Conductor connection terminal

Abstract

A conductor connection terminal having at least one first spring-loaded clamping connection with a first operating lever for opening and closing a first clamping point formed between a first clamping leg and a first busbar section and at least one second spring-loaded clamping connection with a second operating lever for opening and closing a second first clamping point formed between a second clamping leg and a second busbar section and wherein the at least first spring-loaded clamping connection and the at least second spring-loaded clamping connection are arranged directly side by side in a direction of arrangement in a housing in the direction transverse to a conductor insertion direction. At least two operating levers arranged directly side by side in the direction of arrangement are designed differently.

Claims

1. A conductor connection terminal comprising: at least one first spring-loaded clamping connection with a first operating lever for opening and closing a first clamping point formed between a first clamping leg and a first busbar section; and at least one second spring-loaded clamping connection with a second operating lever for opening and closing a second first clamping point formed between a second clamping leg and a second busbar section, wherein the at least first spring-loaded clamping connection and the at least second spring-loaded clamping connection are arranged directly side by side in a direction of arrangement in a housing in a direction transverse to a conductor insertion direction, wherein the at least first operating lever and the at least second operating lever have different shapes, and/or wherein the at least first spring-loaded clamping connection is arranged in a first housing section of the conductor connection terminal assigned to the first spring-loaded clamping connection, the at least first operating lever having a first gripping surface with a first width that is wider than the width of the first housing section in the direction of arrangement, and/or wherein the at least second spring-loaded clamping connection is arranged in a second housing section of the conductor connection terminal assigned to the second spring-loaded clamping connection, the at least second operating lever having a second gripping surface with a second width that is wider than the width of the second housing section in the direction of arrangement.

2. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 1, wherein the sum of the first width and the second width is greater than the sum of the width of the first housing section and the width of the second housing section in the direction of arrangement.

3. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 1, wherein the sum of the widths of the gripping surfaces of all operating levers of the conductor connection terminal is greater than the width of the entire housing in the direction of arrangement.

4. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 1, wherein the conductor connection terminal has at least two different types of operating levers, wherein the at least two different types of the operating levers are at least partially alternately arranged side by side in the direction of arrangement.

5. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 1, wherein the first width of the first gripping surface in the direction of arrangement is greater than the width of the first operating arm of the first operating lever, and/or wherein the second width of the second gripping surface in the direction of arrangement is greater than the width of the second operating arm of the second operating lever.

6. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 5, wherein the at least first operating lever and/or second operating lever has a T-shaped arrangement made of operating arm and gripping surface.

7. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 1, wherein the housing has a housing module receiving one, two or more spring-loaded clamping connections.

8. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 7, wherein two or more of the housing modules can be lined up side by side.

9. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 1, wherein one, several or all of the operating levers have an operating arm, which protrudes from the housing and which at the free end merges into a gripping surface for the manual operation of the operating lever.

10. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 9, wherein differently designed operating levers differ with regard to the length of an operating arm of the operating lever which protrudes from the housing.

11. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 9, wherein differently designed operating levers differ with regard to the different widths of the gripping surfaces of the operating levers.

12. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 9, wherein differently designed operating levers differ from one another in that the operating arm is angled differently.

13. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 9, wherein the first gripping surface of the at least first operating lever extends in the direction of arrangement up to the second operating arm of the adjacent second operating lever.

14. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 9, wherein the first operating arm and/or the second operating arm is oriented essentially perpendicular to the direction of arrangement and/or a pivoting plane in which the first and/or second operating lever is pivotable, essentially oriented perpendicular to the direction of arrangement.

15. The conductor connection terminal according to claim 9, wherein the first and second gripping surfaces overlap perpendicular to the direction of arrangement.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus, are not limitive of the present invention, and wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a conductor connection terminal in a perspective view;

(3) FIG. 2 shows the conductor connection terminal according to FIG. 1 in a plan view;

(4) FIGS. 3, 4 show the conductor connection terminal according to FIG. 1 in different side views;

(5) FIG. 5 shows a further embodiment of a conductor connection terminal in a perspective view;

(6) FIG. 6 shows a further embodiment of a conductor connection terminal in a perspective view;

(7) FIG. 7 shows the conductor connection terminal according to FIG. 5 in a side view; and

(8) FIG. 8 shows the conductor connection terminal according to FIG. 6 in a side view.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(9) The conductor connection terminal 1 shown in FIG. 1 has a housing 2 which comprises several housing sections 20 arranged side by side. A spring-loaded clamping connection is arranged in each housing section 20. The respective spring-loaded clamping connection can have a clamping spring and a busbar section assigned to the clamping spring. The clamping spring has a clamping leg. The clamping leg forms a clamping point with the associated busbar section. The clamping spring can have further sections, such as, for example, a spring bow and a contact leg. Each housing section 20 can be formed from two housing halves and has a conductor insertion opening 21. An electrical conductor, which is to be clamped to the spring-loaded clamping connection, can be guided to the clamping point through the conductor insertion opening 21 and there can be clamped to the busbar section by means of the clamping leg.

(10) The conductor connection terminal 1 has an operating lever 5 for each spring-loaded clamping connection, with which the clamping point of the spring-loaded clamping connection can be optionally opened or closed. The operating lever can, for example, actuate the clamping legs in such a way that, depending on the pivoting position of the operating lever, the clamping leg is moved away from the associated busbar section in such a way that the clamping point is open or is returned to the busbar section, if appropriate, by clamping the connected conductor. This corresponds to a closed clamping point.

(11) Since the spring-loaded clamping connections are accommodated within the housing 2, they cannot be seen from the outside in the drawings. Only connection contacts 3, which protrude from the housing 2 on at least one side of the housing and are associated with the respective spring-loaded clamping connection are visible. The conductor connection terminal 1 can be set up, for example, for attachment to a circuit board. The connection contacts 3 can then be designed as solder contacts.

(12) Each operating lever 5 has an operating arm 50, 52 protruding from the housing 2, which merges into a gripping surface 51, 53 at the free end. The gripping surface 51, 53 is used for manual operation of the operating lever 5.

(13) It can be seen that the operating levers 5 are alternately designed differently. A first operation lever 5 has a first operating arm 50 and a first gripping surface 51. A second operating lever 5 arranged immediately adjacent thereto has a second operating arm 52 and a second gripping surface 53. The second operating arm 52 is longer than the first operating arm 50. Accordingly, the second gripping surface 53 protrudes further out of the housing 2 than the first gripping surface 51. The operating arms 50, 52 of the operating levers 5 also have different angled characteristics. Due to the different angled characteristics, the first gripping surfaces 51 are oriented more upwardly than the second gripping surfaces 53. All operating levers 5 are shown in the closed position in which the associated clamping point is also closed.

(14) The proportions of the gripping surfaces 51, 53 in relation to the housing sections 20 of the conductor connection terminal 1 are to be explained with reference to FIG. 2. It can be seen that the first gripping surfaces 51 have a first width B1 in the direction of arrangement A. The second gripping surfaces 52 have a second width B2 in the direction of arrangement A. Both the first width B1 and the second width B2 are greater than the width BK of a housing section 20 in the direction of arrangement A. The second width B2 is greater than the first width B1. For example, these proportions for the gripping surfaces 51, 53 can increase the surface area of the first gripping surface 51 by approx. 50 percent as compared to embodiments in the prior art, and the surface area of the second gripping surface 53 even by approx. 100 percent. In this case, no change needs to be made to the grid dimension of the conductor connection terminal 1, that is, the predetermined, possibly relatively small grid dimension can still be maintained.

(15) It can also be seen in FIG. 2 that the first gripping surface 51 extends in the direction of arrangement A at least approximately up to the second operating arm 52. The mutually adjacent second gripping surfaces 53 extend at least approximately up to one another, wherein between the mutually adjacent second operating arms 52 in each case a first operating arm 50 with a first gripping surface 51 is arranged. The essentially T-shaped arrangement of a respective operating arm 50, 52 and the gripping surface 51, 53 assigned to the operating arm 50, 52 can also be seen.

(16) The different angled characteristics of the operating levers 5 or the first and second operating arms 50, 52 are to be illustrated with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, wherein the second operating arm 52 is in an intermediate position between an open and a closed position of the clamping point in FIG. 4. The first operating arm 50 is angled upwards, that is to say in a direction away from the connection contacts 3. The second operating arm 52 has an oppositely designed angled portion, i.e. the second gripping surface 53 extends in the direction of the underside of the conductor connection terminal 1. FIG. 4 shows that the two gripping surfaces 51, 53 can be guided past one another without colliding.

(17) With an otherwise comparably formed conductor connection terminal 1, FIGS. 5 to 8 show the potential of other types of angled characteristics of the operating arms 50, 52. In the embodiments of FIGS. 5, 7, the second operating arm 52, at least in the region protruding from the housing 2, does not have the angled portion towards the bottom of the conductor connection terminal previously described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4, but rather extends, for example, substantially straight and preferably essentially parallel to the underside of the conductor connection terminal 1 in the area protruding from the housing 2. The first operating arm 50 has an upward angled portion, similar to the embodiment in FIGS. 1 to 4, wherein the angular dimension of the angled portion in this case is greater than in FIGS. 1 to 4.

(18) FIGS. 6, 8 show an embodiment of the conductor connection terminal 1 in which the first operating arm 50 has no angled portion in the region protruding out of the housing 2, but for example runs substantially straight and preferably parallel to an underside of the conductor terminal 1. In contrast, the second operating arm 52, similar to FIGS. 1 to 4, has an angled portion towards the underside of the conductor connection terminal 1. The angular dimension of this angled portion can be greater than in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 4.

(19) The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are to be included within the scope of the following claims.