Quick Connector Retainer Axial Locking Hooks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing quick connectors for automotive fuel lines cannot prevent incomplete connections and require significant space to unlock the retainer, making disconnection difficult in narrow spaces.
Innovation Solution
A quick connector design with a retainer that has arms extending parallel to the axis, locking hooks, and stopping parts on the housing to prevent incomplete connections and allow easy unlocking and return to the releasing position without needing additional space, ensuring the retainer can be easily moved into the housing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the retainer is pressed into the connector housing before the tube is fitted, then the tube connection becomes incomplete, but this incomplete connection cannot be distinguished from complete connection by appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs visual indicators that change appearance based on the connection state. The complete connection indicating member includes features that are visible only when the tube is correctly inserted and the retainer is properly engaged, allowing operators to immediately distinguish complete from incomplete connections without additional detection tools.
2Ease of operation
If locking hooks are designed to be unlocked by pressing with fingers, then unlocking is easy when space is available, but unlocking becomes difficult in narrow spaces where fingers cannot reach
Solution Approach 1:
The patent repositions the locking hooks to extend in the axial direction of the connector housing rather than radially outward. This dimensional change allows the locking hooks to be accessed and operated from the end of the connector, enabling unlocking in narrow spaces where lateral finger access is blocked but axial access remains available.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of designing the locking mechanism to be operated from the radial direction where space is typically available, the patent inverts the approach by making the locking hooks accessible from the axial direction, reversing the conventional access pattern to solve the narrow space problem.
3Reliability
If the retainer is entirely pressed into the connector housing, then the connection is secure, but the retainer cannot be pushed back to the releasing position without arms projecting outside the housing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends the locking hooks in the axial direction of the housing rather than having them project radially outward. This allows the retainer to be fully contained within the housing volume while still providing accessible locking features, eliminating the need for protruding arms and simplifying the overall retainer structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A quick connector can surely prevent incomplete connection of a tube thereto and is provided with a retainer which can be easily returned to its releasing position without being subject to restrictive conditions including working space when the tube connected to the quick connector needs to be removed from the quick connector.A retainer 16 is provided with arms 31a and 31b extending so as to be in contact with diametrically opposite parts, respectively, of the outer surface of a housing 12. Locking hooks 34a and 34b are formed on free end parts of the arms 31a and 31b, respectively. First stoppers 35a and 35b are formed on the outer surface of the housing 12 so as to engage with the locking hooks 34a and 34b of the retainer 16 such that the retainer 16 can be moved from the releasing position only in a direction in which the retainer 16 is pressed into the housing 12.