Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~31~
This invention r~lates to an electrical contact.
The majority of known el~ctrical contacts hav~
a mating portion adapted to mate with only a single
type of mating contact in a single possible orientation.
However, some pieces of electrical equipment,
for example automobile headlamp bulbs, have a
plurality of contacts, for example male tabs, arranged
in different orientations, for example in mutually
perpendicular planes, and thus an electrical connector
for mating with such an array o~ contacts must wh~n
using known contacts ei~her use t~o dif-ferent forms
of co~tack, or use only one form of contact but in
different orientations.
For reasons of cheapness and ease of
manufacture it is preferahle to us& only a single
form of contact, and thus known contacts are
normally used in different orientations in such
circumstances.
Such use of known contacts does not present
difficulties when the contacts are connectsd to
conductors by conventional soldering or crimping
~, techniques, but when contacts having slotted-plate
conductor connecting portions are used, such use
presents dif~iculties since the slots in the
: ~5 conductor connecting port~ons will not have thelr
axes parallel, and thus connecti.on o conductors to
all of th~ contacts of such a co~nactor in a singl~
'~ _
.
L3~3~6~
stroke is normally not possible or is at best only
possible with difficulty.
According to this invention an electrical
contact includes a contact portion comprising
two opposed pairs of opposed cantilever contact arms,
each arm being resilient in two mutually perpendicular
directions and presenting a first contact surface to
the opposed arm of the other pair, and presenting
a second contact surface to the other arm of the
same pair, the two pairs of opposed first contact
surfaces defining a first male-contact-receiving
slot, and the two pairs of opposed second contact
surfaces defining a second male-contact-receiving
slot which is perpendicular to the first such slot.
Such a contact portion gives the advantage
that a plurality of the contacts of the same form
can be mounted in a common housing in the same
orientation, this making connection of conductors
to the conductor connection portions of the contacts
easy when the conductor connection portions are
slotted plates, to provide a connector capable of
; being mated with an array of male tab contacts in
which the tabs are arranged in mutually perpendicular
planes, such as is found on automobile headlight
bulbs.
Further, if a plurality of the contacts are
mounted in a common housing with their first slots
in line and without housing portions therebetween,
- 3 -
'
~ 3~
then a substrate such as a printed circuit board
can be ma-ted with the contacks.
An elec-trical contact according to this
invention will now be described by way of example
with refere.nce to th~. drawings, in which:~
Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the
contact;
Figur~ 2 is a side elevatlonal ~ie~J o the
contact at right-angles to the view of Figure l;
and
Figures 3 to 6 diagrammatically illustra-te
use of the contact with four di~ferent sizes of
~onductor.
The contact shown in Figures 1 and 2 is
~tamped and formed fro~ sheet metal/ and comprises
a conductox connection portion 1 and a contact
portion 2.
The portion 1 comprises two si.milar plates
3 and 4 arranged in spaced parallel planes, $h~
pla~es being joined by two bridging strips 5 and
6 extendin~ between the plates 3 and 4 from adjacent
edges thereofO
Each plate 3 or 4 has a slot 7 therein, and
since the slots 7 are slmilar only one thereof
will be described in detail with particular
reference to Figure 1,
Each slot 7 has a mouth 8 at the edge of ~h~
~ ~ 3~
plate from which the bridging strips 5 and 6 extend,
the bridging strips 5 and 6 belng on opposite sides
of the mouth 8.
The mouth 8 leads to a first inwardly tapering
section 9 having converging str~ight sides, which
in turn leads to a second parallel straight sided
section 10. Pre~erably the sides of the second
s~ction 10 are b~velled to provide relatively sharp
cutting edges.
o The second section 10 leads into a third
illwardly tapering s~ction 11 having conv~x converging
sides leadiny to a throat 12.
The throat 12 opens into a short fourth
outwardl~ tapering section 13 the walls of which
lS constitute shoulders facing away from the throat 12.
The four~h section 13 leads into a fifth
inwardly tapering section 14 having convex converging
sides, the maximum width of the fifth section 14
being less than thai of the third section 11.
The fifth section 14 terminates in an
enlaryed circular aperture lS which s~rves in known
manner to determine the resiliency of two arms of
the portion 1 defining ~he slot 7.
Fo~ use of the contact member described
above an insulated conductor having a core formed
from a plurality of strands is urged transversely
of its axis into th~ slot 7 through the mouth 8.
; - 5
The first section 9 guides the conductor into the
second section 10, the sharp edges of which cut
thxougll the insulation of the conductor, possibly
up to the core thereof depending upon the siz~,
that is the diameter, of the conductor.
The conductor then enters the third section
11 of the slot 7, the walls of which sec~ion 11
complete the cutting of the insulation of the
conductor if necessary, and also apply a gradually
increasing compressive force on to the core of
the conductor ~Jhile guiding the core to the throat
12.
The core then at least partially passes
~hrough the throat 12 into the fourth and fifth
sections 13 and 14 o~ the slot 7, the walls of
the fourth section 13 engaging over some of the
strands of the corP to retain the core in the slot 7.
Figures 3 to 6 diagrammatically illustrates
a slot as described above having four different
sizes of core thereln, the core siæe increasing
from Figure 3 to Fi~ure 6. It can clearly be seen
that in each case the core is engayed under the
shoulders formed by the sides of the fourth sGction
of the slot, with the str2nds of the core b~ing
compressed bPtween the sides of the third and fifth
sections of the slot, therPby to establish an
elec~rical and mechanical connection between the
-- 6
~13~V~
core and the contact member contalning ~he slot~
As described, the. contact shown in Piguxes 1
and 2 contains two slots as described above, and for
termination a conduc~or would be urged into the
two slo~s simultaneously thereby to establish
connection to the conductor at two spaced locations,
in known ~.anner.
The conductor is preferably urged into the
slots by mcans of a tool which is preferahly part
of a connector assembly comprising an insulating
housiny in which th~ contact is mounted, and an
insulating cover which serYeS to urge the conductor
into the slots and then remain s~cured to the
housing covering the connect~on between the contact
and the conductor. The cover lS preferably formed
with a stuffer member which serves to engage the
conductor to urge it into the slots as necessary,
and which remains in contact with the conductor
in the final assembly, serving to retain the --
c~nductor at the r~quired position in the slots in
the contact. Since conductors of different size
must be urged to differen-t depths in the slots r the
size of the stuffer memb~r ~Jould b~ set in
dependence upon the s1ze of conductor to be terminated.
As shown in Fi~ure 1, the two slots ~n the
co~tact are of mutually diff~r~nt width over their
second, third and fourth sections 10l 11 and 13,
,
, 7 - .
1~3~
the slot in the rear (i~ Figure 1) plate bein~
narrower than that in the front plate over thes~
sections. Such a contact is usable with a ralatively wide
range of conductor sizes since it is ensured that at the
ands of the range at least one of the slots will give a
satisfactory connection while over most of the range both
slots ~7ill give a satisfactory connection.
Considering now the contact portion 2 of the
contact shown in ~lgures 1 and 2, as shown this
comprises two opposed pairs 20 and 21 of resilient
contact arms 22, each arm 22 presentinq a first
rounded contact surface 23 to the opposed arm 22
of the other pair, and presenting a second
rounded contact surface 24 to the other arm 22
of the same pair. The two pairs of opposed first
contact surfaces 23 define a first slot into which
a substrate such as a printed circuit board or a
male tab contact can be inserted for connection
to the contact, while the two pairs of opposed
23 second contact surfaces 24 define a second such
slot ~nto which a similar substrata or male contact
can be inserted, the first and second slots thus
d~fined being mutually perpendicular.
As clearly sho~n in Figur~ 2, the free ends
of the arms 22 of each pair 20 or 21 are bent to
provide a flared mouth 25 for the first slot defined
by the first contact surfaces 23.
