Insulation-cutting connectors and method of making connections

An insulation-penetrating electrical connector for wire having a conductor sheathed in insulation, including a head and a base, said base including a base member of insulation and at least one metal terminal having a two-part abutment and a pair of opposed contact edges separated by a gap extending into the terminal from the parts of said abutment, respectively, said head having means for locating a length of the wire transversely opposite said gap and having means for making incisions in the wire insulation at opposite sides of the conductor, said two-part abutment being formed for largely preventing entry of the wire into the gap while said incisions are being made, and said head having means operative thereafter for forcibly displacing the wire transversely so that areas of the wire's conductor adjacent said incisions are bared by the terminal and gripped by said contact edges.

The method of making a connection between a wire having a conductor sheathed in insulation and a metal terminal comprising a pair of prongs having contact edges separated by a gap, including the steps of making incisions in the wire insulation at opposite sides of the wire's conductor while the wire is supported against substantial displacement by abutment formations of the prongs, and then driving the wire laterally into said gap so that areas of the wire's conductor adjacent said incisions are bared and forced between said contact edges.

The method of making a wire-stripping electrical terminal, including the steps of shearing an end portion of a metal strip lengthwise to divide the strip into prongs, the prongs being forced out of surface alignment with each other in this step, restoring the prongs into surface alignment with each other, the prongs then having adjacent sheared edges, and coining a localized depression into portions of said prongs at the adjacent sheared edges thereof spaced from the free ends of the prongs while confining the outer edges of at least portions of said prongs to limit separation thereof to the width of the strip plus a desired gap therebetween.

An insulation-penetrating electrical connector for plural wires each having a conductor sheathed in insulation, including a base and a head, said base having a base member of electrical insulation and plural metal terminals each of which comprises a pair of resilient insulation-stripping prongs separated by a wire-receiving gap, said metal terminals being insulated from each other and supported separately by said base member, said head being a unitary body of polymeric electrical insulation embodying cutting formations effective upon movement of the head along a path for making incisions adjacent each said metal terminal in the insulation of respective wires placed opposite said terminals and said head also embodying formations effective upon further movement of the head along said path for driving the wires into the gaps between said pairs of prongs, respectively, to cause said prongs to strip insulation adjacent said incisions from segments of the conductors of said wires and to cause said pairs of prongs to grip the thus bared conductor segments of said wires, while maintaining electrical insulation between the terminals.

The method of making an electrical terminal including the steps of dividing a metal strip lengthwise to form a pair of elongated elements extending to an undivided portion of the strip from an end thereof by a shearing operation that causes said elements to be displaced out of surface alignment with each other, this shearing operation being characterized by stretching of the parent metal of the strip at the base of the division, and then forcing said elongated elements into surface alignment with each other, thereby creating a pair of elongated elements joined by the parent metal of the strip having opposed contact edges that curve divergently away from each other.