Separable Electrical Connector

Abstract

A separable electrical connector having two units held together in mated relationship by a nut. Means is provided for securely but releasably retaining the nut from rotation with respect to the mated units, thereby preventing the nut from being accidentally loosened from its fully tightened position.

Description

This invention relates to a separable electrical connector, and more particularly to a connector having two units which are held together in mated relationship by a nut.

The invention has among its objects the provision, in a separable electrical connector of the type indicated, of means for yieldably retaining the nut from rotation with respect to the connector unit of which it is a part.

Other objects of the invention are the provision of a nut retaining means which is simple and rugged in construction, is economically made, and adds little, if any, to the weight and bulk of the connector.

The above and further objects and novel features of the invention will more fully appear from the following destailed description when the same is read in connection with the accompanying drawings. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only, and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention.

In the drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to like parts throughout the several views,

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary exploded view of an illustrative separable electrical connector in accordance with the invention, the units of the connector being shown about to be coupled, the view being partially in longitudinal axial section and partially in elevation;

FIG. 2 is a view in transverse section on a reduced scale through the first, left-hand connector unit in FIG. 1, the section being taken on line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view in axial section through the portion of the nut on the first connector unit which bears a first element of the means for releasably retaining the nut from rotation, a portion of the casing of the first unit which bears a second element of the nut retaining means being shown, by dot-dash lines, cooperating with said first element; and

FIG. 4 is a developed view on an enlarged scale along a small section of the annular surfaces of the cooperating teeth on said first and second elements of the nut retaining means, the view being taken in the plane of line 2--2 of FIG. 1.

The separable electrical connector of the invention may be used advantageously in installations wherein the connector is subjected to appreciable vibration. The nut retaining means of the invention holds the nut securely in a large number of angular positions on the casing of its unit, but does not prevent the deliberate turning of the nut by the application of reasonable force. The nut retaining means is of such construction that no manipulation other than the turning of the nut is required to overcome such nut retaining means in order to permit the connector units to be released and separated.

The connector shown has two units, a plug 10 and a receptacle 11, which are designed for mating telescopic engagement. The unit 10 has a tubular shell or casing 12, and the unit 11 has a tubular shell or casing 14, the right-hand, forward end of casing 12 being receivable within the left-hand, forward end of the casing 14 when the connector units are mated. The receptacle unit 11 carries within it a central contact supporting insert or body 15, the forward portion 13 of which is spaced radially inwardly from the inner wall of casing 14. The body 15 is receivable within a central space or recess 16 in the forward end of casing 12 of the plug unit 10, and the forward end of casing 12 is receivable in the annular space between the inner wall of casing 14 and the outer surface of body 15.

In the embodiment shown, the electrically insulating receptacle body 15 carries at least one (two shown) socket contact 17 which receives a pin contact 19 carried in an electrically insulating insert 21 which is fixedly secured in casing 12 and has a resilient interface disc 20 thereon. When the units 10 and 11 are fully mated, the electrically insulating inserts 13 and 20, 21 in said units are in resilient face-to-face engagement.

In casings 12, 14 are retained from relative rotation about their axes by keys or longitudinal ribs 22 on the outer surface of the casing 12 and keyways or longitudinal grooves 23 in the inner surface of casing 14 which receive such keys as the telescoped connector units are advanced toward fully mated position. After the casings of the units 10, 11 have been preliminarily telescoped, with the forward ends of the keys 22 within the forward ends of the keyways 23, said units 10, 11 are pulled together into fully mated position by the turning of a nut 24 which is rotatably mounted on casing 12 of unit 10. As shown, nut 24 has internal threads 25 which receive external threads 26 on the casing 14 but a so-called bayonet or pin-and-groove type coupling may be employed.

The nut 24 is held from forward movement with respect to casing 12 on which it is rotatably mounted by engagement between a radially inwardly extending annular flange 27 on the nut near its rear end and a radially outwardly extending annular flange 29 on casing 12 disposed forwardly of the flange 27. The forward transverse annular face of flange 27 is maintained constantly in engagement with the rear transverse annular face of flange 29 in the following manner.

Rearwardly of flange 27, the nut 24 extends in the form of an axially short annular hood 30. Telescoped within the hood is the short axial sleeve 31 of an annular member 32, such member having a radially inwardly directed annular flange 34 with a central opening therethrough receiving the rear portion of casing 12. Rearward movement of member 32 with respect to casing 12 is limited by an abutment in the form of a split spring ring 35 having its radially inner edge portion disposed in an annular groove 36 in casing 12 and its outer portion overlying the rear surface of the flange 34. A wavy annular spring 37 is telescoped about the casing 12 within the annular space provided between the flange 27 and the flange 34 of member 32. The spring is so constructed as constantly forcibly to engage both the rear surface of flange 27 and the forward surface of flange 34 and thus to yieldably maintain the nut 24 in its forward position on casing 12 with flanges 27, 29 in engagement.

The forward radially inner annular face of flange 27 and the rear radially outer annular face of flange 29 are provided with interfitting radial "teeth" 39 and 40, respectively. The teeth 39 and 40, which are shallow and symmetrical from side to side and complementary to each other so as to interfit, have contours which vary from their radially inner to their radially outer edge. The shape of the teeth at one radial zone thereof is shown in the developed view of FIG. 4. In such figure the teeth 39, 40 are shown in full lines in the position in which they interfit; teeth 39 are also shown in phantom lines in a position which they repeatedly assume, when their peaks confront the peaks of teeth 40, as the nut 24 is being turned.

The symmetrical, smoothly curved contour of the teeth 39, 40 permit such teeth to move past each other without the use of undue force as the nut 24 is being rotated on casing 12. At all times, whether the units 10 and 11 are connected or not, the wavy spring 37 tends to urge the teeth 39 into full mating engagement with teeth 40 because of its constant forward thrust upon flange 27. As the units 10, 11 approach their fully mated relationship, and particularly after the forward end of insert 13 and resilient disc 20 begin to engage each other, the forward pull upon nut 24 exerted by threads 26 on casing 14 is added to that of the wavy spring 37 in forcing the flanges 27, 29 together. This adds to the force with which the nut 24 is retained by the ratchet-like means 39, 40 against rotation in a nut loosening direction.

As above pointed out, the units 10, 11 of the connector may be released and disconnected without the imposition of an unduly high torque upon the nut. After the nut has been initially turned to loosen it, continued turning of the nut in the same direction causes the nut to back up to some extent against the opposition of the spring 37, acting between flanges 27 and 34, the latter of which transmits its thrust to casing 12 by way of ring 35. After the nut 24 has been turned sufficiently for the casings 12, 14 to be fully disconnected, the nut retaining means 39, 40 continues to retain the nut from turning with respect to casing 12. This is of advantage if the nut has been turned no more than is necessary to disconnect the casings, since the nut will remain in the proper angular position to permit the nut to be engaged with thread 26 immediately, upon the reassembly of the connector units.

Although only one embodiment of the invention has been illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the foregoing specification, it is to be expressly understood that various changes, such as in the relative dimensions of the parts, material used, and the like, as well as the suggested manner of use of the apparatus of the invention, may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as will now be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A separable electrical connector comprising two connector units each having a tubular housing, the housings having electrically insulating inserts therein and one said housing being adapted to telescope within the other, means for preventing rotation of the two housings relative to each other, contacts mounted in the inserts and being mateable when the housings of the units are fully connected in aligned relationship, a nut mounted for rotation on said one housing and restrained from axial movement forwardly toward the other housing by engagement between the forward surface of a first, radially inwardly directed annular flange on the nut and the rear surface of a second, radially outwardly directed annular flange on said one housing, a thread on the other housing receivable in the nut whereby turning of the nut in one direction draws the housings together toward fully connected relationship, and releasable means comprising engaging ratchet-like teeth on said surfaces of the first and second flanges.

2. A connector as defined in claim 1, wherein the teeth are shallow, smoothly rounded, and complementary to each other.

3. A connector as defined in claim 1, wherein the face of at least one of the inserts is resilient and when the units are fully mated have resilient face-to-face engagement with each other, whereby the force of engagement between the ratchet-like teeth of the nut rotation restraining means increases progressively as the nut draws the units into fully mated relationship.

4. A connector as defined in claim 1, wherein the teeth on the nut and the one housing are complementary undulations.

5. A connector as defined in claim 1, comprising resilient means on the one housing which constantly thrusts the teeth on the first and second flanges together.

6. A connector as defined in claim 5, wherein the resilient means is a spring interposed between the rear face of the one flange and an abutment mounted on the first housing.

7. A coupling device comprising a cylindrical shell having an external rearwardly facing shoulder, a cylindrical coupling member surrounding said shell and having a forwardly facing shoulder engageable with said external shoulder for limiting forward axial movement of said member relative to said shell, means on said shell for limiting rearward axial movement of said member relative to the shell, and resilient means interposed under compression between said means on the shell and said member for imparting forward axial movement to said member relative to the shell and for yieldably urging said shoulders into face-to-face engagement, the engaging annular faces of said shoulders having accurately interfitting radial ribs and grooves of uniform angular extent and contour throughout the entire circumference thereof.

8. An electrical connector plug assembly comprising a cylindrical shell having an external radially extending annular surface, a cylindrical coupling member surrounding said shell and having an internal radially extending surface facing said first-named surface, and resilient means under compression for yieldably urging said annular surfaces into engagement, said surfaces having accurately interfitting radially extending ribs and grooves of uniform annular extent and contour throughout the entire circumference thereof.

9. An assembly as defined in claim 8 wherein each said rib is symmetrical with respect to a radial plane therethrough.

10. An assembly as defined in claim 8 wherein said surfaces have a sine wave-like curvature annularly thereof.