Connector and assembly jig for assembling the connector

Abstract

A connector includes a housing having a plurality of cavities, a plurality of resiliently deformable locking members, and a plurality of terminals. Each terminal is inserted in the respective cavity and has (a) a partially inserted position in which the terminal bears on the respective locking member to deform the locking member so that the locking member is elevated with respect to a peripheral surface of the housing, and (b) a fully inserted position in which the locking member snap-fits to the terminal thereby locking the terminal in the cavity. The connector further includes a bus bar holder having a sleeve and a plurality of bus bar tab pieces which are accommodated in the sleeve. The sleeve is push-fitted over the peripheral surface of the housing via a partially installed position, at which the tab pieces do not contact said terminals, to a fully installed position, at which the tab pieces contact said terminals. In this way, in the fully installed position, the bus bar holder is installed to the housing with the terminals electrically connected to each other. In addition, each locking member is adapted so that when the terminal is in the partially inserted position with the respective locking member elevated with respect to the peripheral surface of the housing and an attempt is made to push-fit the sleeve to the partially installed position, the sleeve bears on the locking member to prevent the sleeve arriving at the partially installed position. The connector also comprises a detent for detaining said bus bar holder at said partially installed position. An assembling jig is provided which, if the connector is not properly assembled at the partially installed position, will not accept the connector.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.