Exposed-Spring Female Terminal with Wider-Width Leaf Spring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional female terminals face challenges in achieving adequate contact pressure and compactness due to the narrow width of resilient contact pieces, which limits their flexibility and ability to maintain contact pressure without increasing the terminal body width.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a leaf spring with a wider-width portion inside a tubular body, allowing for increased flexural rigidity and contact pressure while maintaining compactness, by aligning the leaf spring's plate width with the body's width direction and providing openings for the wider-width part, which enhances resilience and protection against external forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the width of the terminal body is reduced to make the terminal fitting more compact, then the compactness is improved, but the flexural rigidity of the resilient contact piece is reduced and adequate contact pressure cannot be secured
Solution Approach 1:
The leaf spring is designed with non-uniform width: a narrow width portion (width W1) for compactness and a wider width portion (width W2 > W1) for enhanced flexural rigidity. The wider width portion is positioned at the fixed end where maximum bending moment occurs, providing local reinforcement exactly where needed while maintaining overall compact dimensions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes the width dimension (transverse to the main deformation direction) to enhance flexural rigidity. By extending the leaf spring width W2 beyond the terminal body width W3 in the transverse direction, the moment of inertia is increased, providing greater resistance to bending without increasing the longitudinal or height dimensions of the terminal body.
2Force
If the width of the resilient contact piece is increased to enhance contact pressure, then the contact pressure is improved, but the terminal body width must be increased
Solution Approach 1:
The leaf spring features a wider width portion W2 localized at the fixed end to provide enhanced contact pressure through increased flexural rigidity, while the rest of the spring maintains a narrower width W1. This localized widening achieves the force requirement without proportionally increasing the overall terminal body dimensions.
Solution Approach 2:
The leaf spring is segmented into different width portions: a narrow width portion for general spring function and a wider width portion specifically for contact pressure generation. This segmentation allows each portion to be optimized for its specific function while the terminal body width is determined by the narrower section.
3Force
If the leaf spring is made more resilient to provide adequate contact pressure, then the contact pressure is improved, but the leaf spring becomes more susceptible to external forces and deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The wider width portion W2 is positioned at the fixed end where the leaf spring is most vulnerable to external forces and where maximum bending stress occurs. This localized reinforcement provides both the resilience needed for contact pressure and the structural strength to resist external forces, while narrower sections maintain flexibility for the spring's primary function.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration ensures sufficient contact pressure is maintained even when the terminal is made more compact, and allows for enhanced contact pressure without altering the body width, while providing high rigidity and protection to the leaf spring from external forces.
Implementation Method 1
as this portion has a plate width larger than the dimension between the inner faces of the two vertical walls, thus providing the wider-width part, its flexural rigidity is higher in comparison with a conventional case wherein the width of the leaf spring is narrower than the width of the internal space of the body
Implementation Method 2
the resilient deformation part of the leaf spring will be pushed by the male terminal to undergo resilient deformation in the height direction to provide a contact pressure between both the terminals
Implementation Method 3
as the body is made tubular, a high rigidity is provided, and the body will be hardly deformed under external forces
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention is an exposed-spring female terminal comprising a tubular body having two lateral walls and two vertical walls and extending in a depth direction; a connecting part being arranged with the body on a rear side in the depth direction, being provided integrally with the body and being structured to connect to an electric wire, etc.; and a leaf spring being arranged inside the body, with the plate width direction being substantially aligned with the width direction, and having a restrained part restrained by the body and a resilient deformation part extending from the restrained part in the depth direction when seen in the height direction and being capable of resilient deformation in the height direction; and the leaf spring being provided with a wider-width part extending from the restrained part to the resilient deformation part, of which plate width being larger than the dimension between the inner faces of the two vertical walls; and the two vertical walls being provided with openings for receiving the wider-width part.