Receptacle container for pressed screen contact pins

Abstract

An electrical terminal (2) comprises a pin receiving contact section (8) and a pin mounting section (4). The receptacle terminal (2) is for mounting to pins stamped from pressed screens of automobile fuse and relay boxes, to adapt pin terminals thereof into receptacle terminals for certain connections. The pin mounting section (4) comprises a bottom wall (40), side walls (42, 44) and top half-walls (46, 48) that are bent into a U-shape and have free edges (56) directed towards the bottom wall (40). This U-shape provides for very stiff top walls with respect to outward forces on the side walls. The corners between adjacent walls are provided with slots (64, 62, 68, 66) to allow formation of inwardly bent contact and mounting arms (72, 74) that form a pin receiving contact cavity therebetween. The mounting portion thus provides very high contact forces for secure mounting to a pin terminal, yet the slots allow sufficient flexibility to ensure that sufficient flexibility is provided to the mounting portion to avoid plastic deformation due to thermal and mechanical solicitation particularly when considering use in automotive applications.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.