As an example of a connector to be used for providing electrical connection, a connector to be mounted on a vehicle is described in Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-187170). As shown in FIG. 12, a connector 100 described in Patent Literature 1 is composed of a female terminal 110 having a substantially cylindrical shape, a male terminal 120 having a substantially cylindrical shape, and an elastic member 130 having a substantially cylindrical shape. The elastic member 130 is composed of a spring part 133 having a plurality of springs, which connect annular frame parts, are capable of applying elastic force, and are arranged in parallel, with gaps therebetween.
The elastic member 130 is assembled inside the female terminal 110 and in electrical contact with the female terminal 110. When the male terminal 120 is inserted in the female terminal 110, the spring part 133 having the plurality of springs of the elastic member 130 come into contact with the outer circumferential surface of the male terminal 120. Via the plurality of these contact points, the female terminal 110 and the male terminal 120 are electrically connected to each other. Friction force applied to the male terminal 120 caused by the contact load (spring load) of the elastic member 130 suppresses relative movement of the male terminal relative to the female terminal caused by vibration of the connector 100.
With the structure of the connector described in Patent Literature 1 above, suppression of the relative movement of the male terminal relative to the female terminal caused by vibration applied to the connector is dependent on the pressing force caused by the contact load of the spring part. Thus, if the magnitude of the vibration applied to the connector exceeds the pressing force, there is a risk that relative movement of the male terminal relative to the female terminal in the connector cannot be suppressed. The relative movement of the male terminal relative to the female terminal could cause contact sliding between terminals and further could cause increase in the resistance value due to abrasive wear of the contacts.