Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Limited

Yoshihiro Tanaka

Yasuhiro Nagasaka

Shigekazu Wakata

Yasuo Hirayama

Mitsuhiro Fujitani

Sho Miyazaki

Hisashi Konoya

Kazumoto Konda

This invention provides a connector which can positively effect coupling and detaching of a female connector, prevent electric shock and short-circuiting, and prevent an electric failure arising from contamination by extraneous substances. A lid plate 15 is biased by a compression coil spring 22 so that the lid plate is held by limit projections 26 at a protection position for covering male terminals 12 when a female connector is not coupled to the connector. Even if the lid plate 15 is pushed down by an external force so that the male terminals 12 are exposed from the lid plate 15, it can return to the protection position by itself when the external force is released. Since the lid plate 15 is constrained from rotating circumferentially at the protection position, the male terminal 12 smoothly passes through a terminal-through hole 16 in the lid plate 15 when the female connector 40 is inserted into a hood 13 and then the male terminals 12 are connected to female terminals 43. When the female connector 40 is extracted from the hood 13, the lid plate 15 is moved to the protection position by a bias of the compression coil spring 22. The terminal-through holes 16 in the lid plate 15 are closed by deformable tongue pieces of a dust-proofing rubber plate 150 to prevent the entrance of dust, water, or the like.

Connector having a protective hood

Housing for electrical connector

An electric wire branching connector device is used for forming branching circuits in a wire harness system. The device has an upper case and a lower case adapted to clamp therebetween a first group of electric wires extracted from the wire harness system and arranged in a side-by-side fashion. The device also has a plurality of terminal strips inserted into corresponding holes formed in the upper case. Each of the terminal strips is provided at its one end with at least one male terminal adapted to be received in a hole or holes and at its other end with a wire grip portion having a U-shaped slot. The male terminals of the terminal strips are projected through the holes above the upper surface of the upper case such as to form plug for receptacle connectors to which are connected electric wires 4B of a second group also extracted from the wire harness system. The wire grip portions are projected below the underside of the upper case such that the electric wires of the first group are forcibly received in the U-shaped slots. In consequence, the electric wires of the first group and the electric wires of the second group are electrically connected to each other through the terminal strips, thereby forming the desired branching circuits.

Electric wire branching connector device

Growing community of inventors

Mie, Japan

Yoshihiro Tanaka