Connector Housing Segmentation for Resin Flow
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing connector design faces challenges in increasing the size of the housing in the pitch direction due to resin fluidity issues during molding, leading to a bottleneck and difficulty in accommodating more terminals.
Innovation Solution
The connector features a holding member with two side portions, two accommodation portions, and an island portion, where the island portion is located between the side portions in the width direction, allowing for improved resin fluidity and accommodating more terminals without overlapping with the holddowns, thus simplifying the end structure and enhancing resin flow during molding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the housing size in the pitch direction is increased to accommodate more terminals, then the terminal count increases, but the resin fluidity deteriorates causing short shots during molding
Solution Approach 1:
The holding member is divided into multiple portions (first holding member and second holding member) that can be molded separately and then assembled. This segmentation allows each portion to be molded independently with adequate resin flow, avoiding the short shot problem that would occur if the entire large housing were molded as a single piece. The cavity is correspondingly divided into multiple cavities for separate molding.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a single large housing structure to multiple smaller housing portions arranged in a specific spatial configuration. By distributing the terminal accommodation across multiple separated holding members rather than one continuous structure, the resin flow path in each individual portion remains manageable while achieving the overall capacity for more terminals.
2Length of stationary object
If the housing size in the pitch direction is increased, then the connector capacity increases, but the molding process becomes difficult due to bottleneck formation
Solution Approach 1:
The long housing structure is segmented into multiple shorter holding member portions, each with manageable dimensions for molding. This avoids the bottleneck formation that occurs in long, continuous cavities where resin flow becomes restricted. Each segmented portion can be molded independently with proper gate placement and flow characteristics.
Solution Approach 2:
The holding members are molded separately in advance as individual components, allowing optimization of the molding process for each smaller portion. This preliminary separate manufacturing enables better control over resin flow and filling patterns, avoiding the manufacturing difficulties that would arise from attempting to mold one large continuous housing.
3Quantity of substance
If a single large holding member is used to accommodate more terminals, then the terminal density increases, but the resin flow becomes insufficient leading to short shots
Solution Approach 1:
The single large holding member is divided into multiple smaller holding member portions, each capable of being fully filled with resin during molding. This segmentation ensures adequate resin flow and filling in each portion, preventing the short shots that would occur in a single large cavity. The total terminal capacity is maintained through the combined capacity of multiple portions.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of attempting to fill one large cavity with sufficient resin to accommodate all terminals (which would require excessive resin volume and pressure), the invention uses multiple smaller cavities where each can be filled adequately with appropriate resin amounts. This partial action approach ensures complete filling of each portion without the losses associated with trying to fill a single oversized cavity.
Data Source
AI summary
A connector is provided with terminals, a holding member and holddowns. The holding member has two side portions, two accommodation portions and an island portion. In a pitch direction (X-direction), the accommodation portions are located within a range not larger than the island portion. The terminals are divided into two terminal rows, which correspond to the accommodation portions, respectively. Each of the holddowns has an end wall portion and two side coupling portions. The end wall portions are located at end portions of the connector, respectively, in the pitch direction (X-direction). Each of the side coupling portions couples the end wall portion to either one of the side portions of the holding member. In the up-down direction (X-direction), the holding member does not overlap with the end wall portion.