Connector Guard Structure for Misalignment Damage Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing connectors are prone to damage and misalignment issues when mated with a mating connector, particularly due to the island-like portion being susceptible to deformation or damage during improper alignment.
Innovation Solution
A connector design featuring reinforcing members with guard and supporter structures at the island-like portion's ends, which prevents damage by distributing force and maintaining the island-like portion's integrity during misaligned mating, using a combination of guard portions and supporters to absorb and redirect applied forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the connector is mated with a mating connector under misaligned conditions, then the mating operation can still be attempted, but the island-like portion may be damaged or deformed
Solution Approach 1:
The guard portion is positioned at the end of the island-like portion to provide protective coverage before damage can occur. When misalignment happens during mating, the guard portion absorbs the impact and prevents direct contact between the mating connector and the vulnerable end of the island-like portion, thereby cushioning the blow in advance.
Solution Approach 2:
The guard portion acts as an intermediary element between the mating connector and the island-like portion. It serves as a mediator that receives the mating force first and transfers it to the supporter structure, preventing the force from directly acting on the island-like portion and causing damage.
2Strength
If the island-like portion is made more robust to prevent damage, then damage resistance improves, but the connector structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The protecting structure is segmented into distinct functional components: the guard portion that provides immediate protective coverage at the end of the island-like portion, and the supporter that provides additional structural reinforcement. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function while keeping the overall structure manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of making the entire island-like portion uniformly robust, the reinforcement is applied locally where it is most needed - at the end portions that are most vulnerable during misaligned mating. The guard portion and supporter are positioned specifically at these critical locations, providing targeted protection without unnecessarily increasing the complexity of the entire structure.
3Reliability
If the guard portion is made larger to better protect the island-like portion, then protection effectiveness improves, but the connector size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guard portion is designed to extend partially beyond the end of the island-like portion, providing just enough protective coverage to handle typical misalignment scenarios. This partial extension is sufficient to protect against the most common mating errors without unnecessarily increasing the connector's overall size for protection levels that exceed actual needs.
Data Source
AI summary
A connector is mateable with a mating connector along an up-down direction. The connector comprises a contact, a holding member and two reinforcing members. The holding member has an accommodation portion and an island-like portion. The island-like portion has two end portions in a first horizontal direction perpendicular to the up-down direction. The reinforcing members are positioned at the two end portions, respectively. Each of the reinforcing members has a guard portion and a supporter. The guard portion of each of the reinforcing members guards the corresponding end portion of the island-like portion. The guard portion has an upper surface, an embedded portion and an exposed coupling portion. The upper surface is exposed upward from the island-like portion in the up-down direction. The embedded portion is embedded into the island-like portion. The exposed coupling portion couples the upper surface and the embedded portion with each other.