Connector Housing Recess Layout for Compact High-Strength Fitting
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing connectors suffer from inefficiencies in space usage due to wasted space in recesses and concerns about increased height of the male housing, which affects their overall compactness and functionality.
Innovation Solution
The proposed connector design includes a first housing with a receptacle and a protrusion, and a second housing with a housing body featuring small and large cavity portions, a recess, and a protrusion that fits into the recess. This configuration ensures efficient use of space by allowing the recess to be open on both the front and end sides, enabling thicker protrusions for enhanced strength without increasing the connector's height.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a mere recess is formed between ribs on the housing body, then the structure is simple to manufacture, but space is wasted and the male housing may be enlarged in height
Solution Approach 1:
The recess is designed to extend not only in the front-rear direction but also in the height direction, utilizing three-dimensional space more effectively. This allows the recess to be formed without adding height to the housing body while still providing adequate space for the protrusion and improving overall space efficiency for accommodating terminal fittings.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the recess is closed, then structural integrity is maintained, but space utilization is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The recess is designed with selective openness: it is open in the front-rear direction to maximize space utilization for terminal fittings, while extending in the height direction with controlled boundaries to maintain sufficient structural integrity. This localized differentiation of open/closed characteristics optimizes both space utilization and structural stability.
3Strength
If the protrusion is made thicker for enhanced strength, then connection reliability improves, but the housing height increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing protrusion thickness only in the vertical direction (which would increase housing height), the recess is extended in the height direction to accommodate a thicker protrusion while maintaining the same external housing dimensions. This allows enhanced connection strength without compromising the compact height of the connector.
Data Source
AI summary
A housing body includes a small cavity portion for accommodating small-size second terminal fittings, a large cavity portion for accommodating large-size second terminal fittings, and a recess in which a protrusion is arranged. Each of the small cavity portion and the large cavity portion has a front surface on a front side in a fitting direction into the receptacle and an end surface on one end side intersecting the fitting direction. The end surface of the small cavity portion is arranged to drop in a height direction from the end surface of the large cavity portion. The recess is defined by a side surface in the height direction of the large cavity portion and the end surface of the small cavity portion and open toward the front side and the one end side.