective cover fittable to the terminal holder to cover a part of the flat cable having been bent back around the hold-down member. Stresses are prevented from directly acting via the flat cable on the junction.

Protective structure for junctions

A cable holding structure of this invention comprises a groove in which a bending portion of a flexible flat cable is to be inserted, a first opening portion through which the flexible cable extending in the X direction as one direction from the bending portion passes and a second opening portion through which the flexible cable extending in the Y direction as the other direction from the bending portion passes, the first and second opening portions being contained in the groove, and a stopper provided on the first opening portion, which contacts a side edge of the flexible cable extending in the Y direction as the other direction of the bending portion so as to prevent the bending portion from slipping out in the X direction as one direction. Consequently, this prevents a residual stress from being generated in the flexible flat cable thereby improving the service life of the flexible flat cable.

Cable holding structure

A joint section is provided which connects a flat cable having a plurality of conductive lines with a plurality of lead wires to a plurality of joint terminals. A first end of each of the joint terminals is formed in compliance with a pitch between the two adjacent conductive lines and the second end of the joint terminals is formed in compliance with a pitch between two adjacent lead wires. Each conductive line is held between the first end of the corresponding one of the joint terminals and an auxiliary terminal placed on the conductive line and connected by a welding operation. The second end of the joint terminal is connected with a conductor of the corresponding one of the lead wires.

Joint section between flat cable and lead wires

An electrical connecting device provided between a steering wheel and a steering column to establish an electric connection therebetween. The connecting device comprises a stationary body fixedly secured to the steering column, a rotatable body provided rotatably and placed to define a circular space with respect to the stationary body, a flexible flat cable located in the circular space, one end of which is fixedly secured to the rotatable body and the other end of which is fixedly secured to the stationary body so that the flat cable makes an electrical communication between the rotatable body and the stationary body, and a semi-fluid material adhered to a bottom surface of the stationary body which stands in opposed relation to both ends of the flat cable in its width direction. The flat cable is made to move to follow rotations of the rotatable body in forward or reverse direction. A groove-like pool section is made in the semi-fluid material adhered inner surface in radial direction of the rotatable body. This pool section accommodates the semi-fluid material to satisfy the requirements for improvement of controllability of a steering wheel and suppression of occurrence of noises.

Growing community of inventors

Shizuoka, Japan

Nobuyuki Tsujino