Plastic support structure and assembly for electrical contacts for a molded plug
AssigneeHeyco, Inc.
InventorsDonald C. Brown, Michael Y. Shulman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A premold body forms an assembly to receive male conductors for molding into a plug. The plug to be used with a female receptacle outlet such as for 120 volt AC current. The body firmly holds blades or blades and a ground pin. By using the premold support the assembly may be assembled automatically, saving time and money in cycle time. The assembly may then be simultaneously crimped to more than one wire. The assembly is more reliable holding the conductors against being dislodged or having wild strands, particularly when molded into an outlet plug. The assembly saves labor and material cost and provides greater reliability over the prior art.
Claims13
A premold assembly for an electrical plug, comprising:
- a monolithic support member formed from insulator material and having a front surface and a rear surface, said support member having a plurality of openings extending from said front surface to said rear surface;
- and
- a plurality of electrical terminals, each of said openings having an axis and slidably receiving an associated one of said electrical terminals therein in a direction parallel to said axis, said support member continuously and rigidly surrounding each of said electrical terminals for substantially the entire thickness of said support member from said front surface to said rear surface in a position extending through said support member with a plug end extending from said support member proximate said front surface and a connector end extending from said support member proximate said rear surface, thereby permitting connection to an electrical wire, each of a pair of said plurality of electrical terminals being formed from an elongated band of metal folded at approximately mid-length at a fold, with a first portion thereof extending from said fold to a first free end and a second portion extending from said fold to a second free end, said first portion and said second portion positioned in juxtaposition to each other, said first portion having an insertion depth limiter thereon proximate said first free end, said insertion depth limiter bearing against said support member proximate said rear surface to resist insertion of a corresponding one of said pair of electrical terminals into an associated one of said openings in a direction parallel to said axis beyond said insertion depth limiter, one of said first portion and said second portion having a wire crimp distal to said fold and connectable to an electrical wire.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.