Hermaphroditic flat cable connector
AssigneeAMP Incorporated
InventorJoseph L. Lockard
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A connector for transmission cable has a lower housing and an upper housing securable thereto to be terminated to a prepared end portion of the cable. The conductors are laser welded in slots of the terminals. The contact sections of the terminals reside on respective resilient supports of the lower housing which act in cantilever fashion. A hood section of the upper housing extends over the plurality of contact sections to define a cavity. The connector structure is hermaphroditic in that one connector is matable with another identical connector having a reversed vertical orientation. The respective hoods cooperate to resist the forced cantilever action of the pairs of resilient supports urging each other apart, thus generating contact normal force. The hermaphroditic connectors latch when fully mated.
Claims20
A hermaphroditic electrical connector for electrical transmission cable means having conductor means, said connector comprising:
- a lower dielectric housing means having a transverse cable-receiving rearward portion and a plurality of resilient contact support means integral therewith and extending forwardly therefrom;
- an upper dielectric housing means having a cooperating transverse cable-receiving rearward portion proximate said cable-receiving rearward portion of said lower housing means, and further having a hood means extending forwardly therefrom opposed from said contact support means of said lower housing means, said hood means and said contact support means defining a cavity therebetween having a selected height;
- a like plurality of contact terminals terminated to respective conductor means of the transmission cable means and disposed on respective said resilient contact support means;
- means securing said upper housing means to said lower housing means with an end portion of said transmission cable means secured therebetween and said contact terminals secured therein to form said electrical connector;
- and
- means for latching said electrical connector to a like mating electrical connector having reversed vertical orientation;
- each said contact terminal including a contact section disposed against a respective said contact support means and a conductor-connecting section rearwardly thereof to which is terminated a respective one of said conductor means;
- each said contact section being slightly angled downwardly at the forward end thereof and disposed against a correspondingly tapered surface of said respective contact support means and said respective contact support means being urgeable downwardly in cantilever fashion away from said hood means of said upper housing means during mating of said electrical connector with said like mating electrical connector by the engagement of a corresponding contact section of a corresponding contact terminal of said mating electrical connector, upon entry of said plurality of resilient contact support means having respective said contact sections thereon, of each of said connector and said like mating connector into said cavity of the other thereof;
- and said hood means of each of said connector and said like mating connector providing resistance to the cantilever movement of the contact support means of the other thereof upon full mating of said electrical connector and said like mating electrical connector whereby substantial contact normal force is generated between mating pairs of said contact sections and said corresponding contact sections.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.