Method for manufacturing a connector component with a primary locking lance and corresponding connectors

Abstract

A method for manufacturing a connector component (10) with a primary locking lance (14) for locking the connector component (10) with a complementary connector component, the method comprising the following steps: Providing a sheet (20) as a connector component substrate; Punching and bending the sheet metal (20) into a predetermined shape such that a primary locking lance (14) projects transversely to a main extension axis of the connector component (10); characterized in that the sheet metal (20) is plastically deformed before punching and bending in such a way that the sheet metal (20) receives a greater material thickness at least in a part of an area (22) which forms the primary locking lance (14).

Description

Field of the InventionThe present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a connector component having a primary locking lance that serves to lock the connector component to a complementary connector component. The invention further relates to a connector component that can be produced accordingly.Prior ArtIn particular in vehicle construction, it is frequently necessary to connect electrical lines to one another. For example, cables must be connected to one another or connected to electrical devices such as control devices.For this purpose, plug connectors are frequently used in which one or more contact chambers are provided in a housing. In each of the contact chambers, a contact connected to an electrical line is arranged and locked therein. Both the contact and the contact chamber form a plug connector component. The contact is designed to establish an electrically conductive connection with a correspondingly designed mating contact of a mating plug or a socket as soon as the plug connector is plugged together with the mating plug or the socket.During the production of such plug connectors, the contacts, to which the associated cables are crimped on their rear end, are inserted into the individual contact chambers formed complementarily thereto. In order to prevent the contacts from slipping out of the contact chambers, for example, in the event of a pull on the cables, the contacts are usually locked in the contact chambers in a form-fitting manner.In a frequently used embodiment of the contacts, a primary locking lance projecting outwards and deflectable inwards is provided on the housing of the contact for this purpose. This primary lance usually projects obliquely outwards beyond the housing of the contact counter to an insertion direction of the contact into the contact chamber. When the contact is pushed into the contact chamber, the primary lance is first elastically deformed inward in order to subsequently be able to snap into a recess in the contact chamber when it reaches its target position. In this way, the contact can be locked positively and optionally reversibly in the contact chamber.Alternatively, a primary locking lance may be provided on the contact chamber which may snap into a complementary recess in the contact to lock the contact in the contact chamber.DE 10 2009 054 705 A1 describes a conventional electrical contact provided with a protruding primary lance for plug connections.When used in motor vehicles, high requirements are placed on plug connectors and the contacts used therein. This applies in particular to miniaturized plug connections. On the one hand, the locking of the contacts within the contact chambers of the plug connector should be as stable as possible in order to avoid the contacts being torn out in the event of, for example, a pull on cables crimped thereon. For this purpose, the primary lance should generally be as rigid as possible. On the other hand, the production of the plug connector components should be as simple and cost-effective as possible.An electrical connector is known from DE 28 15 634 A1. The electrical connector includes a housing having a number of elongate recesses and a plurality of contacts. Each contact comprises a terminal portion, two spaced parallel support members extending between the terminal portion and a web, and two contact members disposed between the support members, one of which extends from the terminal member and one of which extends from the web.From JP H10-162 891 A, a plug connector component with a latching lance is known.Disclosure of the InventionAccording to embodiments of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a connector component, such as a contact or contact chamber for a connector, is proposed. The plug connector component has a primary locking lance which is designed to lock the plug connector component, i.e. the contact or the contact chamber, with a complementary plug connector component, i.e. the contact chamber or the contact. The plug connector component is produced from a metal sheet, in particular a thin metal sheet, which serves as a plug connector component substrate. From this sheet metal, shapes can be formed by punching and bending in such a way that a primary locking lance is produced which projects transversely to a main extension axis of the plug connector component. According to the invention, the metal sheet is plastically deformed before the punching and bending in such a way that it receives a greater material thickness at least in a part of a region which forms the primary locking lance in the finished plug connector component, compared to the material thickness of the metal sheet serving as substrate.One concept of the proposed production method can be seen in the fact that a plug connector component can be formed in a simple and cost-effective manner, based on a simple metal sheet. In addition to the punching and bending processes conventionally used for this purpose, with which the sheet can be brought into a suitable geometry, it is proposed to pretreat the sheet before the punching and bending in such a way that the material of the sheet is locally plastically deformed at least in partial regions.The plastic forming can be carried out in such a way that material of the metal sheet is displaced in a region which, in the finished plug connector component, lies outside the primary locking lance into a region within the finished primary locking lance, so that the primary locking lance receives a greater material thickness than the starting metal sheet at least in partial regions. Such a locally increased material thickness can lead to an increased strength of the primary locking lance. In particular, the primary locking lance can be given a suitable profile by increasing the material thickness in regions, which profile further increases the strength of the primary locking lance. In addition, a plastic deformation of the material of the starting sheet metal can lead to a solidification of the material occurring, since the plastic deformation can lead to an increase in the yield stress, which in turn can result in an increase in the bending stiffness of the primary locking lance.The process of plastically forming the sheet metal can be carried out with a forming tool which displaces material, wherein the sheet metal can be locally pressed, that is to say placed under pressure, by means of the forming tool. Such local pressing of the metal sheet can take place in particular in a region outside the primary locking lance to be produced.In other words, the sheet-like plug connector component substrate can be locally pressurized with the aid of a forming tool which displaces material in such a way that parts of the material of the sheet begin to flow plastically as a result of the pressure exerted and are displaced from a region outside the primary locking lance to be produced into the region which forms the primary locking lance in the produced plug connector component.In the proposed method, the sheet metal can be plastically deformed in such a way that the primary locking lance receives regions of different thicknesses in cross section. In particular, the primary locking lance can be designed in such a way that it has a greater thickness in cross section at a lateral edge than in its center.The greater thickness at one or both lateral edges of the elongate primary locking lance can be achieved in this case by virtue of material of the sheet metal of the plug connector component substrate being displaced beforehand from adjacent regions outside the primary locking lance into this edge region of the primary locking lance by plastic forming. A primary locking lance formed in this way with thickened edge regions can have a high bending stiffness on account of the resulting cross section, for example a U-profile-like or V-profile-like cross section.The plastic forming of the metal sheet serving as a plug connector component substrate can also be carried out in such a way that the primary locking lance receives regions of different thickness along its longitudinal extension.For this purpose, different amounts of material can be displaced into different regions of the primary locking lance along their longitudinal extent by plastic forming. The material can originate from regions outside the primary locking lance or alternatively from adjacent regions inside the primary locking lance. The regions of different thickness and, connected therewith, the cross section of the primary locking lance varying over the length of the lance can be selected such that the resulting different bending stiffness along the primary locking lance can be adjusted such that the strength of the overall system is optimized.It is noted that various features and advantages of embodiments of the invention are described herein in part with respect to a manufacturing method according to the invention and in part with respect to a connector component according to the invention. A person skilled in the art will recognize that the method features can be transferred in a suitable manner analogously to the plug connector component, and vice versa, and that features of individual embodiments can be combined or exchanged with one another in a suitable manner in order to arrive at further advantageous configurations, effects and possibly synergy effects.Brief Description of the DrawingsHereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, and neither the description nor the drawings are intended to be construed as limiting the invention. FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a connector. FIG. 2 shows a connector component in the form of a contact with a primary locking lance. FIG. 3 shows a region to be punched out of a connector component substrate for a connector component according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 4 to 6 illustrate method steps of a method according to the invention for producing a plug connector component.The figures are schematic only and not to scale. Features that are the same or act the same are provided with the same reference numerals in the figures.Embodiments of the InventionFIG. 1 shows a plug connector 1, which can be part of a plug connection to a mating plug. The plug connector 1 can be used, for example, for the mechanical and electrical connection of a plurality of cables to one another or of a cable harness to a control device in a motor vehicle.The plug connector 1 has a housing upper part 3 and a housing lower part 4, which can be mechanically connected to one another via latching lugs 5. Between the upper housing part 3 and the lower housing part 4 a mat seal 8 is arranged. Contact chambers 6, 7 are provided both in the upper housing part 3 and in the lower housing part 4, through which cables and contacts (not shown in FIG. 1 ) fastened thereto can be introduced into the plug connector 1 and fastened in a latching manner therein.FIG. 2 shows a plug connector component 10 in the form of a contact, as it can be inserted into a contact chamber 7 of a plug connector 1 and locked therein. At a front part of the contact, a contact box 13 is provided which can produce a mechanical and electrical contact with a mating plug brought into contact therewith, for example, by means of a contact surface 16 protruding outwards. At a rear end of the contact, a cable 11 is fixed to a crimping portion 12. From the box 13, a primary locking lance 14 projects obliquely rearward outwards.When the contact is inserted into a contact chamber in the direction of the insertion direction 15, the primary lance 14 temporarily springs inward, in order to then be able to snap into a recess in the contact chamber when an end position is reached, and thus to be able to lock the contact in the contact chamber.Alternatively, a plug connector component could also be designed in the form of a suitably designed contact chamber from which a primary locking lance projects inwardly, toward a recess in a correspondingly designed contact.Referring now to Figs. 3 to 6, a method of manufacturing a connector component according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.FIG. 3 shows a sheet 20 to serve as a connector component substrate. Marked on the sheet 20 are regions 21 which are to be punched out during the production process and appropriately bent into shape in order finally to form the plug connector component.Around a region 22 which is intended to form the primary locking lance 14 of the plug connector component, a forming region 23 is shown here which lies outside the primary locking lance 14 to be produced, that is to say outside the corresponding region 22.As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, according to the invention, before punching out and bending the regions 21 forming the plug connector component, the forming region 23 is intended to be suitably plastically formed around the region 22 which is intended to form the primary locking lance, with the aid of a forming tool 24.The forming tool 24 can be pressed onto the sheet metal 20 with a sufficiently high force F, for example in the form of punches which are rounded into a suitable shape on their underside. Due to the shape of the punches of the forming tool 24, material from the forming regions 23 is plastically deformed and is displaced into an adjoining region within the region 22 forming the primary locking lance. The regions of the punches of the forming tool 24 that extend furthest downward are located outside the region 22 that forms the primary locking lance and has a width b, and compress the material of the metal sheet 20 in this region, so that its initial thickness d decreases locally.In contrast to the punching process which follows later, however, in this plastic forming process the shape of the punches of the forming tool 24 and the pressing force used are selected such that although a plastic deformation of material of the sheet 20 occurs, a local severing of this sheet 20 should not occur. The material displaced below the punches is at least partially displaced toward the region 22 forming the primary locking lance, so that regions 26 are formed on its lateral edges 25 which have a greater thickness than the original thickness d of the metal sheet 20 remaining in the middle 27 of the region 22.As can be seen in FIG. 6, the finished primary locking lance 14 thus has a wavy cross section in which the lateral edges 25 have a thickness increased by Δd compared to the thickness d prevailing in the middle.Compared with a conventional primary locking lance which has been produced exclusively by bending and punching and has a substantially rectangular cross section, such a primary locking lance which is wave-shaped in cross section has a substantially higher bending stiffness. In addition, the material which was pressed into the region 22 of the primary locking lance from the outside during the plastic forming can additionally contribute to a higher bending stiffness of the primary locking lance due to the consolidation during plastic forming. In addition, due to the accumulation of material at the edges 25 of the primary locking lance caused during the plastic forming, an overall increased thickness of the sheet metal forming the primary locking lance can occur, which can further increase the bending stiffness of the primary locking lance.The reinforcement of the material of the primary locking lance by plastic deformation can be implemented locally differently, so that different cross sections with correspondingly different bending stiffness can be set over the length of the primary locking lance in order to be able to optimize the strength of the primary locking lance by locally adapting the bending stiffness.

Claims

Method for manufacturing a plug connector component (10) having a primary locking lance (14) for locking the plug connector component (10) to a complementary plug connector component, the method comprising the following steps: providing a sheet (20) as plug connector component substrate; punching and bending the sheet (20) into a predetermined shape such that a primary locking lance (14) projects transversely to a main extension axis of the plug connector component (10); characterized in that the sheet (20) is plastically deformed before the punching and bending such that the sheet (20) is given a greater material thickness at least in a part of a region (22) which forms the primary locking lance (14).Method according to claim 1, wherein the sheet (20) is locally pressed for plastic forming with a material-displacing forming tool (24).Method according to claim 2, wherein the sheet (20) is locally pressed in a forming region (23) which lies outside the primary locking lance (14) to be produced.Method according to one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the sheet metal (20) is plastically deformed in such a way that the primary locking lance (14) receives regions (22, 26) of different thicknesses in cross section.Method according to claim 4, wherein the primary locking lance (14) has a higher thickness (d + Δd) in cross section at a lateral edge (25) than in a middle (27).Method according to one of Claims 1 to 5, wherein the sheet (20) is plastically deformed in such a way that the primary locking lance (14) receives regions of different thickness along its longitudinal extent.Plug connector component (10) having a primary locking lance (14) for locking the plug connector component (10) to a complementary plug connector component, wherein the plug connector component (10) is formed from a sheet (20) having a constant thickness (d) by punching and bending, characterized in that the primary locking lance (14) has regions (22, 26) of different thickness.The connector component of claim 7, wherein the primary locking lance (14) has a greater thickness (d + Δd) in cross section at an edge (25) than at a center (27).Plug connector component according to Claim 7 or 8, wherein the primary locking lance (14) has regions of different thickness along its longitudinal extent.The connector component according to any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the primary locking lance (14) has thickened regions (26) which have a greater thickness (d + Δd) than surrounding regions and wherein the thickened regions (26) are formed by plastic forming.

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