GB1156594A - Mating Electrical Connector Assemblies - Google Patents

Abstract

1,156,594. Electrical connectors. AMP Inc. 30 Jan., 1968 [16 Feb., 1967], No. 4658/68. Heading H2E. A two part hermaphrodite connector comprises resilient insulating housings 2, 3 carrying blade contacts 4, 5 and 6, 7 respectively in passageways 13; when the housings are mated together the free ends of the contacts meet slant surfaces 29 in passageways 13 of the other housing, ride up, bend, and slidably engage the trailing ends of complementary contacts in the other housing with an intermediate portion of the contacts being bowed to maintain contact pressure between the contacts. The passageways 13 comprise cavities 15, 16 accommodating respectively a ferrule 10 for crimping to a wire and a tapered blade with an arcuate undersurface at its leading end for facilitating engagement of the contacts. An intermediate portion of the contact, having two side arms, is located in a central slot 14 and a pressed out tongue 12 of the contact engages a shoulder 25 in the cavity 16. The mated housings have faces 20 abutting each other and arms 18, of tapered thickness and of half the width of the housings, project diagonally from the periphery of the faces engaging complementary inclined surfaces 23, with lateral ribs 21, at the free ends of the arms snap fitting into recess 22 on the opposite housings. In an alternative embodiment (Fig. 4, not shown), a socket housing receives within its cavity a plug housing having a central web with a pair of contacts in contiguous relationship. Only the plug is provided with slant surfaces and a pair of contacts, in the socket, which are deflected by the slant surfaces engage the contacts in the plug.