Multipin Connector

The present invention relates to a multipin connector which is provided with a relatively large number of pin contacts and shielded electromagnetically.

Since conventional multipin connectors have oblong bodies, there is a limit to the number of such multipin connectors which can be mounted on a printed-circuit circuit board along one marginal edge thereof. On account of their oblong bodies, connection and disconnection of these multipin connectors are somewhat troublesome when they are closely arranged side by side. Furthermore, the prior art multipin connectors are not sufficiently shielded from electromagnetic noise.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a multipin connector which can be mounted, in relatively large numbers, on a printed-circuit board and which provides easy connection and disconnection and is sufficiently shielded electromagnetically.

The multipin connector of the present invention employs a square-shaped body of an insulating material. The insulating body has a plurality of contact housing holes bored therethrough and arranged, in a matrix form. Each of the contact housing holes has housed therein a pin contact, the front end portion of which projects out of the insulating body for connection to a socket contact of the mating connector and the rear end of which is connected to one of the cord of a shielded cable. The shielded cable is firmly clamped by a cable clamper made of metal, with the shield (or braid) of the cable being connected to the inner surface of the clamper. The cable clamper is snugly fitted in the rear end portion of a shielding member made of metal and the above-mentioned insulating body is similarly fitted in the front end portion of the shielding member.

Since the insulating body of the multipin connector of the present invention is square, many contacts can be provided together closely and the height and width of the connector are substantially equal. Accordingly, the multipin connector of the present invention is easy to handle and can be mounted on a printed-circuit board in greater numbers than the conventional oblong multipin connectors.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, partly cut away, illustrating an example of the multipin connector of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the multipin connector shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal-sectional view taken along the line III--III in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a left side view of the multipin connector shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a front view, partly cut away, showing an example of a mating connector;

FIG. 6 is a right side view of the mating connector shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a bottom view, partly cut away, of the mating connector;

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of the mating connector;

FIGS. 9A to 9C are sectional views, for explaining a locking mechanism used in the present invention; and

FIG. 10 is a sectional view illustrating another embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 1 to 4 illustrate an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 11 indicates a body of an insulating material which is square in shape and hence has substantially square front and rear end faces. The insulating body 11 has contact housing holes 12 bored therethrough in its front-to-back direction and arranged in a matrix form with five rows and five columns in this embodiment. Each of the contact housing holes 12 has housed therein a pin contact 13, the front end portion of which forms a contact portion 13a projecting out of the front end face of the insulating body 11 and the rear end portion of which forms a cord connecting portion 13b.

A shielded cable 14 has a plurality of cords 15, each of which is fixedly connected at one end to the cord connecting portion 13b of one of the pin contacts 13. A cable clamper 16 made of metal firmly clamps the shielded cable 15 inserted therethrough, with its shield (or braid) 17 folded back onto the cable armor. The shield 17 is soldered to the front end of the cable clamper 16, as indicated at 18 in FIG. 3. The cable clamper 16, pressed around a clamping portion 19 thereof, fixedly clamps the cable 14.

The cable clamper 16 is fitted into and fixed to the rear end portion of a tubular shielding member 21 made of metal. The cable clamper 16 has, on the radially outside of the front end portion thereof, an engaging portion 22 formed concentrically and integrally therewith, the engaging portion 22 being received in the rear end portion of the shielding member 21 and soldered thereto, as indicated by 23 in FIG. 3.

The insulating body 11 is held in the forward portion of the shielding member 21. The forward portion of the shielding member 21 is square-sectioned in conformity to the insulating body 11. The insulating body 11 is pressed into the square-sectioned portion from behind through the rear end portion of the shielding member 21 whose inner diameter is greater than that of the square-sectioned portion. The insulating body 11 has a flange 25, which abuts against a stepped portion 24 of the shielding member 21 when the insulating body 11 is fitted therein. A circumferential ridge 26 extending around the outer periphery of the insulating body 11 is engaged with a lug 27 of the shielding member 21 so that the insulating body 11 is held in position.

The multipin connector of this embodiment is provided with means for locking with the mating connector. A protector portion 31 is fixedly mounted on the rear end portion of the shielding member 21 in a manner to surround the cable clamper 16. The front end portion of the protector portion 31 engages the rear end portion of shielding member 21, and a cover 32 covering the shielding member 21 is provided in a manner to be movable back and forth. Provided between the shielding member 21 and the cover 32 is an elastic sliding piece 33 which is slidable back and forth relative to the cover 32. Guide ridges 34a and 34b for the sliding piece 33 are formed integrally with the shielding member 21. The shielding member 21 has a cutaway 35 in opposing relation to the forward end portion of the sliding piece 33 so that the front end portion of the sliding piece 33 may bend toward the axis of the connector for engagement with a part of the mating connector inserted into the front end portion of the shielding member 21. The sliding piece 33 is biased forward at all times. That is, a coiled spring 36 is wound around the shielding member 21 between a rear end portion 33a of the sliding piece 33 and the front end of the protector portion 31. For unlocking the connector from the mating connector, the rear end portion 33a of the sliding piece 33 is pulled back by a stepped portion 32a of the sliding cover 32 against the biasing force of the coiled spring 36 so that a projection 38 of a spring piece 37 can be submerged below the top level of the guide ridges 34a, 34b.

The spring piece 37 is disposed opposite the sliding piece 33 on the outside thereof and held between the guide ridges 34a and 34b, so that its lateral movement is limited by them. The spring piece 37 has the projection 38 at its front end portion, and the front end of the projection 38 engages a bridge portion 39, preventing the spring piece 37 from movement in a direction opposite from the sliding piece 33.

Next, a description will be given, with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8, of the mating connector for connection to the multipin connector of the present invention described above. A square-sectioned body 41 of an insulating material has, in its forward portion, contact housing holes 42 bored therethrough and arranged in a matrix form, and each contact housing hole 42 houses therein a socket contact 43. The back portion of the insulating body 41 is hollow and its rear end is open. The bottom of the back portion of the body 41 has slots 41a extending lengthwise thereof and open at the rear end thereof. As shown in FIG. 8, the socket contacts 43 extend rearward and are bent down, at right angles, at different positions in their lengthwise direction so that their bent portions, each forming a terminal 44, may lie apart. In this example, since it is difficult to make such laterally closely-packed socket contacts 43 out of a single sheet of metal, socket contact arrays 43a and 43b are each made of a sheet of metal and they are assembled together so that their socket contacts 43 may lie alternately with each other. The terminals 44 (44a, 44b) of the socket contacts 43 project out of corresponding slots 41a made in the bottom of the insulating body 41 at the rear end portion thereof. The bottom of the insulating body 41 open at the rear end portion is covered with a bottom panel 45 which has lateral slots 45a through which terminal coupling portions 40 (40a, 40b) project downwardly thereof. The terminal coupling portions 40 are cut off after assembling.

The insulating body 41 is covered with a rectangular tubular shielding member 46, which is, in turn, covered with a square-sectioned tubular case 47 made of an insulating material. When this connector is coupled with the multipin connector shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the forward portion of the shielding member 46 is fitted into the forward portion of the shielding member 21 of the multipin connector. The forward portion of the shielding member 46 has a plurality of slots 50 so that it may elastically engage the shielding member 21. The top surface of the shielding member 46 has a locking protrusion 48 formed by embossing. The case 47 has a recess 49 formed in its inner surface in opposing relation to the protrusion 48 and its vicinity, for receiving the bridge portion 39 and the guide ridges 34a and 34b of the multipin connector. Furthermore, the case 47 has a hole 51 made in a ceiling 49a of the recess 49 in opposing relation to the protrusion 48.

When this mating connector is coupled with the multipin connector, the bridge portion 39 and the guide ridges 34a and 34b of the latter are partly inserted into the recess 49, as shown in FIG. 9A. When further pressing the mating connector into the multipin connector, the projection 38 of the spring piece 37 is urged against the ceiling 49a of the recess 49, and consequently the spring piece 37 is pushed downward, thereby elastically bending the front end portion of the sliding piece 33 down. Accordingly, the protrusion 48 strikes against the tip of the sliding piece 33, sliding it backward, as shown in FIG. 9B. When the front end portion of the shielding member 21 is further forced into the recess 49, the projection 38 of the spring piece 37 moves into engagement with the hole 51, as depicted in FIG. 9C. That is, the sliding piece 33 is disengaged from the protrusion 48 and restored to its initial form and, by the force of the coiled spring 36, the spring piece 33 overrides the protrusion 48, locking the projection 38 in the hole 51. In this state, the pin contacts 13 are each held in and engaged with the corresponding socket contact 43.

To unlock the multipin connector from the mating connector, the cover 32 needs only to be pulled back against the biasing force of the coiled spring 36, in consequence of which the sliding piece 33 is also pulled back and out of engagement with the protrusion 48, permitting easy disengagement of the projection 38 from the hole 51.

Incidentally, the coiled spring 36 need not always be wound around the shielding member 21 but instead a plurality of small windings may also be utilized so as to reduce the size of the cover 32, as shown in FIG. 10.

As described above, the multipin connector of the present invention employs a square-sectioned insulating body, which can hold contacts concentratively and the four sides of the square section can be made substantially equal to one another; accordingly, the multipin connector of the present invention is relatively round as a whole and can easily be gripped for connection to and disconnection from the mating connector. A number of such multipin connectors can be mounted on one marginal edge of a printed circuit board. Moreover, the internal structure from the contacts to the cable connecting portion is disposed within the shielding member 21, and hence is shielded from electromagnetic waves. Besides, since the locking mechanism is disposed outside the shielding member 21 in the example described above, the electro-magnetic shield is not affected by the locking mechanism.

It will be apparent that many modifications and variations may be effected without departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the present invention.