ELECTRICAL PLUG CONNECTOR

Abstract

An electrical plug connector (10) having contacts (30) on the input side and a housing (20), within which electrical lines (40) and an electrical switch with at least one sensor device (84) and a control device (82) are connected to the contacts (30). The sensor device (84) and the control device (82) are arranged on a common carrier body (70). The carrier body is formed as a circuit carrier, which is made from plastic by injection-molding, on which metallic conductor tracks (80) are applied. This allows simple integration of sensor and monitoring tasks into conventional plug connectors.

Claims

1. An electrical plug connector (10), comprising: a housing (20); contacts (30) on an input side; electrical lines (40) and an electrical circuit with at least one sensor device (84) and a control device (82) are connected to the contacts (30) within the housing (20); a common, one-piece carrier body (70) on which the sensor device (84) and the control device (82) are arranged; and the carrier body (70) is formed as a circuit carrier made of a non-metal material and deviating from a plate shape, to which metal conductor tracks (80) are applied.

2. The electrical plug connector (10) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the carrier body (70) is formed as an injection-molded part, as a 3D-printed part, or as a sintered part.

3. The electrical plug connector (10) as claimed in claim 2, the carrier body (70), facing the contacts (30) on the input side, has an outer contour that is at least approximately adapted to an inner contour of the housing (20).

4. The electrical plug connector (10) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing (20) completely surrounds the carrier body (70).

5. The electrical plug connector (10) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing (20) is formed in one part or is formed in two parts with a first housing part (21) and a second housing part (23).

6. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing (20) has a cylindrical outer shape.

7. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the carrier body (70) includes a fastener with which the carrier body (70) is fastened directly to the housing (20).

8. The electrical plug connector (10) as claimed in claim 7, wherein the fastener of the carrier body (70) comprises screw threads which are arranged at least in portions on an outer side of the carrier body (70) and are screwable can be screwed into an internal thread of the housing (20).

9. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the carrier body (70) consists substantially of two outer portions and a middle portion (71, 72, 73) integrally attached to one another, wherein the two outer portions (71, 72) are substantially hollow-cylindrical and are connected to the middle portion (73) which is plate-shaped.

10. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 9, wherein the control device (82) of the electric circuit is arranged on the middle plate-shaped portion (73).

11. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 9, wherein the sensor device (84) is arranged on an outer wall of a first one of the hollow-cylindrical portions (71) of the carrier body (70).

12. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 9, wherein an external thread is integrally machined on each of the two outer portions (74, 75) of the carrier body (70).

13. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing (20) has an opening (26) which is arranged at an outer circumference and below which the sensor device (84) of the electrical circuit is placed.

14. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electrical circuit comprises a wireless or wired communication device.

15. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electrical circuit is connected to the electrical lines (40) via electrically conductive connections.

16. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 15, wherein the electrically conductive connections are connected to at least one of the contacts (30) or electrical lines (40) of the plug connector (10) by electrically conductive spring elements.

17. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electrical circuit comprises a voltage regulation device.

18. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 6, wherein the housing is formed as an M8 or M12 round housing.

19. The electrical plug connector as claimed in claim 16, wherein the electrically conductive spring elements are solderable.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The plug connector according to the present invention will be explained in greater detail with reference to an exemplary embodiment in conjunction with three figures to follow, in which:

[0022] FIG. 1 shows the exterior view of an electrical plug connector according to the present invention,

[0023] FIG. 2 shows the electrical plug connector of FIG. 1 in partial broken view, and

[0024] FIG. 3 shows an exploded view of the plug connector in FIGS. 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] In the following Figures, like reference signs denote like parts with the same meaning, unless otherwise indicated.

[0026] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of an electrical plug connector in side plan view. The plug connector is formed as an electrical round plug. The plug connector is marked with the reference sign 10 and has a front plug-in side 11 and a rear side 12 facing away therefrom. The plug connector 10 has a cylindrical housing 20 with a first housing part 21 facing the plug-in side 11 and a second housing part 23 longer than the first. The two housing parts 21 and 22 can be provided, for example, by means of a screw connection with an internal thread 22 indicated in FIG. 3 and an external thread on the housing part 23 not shown in the Figures. The housing 20, in this case the second housing part 23, has an opening on its wall, the significance of which will be discussed below.

[0027] Contacts 30 protrude from the plug-in side 11 and form the plug-in contacts of the plug connector 10. These contacts 30 are electrically connected inside the housing 20 of the plug connector 10 at contact tabs 32 and via electrical lines 40 to a cable 50 projecting from the rear side 12 of the plug connector 10. For this purpose, for example, electrical lines 40 of the cable 50 can be connected to the contact tabs 32 inside the housing 20 by means of crimp connections, screw connections, solder connections or the like. The contact tabs 32 are electrically conductively connected to the contacts 30.

[0028] As shown in particular in the sectional view of FIG. 2 and the perspective view of FIG. 3, a specially formed carrier body 70 is located inside the housing 20 of the plug connector 10. This carrier body 70 consists of an electrically non-conductive material, preferably plastic, and is manufactured by means of injection molding or 3D printing. The carrier body 70 is thus electrically non-conductive. In the illustrated exemplary embodiment, the carrier body 70 has three portions 71, 72 and 73 joined together in one piece. The middle portion 73 has a plate-like form for receiving electrical circuit components of an electrical circuit. The individual circuit components are generally designated by the reference sign 82 for a control device. Adjacent to this middle portion 73 of the carrier body 70, in the illustration of FIGS. 2 and 3, is a first portion 71 of the carrier body on the left and a second portion 72 of the carrier body 70 on the right. The plate-shaped portion of the carrier body 70 is referred to as the third portion 73. The carrier body 70 is provided with electrical lines 80 in its third portion 73 and partially also in its first portion 71. These electrical lines 80 can be applied as metallizations to the carrier body 70 using a suitable deposition technique after the carrier body 70 has been produced. Instead of depositing the metallization to form the electrical lines 80, it is also possible to use electrical conductive paste to place the required electrical lines 80 on the carrier body 70.

[0029] As can be seen particularly clearly in FIG. 3, the first portion 71 and the second portion 72 of the carrier body 70 are adapted to the inner contour of the housing 20 of the plug connector in that the first portion 71 and the third portion 73 are preferably cylindrical and hollow-cylindrical, respectively, and correspond approximately to the inner diameter of the round housing 20 of the plug connector 10. External threads 75, 74 are integrally molded on this cylindrically formed first portion 71 and third portion 73 respectively so that the carrier body 70 together with the electrical circuit can be screwed into the housing 20 of the plug connector 10 in a simple manner, so that a good mechanical connection between the housing 20 and the carrier body 70 is ensured.

[0030] However, the outer contour of the carrier body 70 is not limited to the embodiment shown. Rather, the outer contour of the entire carrier body 70 may also be angular, oval or the like, depending on the requirements of the inner contour of the housing 20. It is merely essential that the at least one of the outer portions 71, 72 of the carrier body 70 is adapted to the housing 20 of the plug connector 10.

[0031] The electrical circuit applied to the carrier body 70 is intended to detect a wide variety of parameters of the plug connector, the currents flowing therein, and the ambient conditions. For this purpose, the electrical circuit has a control device 82 which is electrically connected to a suitable sensor device 84. The electrical sensor device 84, which may be a temperature sensor, for example, is not placed on the plate-shaped second portion 72 of the carrier body 70, but on a recess of the cylindrical portion 71, as can be clearly seen in FIG. 3. The sensor device 84 is thus placed close to the housing wall of the housing 20. In order for the sensor device 84 to optimally sense the ambient conditions of the plug connector 10, for example the temperature or humidity or the like, the housing 20 has the aforementioned opening 26, below which the sensor device 84 is placed. The sensor device 84 is in electrical communication with the electrical circuit arrangement or the electrical control device 82 via the electrical lines 80 applied to the first portion 21.

[0032] The power supply for the entire electrical circuit on the carrier body 70 is provided by suitable electrical connections or electrical supply lines, not shown in the Figures, which are electrically connected to the contacts 30 or contact tabs 32. For this purpose, for example, solderable spring contacts may be provided which, when the carrier body 70 is assembled into the housing 20 of the plug connector 10, resiliently contact the contact tabs 32 and provide a voltage tap there. In order to compensate for voltage fluctuations, the electrical circuit preferably has a voltage regulation device.

[0033] Finally, for the sake of completeness, it should be noted that the cable 50 comprises individual electrical lines 40 connected to the contact tabs 32 inside the housing 20 of the plug connector 10.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0034] 10 plug connector [0035] 11 plug-in side [0036] 12 rear side [0037] 20 housing [0038] 21 first housing part [0039] 22 internal thread [0040] 23 second housing part [0041] 26 opening [0042] 27 sealing ring [0043] 30 contacts [0044] 32 contact tabs [0045] 40 electrical line [0046] 50 cable [0047] 70 carrier body [0048] 71 first portion of the carrier body [0049] 72 second portion of the carrier body [0050] 73 third portion of the carrier body [0051] 74 external thread [0052] 75 external thread [0053] 80 electrical lines [0054] 82 control device [0055] 84 sensor device