Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Limited

Osamu Taniuchi

Hajime Kawase

Hitoshi Okumura

Youichi Nankoh

Hiroyuki Nakata

Hajime Okada

Makoto Fukamachi

Hikaru Ito

Shinsuke Tsutsui

Yasunori Wada

Seiichi Kurosawa

Satoru Nishide

Yasushi Okayasu

Osamu Ito

Hisashi Konoya

Kazuhiko Fuse

Shozo Hamakita

Yutaka Yokoyama

Kazuhisa Kondo

Nakata Hiroyuki

A watertight connector is provided to create a reduced degree of connection resistance. The connector includes a female housing to be connected with a male housing . A seal is provided on the front surface of the female housing , and is held by a seal holder . The seal holder presses the seal against the front surface of an accommodating portion to adhere the seal to front opening ends of cavities before the housings are connected with each other. Thereafter, tabs penetrate the seal , and the seal adheres to the outer surfaces of the tabs to provide sealing between the cavities . Accordingly, during the connection of the housings , resistance resulting from the sealing between the cavities is only sliding-contact resistance created between the outer surfaces of the tabs and the seal member

Water proof connector

A moving mold 100 consisting of slidable housing molds 110 and 110 and retainer molds 120 and 120 and a fixed mold 200 pairing with the moving mold 100 are used to mold a housing 20 and retainers 30a and 30b in resin at the same time. When the fixed mold 200 and the moving mold 100 are opened, the housing molds 110 and 110 are opened and a space is formed between the housing 20 and the retainers 30a and 30b to be fitted to each other. The retainers 30a and 30b are pressed against the housing 20 with the retainers 30a and 30b held in the retainer molds 120 and 120 from both the left and right sides, whereby the housing 20 and the retainers 30a and 30b are assembled.

Manufacturing method of resin molded assembly

Manufacturing metal mold for assembling a resin molded assembly

A waterproof connector includes elastic material, seal portion formed on a female connector housing by double molding in such a manner that the seal portion closes openings through which wires are guided, respectively, and covers a flange formed on an outer periphery of the female connector housing. The seal portion has a watertight surface at its front side. A male connector housing has hood portions for receiving the female connector housing. The hood portion includes a front end having an abutment surface for abutment against the watertight surface. With this construction, as the male and female connector housings engaged, metal terminals are fittingly connected together, and each abutment surface is brought into contact with an associated watertight surface, thereby sealing a gap between the two connector housings.

Waterproof connector and method for assembling the same

A multiple lever connector assembly includes a plurality of male and female connector housings accommodating terminals. Each male connector housing has a pair of lever support shafts, with a shaft protruding from each side wall and an operating lever having two bearing holes in which the lever support shafts of each male connector housing are fitted, so that the operating levers are rotatably mounted. The female connector housings include a plurality of cam action sections formed by projections for displacing the male and female connector housings by the cam action of the operating levers so that the male and female connector housings are moved together and apart. The male connector housings are coupled by a coupling member so that the housings are arranged side by side with a predetermined clearance between one of the side walls of each male connector housing and one of the side walls of the adjacent male connector housing opposite the one of the side walls of each first connector housing. The clearance is set to be smaller than a depth of fit between the lever support shafts and the respective bearing holes of the operating levers.

Multiple lever connector assembly

This invention prevents a wrong contact of terminals when one of a pair of connector housings is inserted into the other housing in a slanted position. In the connector of this invention, a female connector housing 12 is provided on opposite ends with guide ribs 21 which extend in an insertion direction and serve as guide elements when the female connector housing 12 advances into a hood 13. The female connector housing 12 is provided with a wedge like resistance-applying projection 24 which extends vertically while a male connector housing 11 is provided on an interior of the hood 13 with a groove in which the projection 24 advances. Upon insertion of the female connector housing 12, the projection 24 press-contacts with a slot 25 so as to generate an insertion resistance, thereby correcting an imbalance of the insertion resistance of the terminals 14.

Connector

An electrical connector assembly is provided which assumes a fully coupled state even if it was in a semi-coupled state prior to being attached to a support bracket (B). A lever has an inclined coupling surface which draws a semi-coupled female connector housing in the coupling direction, thereby ensuring a fully coupled state. A support bracket (B) cannot be fully inserted until the lever has moved the connectors from a semi-coupled to a fully coupled condition. If the connectors are improperly connected a second inclined surface of the lever decouples the connectors as the support bracket (B) is engaged.

Electrical connector

A lever type connector of the present invention aims to effect a turning operation of a lever by a smooth and slight actuating force without forming the lever into a large size. In the lever type connector, cam faces 16a and 16b in a cam groove 16 displace a cam follower boss 17 by turning a lever 14, thereby coupling and detaching connector housings 11, 12. A shape of the cam faces 16a and 16b which contact with the cam follower boss upon coupling and detaching is formed in accordance with coupling and detaching resistances of a set of terminals. The cam groove 16 may be discontinuously formed by inserting and extracting resistances of the terminals so that a curved line is formed by combining two circular arcs through a point of inflection.

Lever type connector

A pair of connector housing may be temporarily engaged so as to facilitate efficient connection operation thereof. A lever 15 is pivotably attached to a side wall of the male connector housing 11. When a female connector housing 12 is inserted into the male connector housing 11, a cam receiving protrusion 17 of a cover 13 resiliently deforms lugs 15a of a lever 15 to be opened, so that the cam receiving portion may be advanced through a portion 23 into a cam groove 16. After such advancement, lugs 15a are returned to their original position by means of resilient deformation, so that the portion 23 is engaged with the cam receiving protrusion 17, so as to prevent dislodgement of the cam receiving protrusion. The thickness of the portion 23 of the cam groove is selected so as to prevent dislodgement of the cam receiving protrusion. A restricting protrusion 24 is protruded laterally from the cam receiving protrusion 17. The restricting protrusion serves to urge the lugs 15 downwardly, so as to maintain constant amount of engagement between the cam receiving protrusion 17 and the portion 23 of the cam groove. Another restricting protrusion 25 extending in a vertical direction may be provided in the side wall 1 of the male connector housing 11.

Connector using lever action

This invention aims to temporarily lock and smoothly couple and detach a lever type connector. After a hood 13 is opposed to a fitting portion 12a, the hood 13 is inserted into the fitting portion 12a, so that a lock portion 29 is clamped between an upper engaging projection 23 and a lower engaging projection 22. Then, a female connector housing 12 is temporarily locked in a male connector housing 11. At this time, a cam follower boss 20 is inserted into a cam groove 17 in an actuating lever 16 and both the housings 11 and 12 are coupled by turning the lever 16. In order to detach the housings from a coupled position, the lever 16 is turned from the coupled position to a detached position. Even if the female connector housing 12 is extracted from a right side area in the case that an extraction resistance at a left side area is larger than that at the right side area, the housing 12 abuts on the lower engaging projection 22b at the right area, thereby correcting an inclined posture. Thus, since the female connector housing 12 is always properly arranged in the male connector housing 11, it is possible to smoothly couple and detach the housings.

To fit male and female connector housings together without tilting, an inner bottom surface of a hood portion of a male connector housing has step portions formed at the four respective corner portions, and a recessed portion having a lower height than the step portions. The female connector housing can be fully inserted because of a gap provided between a bulged portion of the female connector housing and the recessed portion. The female connector housing, when further inserted, slides at its opposite ends to change its posture so that male and female terminals are completely connected together.

Lever-type connector

A lever with a projecting part is rotatably mounted to the female connector via a supporting shaft. The lever has a projecting part entering in a fitting hole formed therein and butts against a strut formed in the male connector at the fitting time, thereby to turn the lever to the operating position and further press the strut when the lever is turned from the operating position, so that the male and female connectors are perfectly engaged with each other. Thus, the degree of freedom of the position of a lever before engaging male and female connectors is improved. Moreover, a first locking means is arranged for the male and female connectors to lock the connectors at the temporary engaging position where the lever is turned at the operating position, and a second locking means is provided for the lever and the other connector to lock the connectors when the lever is turned to the real engaging position.

A cylindrically-shaped rubber seal is connected to a crimped wire terminal inserted to a connector member to effectively seal the terminal housing, or is connected to the fitting members of mating connectors to effectively seal the fitting members. The rubber seal is made of a rubber filled with reinforcing fibers oriented in the axial direction of the rubber seal to impart anisotropy to the strength of the rubber, so that the strength of the axial direction is greater than the strength in the vertical direction perpendicular to the axial direction and flexibility is maintained in the vertical directions. The rubber seal is also used as a connector seal to seal the mating members of mating male-female connectors. When the rubber seal is used in the chamber of female connector, the rubber seal can firmly receive the male connector without deformation in the insertion direction.

Rubber seal for waterproof connector

A connector includes the connector housing and the retainer for securing the terminals in the terminal housings formed in the connector housing. A retainer insertion space enabling insertion of the retainer from either right or left side is formed continuously through and intersecting all of the terminal housings. The retainer insertion space is formed by a channel open through from the front almost to the back of the connector housing, and by a channel open through from the back almost to the front of the connector housing. Locking members formed on the retainer engage and hold the terminals inserted to the terminal housings when the retainer is fully inserted in the connector housing together with the engagement between the recess formed in the terminal and the lance provided in the terminal housing.

Growing community of inventors

Yokkaichi, Japan

Osamu Taniuchi