US 2003/0194905 A1Published application

Connector and a connector assembly

AssigneeSumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd.

InventorsYukinori Saka, Atsushi Yamaoka, Koji Okutani

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Abstract

A connector assembly has a male housing (10) with a receptacle (11) and a female housing (20) that can be received in the receptacle (11). The female housing (20) has a resiliently deformable lock arm (28) with a projection (30) for engaging a lock (13) on the male housing (10) when the housings (10, 20) are connected properly. A slider (70) is movable on the female housing (20) between a position that permits deformation of the lock arm (28) and a position that prevents deformation of the lock arm (28). Coil springs (80) bias the slider (70) to the deformation preventing position to lock the properly connected housings (10, 20) together. The housings (10, 20) can be separated by deforming the lock arm (28) and pulling both the slider (70) and the female housing (20) back from the male housing (10).

Claims20

Dependent claims

A connector comprising a housing (20) connectable with a mating housing (10) of a mating connector, wherein the housing (20) comprises:

a lock arm (28) disposed for moving onto a lock (13) of the mating housing (10) and resiliently deforming during connection of the housings (20, 10) and returning to engage the lock (13) when the housings (20, 10) are connected,
a slider (70) movable substantially along a connecting direction (CD) of the housings (20, 10) between a deformation preventing position (FIG. 12(A)) where the slider (70) prevents deformation of the lock arm (28) and a deformation permitting position (FIG. 9(A)) where the slider (70) permits the deformation of the lock arm (28), the slider (70) engaging the resiliently deformed lock arm (28) during connection the housings (20, 10) and being prevented from moving from the deformation permitting position,
a pivotal member (60) supported for pivoting about an axis (38;
64) aligned at an angle to the connecting direction (CD), the pivotal member (60) having first and second ends (65, 63), the first end (65) being pushed by the mating housing (10) during connection the housings (20, 10), and
at least one biasing member (80) between the slider (70) and the second end (63) of the pivotal member (60) and being resiliently deformed while accumulating a biasing force to separate the housings (20, 10) as the slider (70) and the second end (63) of the pivotal member (60) are displaced toward each other.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.