Electrical connector with contacts holding spring-loaded pins
AssigneeOhio Associated Enterprises, LLC
InventorJohn T. Venaleck
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrical connector is made up of a series of stacked headers. The headers may all be made from similar contact arrays initially held together by carriers, with the contact arrays and the carriers stamped from a single piece of sheet metal. After the stamping a header body is overmolded onto the contacts of a header. For some of the headers the carrier is then separated from all of the contacts, and is removed. For other of the headers the carrier remains secured to some of the contacts, while being separated from other of the contacts. The retained carrier functions to electrically connect together all of the contacts that remain secured to it, for example for use as a common ground. The contacts may have beams or clips, bent portions that are used for receiving spring-loaded pins.
Claims9
An electrical connector comprising:
- stacked headers that are mechanically coupled together, wherein each of the headers includes:
- a series of contacts each having clamps for receiving and securing a spring-loaded contact pin;
- and
- a dielectric header body coupled to the contacts, maintaining spacing between the contacts;
- wherein, for each of a first type of the headers, the header includes a carrier attached to some, but not all, of the contacts, with the carrier and the contacts stamped from a single piece of metal, such that the carrier makes an electrical connection between the some of the contacts;
- and
- wherein for a second type of the headers, the contacts are all electrically isolated from one another within the connector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.