JP2003032840A - Electrical connection box - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize reduction of cost through reduction of weight and the number of assembling steps. SOLUTION: An FPC 20 is provided on the main surface 11 of a base member 10. The base member 10 is provided with a terminal accommodation hole 12 to accommodate and support a connection terminal 30 in the direction orthogonal to the main surface. The FPC 20 is provided with a bending tongue piece 24 at the terminal accommodation hole 12 to enter along the side surface. This tongue piece 24 is provided with a wire guiding area 23. The connection terminal 30 includes an elastic connection piece 33 which holds the tongue piece 24 in combination with the side surface of terminal accommodation hole 12 in the predetermined spring pressure and is connected to the wire guiding area 23.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric connection box such as a joint box or a relay for connecting electrical components of a vehicle to each other to branch a wiring, a relay box for connecting a fuse, or a fuse box.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 9, a conventional electrical junction box of this type has a plurality of wiring branching and electronic component supporting functions between a base member (lower cover) 1 and an upper cover 2. A plurality of bus bars 3 are stacked with an insulating plate 4 having a function of supporting the bus bars 3 and a function of insulating the bus bars 3 interposed therebetween. The bus bar 3 is formed by pressing a copper or copper alloy plate, and a part of the bus bar 3 is bent in a direction orthogonal to the main surface of the insulating plate 4 and penetrates the insulating plate 4 and other bus bars 3. It faces the inside of the connector housing 5 formed in the upper cover 2 and forms a male terminal 7 for connection with the female connector 6. Further, when connecting a fuse or a relay having a male terminal, an F-
The F (Female to Female) terminal is connected, and the fuse and the relay are connected through this FF terminal.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned conventional electric junction box has a problem that the weight is heavy because the bus bar must be used. In particular, as the number of connections with connectors, relays and fuses increases, the bus bar circuit becomes more complicated and becomes multi-layered, which increases the thickness of the bus bar and the insulating plate, increases the number of assembly steps, and raises the cost.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an electric junction box which can achieve a significant weight reduction and can reduce the cost by reducing the number of assembling steps. To aim.

[0005]

An electrical junction box according to the present invention comprises a base member having a main surface, a flexible printed circuit provided on the main surface of the base member, and a wiring lead-out of the flexible printed circuit. And a connection terminal connected to an external electronic component, and the base member has a terminal accommodating hole for accommodating and supporting the connection terminal in a direction orthogonal to the main surface. The flexible printed circuit has a tongue piece bent to enter the terminal receiving hole along the side surface thereof.
The wiring lead-out portion is formed on the tongue piece, and the connection terminal is
It is characterized in that it has an elastic connection piece that sandwiches the tongue piece with a side surface of the terminal accommodating hole with a predetermined spring pressure and is connected to the wiring drawing portion.

According to the present invention, the flexible printed circuit is used instead of the bus bar for distributing and routing the wiring, and the tongue piece formed on the flexible printed circuit is inserted into the terminal accommodating hole formed in the base member. In the state
By simply inserting the connection terminal into the terminal accommodating hole, the wiring lead-out portion formed on the tongue piece and the connection terminal are electrically connected by a predetermined spring pressure, so that the number of assembling steps can be reduced and the weight can be reduced. You can

The connection terminal is integrally formed with a male terminal plate protruding from the terminal receiving hole of the base member in a direction orthogonal to the main surface of the base member and connected to an external female terminal. If so, the female connector can be directly connected to the outside. When the male terminal of the external electronic component is connected, the male terminal of the electronic component is inserted between the elastic connecting piece of the connection terminal and the wiring lead-out portion of the flexible printed circuit, It suffices to connect the male terminal of the electronic component and the wiring connection portion.

Further, the terminal accommodating hole has a bottom portion, a connection terminal positioning hole is formed in the bottom portion, and the connection terminal is formed with a positioning protrusion for fitting with the connection terminal positioning hole at an end portion. Then, the connection terminal can be accurately positioned in the terminal accommodating hole.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a main part of an electrical junction box according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an exploded state of the electric junction box. The electric junction box includes a base member 10 made of an insulator having a main surface 11, a flexible printed circuit (hereinafter referred to as “FPC”) 20 provided on the main surface 11 of the base member 10, and A female connector 50 that is connected to the wiring lead-out portion 23 of the FPC 20 and is an external electronic component
The FPC 20 and the connection terminal 30 are held and housed between the FPC 20 and the connection terminal 30 and the upper cover 40 forming the connector housing 41.

The base member 10 is formed with a terminal accommodating hole 12 for accommodating and supporting the connection terminal 30 in a direction orthogonal to the main surface 11. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the FPC 20 includes, for example, polyethylene terephthalate (PE
T), a wiring 22 made of a conductive material such as Cu patterned by a method such as etching is formed on a base film 21 made of polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) or the like. The part is cut off leaving one side of the rectangle, and is bent 90 degrees downward along the one side to form the tongue piece 24. This tongue piece 24
Is inserted into the terminal accommodating hole 12 along the side surface thereof.

As shown in FIG. 4, the connection terminal 30 is formed by pressing a copper or copper alloy plate, and has a plate shape whose upper end is a male terminal that fits into the female connector 50. Male terminal plate 31, a positioning protrusion 32 protruding downward from the center of the lower end of the male terminal plate 31, and an elastic connection piece 33 folded back upward from both sides of the positioning protrusion 31.
And a stopper 34, which is folded back from both sides of the central portion of the male terminal plate 31 so that the upper end of the male terminal plate 31 is opposed to the elastic connection piece 33 and is directed upward. Terminal accommodating hole 12
Is a rectangular bottomed hole, for example, as shown in FIG.
So that the plurality of connection terminals 30 are arranged at regular intervals,
The terminal positioning holes 13 are formed in the bottom portion at regular intervals.

When assembling the electrical junction box having the above-described structure, first, as shown in FIG. 2, the tongue piece 24 is inserted into the terminal accommodating hole 12 so that the tongue piece 24 extends along the side surface of the terminal accommodating hole 12. Then, the FPC 20 is mounted on the main surface 11 of the base member 10. Next, the connection terminal 30 is placed in the terminal accommodating hole 1 so that the elastic connection piece 33 faces the wiring lead-out portion 23 of the tongue piece 24.
Insert 2 from top to bottom. As a result, the back surface of the connection terminal 30 and the elastic connection piece 33 are pressed against both side surfaces of the terminal accommodating hole 12, and the elastic connection piece 33 bends. As a result, the elastic connection piece 33 comes into contact with the wiring drawing portion 23 with a predetermined spring pressure.
At this time, the positioning protrusions 32 are fitted into the positioning holes 13, and the connection terminals 30 are positioned here. Finally, the upper cover 40 is attached. The tip of the connection terminal 30 is
It projects into the connector housing 41 through a terminal insertion hole 42 formed in the connector housing 41 portion of the upper cover 40. Stopper 3 formed on the connection terminal 30
4 prevents the connection terminal 30 from being pulled out by coming into contact with the lower surface of the upper cover 40 when an upward pulling force is applied to the connection terminal 30.

As described above, according to the electric connection box of this embodiment, no soldering or welding is required to connect the connection terminal 30 to the FPC 20, and the assembly is extremely easy.
Moreover, since the FPC 20 is used, it is lightweight.

6 and 7 are views showing an electric connection box according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6A shows an example of a fuse box and FIG. 6B shows an example of a relay box. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the connection terminal 60 is of a type that does not have a male terminal portion and is a connection terminal shorter than the connection terminal 30. The connection terminal 60 includes a back plate 61, a positioning protrusion 62 protruding from a lower end portion thereof,
The elastic contact piece 63 is formed by folding back from both sides thereof.

In this embodiment, the fuse 70 as an external component as shown in FIG. 6A and the relay box 80 as an external component as shown in FIG. 6B have respective male terminal portions 71. , 81 and 82 are elastic connecting pieces 63
And the wiring lead-out portion 23, and is electrically connected to these. Positional regulation in the pulling-out direction is performed by contact between the upper edge of the back plate 61 of the connection terminal 60 and the lower surface of the upper cover 40.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing still another embodiment of the electric junction box of the present invention. In this embodiment, the FPC
A power MOSFET 90 is mounted on the 20.
The electronic components mounted on the FPC 20 are power M
Not only OSFET, but also CPU, IC, transistor, etc.
It may be another electronic component. As described above, when the electronic components are mounted on the FPC 20, the heat dissipation characteristics with respect to the heat generated from these electronic components are important. Therefore, in this embodiment, the base member 100 uses an aluminum alloy having excellent heat dissipation characteristics. Fins 101 are formed on the lower surface side of the base member 100. In order to prevent a short circuit between the connection terminals 60, the base member 100 is preferably subjected to an insulating surface treatment such as alumite on the surface of the aluminum alloy.

In the above embodiment, the FPC 20 can be provided in multiple layers. In this case, the FPC 20
A plurality of sheets may be stacked as they are and mounted on the base member, and the tongue pieces of the FPC of each layer may be slightly shifted to expose the wiring lead-out portion of each layer on the side surface of the terminal accommodating hole.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, a flexible printed circuit is used instead of a bus bar for wiring distribution and routing, and a flexible printed circuit is provided in a terminal accommodating hole formed in a base member. With the formed tongue inserted, simply inserting the connection terminal into the terminal accommodating hole will electrically connect the wiring lead-out portion formed on the tongue and the connection terminal with a predetermined spring pressure. Therefore, the number of assembling steps can be reduced and the weight can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of an electrical junction box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded sectional view of the electric junction box.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an FPC used in the electric junction box.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a connection terminal used in the electric junction box.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a terminal accommodating hole formed in a base member of the electric junction box.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an electrical junction box according to another embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 6 (a) is a fuse box and FIG. 6 (b) is a relay box.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a connection terminal used in the electric junction box.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of an electric junction box according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing a main part of a conventional electric junction box.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 10, 100 ... Base member (lower cover), 2, 40
… Top cover, 3… Bus bar, 4… Insulation plate, 5, 4
1 ... Connector housing, 6, 50 ... Female connector, 7
... Male terminal, 11 ... Main surface, 12 ... Terminal accommodating hole, 13 ... Terminal positioning hole, 20 ... Flexible printed circuit, 23
... Wiring lead-out part, 24 ... Tongue piece, 30, 60 ... Connection terminal, 3
1 ... Male terminal plate, 32, 62 ... Positioning protrusions, 33, 6
3 ... Elastic connection piece, 34 ... Stopper, 61 ... Back plate, 70
… Fuse, 80… Relay, 90… Power MOSFE
T.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 5E023 AA02 AA13 AA22 AA26 BB01                       BB03 BB09 EE07 FF07 HH17                 5E348 AA03 AA30 EF16 EF26                 5G361 BA01 BB01 BC01

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A base member having a main surface, a flexible printed circuit provided on the main surface of the base member, connected to a wiring lead-out portion of the flexible printed circuit, and connected to an external electronic component. And a connection terminal that accommodates the connection terminal in a direction orthogonal to the main surface and supports the connection terminal, the flexible printed circuit being provided in the terminal reception hole. It has a tongue piece bent so as to enter along the side surface, and forms the wiring lead-out portion on the tongue piece, and the connection terminal defines the tongue piece between the side surface of the terminal accommodating hole and the predetermined side surface. An electrical connection box comprising an elastic connection piece which is sandwiched by a spring pressure and which is connected to the wiring lead-out portion. 2. The connection terminal is integrally formed with a male terminal plate protruding from a terminal receiving hole of the base member in a direction orthogonal to a main surface of the base member and connected to an external female terminal. The electrical junction box according to claim 1, wherein 3. A male terminal of the external electronic component is inserted between an elastic connection piece of the connection terminal and a wiring lead-out portion of the flexible printed circuit to connect the male terminal of the electronic component to the wiring connection. The electrical junction box according to claim 1, wherein the electrical junction box is connected to a part. 4. The terminal accommodating hole has a bottom portion, a connection terminal positioning hole is formed in the bottom portion, and the connection terminal is formed with a positioning protrusion that fits into the connection terminal positioning hole at an end portion. The electrical junction box according to claim 1, wherein the electrical junction box is an electrical junction box.