Terminal Block Linear Display Mechanism for Compact Status Indication
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing terminal blocks face challenges in accurately notifying users of the connection status of electric wires due to the long distance from the pivot shaft to the display portion, which can lead to inadequate securing of the display region and inaccurate connection status indication.
Innovation Solution
A terminal block design featuring a housing with insulation properties, including a holding portion with electric wire and jig passage portions, a terminal electrode portion, a leaf spring portion, a display-use moveable member, and a return spring portion, allowing for linear motion of the display-use moveable member to indicate connection states through a third opening portion, ensuring accurate connection status notification even when the block is reduced in size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a long display body is provided in the holding portion to enable accurate connection status notification, then the connection status can be accurately displayed, but the terminal block size increases and the display region may not be sufficiently secured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a rotary motion mechanism (pivot shaft with long display body rotating in an arc) to a linear motion mechanism (display-use moveable member moving straight along the array direction of opening portions). This dimensional change allows the display region to be compactly arranged within the holding portion while maintaining accurate connection status notification, effectively resolving the contradiction between display accuracy and compact size.
2Volume of moving object
If the terminal block is reduced in size, then the compactness is improved, but the region where the display portion pivots cannot be sufficiently secured leading to inaccurate connection status notification
Solution Approach 1:
By changing the display mechanism from rotary to linear motion, the patent eliminates the need for a large pivot region. The display-use moveable member moves linearly along the array direction of the opening portions, allowing accurate connection status display within a compact space, thus resolving the contradiction between compactness and display accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the motion parameter from rotational angle to linear displacement. The display-use moveable member's linear position (exposed through third opening portion or not) indicates connection status, replacing the rotational angle mechanism. This parameter change enables accurate status notification within a reduced terminal block size.
3Ease of operation
If a rotary motion mechanism with pivot shaft is used, then the connection status can be indicated through display portion exposure, but the mechanism complexity increases and space requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the rotary motion mechanism (pivot shaft, arc-shaped movement path) with a linear motion mechanism (display-use moveable member moving straight). This simplifies the overall mechanism structure, reduces the number of components, and decreases space requirements while maintaining the ease of operation for connection status indication.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and eliminates unnecessary components from the rotary mechanism (pivot shaft, long display body extending far from pivot point). The simplified linear mechanism uses only the display-use moveable member that moves along the guide surface, removing complex rotational elements while preserving the core function of connection status indication.
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 terminal block effectively displays the connection state of the electric wire through linear motion of the display-use moveable member, ensuring accurate notification of the connection status to the user, even when the block is minimized in size, by securing the display region within the holding portion.
Implementation Method 1
a return spring portion that pushes the main body portion in the first direction
Implementation Method 2
the moveable portion is disposed so as to move relative to the fixed portion to cause the conductor portion inserted through the first opening portion into the electric wire passage portion to be held between the moveable portion and the contact portion of the terminal electrode portion
Data Source
AI summary
A terminal block includes a display-use moveable member which has a main body portion that can reciprocate in the direction intersecting a terminal connection surface and a contact moveable portion that extends along a guide surface, has a first end portion in an extension direction that is disposed so as to come into contact with a conductor portion in an electric wire passage portion and move in a first direction away from the terminal connection surface, and has a second end portion in the extension direction that is connected to the main body portion, and moves in an array direction in response to movement of the first end portion in the first direction to move the main body portion in a second direction toward the terminal connection surface.