Composite part consisting of a housing for electrical connectors and a soft component and use of the composite part

Abstract

Composite part comprising a housing (10) for electrical plug connections, for example for electric vehicles, and a soft component (15) with cable lines (11), wherein the housing (10) consists of a hard component made of plastic and the soft component (15) has an entry surface (18) with entry openings (13) for the cable lines (11), and the entry openings (13) are arranged at a distance from one another, characterized in that the composite part has an attachment part (16) which is formed in one piece with the hard component and into which the soft component (15) is integrated, wherein the attachment part (16) has a web (19) which is formed in the attachment part (16) and has an end face which is an outer surface of the composite part and wherein a region of the end face is delimited by a line which also delimits a region of the entry surface (18).

Description

The invention relates to a composite part comprising a housing for electrical plug connections and a soft component, and to the use of the composite part, for example for electric vehicles, having at least one cable line which is guided through an inlet opening of the housing, wherein the housing consists of a hard component made of plastic.A housing of the type mentioned at the beginning is frequently part of locking devices in electric cars, which are described by way of example in DE 10 2009 057 426 A1.DE 10 2008 051 468 A1 discloses an adapter housing having a plug part accommodated therein, wherein the adapter housing has at least two housing sections made of plastics of different hardness, which are formed by injection molding the plug part with a cable end.US 2009 / 0264017 A1, US 2008 / 0020626 A1 and US 2014 / 0190745 A1 disclose electrical plug connections having a plug housing and plug contact parts.US 2012 / 0135632 A1 likewise discloses an electrical plug-in connection which is intended to be distinguished in particular by a weather resistance for external use.DE 34 404 00 A1 discloses a watertight electrical plug connection comprising two plug parts that can be connected to one another. The plug housing part consists of a tough, elastic plastic material which is formed by injection molding around a plug contact part. A sealing plug made of elastic plastic material is arranged adjacent to the plug contact part and has a receiving opening for a conductor cable. The plug housing part has at its one end four radially extending ribs which are intended to prevent axial displacement of the sealing plug relative to the plug contact part.For this purpose, housings are used in the prior art which are assigned to the plug connections, which are in turn provided for an electrical plug connection for charging the energy cells of a vehicle with an electrical drive.The housings are here injection-molded parts which are provided with cable lines, for example in the engine compartment or in the region of the fuel filler flap.The housings are provided in the interior with contacts which are connected to the cable lines. The cable lines are in turn guided through inlet openings located in the housings into the interior of the housing.The housings are often made of the material PBT GF 30, i.e. polybutylene terephthalate with 30% glass fibre, and thus of a rather hard component, whereas the sheathing material of the cable lines consists of PVC, i.e. of polyvinyl chloride and consequently of a rather soft material. This produces a bending point at the cable outlet, i.e. at the inlet openings, which can lead to damage to the cable lines in the event of improper handling by the users.It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a composite part or a housing of the type mentioned at the beginning which is distinguished at its inlet openings provided for the cable lines by a low bending sensitivity of its cable lines and thus by a greater robustness of the cable lines.The object is achieved with the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are evident from the dependent claims. The object is further achieved by using a composite member for an electric car according to claim 9.The invention provides that the inlet opening is located in a soft component, which preferably consists of an elastomer, wherein the soft component and the housing are formed as a composite part.The basic idea of the invention is to reduce the bending sensitivity at the inlet opening of the housing by arranging a soft component, which is formed from an elastomer, for example, between cable lines and housing.According to the invention, the soft component and the housing are formed as a composite part which has been produced within the scope of 2K technology, i.e. the soft component is joined to the housing to form a composite part in a common, synchronous process of injection molding. The soft component is manufactured as a separate part and is inserted together with the contacts or cable line into the housing mold, so that an additional seal on the cable sheathing material is also omitted.The housing according to the invention is suitable for various ambient conditions. It can be used in particular at an operating temperature between about -40° C. and about 85° C. and a storage temperature between about -40° C. and about 120° C.The housing according to the invention is also distinguished by good tightness and, within the scope of the protection type, preferably has the code IP54.An advantageous further development of the invention provides that elongate cavities are located within the soft component, through which cavities the cable line is guided. As a result, a larger part of the cable line is located within the soft component, whereby in turn the bending sensitivity of the cable line is further reduced and the hold of the cable lines within the soft component is further increased. This also serves for the cable line to be guided through the elongate cavities preferably with an exact fit.Also, a larger outer surface of the soft component provides greater adhesion between the hard component and the soft component. For this purpose, the soft component is advantageously arranged outside the housing.According to the invention, an attachment part is provided which is formed integrally with the housing and into which the soft component is integrated. The bond between the hard component and the soft component should be distinguished by high adhesion. The soft component is therefore preferably encapsulated by a plastic, which can expediently be achieved by using 2K production.For this purpose, the attachment is also assigned to a wall of the housing, wherein the attachment is provided with ribs which are located between the wall of the housing and the entry surface of the soft component integrated into the attachment. The space between the wall of the housing and the ribs and the space between the ribs are preferably filled with the soft component. Expediently, the soft component is formed from an elastomer.In order to further increase the hold between the attachment part and the soft component, the invention provides that a web is formed in the attachment part, which web rests on the entry surface of the soft component facing away from the housing.The pressure on the soft component can be varied or adjusted by the design of the injection molding tool in relation to the dimensional design of the add-on part, or of the ribs and webs of the add-on part.Thus, for example, to achieve a higher tightness requirement, a different configuration may be required than for the requirement of a narrow laying radius after the cables exit the housing. In order to be able to guide a plurality of cable lines into the interior of the housing, the invention provides that the soft component has an entry surface which has entry openings spaced apart from one another.The use of a housing according to any one of claims 1 to 8 for an electric car is subject matter of claim 9.Further objectives, advantages, features and possible applications of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the figures. All features described and / or graphically depicted form the subject matter of the present invention, either alone or in any meaningful combination, also independently of their summary in the claims or their reference back.The following are shown: FIGS. 1a to 1b show a perspective view of a conventional housing for an electrical plug connection with cable lines which are guided through inlet openings into the housing, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the housing according to the invention; and FIG. 3 shows a detail of the housing according to the invention from FIG. 2.FIG. 1 ashows a conventional housing, which is provided with the reference numeral 20 and which is assigned to a plug connector, not shown in FIG. 1 a, which serves for an electrical plug connection for charging the energy cells of a vehicle with an electrical drive.The conventional housing 20 is a part which is injection-molded with plastic and which, as can also be seen from FIG. 1 a, is provided with cable lines 11.The housing 20 is provided on the inside with contacts 12 which, as illustrated in particular by the components shown separately in FIG. 1 b, are in turn connected to the cable lines 11.As FIG. 1 afurther shows, the cable lines 11 are guided into the interior of the housing 20 through inlet openings 13 which are formed on the lower edge of a wall 14 of the housing 20.The housing 20 is formed from the material PBT GF 30, i.e. from polybutylene terephthalate with 30% glass fibre and thus from a rather hard component, whereas the sheathing material of the cable lines 11 is formed from PVC, i.e. from polyvinyl chloride and consequently from a rather soft material. This produces a bending point at the cable outlet, i.e. at the inlet openings 13, which can lead to damage to the cable lines.The housing according to the invention, which is provided with the reference numeral 10, is therefore distinguished, as can be seen from FIG. 2, by a soft component 15 in which the inlet openings 13 are located and which is designed as a composite part with the housing 10.The soft component 15, which is formed as elastomer, and the housing 10 are formed as a composite part which has been produced within the scope of 2K technology, i.e. the soft component 15 is joined to the housing 10 to form a composite part in a common, synchronous process of injection molding, such that the soft component 15 is present in the housing 10 in the form of an injection-molded part. A high adhesion effect is produced by chemical bonding between the different materials.As FIG. 3 illustrates in more detail, one embodiment of the invention provides that the housing 10 has an attachment part 16 which is formed integrally with the housing 10. Inside the soft component 15, there are elongate cavities through which the cable lines 11 are guided with an exact fit.The attachment 16 is arranged on the wall 14 of the housing 10 and is provided with ribs 17 which are located between the wall 14 of the housing 10 and the entry surface 18 of the soft component 15 integrated into the attachment 16. The space between the ribs 17 and the wall 14 of the housing 10 and between the ribs 17 is still filled with the soft component 15.As can be seen in particular from FIG. 3, the soft component 15 has an entry surface 18 which has a plurality of entry openings 13 which are arranged at a distance from one another. The cable lines 11 are thus guided through the inlet openings 13 into the elongate cavities through which they pass, in order then to pass into the interior of the housing 10.The attachment part 16 has a web 19 which rests on the side of the entry surface 18 of the soft component 15 facing away from the housing 10. This provides additional support of the soft component 15 on the attachment part 16. The attachment part 16 has a length of approximately 19.5 mm and a width of approximately 7.3 mm and a height of approximately 4 mm.The present invention is not limited in its embodiment to the preferred embodiment given above. Rather, a number of variants are conceivable which make use of the solution shown even in embodiments of a different type. For example, the soft component 15 can be integrated directly into the wall 14 of the housing 10, i.e. can be a component of the wall 14 of the housing 10.List of reference characters10 Housing 11 Cable line 12 Contacts 13 Inlet openings 14 Wall 15 Soft component 16 Attachment 17 Ribs 18 Inlet surface 19 Web 20 Housing

Claims

Composite part comprising a housing (10) for electrical plug connections, for example for electric vehicles, and a soft component (15) with cable lines (11), wherein the housing (10) consists of a hard component made of plastic and the soft component (15) has an inlet face (18) with inlet openings (13) for the cable lines (11), and the inlet openings (13) are arranged spaced apart from one another, characterized in that the composite part has an attachment (16) which is formed integrally with the hard component and into which the soft component (15) is integrated, wherein the attachment (16) has a web (19) which is formed in the attachment (16) and an end face which is an outer face of the composite part and wherein a region of the end face is bounded by a line which also bounds a region of the inlet face (18).Composite part according to claim 1, characterised in that elongate cavities are located within the soft component (15), through which cavities the cable lines (11) are guided.Composite part according to claim 2, characterised in that the cable lines (11) are guided through the cavities with an exact fit.Composite part according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the soft component (15) is injection-moulded by the plastics material of the hard component.Composite part according to either of Claims 1 and 4, characterized in that the attachment part (16) is arranged on a wall (14) of the housing (10), the attachment part (16) being provided with ribs (17) which are located between the wall (14) of the housing (10) and the entry surface (18) of the soft component (15).Composite part according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the soft component (15) consists of an elastomer.Composite part according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that contacts (12) are arranged in its interior, which contacts are connected to the cable lines (11).Composite part according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the housing (10) is formed from the material PBTGF 30.Use of a composite part according to any one of claims 1 to 8 for an electric car.

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