US 4,360,242 AGranted

Self-fastening electrical connector

AssigneeLeviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.

InventorsJohn M. Poliak, Juan M. Lopez

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Abstract

A self-fastening electrical connector suitable for connecting an appliance to a standard AC wall receptacle has prongs pivotally mounted on a moulded body in which there is a channel adapted to receive one end of an insulated wire, the other end of which may be connected to an electrical appliance. The prongs have inwardly directed projections adapted to pierce the insulation of the wires in the channel when the prongs are urged from an open to a closed position and outwardly extending projections adapted to engage complementary notches in a plug housing. The moulded body has additional projections which engage additional notches in the plug housing, when the body and contact prongs are inserted therein, simultaneously to prevent retraction of the assembly formed by the contact prongs and moulded body from the housing. An accessway for a tool is provided through the housing wall adjacent an aperture through which the wire extends to the appliance to permit a tool to be inserted and rotated about a fulcrum also provided in the plug housing to urge the contact and body assembly out of the plug housing.

In an electrical connector comprising a housing having a bore substantially rectangular in cross-section and defining interior surfaces including opposite side walls, a floor, a ceiling and a rear wall, the exterior of said housing having an aperture communicating with said bore for admitting an insulated wire therethrough, a plug assembly adapted to be inserted into the bore of said housing, said plug assembly having a moulded body and at least one conductive electrical contact means pivotally mounted in said body for movement between an open position and a closed position and extending from said bore when in said closed position with said plug assembly fully inserted in said bore, said body having a channel adjacent said contact means and adapted to receive a length of insulated wire when said contact means is in said open position, said contact means having at least one protuberance extending therefrom adapted to pierce the insulation of said wire and engage said wire for electrical contact when said wire is in said channel and said contact means is moved from said open position to said closed position, the improvement which comprises:

first cooperating means on at least one of said interior surfaces of said housing and on said plug assembly for releasably entrapping said body in said housing upon insertion of said plug assembly in said housing, including a protuberance resiliently mounted on one of a surface of said plug assembly and a notch on the interior surface of said housing, an opposite side of said interior surface having a notch adapted to receive said protuberance, said cooperating means on said plug assembly being integral with said body, said wall of said housing having said wire admitting aperture adapted to receive a narrow flat tool between said wall and said wire, said tool penetrating the bore of said housing sufficiently to contact said wire adjacent said body, the interior surface of said housing adjacent said wire aperture having mounted thereon a fulcrum means about which said tool can be pivoted against said wire and said body to urge said protuberance out of said notch while urging said plug assembly away from said housing rear wall and out of said housing, said cooperating means on said plug assembly being integral with said contact means, said protuberance being urged out of said notch upon urging of said contact means towards said closed position.

Abstract

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