Power Connector Housing With Resilient Locking Members
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electrical power connectors that use locking blades to prevent separation from sockets are difficult to modify to reduce manufacturing and assembly costs while maintaining effectiveness.
Innovation Solution
An electrical power connector with an insulated housing featuring resiliently biased locking members that deflect to engage with socket abutment faces, providing enhanced interlocking and resistance to inadvertent removal, which can be manufactured using moulded plastics with integral or separately secured locking members.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a locking blade design is used to prevent connector separation, then the interlocking strength is improved, but the manufacturing and assembly cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The locking member is integrated directly into the housing structure, merging the locking function with the housing itself. This eliminates the need for separate locking blades and their associated assembly steps, thereby reducing manufacturing and assembly costs while maintaining interlocking strength through the resilient locking member that engages with the socket abutment face.
2Reliability
If a locking blade is used to inhibit unintended separation, then the reliability of connection is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The locking function is merged into the housing structure through an integrally formed locking member, reducing device complexity by eliminating separate locking components while maintaining connection reliability through the resilient locking mechanism that engages with the socket.
Solution Approach 2:
The locking member is resiliently biased to automatically engage with the socket abutment face upon insertion, providing self-locking functionality without requiring additional actuation mechanisms or complex control systems, thereby maintaining reliability while simplifying the overall device structure.
3Ease of manufacture
If existing locking blade designs are modified to reduce costs, then the manufacturing cost decreases, but the effectiveness of locking is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The resilient locking member automatically engages with the socket abutment face through its inherent bias, providing effective locking without requiring complex modification of existing designs or additional assembly steps. This self-service mechanism maintains locking effectiveness while simplifying manufacturing.
Solution Approach 2:
The locking member utilizes resilient bias (elastic deformation) to achieve automatic engagement and effective locking. By changing the physical state of the locking element from rigid to resilient, the design achieves both cost reduction through simpler manufacturing and maintained effectiveness through automatic engagement with the socket abutment face.
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
The solution effectively inhibits unintended separation of the connector from the socket, offering improved interlocking strength and reduced manufacturing costs through the use of resiliently biased locking members in a design compatible with International Standard IEC 60320.
Implementation Method 1
each of said side wall sections and at least one of said spacer wall sections comprising a locking member which is resiliently biased to reside in a first position and which is deflectable to a second position
Data Source
AI summary
An electrical power connector includes a housing for electrical terminals each for engaging with a respective receiving terminal of an electrical socket. The housing includes two oppositely positioned side wall sections and two spacer wall sections maintaining the side wall sections spaced apart, each side wall section and at least one spacer wall section including a locking member resiliently biased to reside in a first position spaced from adjacent regions of a respective housing wall section and which is deflectable to a second position, each locking member including a first region having an abutment face and a second region facilitating deflection of the locking member and abutment from the first position to the second position, and each abutment face being positioned nearer than the second region to that end of the connector housing that in use confronts an electrical socket at which the terminals of the connector are received.