Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
V
This invention relates generally to electrical
connectors and, more particularly, to electrical connectors
of the type having a housing adapted to removably mount an
electrical contact i`or mating with a complimentary contact
Such electrical connectors generally include one or more
passageways into which contacts are inserted and thereafter
removably retained by a variety of locking elements
In recent years, a great variety of low cost electri-
cal connectors have been developed, particularly for use in
home appliances, wherein one-piece molded housings are employed
to mount one or more electrical contacts. The connectors must
be field serviceable, and, therefore, the housings generally
include means for releasably locking the contacts in place
after termination to an appropriate conductor. Flexible
latching means are conventionally utilized to engage a rear
portion of the electrical contact after it is fully inserted
into the housing.
One significant problem encountered with such prior
art connectors is that the latching means are relatively thin
and weak in order that they may provide the necessary flexure
required during insertion of the electrical contact into the
passageway. Thus, a rearward "pull-out" force applied to a
retained contact has the tendency to bend or break the latch-
ing means resulting in an undesirable or inadvertent removal
of the electrical contact from the housing. Examples of
typical prior art connectors relying exclusively upon thin
flexible stop means are disclosed in U S. Patent Nos.
3,971,613 and 4,013,331
Another difficulty encountered in the prior art
connectors results from the configuration of the electrical
contacts mounted therein These contacts typically include
a forward engagement section and a rearward termination section
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retaining a conductor in a crimp termination, This crimp
termination bulges above the surface of the engagement section
thereby interfering with the operation of the conneetor latch-
ing means and impairing the reliability of the contact reten-
tion within the connector housing,
Finally, prior art connector housings of the present
type o~ten have complex internal configurations which require
side coring in molding, Side coring increases both tooling
costs and material waste making such connectors unduly expensive
and therefore impractical for many applications.
Accordingly, it is an important object of the present
invention to provide an electrical connector housing in which
electrical contacts are removably retained in a manner which
resists inadvertent removal due to rearward forces applied to
retained contacts,
Another object of the present invention is to provide
an electrical connector housing in whieh electrical contacts
with bulging crimp terminations do not interfere with operation
of latching means carried by the housing,
A further object of the present invention is to
provide an electrical conneetor housing which can be molded
in a straightforward single action injection molding process
and without reliance upon side coring.
The electrical connector housing of the present
invention ineludes a dielectric body having a passageway for
removably retaining an eleetrieal contaet. The passageway
has a forward stop at its mating end, a flexible latching
means extending into the passageway and at least one abutment
shoulder on the bottom wall of the passageway spaced from the
forward stop a distance generally equal to the length of the
contact engagement seetion, The abutment shoulder is spaced
from one side wall of the passageway a distance less than the
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width of the contact engagement section and greater than the
width of the contact termination section.
The orward stop prevents ~orward movement of the
contact within the passageway while the abutment shoulders
limit rearward movement. The latching means both engages the
contact engagement section to resist rearward forces applied to
the contact and exerts a downward force on the contact. The
contact is thus held in place against the bottom wall of the
passageway and in engagement with the abutment shoulders by the
biasing force of the latching means, thereby significantly
improving the ability of the electrical connector to resist
rearward forces applied to the contact.
In one important embodiment of the invention, the
flexible latching means includes two arms in spaced relationship
for engaging the contact while straddling the bulging crimp
termination of the contact termination section.
The present invention thus solves contact retention
problems neither recognized nor addressed by prior art connector
housing by providing stationary abutment shoulders which co-
operate with flexible latching means to resist rearward forcesapplied to the contacts.
The invention is particularly directed toward an
electrical connector housing for retaining an electrical contact
having a forward engagement section, a rearward termination
section and contact shoulders disposed between the engagement
and termination sections. The housing comprises a dielectric
- body having a passageway for receiving a contact, the passageway
being defined by a bottom wall, a top wall and two side walls,
and a forward stop positioned at the mating end of the passageway
to limit forward movement of a cGntact inserted therein. An
abutment shoulder is located within the passageway positioned
on the bottom wall at a distance to the rear of the forward
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stop generally e(lual to the length Or the contact engagement
section and at a distance ~rom one side wall generally less
than the width of the cont~ct engageJnellt section and greater
than the width of the contact termination sec~ion. The abutment
shoulder limits rcarward movement of the contact. Flexible
latching means are deflected by the contact engagement section
during insertion of the contact into the passageway, for engaging
the contact without interference from the contact termination
section. The latching means bias the engagement section against
the bottom wall within the space defined by the forward stop
and the abutment shoulder. The latching means further cooperate
with the abutment shoulder and the forward stop to retain the
contact within the passageway.
The invention is also directed toward an improved `'
electrical connector housing for retaining an electrical contact
having a forward engagement section, a rearward termination
section and contact shoulders disposed between the engagement
and termination sections. The housing has a dielectric body
with a passageway for receiving a contact, the passageway being
defined by a bottom wall, a top wall and two side walls, the
passageway further having a forward stop positioned at its mating
end to limit forward movement of a contact inserted therein and
flexible latching means for retaining the contact in the passage-
way. The improvement comprises abutment shoulders within the
passageway positioned at the intersection of either bottom wall
with a side wall at a distance to the rear of the forward stop
generally equal to the length of the contact engagement section,
the abutment shoulders being separated by a distance generally
less than the width of the contact termination section. The
abutment shoulders cooperate with the latching means to retain
the contact within the passageway.
The features of this invention which are believed to
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be novel are set forth with particularity in the appcnded ClaiMs.
The invention, together with its objects and the adv.lntages
thereof, m.ly be bcst understood by reference to the following
description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings,
- in which like reference numerals identify like elements in the
several figures and in which:
FIGURE 1 is an exploded, perspective and partially
sectioned view of the electrical connector housing of the present
invention showing an electrical contact poised for insertion
therein;
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FIGURE 2 is a plan section view taken along line
2-2 of FIG. 1 in which the contact is shown in fully inserted
posi~ion;
EIGI)RE 3 is a front elevation view of the electrical
connector housing illustrated in FIG, 1 with a contact fully
inserted therein;
FIGURE 3a is a plan section view taken along line
3a-3a of FIG. 3 in which the latching means have been removed
to improve clarity;
FIGURES 4, 5 and G are section views of Fig. 1
showing the sequence of insertion of an electrical contact
into the connector housing.
Turning now to FIGURE 1, the electrical connector
housing 10 is illustrated. Housing 10 is molded of resilient
dielectric material such as nylon and has a passageway 12 of
; substantially rectangular dimension. Housing 10 may be manu-
factured by conventional molding techniques such as single-
action injection molding.
A female electrical contact 14 is poised for in-
sertion within housing 10. Electrical contact 14 comprises
a forward engagement section 16 which narrows to a rearward
termination section 20, Contact shoulders 18 are disposed
generally between the engagement and termination sections.
Engagement section 16 has a base 22~ and spring rolls 24
curving inwardly to the base and disposed on either side o~
engagement section 16. The spring rolls have rear edges 26,
Termination section 20 is preferably secured to an electri-
cally conductive insulated wire 28 by conventional crimping
techniques.
Passageway 12 of housing 10 has a stop means 30
adjacent its mating end 32. Stop means 30 comprises forward
stop members 34 integral with the sidewalls 36 and top wall
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38 of the housing. The stop means extend downwardly from top
wall 38 in substantially parallel alignment to a medial point
along sidewalls 36, thereby defining an opening 40 between
the bottom edges 42 of the forward stop members 34 and bottom
wall 44. Opening 40 accommodates insertion of a complimentary
electrical contact into the connector housing to engage the
electrical contact supported within the housing passageway,
Stop members 34 of stop means 30 are beveled at their bottom
edges and spaced from bottom wall 44 to accommodate insertion
of the complimentary contact.
Disposed rearwardly from the mating face of housing
10 along passageway 12 are abutment shoulders 46 with beveled
faces 48. The abutment shoulders are located at the inter-
section or juncture of sidewalls 36 and a bottom wall 44 and
extend from the rear of the passageway to end in beveled faces
48 spaced from mating end 32 of the passageway. The abutment
shoulders 46 are substantially parallel to each other and
separated by a distance slightly smaller than the width of
engagement section 16 of contact 14.
Turning now to FIGURES 2, 4 and 6, there is illus-
trated a flexible bifurcated latching means 50 terminating in
two arms 52 extending obliquely into passageway 12 and directed
generally toward mating end 32 and bottom wall 44 of housing
10. Latching means 50 is formed integrally with housing 10
and is upwardly deflectable. Arms 52 are spaced from each
other a distance sufficient to define a clearance opening 58
wide enough to straddle contact termination section 20 thereby
preventing interference between the latching means and the
contact termination section. In its free-standing position,
the forward tips 54 of arms 52 are spaced from passageway
bottom wall 44 a distance less than the height of contact
spring rolls 24 of the contact thereby resisting inadvertent
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rearward removal of the contact, as well as biasing the contact
against bottom wall 44.
The latching means 50 is formed integrally with the
housing 10 and, because of its configuration and dimension,
is resilient and laterally deflectable.
Housing 10 is designed to be molded in a single-
action injection molding procedure. In this procedure, a pin
enters the mold from the front, as seen in FIGURE 3, clearing
stop members 34, and cooperating with another pin entering
from the rear of the mold cavity to form both the latching
means and the abutment shoulders. Side coring is thus not
required which means that the maximum number of cavities can
be obtained per mold and the maximum number of housings pro-
duced per molding cycle,
Electrical contact 14 may be inserted into passageway
12 and retained in alignment with housing opening 40 by the
combined action of stop means 30, latching means 50 and abut-
ment shoulders 46, This may be accomplished by inserting the
electrical contact into the passageway, so that it initially
contacts the rearward face 56 of flexible latching means 50
(FIGURE 4) and then deflects the latching means out of the
way (FIGURE 5) as it proceeds into the passageway, When the
leading edge of the electrical contact meets stop means 30
(FIGURE 6), contact shoulders 18 clear and fall into place
behind beveled faces 48 of abutment shoulders 46 (FIGURE 3a)
and the contact snaps into the desired position under the
urging of latching means 50.
Since the removal forces to which the contact is
likely to be sub~ected will be primarily longitudinally
directed, abutment shoulders 46 cooperate with flexible
latching means 50 to withstand inadvertent removal of the
- contact from the housing, If removal of the contact is
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desired, however, this may be accomp~ished by inserting a
conventional flat bladed tool (not shown) through the rear
entrance of the passageway to upwardly deflect the latching
means thereby permitting contact shoulders 18 to be raised
out of the way of the abutment shoulders 46 and the contact
to be withdrawn from the passageway
While a particular embodiment of the invention has
been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled
in the art that changes and modifications may be made therein
without departing from the invention in its broader aspects,
and therefore, the objects in the appended claims are to cover
all such changes and modifications which fall within the
true spirit and scope of the invention.
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