Electrical Connector Extending Wall Prevents Uncut Terminal Insertion

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing electrical connectors face issues during manufacturing where cutoff bridges from metal carriers are not properly removed, leading to incorrect assembly and potential electrical faults.

Innovation Solution

The design incorporates an insulative housing with a tongue portion featuring terminal-receiving slots and separating walls with extending portions to guide and secure terminals correctly, along with a metallic shielding plate and shielding shell, ensuring proper assembly and preventing incorrect insertion of terminals.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If traditional electrical connector design is used, then manufacturing process is simple, but terminals with uncut bridges can be incorrectly assembled

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveassembly correctnessVSAvoidconnector structure

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The extending portion of the separating wall is designed to protrude into the terminal-receiving slot before the terminal can be fully inserted. This preliminary obstruction prevents terminals with uncut bridges from being incorrectly assembled, as the extending portion blocks the path for improperly prepared terminals while allowing correctly prepared terminals to pass through

Inventive Principle:

Principle #9Preliminary anti-action

Solution Approach 2:

The extending portion is pre-positioned in the terminal-receiving slot during connector manufacturing, establishing a preliminary barrier that guides and filters terminals before they reach the contact points. This preliminary structural arrangement ensures that only terminals meeting the correct specifications can be assembled into the connector

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If extending portion is added to separating wall, then incorrect assembly is prevented, but manufacturing precision requirement increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveassembly correctnessVSAvoidseparating wall dimension

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The extending portion is designed with specific local dimensions that are optimized for its function of blocking incorrect terminals. The extending portion protrudes a predetermined distance into the terminal-receiving slot, creating a localized quality control feature that prevents incorrect assembly without requiring high precision across the entire separating wall structure

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentUS9847606B2Electrical connector having extended separating wall portion for preventing insertion of uncut terminals

Publication Date: 2017.12.19 FOXCONN INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY LTD

AI summary

An electrical connector includes: an insulative housing having a base portion and a tongue portion extending forwardly from the base portion, the tongue portion having a plurality of terminal-receiving slots, a respective separating wall being disposed between every two neighboring terminal-receiving slots, at least one separating wall having an extending portion extending backwardly along an insertion direction to be located behind respective rear ends of the other separating walls; a number of terminals retained in the insulative housing and including a row of first contacts, each first contact having a pair of gaps located forwardly of the extending portion along the insertion direction; a metallic shielding plate retained in the insulative housing; and a shielding shell attached to the insulative housing.