Connector Housing With Complementary Stacking Faces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cable connection methods are cumbersome, time-consuming, and space-intensive, particularly in limited spaces like aircraft, where multiple cables are often arranged in a circular fashion, requiring rearrangement and significant lateral space for terminal strips or connectors.
Innovation Solution
A housing design for connectors and counter connectors with complementary outer faces allowing compact stacking in multiple directions, enabling flexible and stable cable arrangement, with inclined pressing faces for improved electrical contact and automated assembly, and adaptable for various cable types.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If cables are arranged in a circular fashion and connected by a terminal strip, then all cables can be connected in one location, but the required lateral space increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a planar circular cable arrangement to a three-dimensional stacked configuration. Connectors are arranged in multiple layers along the connection direction, with complementary outer faces enabling vertical stacking. This dimensional change reduces lateral space requirements while maintaining all necessary cable connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The terminal strip is divided into multiple separate connectors, each handling a subset of cables. These segmented connectors can be stacked vertically and connected in series, allowing cable connections to be distributed across multiple locations rather than requiring all cables to converge at a single terminal strip location.
2Ease of manufacture
If connectors are stacked in a single direction, then assembly is simplified, but the arrangement becomes rigid and less flexible
Solution Approach 1:
The connector housing is designed with complementary outer faces in multiple stacking directions, making each connector capable of stacking with neighbors in various orientations. This universal interface design allows the same connector type to be arranged in different configurations (linear, grid, radial) depending on space requirements, providing both assembly simplicity and arrangement flexibility.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
The object of the invention is to provide a solution that allows a simple and fast installation fo connectors within a limited space, wherein the resulting electrical connection arrangement is flexible and compact. This object is achieved by a housing (1) for a connector (11) that can be plugged into a counter connector (12) along a connection direction (C), wherein the housing (1) has a first pair (110) of outer faces (111, 112), the outer faces (111, 112) of the first pair (110) being complementary to each other and lying opposite each other in a first stacking direction (P1) that is perpendicular to the connection direction (C), and wherein the housing (1) has a second pair (120) of outer faces (121, 122), the outer faces (121, 122) of the second pair (120) being complementary to each other and lying opposite each other in a second stacking direction (P2) that is perpendicular to the connection direction (C), wherein the first stacking direction (P1) differs from the second stacking direction (P2).