PLUG OR SOCKET AS A COMPONENT FOR AN ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR

Abstract

A component for an electrical connector, comprising a housing and a plurality of electrical contact elements, the ends of which are accessible at one end of the housing for connection to a mating connector component. The electrical contact elements are arranged in at least two segments which are separated from and shielded against each other. The outer contour of each of the at least two segments has at least two legs and a base side extending from one end of one leg to one end of the other leg, at least one leg of each segment forming an interior angle of 30° to 80° or 100° to 150° with the base side. The segments are arranged in a row with a shielding being provided between the legs of neighbouring segments.

Claims

1. A component for an electrical connector, comprising a housing and a plurality of electrical contact elements, the ends of which are accessible at one end of the housing for connection to a mating connector component, wherein the electrical contact elements are arranged in at least two segments which are separated from and shielded against each other, wherein the outer contour of each of the at least two segments has at least two legs and a base side extending from one end of one leg to one end of the other leg, at least one leg of each segment forming an interior angle of 30° to 80° or 100° to 150° with the base side, and that the segments are arranged in a row with a shielding being provided between the legs of neighbouring segments.

2. The component according to claim 1, wherein the outer contour of at least one of the segments is generally triangular.

3. The component according to claim 1, wherein the outer contour of at least one segment is generally trapezoidal, generally modifiedly trapezoidal, generally parallelogram-shaped or generally modifiedly parallelogram-shaped.

4. The component according to claim 1, wherein the segments are arranged in at least two parallel rows.

5. The component according to claim 1, wherein neighbouring segments in a row are arranged alternately with regard to their orientation.

6. A component for an electrical connector, comprising a housing and a plurality of electrical contact elements, the ends of which are accessible at one end of the housing for connection to a mating connector component, wherein the electrical contact elements are arranged in at least two segments which are separate from and shielded against each other, wherein the outer contour of each of the at least two segments has at least two legs and a base side extending from one end of one leg to one end of the other leg, the legs forming an interior angle of 20° to 150° at the end opposite the base side, wherein the segments are arranged around a common centre point lying outside the segments, the base sides of the segments facing outwards away from the centre point.

7. The component according to claim 6, wherein the outer contour of at least one segment is generally triangular, generally trapezoidal or generally modifiedly trapezoidal.

8. The component according to claims 1 or 6, wherein the segments each have at least three electrical contact elements, which are positioned approximately on grid points of a triangular grid.

9. The component according to claims 1 or 6, wherein the distance between closest adjacent electrical contact elements in a segment corresponds to between 0.2 times and 2 times the outer diameter of the electrical contact elements.

10. The component according to claims 1 or 6, wherein the outer contour of the segments corresponds to the envelope around the electrical contact elements arranged in the segment.

11. The component according to claims 1 or 6, wherein the outer contour of the segments are identical.

12. The component according to claims 1 or 6, wherein the number of segments is odd, and the outer shape of the face of the housing corresponds to the envelope around all segments.

13. The component according to claims 1 or 6, wherein the component is a plug, a socket or a combination of plug and/or socket.

14. An electrical connector comprising a component according to claims 1 or 6 and a mating connector component.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0047] In the following, further preferred embodiments of invention are illustrated by means of examples. The invention is not limited to these examples, however.

[0048] The drawings schematically show:

[0049] FIG. 1 A perspective view of a connector comprising a connector component (right) and a mating connector component (left);

[0050] FIG. 2 An exploded view of the connector component according to FIG. 1;

[0051] FIG. 3 An exploded view of the mating connector component according to FIG. 1;

[0052] FIG. 4 A segment with electrical contact elements;

[0053] FIG. 5 A front view of the connector face of the connector component according to FIG. 2 with five segments according to FIG. 4;

[0054] FIG. 6 A cross-sectional view of connected connector component and mating connector component according to FIG. 1;

[0055] FIG. 7 A detail of FIG. 6;

[0056] FIG. 8 A schematic diagram of exemplified arrangements of segments; and

[0057] FIG. 9 A front view of the connector face of an alternative connector component.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

[0058] In the following description of preferred embodiments of the invention, identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar components.

[0059] FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a connector comprising a connector component 1 (right) in the form of a plug and a mating connector component 2 (left) in the form of a mating socket. The connector component 1 is hereafter also termed “connector plug”, whereas the mating connector component 2 is hereafter termed “connector socket”. FIGS. 2 and 3 show an exploded view of the connector plug 1 and of the mating connector socket 2, respectively.

[0060] The connector plug 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises a front housing 3 with five apertures in the form of isosceles trapezia with rounded corners in the connector face. The apertures are arranged in a row, adjacent apertures being rotated by 180°. The outer shape of the face of the housing 3, ie the connector face, corresponds to the envelope around all apertures and forms a isosceles trapezoid with rounded corners.

[0061] Five segments 4 with electrical contact elements 10 are provided as inserts that are immobilised and sealed by means of potting 5. The segments 4 are enclosed by the front housing 3 in the mounted state of the connector. The ends of the electrical contact elements 10 are accessible through the apertures for connection to a mating connector component 2. The apertures of the front housing 3 are separated by webs that are grounded and serve as shields against electromagnetic or other interferences. Thus, the five segments 4 are spatially separated from each other and shielded against each other. While in the figures, the webs extend along the entire length of the legs, thereby entirely separating the segments, in an alternative embodiment the webs may be interrupted.

[0062] A cable 9 is connected to the connector component 1, enclosed by a back shell 6 and fixed with a crimp sleeve 7 on the back shell 6. A back housing 8 is attached, by overmoulding, to the front housing 3 and encloses the backshell 6, crimp sleeve 7, potting 5 and the segments 4 with electrical contact elements 10.

[0063] The socket connector component 2 shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 comprises a front housing 3 with five apertures in the form of isosceles trapezia with rounded corners. The apertures are arranged in a row, adjacent apertures being rotated by 180°. The apertures are arranged on the back side of the front housing 3, the connector face being one large opening comprising all apertures and being able to receive a mating plug connector 1. The outer shape of the face of the housing 3, ie, the connector face, corresponds to the envelope around all apertures and forms a isosceles trapezoid with rounded corners.

[0064] Five segments 4 with electrical contact elements are provided as inserts that are immobilised and sealed by means of potting 5. The segments 4 are enclosed by the front housing 3 in the mounted state of the connector. The ends of the electrical contact elements are accessible through the apertures for connection to a mating connector. The apertures of the front housing 3 are separated by webs that are grounded and serve as shields against electromagnetic or other interferences. Thus, the five inserts 4 are spatially separated from each other and shielded against each other. Again, while in the figures, the webs extend along the entire length of the legs, thereby entirely separating the segments, in an alternative embodiment the webs may be interrupted.

[0065] When the connector component 1 and the mating connector component 2 are mated, their shieldings abut against each other at their leading edges in their respective mating direction, so that in combination the shieldings shield the mated connector elements 10 along their entire length.

[0066] A cable 9 is connected to the mating connector component, enclosed by a backshell 6 and fixed with a crimp sleeve 7 on the back shell 6. A back housing 8 is attached to the front housing 3 and encloses the back shell 6, crimp sleeve 7, potting 5 and the segments 4 with electrical contact elements 10.

[0067] FIG. 4 shows a segment 4 with sixteen electrical contact elements 10 in a front view. The elements 10 may be male pins for a plug connector or female pins for a socket connector for example. The contact surfaces of the elements 10 are arranged in such a way that they lie approximately on grid points of a hexagonal grid. In the example shown in FIG. 4 the elements 10 are arranged symmetrically to a longitudinal vertical axis in the middle of the segment. From the bottom to the top the elements 10 are arranged in three groups. The first group comprises four elements 10 two of which are located above each other on the axis of symmetry. One further element 10 is located to the left and to the right of the axis in between the vertical space between the two elements on the axis. The second group comprises six elements 10 none of which is located on the axis of symmetry. One element 10 is located to the left and to the right of the axis and two further elements 10 are located further to the left and to the right, respectively. In the vertical direction they are located above and below the two inner elements 10 such that they are located in the vertical space between the two outer elements 10 each. The third group comprises six elements two of which are located above each other on the axis of symmetry. Two further elements are located to the left and to the right of the axis in between the vertical space between the two elements on the axis. The distance between adjacent electrical contact elements 10 in the segment corresponds to about 0.8 times the outer diameter of the electrical contact elements 10.

[0068] The outer contour of the segment corresponds to the envelope around the electrical contact elements 10 arranged in the segment and has approximately the shape of a trapezium with rounded corners. It has two legs 11a, 11b and a base side 12 extending from one end of one leg 11a to one end of the other leg 11b. The legs 11 and the base side 12 are indicated in FIG. 4 by dashed lines. The legs 11a and 11b form an angle 13 of 45° at the end opposite the base side 12.

[0069] FIG. 5 shows a front view of the connector face of the connector component according to FIG. 2 with five segments according to FIG. 4 embedded in the front housing 3. The five segments 4a to 4e are identical with respect to their number of electrical contact elements and their arrangement in the segments. The segments are arranged in a row, adjacent segments 4a/4b, 4b/4c, 4c/4d and 4d/4e being offset by 180°. The segments adjoin one another at their legs with webs of the front housing 3 between each pair of adjacent legs serving as a shield against interferences.

[0070] The combination of the outer contour and arrangement of the segments and the shielding between the segments provides a component for an electrical connector that enables the transmission of several data protocols, electrical signals and/or energy in a single connector without disturbances or interferences in a compact design.

[0071] FIG. 6 shows a cross-sectional view of the plug connector 1 and the socket connector 2 in the connected state. FIG. 7 shows the connection of the connector faces in more detail. The plug connector 1 is completely inserted into the socket connector 2. The plug connector comprises two circumferential grooves. In one of the grooves a coil spring 14 is arranged. The other groove contains a ring seal 15. The socket connector 2 comprises a circumferential recess for the engagement with the coil spring. The coil spring 14 fixes the position of the plug connector 1 inside the socket connector 2 and prevents it from slipping out unintentionally and serves as a shielding contact. The seal 15 prevents water, dust or other dirt from entering the inner parts of the front housing 3 and thus the electrical contact elements 10.

[0072] FIG. 8 shows schematic diagrams of exemplified arrangements of segments in a front view. In examples A, B and C the segments are arranged in one row and adjacent segments are set off by 180°. In examples E and F the segments are arranged in two parallel rows and in example D a further segment is added as a third row above the two rows according to example E. In all cases, adjacent segments in a row are arranged rotated by 180°.

[0073] Another connector component is shown in FIG. 9. From left to right, it comprises a first generally trapezoidal segment 4a that is identical to the segment 4a shown in FIG. 4, and a second segment 4f that is generally parallelogram-shaped. The second segment 4f has 71 identical signal contacts 10 arranged in essentially a hexagonal lattice and four further, larger contacts 10a, two in each far corner of the second segment 4f. On the right of the second segment 4f, there is a coaxial connector and even further right there is a terminal for the supply of compressed air. The outer contour of the second segment 4f corresponds to the envelope around the electrical contact elements 10, 10a arranged in the second segment 4f and has approximately the shape of a parallelogram with rounded corners. It has two legs 11c, 11d and, a base side 12a and a another side 12b parallel to the base side 12a, each extending from one end of one leg 11c to one end of the other leg 11d. The legs 11c, 11d form an angle of 45° and 135°, respectively, with the base side 12a.

[0074] The above examples can be combined in any configuration and combined with any additional elements or features. The invention is not restricted to the design shown in the example above. Further embodiments of the component and connector according to the invention include, for example, combinations of plugs and plugs, plugs and sockets, sockets and sockets. Apart from the example that demonstrates a cable-to-cable assembly, other designs are also possible, for example cable-to-device assemblies or device-to-device assemblies. The geometric design is also not restricted to the connectors shown in the example. For example, designs are possible where the cable axis and the axis perpendicular to the connector face form an angle other than 180°, e.g. 45° or 90°. A further example is a housing with a plug connector at one end and a socket connector at the other end where the housing has a right-angled form in the sense that the axes perpendicular to the respective end faces have an angle of 90°.

[0075] The features as described in the above description, claims and figures can be relevant individually or in any combination to realise the various embodiments of the invention.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0076] 1 ... connector component [0077] 2 ... mating connector component [0078] 3 ... front housing [0079] 4 ... insert, segment [0080] 5 ... potting [0081] 6 ... backshell [0082] 7 ... crimp sleeve [0083] 8 ... overmoulding [0084] 9 ... cable [0085] 10 ... electrical contact element [0086] 11 ... leg [0087] 12 ... base side [0088] 13 ... angle between legs [0089] 14 ... coil spring [0090] 15 ... seal