Female connection terminal

Abstract

To maintain a stable electrical connection performance by regulating generation of a prying force originated at a male terminal.SOLUTION: A female connection terminal comprises: a box-shaped connection part 12a which is electrically connected with a mating male terminal 11 in a flat blade shape. Rows of lower regulation pieces 12h and upper regulation pieces which are bent inward from a bottom face 12c and top faces 12d and 12e of the connection part 12a are disposed two by two in a longitudinal direction. Clearances between the lower regulation pieces 12h and between upper regulation pieces 12i in a width direction are each made smaller than a width of the male terminal 11. A clearance between the lower regulation piece 12h and the upper regulation piece 12i in a vertical direction is set to such a size that allows the male terminal 11 to pass through the clearance. A spring plate 14 which exerts elastic force and is bent upward, is disposed between the lower regulation pieces 12i provided on the bottom face 12c, and a height of a top portion of the spring plate 14 is made larger than a height of the lower regulation piece 12h.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a female connector terminal used in correspondence with a male connector terminal for connecting electric wires. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, a pair of male and female connection terminals have been used to connect electric wires together. For example, as shown in the vertical cross-sectional view of Figure 8, the terminals consist of a male terminal 1 for insertion and a female terminal 2 for receiving, and electrical connection is made by inserting a part of the male terminal 1 into a connection part 3 of the female terminal 2.

[0003] In this conventional example, the male terminal 1 is a flat blade-shaped plug-in terminal, and the female terminal 2 has an integrated or separate spring plate 4 inside the connection portion 3, and the male terminal 1 is elastically clamped between the spring plate 4 and a fixed portion 5 located above and facing the spring plate 4, thereby electrically connecting the electric wires together.

[0004] In a small female connection terminal, a plurality of male terminals 1 and a plurality of female terminals 2 are housed in respective housings, and the housings are fitted together to simultaneously connect multiple sets of connection terminals 1, 2 together. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In this manner, a plurality of connection terminals are respectively accommodated in housings, and a plurality of sets of connection terminals are simultaneously connected to each other by fitting the housings together, which is preferably performed for small connection terminals.

[0006] However, in some cases, it is not suitable to incorporate a plurality of connection terminals into a housing, and the male terminal 1 and the female terminal 2 may be connected by fitting them together manually, individually.

[0007] In this case, due to individual differences in manual work, a constant force is not always applied to the connection terminals in a constant direction. For example, if the male terminal 1 is forced to insert the connector by hand, an unbalanced prying force may be applied, causing permanent deformation of the spring plate 5 of the female terminal 2, degrading the electrical connection performance.

[0008] SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT EMBODIMENT An object of the present invention is to provide a female connection terminal which can solve the above-mentioned problems, prevent the occurrence of prying force from a male connection terminal, and maintain stable electrical connection performance. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the female connection terminal of the present invention is a female connection terminal having an approximately box-shaped connection portion which is electrically connected to a mating flat-blade-shaped male connection terminal, characterized in that a first restricting piece and a second restricting piece which are bent inwardly from a first surface of the connection portion and a second surface opposite the first surface are arranged in two rows along the longitudinal direction, the gap between the first restricting pieces and the second restricting pieces is large enough for the male terminal to pass through, the short-side gaps between the first restricting pieces and between the second restricting pieces are narrower than the width of the male connection terminal, and an elastic, curved spring plate is arranged between the first restricting pieces along the longitudinal direction, and the height of the top of the spring plate is greater than the height of the first restricting piece. Effect of the Invention

[0010] The female connection terminal according to the present invention has two rows of restriction pieces spaced apart from each other in the longitudinal direction within the space of the connection portion, thereby preventing the male connection terminal from being inserted in an unnatural position. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a plan view of the male terminal and the female terminal of the embodiment before they are connected to each other. [Diagram 2] FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a connection portion of a female terminal. [Diagram 3] 11A to 11C are explanatory diagrams of a molding process of a connection portion. [Figure 4] FIG. [Diagram 5] FIG. [Figure 6] 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a state in which a male terminal is inserted into a female terminal. FIG. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 6. [Figure 8] FIG. 11 is a longitudinal sectional view of a female terminal to be connected to a male terminal of a conventional example. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] The present invention will be described in detail based on the embodiments shown in Figs. 1 is a plan view of male terminal 11 and female terminal 12 before they are connected. Male terminal 11 is a known metal flat blade terminal for insertion, with exemplary dimensions of 3 mm wide and 0.8 mm thick, and the corners of the tip are chamfered to facilitate insertion.

[0013] The female terminal 12 has a connection portion 12a which is a thin conductive metal plate formed into a roughly box-like shape, for example, 2.5 mm in height and 4.1 mm in width, and an electric wire crimping portion 12b arranged behind this connection portion 12a. In the embodiment shown in the figure, an electric wire 13 is connected to the electric wire crimping portion 12b by crimping, and a spring plate 14 is built into the connection portion 12a.

[0014] Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the connection part 12a, and the connection part 12a is obtained by cutting a conductive metal plate into a predetermined shape and sequentially forming it by a forming press, as shown in the explanatory diagram of the forming process in Fig. 3, to obtain the connection part 12a with a cross-sectional shape as shown in Fig. 4. The inside of the connection part 12a is almost hollow, and the connection part 12a has a lower surface 12c, side walls 12d and 12e standing up from both sides of the lower surface 12c, and upper surfaces 12f and 12g that extend upward from the upper parts of the side walls 12d and 12e, respectively, and are further bent inward. The connection part 12a is formed into a substantially box-like shape by the lower surface 12c, the side walls 12d and 12e, and the upper surfaces 12f and 12g.

[0015] Also, slightly inside the center of the lower surface 12c, two rows of wall-like lower regulating pieces 12h are bent upward along the longitudinal direction. The upper surfaces 12f, 12g are butted against each other from the left and right at the front and rear parts of the upper part of the connecting part 12a, and slightly inside the center, two rows of upper regulating pieces 12i are bent downward along the longitudinal direction in a wall shape extending from the upper surfaces 12f, 12g.

[0016] The two rows of lower regulating pieces 12h and the two rows of upper regulating pieces 12i are arranged almost opposite each other, separated by a vertical gap that is larger than the thickness of the connection terminal 11, and the widthwise gap between the two rows of lower regulating pieces 12h and between the two rows of upper regulating pieces 12i, which is the short side direction, is narrower than the width of the male terminal 11.

[0017] 5, the insertion opening of the connection part 12a into which the male terminal 11 is inserted is provided with a lower guide piece 12j bent upward from the front end of the lower surface 12c, and upper guide pieces 12k, 12l bent downward from the front ends of the upper surfaces 12f, 12g, respectively. These upper and lower guide pieces 12j, 12k, 12l are made approximately equal to the vertical gap between the lower restricting piece 12h and the upper restricting piece 12i described above, so that the male terminal 11 can pass through the connection part 12a in the correct posture.

[0018] As shown in Fig. 2, a metal spring plate 14 having an elastic force and a length of, for example, 7.9 mm, a width of 1.5 mm, and a thickness of 0.3 mm is arranged along the longitudinal direction between the pair of left and right lower limiting pieces 12h in the connecting portion 12a, with a top curved upward, and a front end of the spring plate 14 placed on the lower surface 12c, and a rear end of the spring plate 14 fixed to the lower surface 12c. The height of the top of the spring plate 14 arranged in this manner is higher than the upper edge of the lower limiting piece 12h. In the embodiment, the spring plate 14 is separate from the base of the female terminal 12, but a part of the female terminal 12 may be folded back into the connecting portion 12a.

[0019] To insert male terminal 11 into female terminal 12, the tip of male terminal 11 is inserted through the insertion opening at the front end of connection portion 12a and passes between lower guide piece 12j and upper guide pieces 12k, 12l, whereby any twisted posture of male terminal 11 is corrected and abnormal stress is less likely to be applied to connection portion 12a.

[0020] 6 and 7, when the male terminal 11 is fully inserted into the connection portion 12a, the upper surface of the flat blade-shaped male terminal 11 is made larger than the width between the upper regulating pieces 12i, so that the upper surface of the male terminal 11 contacts the two rows of upper regulating pieces 12i and the lower surface contacts the top of the spring plate 14. The spring plate 14 is elastically deformed by this contact, and the male terminal 11 is subjected to a pushing force from the spring plate 14 and is sandwiched between the upper regulating pieces 12i, thereby obtaining good electrical connection characteristics. In this case, the upper surface of the male terminal 11 is pressed down by the upper regulating pieces 12i at two points in the width direction, so that contact in a stable posture is maintained.

[0021] Furthermore, if a prying force acts on spring plate 14 from male terminal 11 during insertion, applying excessive left-right unbalanced pressure to spring plate 14, spring plate 14 will deform and sink downward, so that the lower surface of male terminal 11 abuts against the upper edges of lower regulating pieces 12h located on both sides of spring plate 14, and no further load will be applied to spring plate 14. Therefore, even if a prying force acts on spring plate 14, the lower regulating piece 12h will restrict deformation of spring plate 14 beyond a predetermined level, so spring plate 14 will not be damaged. Note that lower regulating piece 12h and upper regulating piece 12i have rigidity and will not deform even if a prying force is applied from male terminal 11.

[0022] During the process of insertion into connecting portion 12a, the insertion posture of male terminal 11 is corrected by upper restricting piece 12i and lower restricting piece 12h, and when the prying force is released, the top of spring plate 14 rises and returns to its original shape, restoring elastic contact with male terminal 11. In this way, spring plate 14 is not permanently deformed and loses its elastic force, and connecting portion 12a of female terminal 12 can maintain stable electrical connection characteristics even when male terminal 11 is repeatedly inserted and removed.

[0023] In the present embodiment, the terms upper, lower, front, rear, left and right are used to more appropriately explain the state of the embodiment, and the present invention is not limited to these terms. [Explanation of symbols]

[0024] 11 Male terminal 12 Female terminal 12a Connection 12b Wire crimping part 12c Bottom 12d, 12e side wall 12f, 12g top surface 12h Lower regulation piece 12i Upper regulation piece 12j Lower guide piece 12k, 12l upper guide piece 13 Electric wire 14 Spring plate

Claims

1. A female connection terminal having a substantially box-shaped connection portion electrically connected to a mating flat-blade-shaped male connection terminal, A female connection terminal characterized in that first and second restricting pieces are bent inwardly from a first surface of the connection portion and a second surface opposite the first surface, respectively, and are arranged in two rows along the longitudinal direction, the gap between the first restricting piece and the second restricting piece is large enough for the male terminal to pass through, the short-side gaps between the first restricting pieces and between the second restricting pieces are narrower than the width of the male connection terminal, and a curved spring plate having elasticity is arranged between the first restricting pieces along the longitudinal direction, and the height of the top of the spring plate is greater than the height of the first restricting piece.

2. The female connection terminal as described in claim 1, characterized in that when the spring plate is deformed due to the pressing force from the male connection terminal, the male connection terminal abuts against the edge of the first restricting piece, thereby restricting further deformation of the spring plate.

3. A female connection terminal as described in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the entrance portion of the connection portion is provided with a first guide piece bent inward from the front end of the first surface, and a second guide piece bent inward from the front end of the second surface and opposed to the first guide piece, and the gap between the first guide piece and the second guide piece is sized to allow the male connection terminal to pass through.

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