Electrical plug-in connections are required for various uses, for example as connections for coaxial cables in high-frequency applications, or as connections for other components with one another and with cables, for example in the automotive field. In this regard, kinking or bending of the cable at or near its connection to the socket may be problematic. This may result in the cable breaking at the transition from hard to soft, i.e., primarily at the soldering point. Various anti-kink protection assemblies are already known for avoiding kinking of a cable, also of high-frequency (HF) cables. An anti-kink protector requires a certain length away from the soldering point, and for hard material such as plastic it may have a tapered design in the shape of a funnel, or for a soft material such as rubber it may also have a thin-walled design. Known anti-kink protection assemblies may at the same time be designed for strain relief, and may include, first of all, a strain relief element, and then at the free end, an anti-kink protector.
Thus, for example, rubber or heat-shrink tubes are known, which are pulled over the cable and the socket and which may also be melted by heating, resulting in stabilization of the cable at the connection to the socket. Such anti-kink protection grommets are, for example, the HV2101 anti-kink protection grommet manufactured by HellermannTyton.
Slip-on grommets are also known, which are already mounted on the cable during preassembly and then placed over the cable and socket or connector housing. Alternatively, grommets are known which are either made up of two parts which are clicked over the cable and the connector housing, or in which the parts may be joined together on one side via hinges. Such anti-kink protection grommets are known for the known RJ45 plug, for example, or are manufactured by CLIFF® as the DCPP3 DC line connector.
In addition, a securing element for a cylindrical base part for cable guides via locking arms is known from German Patent application DE 35 34 625 A1. Furthermore, a plug-in connector system is known from German Patent application DE 10 2006 036 812 A1, in which a sliding sleeve is movable between a locked position and an unlocked position.
Moreover, an anti-kink protection assembly is known from European Patent EP 2 690 719 B1, and an HF plug-in connection is known from German Patent application DE 44 39 852 A1.
However, in all of the anti-kink protection grommets known thus far, there is the problem that significantly higher forces act on the cable-connector housing connection for HF applications than for network applications, for example. In addition, for passive intermodulation (PIM) applications, for example, even the smallest cracks at the external conductor or at the soldering point are problematic [for] an undefined contact situation. To date, anti-kink protection assemblies have usually been combined with a strain relief element. That is, in the known prior art, the locking tabs with which the anti-kink protector is mounted on the connector housing represent the main problem. Since coaxial cables are very hard and sometimes also very thick, and therefore an anti-kink protector in question must be correspondingly harder than the cable, i.e., must not break or give way when the cable is bent, the required load capacity of the anti-kink protector is very high.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds