Plug Connector Row With Shared Guide Contours for Compact Actuation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing plug connector designs lack optimization in terms of construction space and material usage, as well as efficient actuation mechanisms for guiding actuation devices between adjacent connectors.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a plate-like housing with insertion openings and actuation devices guided by protrusions and recesses, featuring a pivoted lever or sliding element to actuate contact springs, allowing for a compact and flexible structure with improved clearance and creepage distances, enabling easy assembly and toolless conductor contacting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If guide contours are formed only in one housing, then the structure is simpler, but the actuation device cannot be properly guided between adjacent plug connectors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the guide contours from two adjacent housings into a single functional guiding system. The first housing provides guide contours for the actuation device, while the second housing provides complementary guide contours that work together to properly guide the actuation device between adjacent plug connectors, resolving the contradiction between structural simplicity and reliable guiding.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the plug connector housing is closed in the joining-on direction with an end plate, then the housing is more stable, but construction space and material usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the end plate from the housing design, removing the closed end plate that was previously used to close the housing in the joining-on direction. This extraction reduces construction space and material usage while the housing stability is maintained through alternative design features such as the integrated guide contours and the interlocking mechanism between adjacent plug connectors.
3Manufacturing precision
If the actuation device is guided by protrusions and recesses in two adjacent housings, then the guiding is more precise, but the assembly complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a self-aligning mechanism where the actuation device with its guiding element automatically finds its correct position through the interaction of protrusions and recesses in the two adjacent housings. The guiding element is guided by the protrusion of the first housing and the recess of the second housing, creating a self-correcting system that reduces assembly complexity despite the precise guiding requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
A row of plug connectors for contacting a mating plug connector, each plug connector having a plate-like housing which can be joined on and which is made of an electrically non-conductive material, the housing having at least one insertion opening for a conductor end, the insertion opening being in connection with a housing chamber and the housing chamber having a connection device to which an actuation device is assigned, the respective actuation device being movably guided on or in guide contours, the guide contours being formed to movably guide the respective actuation device on and/or in two adjacent housings of two adjacent plug connectors.