Electrical Connector Cover

This invention relates generally to electrical connectors and more specifically to covers for electrical connectors which have a plurality of electric wires extending out of an end of an insulator body. This invention may be used in combination with the invention of my copending patent application U.S. Ser. No. 09/490,225 filed Mar. 8, 1990.

It is already known to provide covers which are attached to insulator bodies of electrical connectors to protect and route several electric wires extending out of the insulator body. See for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,765 granted to Earl A. Gilmore and Kenneth E. Merklen Apr. 1, 1975 which discloses a connector cover which is constructed of sheet material and shaped to cooperate with a tying strap for the electric wires. The cover has interengaging tab assemblies at each end which serve to interconnect the cover with a connector block or insulator body. The major drawback of this design is that the assembly of the cover to the insulator body is tedious and time consuming.

It is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,321,733 granted to John E. Thomas May 23, 1967 to use a "quick disconnect" bayonet joint in an electrical connector to fasten a collar associated with one connector to a cap member associated with another connector. More specifically as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the collar member has lugs which are received in diametrical slots of the cover member to provide a bayonet connection which is maintained intact by a resilient washer disposed in the open end of the cap member. While this arrangement does not require tedious and time consuming steps to connect the electrical connectors to each other, the arrangement nevertheless has a drawback in that the arrangement requires manufacture of a separate resilient washer or the like and its prior assembly into one of the electrical connectors to maintain the integrity of the bayonet joint once the electrical connectors are connected.

The object of this invention is to provide an electrical connector having an improved bayonet connection for fastening one electrical connector member to another electrical connector member

Another object of this invention is to provide an electrical connector having an improved bayonet joint for fastening one electrical connector member, such as a connector cover to another electrical connector member, such as a connector body, which does not require a separate resilient member to maintain the integrity of the bayonet joint.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved electrical connector in which the resilient member for maintaining the integrity of the bayonet joint is an integral part of one electrical connector member, such as the cover, so that the electrical connector member and resilient member can be economically manufactured by molding the electrical connector member and resilient member as one piece of thermoplastic material. PG,4

Yet another object of this invention is to provide an improved electrical connector having a cover which is attached to an insulator body by a bayonet joint in which the cover acts as a tension spring in concert with the insulator body to maintain the integrity of the bayonet joint thereby eliminating the need for a separate resilient member or the like for this function.

Still yet another object of this invention is to provide an electrical connector cover which is designed to act as a tension spring when it is attached to an insulator body by a bayonet joint thereby eliminating the need for a separate resilient member or the like to maintain the integrity of the bayonet joint.

Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as disclosure is made in the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which sets forth the best mode of the invention contemplated by the inventors and which is illustrated in the accompanying sheet(s) of drawing.

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of an automotive power plant having an electrically controlled transmission which is energized by a wiring harness which includes a cover of this invention for an electrical connector which attaches the wiring harness to the transmission.

FIG. 2 is a section taken substantially along the line 2--2 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows and showing the electrical connector and cover at the end of the wiring harness shown in greater detail.

FIG. 3 is a section taken substantially along the line 3--3 of FIG. 2 looking in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 4 is an enlargement of a portion of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a top view of the cover which is shown in FIGS. 1, 2 ,3 and 4 illustrating an integral cable strap of the cover in an open position

FIG. 6 is a end view of the cover taken substantially along the line 6--6 of FIG. 5 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawing, FIG. 1 illustrates an automotive power plant 10 having an electrically controlled transmission 12 which is by control modules (not shown) connected to the transmission by a wiring harness 14. The wiring harness 14 includes a cover 16 of this invention for an electrical connector 18 which attaches an end of the the wiring harness to the transmission.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, it can be seen that the electrical connector 18 at the end of the wiring harness 14 comprises a thermoplastic insulator body 20 which contains a plurality of electric terminals (not shown) attached to a plurality of electric wires 22 which extend out a sealed end of the connector body 20 which houses a cable seal 24.

The electrical connector 18 plugs onto a connector portion of the electrically controlled transmission 12 (not shown) and is secured to the transmission housing by a bolt 28 which extends through a tower 30 of the connector body 20. An annular gasket 32 seals the interface between the insulator body 20 and the transmission housing when the electrical connector 18 is bolted down.

The electrical connector 18 has a cover 16 which is also made of a thermoplastic. The cover 16 comprises a dome 34 which has a rim 36 which is secured to the sealed end of the insulator body 20 so that an interior space of the dome forms a chamber 38 which receives the electric wires 22 extending out of the sealed end of the insulator body 20. The cover 16 further comprises a transition channel 40 which is integrally attached to the dome 34 at one end to form a transverse passage 42 leading out of the interior space of the dome 34 for the electric wires 22 to exit the chamber 38. A strap 44 is integrally attached to an opposite end of the transition channel 40 for bundling the electric wires 22 exiting the passage 42. The strap 44 secures an end of a convoluted conduit 46 which forms part of the wiring harness 14 which contains the electric wires 22 exiting the passage 42 to the cover 16.

Focusing now on FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, it is seen that the strap 44 comprises a stiff upper shell 48 which is integrally attached to the end of the transition channel 40 and a flexible lower strap 50 which is integrally attached to the shell 48 at one end. The stiff upper shell 48 has a buckle 52 at the opposite end and it is semicircular in cross section.

The buckle 52 includes a slot 54 which extends through the buckle for receiving a free end 55 of the flexible lower strap 50. The buckle 52 contains a depending, V-shaped pawl 56 disposed in the slot 54 which engages the free end 55 of the flexible lower strap 50 when it is inserted into the slot 54 via an entrance opening at a lower end of the slot 54, i.e. the left end as viewed in FIG. 4. The flexible strap 50 has a tab 57 adjacent the free end 55 which provides a finger grip to facilitate insertion of the free end 55 into the slot 54.

The depending, V-shaped pawl 56 opens toward the entrance opening of the slot 54 through which the free end 55 of the flexible strap 50 is inserted into the slot 54. The V-shaped pawl 56 has a serrated leg 58 which engages cooperating serrations 60 incorporated into the the free end 55 of the flexible lower strap 50. The serrated leg 58 has a strain relief 62 at its free end which engages the flexible strap 50 and maintains the serrated leg 58 in firm seated engagement with the cooperating serrations 60 responsive to attempted pullout of the engaged free end of the flexible strap 50 from the buckle 52, that is, movement of the strap toward the left as viewed in FIG. 4. This secure engagement of the cooperating serrations is enhanced by the orientation of the V-shaped pawl 56 in the slot 54.

The orientation of the V-shaped pawl 56 in the slot 54 also makes it possible to disengage the pawl 56 from the free end 55 of the flexible strap 50 by a prying action of a screw driver blade or similar tool T inserted into the opposite or exit opening of the slot 54 which is at the upper end of the buckle 52. More specifically the tip of the screw driver blade or the like is inserted between the serrated leg 58 and the free end 55 of the strap 50 via the exit opening as shown in phantom in FIG. 4. The pawl 56 is then pried away from the serrations 60 of the strap by rotating the screw driver tip counterclockwise as indicated by the arrow R. This rotates the pawl 56 clockwise and out of engagement with the serrations 60 of the strap 50 when the strain relief 62 is fulcrummed on the strap 50. Thus the strain relief 62 also facilitates disengagement of the pawl 56 by the tool T inserted into the exit opening of the slot 54. The stiff upper shell 48 has an arcuate rib 64 and the flexible lower strap 50 has a plurality of spaced rib segments 66 which are substantially coplanar with the arcuate rib 64 of the stiff upper shell 48 as best shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 6. The arcuate rib 64 and the rib segments 66 engage in a trough of the convoluted conduit 46 when the end of the convoluted conduit 46 is secured to the cover 16 by the strap 44 as best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

The thermoplastic cover 16 is attached to the insulator body 20 of the electrical connector 18 by a bayonet slot arrangement. More specifically, the rim 36 of the cover 16 has three circumferentially spaced lugs 68 which project inwardly and include down ramps 69 facing the dome 34 as best shown in FIG. 5. These three lugs 68 with J-shaped bayonet slots 70 are formed in the periphery of the insulator body 20 to secure the cover 16 to the insulator body 20 as best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Each of the J-shaped bayonet slots 70 comprises an axial entrance portion 70a, an axial detent portion 70b and a circumferential crossover portion 70c which is partially defined by a ramp 72 which leads downwardly from the entrance portion 70a to the detent portion 70b.

The cover 16 has a plurality of circumferential slots 74 which are located in the dome 34 and transition channel 40 between a peak 76 of the dome 34 and the rim 36 whereby the cover 16 is made somewhat resilient and acts as a tension spring which retains the lugs 68 in the detent portions 70b of the J-shaped bayonet slots 70 when an upward force is applied to the inside surface of the peak 76. The tower 30 of the insulator body 20 is sized to provide such a force when the cover 16 is the assembled position shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. It has been found that the circumferential slots 74 may be arrayed in inner and outer sets of two circumferentially spaced arcuate slots each to provide the requisite resiliency and tension spring qualities. The cover 16 further includes an access hole 78 in the peak 76 for tightening down the bolt 28 when the cover 16 is in place and three access slots 80 which facilitate molding of the lugs 68.

The cover 16 is secured to the connector body 20 by aligning the three lugs 68 with the entrance portions 70a of the J-shaped bayonet slots 70. It should be noted that the lugs 68 and cooperating bayonet slots 70 are not evenly circumferentially spaced so that the cover 16 attaches to the insulator body 20 only when the cover 16 is correctly orientated. When correctly oriented, the cover 70 is simply pushed down against the tower 30 and rotated clockwise until the lugs 68 are engaged in the detent portions 70b where the lugs 68 are retained by the tension spring action of the cover 16. Rotation of the cover 16 against the action of the resilient cover 16 is assisted by the mating ramps 69 and 72 which push the cover 16 down on the insulator body 20 as the cover 16 is rotated.

It should also be noted that the transition channel 44 which extends outwardly of the dome 34 provides a convenient handle for rotating the cover 16 and the lugs 68 into and out of the detent portions 70b of the J-shaped bayonet slots 70.

I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.