TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure relates to a high-current plug connector and to a high-current plug connector system, having a high-current plug connector and a mating plug connector.

BACKGROUND

High-current plug connectors can be used particularly advantageously with a mating plug connector—which has, in particular, an angled cable outlet—for example in the form of a high-current plug connector system. To prevent mismatings, the high-current plug connector and the mating plug connector can be coded as corresponding to one another. Such a high-current plug connector system is required, for example, to connect a correspondingly heavy-duty stranded conductor to a battery, e.g. for supplying an electric current to an electric motor in an electric car. The high-current plug connector conventionally has a mounting housing, an insulating body and a plug contact with which it can be electrically and mechanically connected to a busbar. For example, more than 25 A (amperes), in particular more than 75 A, for example 150 A and more, can be transmitted via the plug contact of the high-current plug connector.

In the prior art, a single-pole, angled plug connector is known from printed document DE 10 2015 113 786 A1, which plug connector has a plug connector housing, an insulating body and a contact. In this case the plug connector has a rectangular design and is designed for assembly on an appliance wall or other surface. The associated contact element likewise has a rectangular and one-piece design. A two-part insulating body is required for assembly of the plug connector, which insulating body is assembled in the plug connector installation housing from two directions.

Building on this, printed document DE 10 2011 004 347 A1 proposes a multi-pole electrical connector. This electrical connector serves to establish a plug-in connection with the mating connector. The electrical connector has a housing and a seal arranged on the housing. The connector can have a line outlet which is angled through 90□ in order to reduce the spatial requirement. A high-voltage plug connector system is furthermore disclosed. This comprises such an electrical connector and a mating connector which can be mated with the electrical connector. The high-current plug connector system can be, in particular, a high-voltage or HV high-current plug connector system, which can be used in hybrid, battery and/or fuel cell vehicles and with which high-voltage lines can be electrically connected to devices such as batteries, electric motors, etc., for example. The mating connector also has raised portions formed on the base part and extending beyond the underside, with which a “coding” of the mating connector can be realized so that the mating connector can only be screwed onto certain devices (having recesses associated with the raised portions) and/or screwed onto a device in a particular alignment, for example.

Printed document WO 2016/131526 A1 discloses an angled high-current plug connector having an internal conductor contact for carrying a current, an external conductor part and an insulator part, which holds the internal conductor contact at a spacing from the external conductor part. An elastically compressible damping element is provided on the plug connector. This damping element can be elastically compressed when a complementary mating plug connector is plugged into the plug connector and thereby reduces the mobility of the insulator part with respect to the internal conductor contact.

In the high-voltage range, it is particularly important to be able to code plug connectors as corresponding to one another in order to prevent dangerous mismatings. This is disadvantageous in that, with the conventional codings, the direction of a possibly angled cable outlet of the mated mating plug connector is defined automatically. This is linked to an increase in problems and/or undesired costs during installation in and/or on specified appliances, e.g. in engine compartments, machines and/or systems etc., owing to the predetermined and usually confined spatial conditions there.

SUMMARY

An object of the disclosure is to provide a high-current plug connector, which can be coded for use with a certain mating plug connector, whilst being flexibly and conveniently adaptable to the conditions of the installation space in which it is used.

This object is achieved by the features of the independent claims. Advantageous configurations of the invention are revealed in the subclaims.

A high-current plug connector is provided for installing and/or mounting in or on an electrical device, in particular on a busbar of this device, and for mating with a mating plug connector and for transmitting electrical energy to the mating plug connector.

The high-current plug connector has an insulating body. The insulating body has a polarization element for defining the alignment of the mating plug connector on the insulating body, and a coding element for preventing mismatings. In particular, the coding element can realize a certain coding via its position relative to the polarization element.

The high-current plug connector has a plug contact arranged in its insulating body and having a mating axis, wherein the plug contact has a plug-in region at a first end and, opposite this, a connection region with a screw thread, in particular an external thread, at a second end. The plug contact is preferably a pin contact.

The mounting housing and the plug contact, in particular the pin contact, can each be fixed on the electrical device and the plug contact can be additionally electrically contacted thereby. In particular, the plug contact, in particular the pin contact, can be fixed on a busbar of the electrical device and electrically contacted thereby. For example, the plug contact can be screwed into an internal thread of a cylindrical through-opening of the busbar by means of its screw thread, which is preferably an external thread. Alternatively or additionally, the plug contact can be guided with its external thread through a threadless, cylindrical through-opening of a busbar and tightly screwed thereon by means of one or two screw-nuts, e.g. on both sides. However, the insulating body is at the same time held on the plug contact and possibly also in the mounting housing such that it is rotatable about the mating axis.

As already mentioned, the plug contact can be, in particular, a pin contact. The plug-in region of the pin contact can then be formed by a contact pin. The mating plug connector can then have a matching socket contact as a mating plug contact, which socket contact has a contact socket. To transmit the said electrical energy, a current of 25 A (amperes), in particular more than 75 A, for example more than 100 A or even 150 A and more, can flow via the plug contact and the mating plug contact.

In a particularly preferred configuration, the high-current plug connector has a mounting housing, which can be fixed on the electrical device, wherein the insulating body is arranged in the mounting housing and is held therein such that it is rotatable about the plug contact axis.

The novel connector is particularly advantageous since not only is the insulating body consequently held on the electrical device such that it is rotatable about the mating axis, but also the coded mating plug connector, which is mated therewith and aligned on the insulating body. If the mating plug connector has an angled cable outlet, this cable outlet can also be variably rotated in any desired direction in the installed and mated state owing to the said rotatability of the insulating body in a plane perpendicular to the mating direction. This is particularly advantageous when the high-current plug connector is installed in or on the electrical device, e.g. a machine or an appliance or an engine compartment or in any other installation space in which the spatial conditions call for a flexible alignment.

For example, if the plug contact is screwed into or onto the said busbar of the electrical appliance on the connection side by means of its screw thread for fastening purposes and for establishing the electrical connection, the cable outlet of the mating plug connector connected thereto can be rotated about the plug contact axis relative to the busbar, i.e. relative to the electrical appliance. The cable outlet can consequently point in any desired direction which lies in a plane which is at a right-angle to the plug contact axis. This results in particularly good flexibility, especially in a particularly confined or otherwise restricted installation space. In particular, the operation is designed to be particularly convenient since, to this end, the mating plug connector merely has to be rotated manually in the desired direction. Therefore, this does not require a screw and/or a screw-nut to be unfastened and then re-fastened after altering the position of the mounting housing. At the same time, the coding is maintained so that mismatings are furthermore prevented.

The coding can be realized in particular by defining the relative position between the coding element and the polarization element of the insulating body.

In a preferred configuration, the insulating body can have a circumferential collar and a cavity enclosed thereby. The plug contact, in particular the pin contact, can project into this cavity with its plug-in region, in particular with its contact pin.

The otherwise hollow cylindrically designed collar of the insulating body of the high-current plug connector can have, as a polarization element on a certain portion, namely a polarization portion, a polarizing form which deviates therefrom and which defines the alignment of the mating plug connector possibly mated therewith on the insulating body. The polarization portion can therefore extend in a flattened manner, for example; in other words, the collar can be designed to be planar in the polarization portion, whereas it otherwise has a hollow cylindrical configuration.

The insulating body can have a coding molding as a coding element on its circumferential collar. The coding molding can realize the said coding via its position relative to the polarization element, in particular relative to the polarization portion. For example, the coding molding can be arranged opposite the polarization element on the circumferential collar.

The mating plug connector can have a matching coding recess on a mating insulating body as a mating coding element, which coding recess, through its form and its position, corresponds to the coding molding of the collar during the mating procedure and cooperates therewith in a coding manner.

The mating insulating body of the mating plug connector can furthermore have a mating polarization element. In particular, at least in some portions, namely by means of a mating polarization portion, it can be inserted into the collar of the insulating body in a precisely fitting manner, with its form complementing the polarization portion of the insulating body.

In other words, the mating insulating body can therefore likewise have a matching flattened portion, namely the said mating polarization portion, which corresponds to the polarization portion of the circumferential collar of the insulating body and cooperates with this in an aligned manner during mating. It is thus possible to define the alignment of the mating plug connector on the insulating body in the mated state.

Apart from this mating polarization portion, the mating plug connector can have a cylindrical design in its mating plug-in region.

For example the coding recess of the mating plug connector can be arranged opposite its mating polarization portion on the mating insulating body.

The mating insulating body can consequently be inserted into the circumferential collar of the insulating body, in particular in a form-fitting manner, at least in part, namely by means of a mating portion.

If the coding recess of the mating plug connector and the coding molding of the high-current plug connector are in the same position relative to the respective polarization portion and the mating polarization portion, the mating procedure can take place. Alternatively, the high-current plug connector and the mating plug connector do not fit together and the mating procedure is automatically prevented.

The plug contact, in particular the pin contact, can preferably be made of metal. In particular, it can be a turned part.

The plug contact, in particular the pin contact, can have a recess, in particular a circumferential groove, in its plug-in region, in particular its contact pin, in which groove a contact spring, in particular a circumferential helical spring, is arranged for electrical contacting of the mating plug contact, in particular the socket contact, of the mating plug connector.

For electrical safety, the plug contact, in particular the pin contact, can have touch protection at the free end of its plug-in region, in particular its contact pin, which touch protection consists of an electrically insulating material, in particular plastic.

The plug connector housing can have a mounting flange for fastening it in place. For example, it can be fastened on a housing of the electrical appliance by means of this mounting flange.

The high-current plug connector can advantageously be designed with a single pole, i.e. it can have precisely one plug contact.

As already mentioned, the connection-side screw thread of the plug contact can be an external thread. By means of this external thread, the plug contact of the high-current plug connector can be screwed into or onto the busbar of the electrical device and thus be mechanically fixed thereon and at the same time electrically contacted thereby.

During the procedure of screwing the plug contact into an internal thread of the busbar by means of the external thread, the exact alignment of the plug contact may often not be precisely defined. The alignment of the plug contact and the mounting housing relative to the busbar is then defined in an arbitrary manner. However, irrespective of this, the angled cable outlet of the mating plug connector mated therewith can still be advantageously aligned in the desired direction since the mating plug connector is ultimately aligned on the rotatably held insulating body of the high-current plug connector.

The high-current plug connector system has the high-current plug connector and the mating plug connector, wherein the mating plug connector has the said angled cable outlet.

As already mentioned, the high-current plug connector and the mating plug connector have a common coding via which they are defined as corresponding to one another and being mateable with one another. Conversely, further mating plug connectors can also exist, which have a different coding and are therefore not mateable with the high-current plug connector. This is advantageous in that mismatings, i.e. plug connections which are defined as undesired, can be prevented.

To this end, the mateability and the alignment of the angled cable outlet of the mating plug connector can also be defined by the relative position of its mating coding element and its mating polarization element on the insulating body of the high-current plug connector. As a result of the rotatability of the insulating body relative to the mounting housing, the cable outlet of the mating plug connector aligned on the insulating body can be held on the high-current plug connector such that is rotatable about the plug contact axis, i.e. in a variable manner.

An exemplary embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawings and will be explained in more detail below.

