EP0420454B1 - Method for forming an electrical terminal - Google Patents

Method for forming an electrical terminal Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0420454B1
EP0420454B1 EP19900310024 EP90310024A EP0420454B1 EP 0420454 B1 EP0420454 B1 EP 0420454B1 EP 19900310024 EP19900310024 EP 19900310024 EP 90310024 A EP90310024 A EP 90310024A EP 0420454 B1 EP0420454 B1 EP 0420454B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
stock
plane
terminal
base portion
leg
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP19900310024
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0420454A1 (en
Inventor
Rene A. Mosquera
Jimmy W. Powell
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Molex LLC
Original Assignee
Molex LLC
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Molex LLC filed Critical Molex LLC
Publication of EP0420454A1 publication Critical patent/EP0420454A1/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0420454B1 publication Critical patent/EP0420454B1/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
    • H01R43/00—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing, assembling, maintaining, or repairing of line connectors or current collectors or for joining electric conductors
    • H01R43/16—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing, assembling, maintaining, or repairing of line connectors or current collectors or for joining electric conductors for manufacturing contact members, e.g. by punching and by bending

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method for forming a terminal suitable for close spacing in an electrical connector.
  • a common way of making such connections is to use an electrical connector including an insulating housing with a row or rows of cavities containing stamped and formed terminals having U-shaped contact sections for contacting closely spaced electrical conductors.
  • One known contact section includes opposed flexible contact arms defined on the legs of a U-shaped contact section for mating with a row or rows of pins or posts carried by a printed circuit board or by a mating connector.
  • the direction of the row is called the east-west direction and the perpendicular direction between rows is called the north-south direction.
  • the spacing between posts along the row is small, for example 0,127 cm (0.050 inch)
  • the distance between rows in the north-south direction is larger than the east-west contact spacing, and the opposed legs of the contact structure can be positioned in a north-south orientation to take advantage of the additional space.
  • the terminals are typically made by progressive stamping and forming operations from a strip or web of planar sheet metal stock. At the conclusion of the stamping and forming operations, the individual formed terminals are connected to a carrier strip lying in the plane of and extending in the direction of the length of the stock. This permits the terminals to be handed as a collation rather than as loose parts for further operations such as plating, assembly into housings, termination to other conductors and the like. For efficient manufacturing and assembly procedures, the carrier strip, and thus the plane of the stock, should be in the east-west orientation.
  • the difficulty is due to the fact that one of the legs overhangs the plane of the stock.
  • Undesirably complex forming steps are required when known methods are used to form and position an overhanging contact element that is spaced from the plane of the stock.
  • Among the objects of the present invention are to provide an improved method for making an electrical terminal for close contact spacings; to provide a method in which opposed terminal contact arms can be located in a north-south orientation relative to an east-west oriented carrier strip while preserving the strength of the terminal: to provide a method which avoids weakening the terminal with a slot or similar structure: to provide a method that is an improvement over the method disclosed in US-A-4,784,623: and to provide a method of making a terminal that overcomes disadvantages of methods employed in the past.
  • the present invention is a method according to claim 1 and a terminal according to claim 8.
  • FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate an electrical connector generally designated as 10 including a housing assembly 12 and a number of electrical terminals 14 manufactured by the method of the present invention.
  • the principles of the present invention may be employed in the manufacture of electrical terminals of many different types and such terminals may be employed in electrical connectors of many different types.
  • the electrical connector 10 is a dual row horizontal board-to-board connector.
  • Housing assembly 12 includes a molded plastic housing 16 within which are defined numerous cavities 18 each receiving one of the terminals 14.
  • a molded plastic tail guide 20 is assembled with the housing 16.
  • Each terminal 14 includes a rear contact pin portion 22 extending downwardly through an alignment opening 24 in the tail guide 20.
  • Positioning posts 26 of housing 16 are received in holes in a printed circuit board (not shown) for mounting connector 10 in a selected position in which pin contacts 22 are connected by soldering to conductive circuit paths on the circuit board.
  • Cavities 18 communicate with a front wall 28 of housing 16 through pin receiving openings 30.
  • conductive pins are received through openings 30 and make electrical contacts with the terminals 14.
  • These conductive pins may, for example, be connected to conductive paths on a second printed circuit board or may be associated with an electrical connector that mates with the connector 10.
  • a forward contact structure 32 is defined on each terminal 14 for making contact with a mated pin terminal.
  • the forward contact structure is generally U-shaped with a bight portion 34 and a spaced apart pair of opposed leg portions 36 and 38.
  • Flexible contact arms 40 and 42 extend respectively from the leg portions 36 and 38. When a pin or post terminal is inserted through an opening 30 into cavity 18, the arms 40 and 42 are flexed apart to provide an intimate wiping electrical contact between terminal 14 and the inserted pin.
  • Connector 10 provides a dense connector centerline contact spacing.
  • Terminals 14 are arrayed in a pair of spaced apart rows.
  • the spacing between terminal centerlines in each row is 0.127 cm (0.050 inch).
  • a larger spacing of 0.254 cm (0.100 inch) is provided between the pair of rows.
  • the length of the rows and the number of rows may be varied in accordance with requirements of the interconnection system, and terminals made in accordance with the present invention can be used with other contact centerline spacings and other types of connectors.
  • the direction along each row of contacts is referred to as the east-west direction.
  • the transverse direction between the contact rows is called the north-south direction.
  • the contact centerline spacing is larger in the north-south direction than in the east-west direction.
  • leg portions 36 and 38 as well as the contact arms 40 and 42 be spaced apart or oriented in the north-south direction having the larger spacing. This orientation is best seen in FIG. 2. If the contact structures of the terminals 14 were oriented in the east-west direction, the size of the contact structures would be severely restricted and the performance of the contact structures would be decreased.
  • Terminals 14 are made from a flat, planar web or strip of sheet metal stock by progressive die tooling in a series of stamping and forming operations.
  • a completed terminal 14 as it exists at the conclusion of the stamping and forming operations is illustrated in FIG. 6.
  • the completed terminal includes the forward contact structure 32, the rearward pin contact structure 22 and an intermediate terminal base portion 44.
  • a guide flange 46 extends from one side of the base portion 44 and a pair of guide tabs 48 are defined at the opposite edge of the base portion 44.
  • An additional pair of short guide tabs 50 are defined on the edge of guide flange 46 flanking a formed guide finger 52. Flange 46, tabs 48 and 50 and finger 52 cooperate with base 44 in guiding terminal 14 into cavity 18 and holding it in position.
  • terminal 14 is connected to a carrier strip 54 lying in the plane of the stock from which the terminal is made by the method of the invention.
  • Strip 54 includes a series of indexing openings 56 for positioning terminal 14 during subsequent assembly operations.
  • Base portion 44 is connected to strip 54 by a connecting arm 58 having a first portion 60 extending in the axial direction of the terminal and a second portion 62 extending transverse to the terminal axis.
  • a number of terminals 14 may be formed along the length of carrier strip 54.
  • the carrier strip run in the direction of the terminal rows, the east-west direction. With this arrangement, a large number of terminals 14 can be handled simultaneously.
  • the carrier strip 54 lies in the plane of the stock and extends in the east-west direction in combination with the fact that the legs 36 and 38 and arms 40 and 42 are oriented in the north-south direction, the leg 38 and the arm 42 are generally parallel to and spaced from the plane of the stock in the completely formed terminal of FIG. 6.
  • the present invention provides a way to manufacture this overhanging configuration without extremely complex progressive die operations and without undesirably weakening the terminal 14.
  • a blank 64 is defined by stamping or blanking the planar sheet metal stock. At this point in the method, all of the elements of terminal 14 in an incipient form are defined in blank 64. All of these elements are in the plane of the stock prior to subsequent forming operations.
  • FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate an intermediate point in the method. Comparing FIGS. 4 and 5 with FIG. 3, it can be seen that at this intermediate stage the elements of the terminal 14 have been formed but that the terminal is not in its final orientation relative to the carrier strip 56 and the plane of the stock. The final shape has been imparted to contact arms 40 and 42 and elements 36, 38, 44, 22 and 52 have been formed up generally perpendicular to the plane of the stock. These forming operations are not difficult or complex because at this point in the manufacture none of the structure of the terminal 14 overhangs the plane of the stock.
  • An aperture or window 65 is formed in the blank 64 in the region where the leg portion 36 and base portion 44 are formed up from the bight portion 34 and guide flange 46. The window permits this region to be formed with moderate force and without cracking or weakening the terminal.
  • the terminal base 44 is integral and continuous with leg 36 of contact structure 32 and that the base 44 and leg 36 are perpendicular to the plane of the stock. Bight portion 34 of contact structure 32 as well as flange 46 are maintained in the plane of the stock along with the connecting arm 58 and carrier strip 54.
  • This intermediate configuration is achieved by forming a ninety degree bend 66 (FIG. 4) in the connecting arm 58 and specifically at the end of the transverse portion 62 adjacent the terminal base 44.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates the final orientation of the elements of the terminal 14 relative to the plane of the stock and to the carrier strip 54 and connecting arm 58.
  • the terminal base 44 and leg 36 are in the plane of the stock
  • the bight portion 34 and flange 46 are perpendicular to the plane of the stock
  • the leg 38 is parallel to and spaced from the plane of the stock. Comparing FIG. 6 with FIGS. 4 and 5, it can be seen that the contact section 34 along with the other elements of the terminal 14 have been rotated ninety degrees. In accordance with the method of the present invention, this rotation is accomplished by reforming and flattening the bend 66 that exists at an intermediate stage of the method.
  • a terminal having a configuration similar to that of FIG. 6 could be manufactured with complex and expensive forming operations.
  • the method of the present invention provides advantages in simplicity and costs savings.
  • a terminal such as terminal 14 manufactured using the method of the present invention is detectably different from a terminal manufactured in accordance with the prior art because examination of the material of the terminal reveals whether or not a bend has been made in the terminal and subsequently flattened in order to rotate the contact structure 32.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Manufacturing Of Electrical Connectors (AREA)
EP19900310024 1989-09-26 1990-09-13 Method for forming an electrical terminal Expired - Lifetime EP0420454B1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US41269989A 1989-09-26 1989-09-26
US412699 1989-09-26

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0420454A1 EP0420454A1 (en) 1991-04-03
EP0420454B1 true EP0420454B1 (en) 1995-04-19

Family

ID=23634084

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19900310024 Expired - Lifetime EP0420454B1 (en) 1989-09-26 1990-09-13 Method for forming an electrical terminal

Country Status (3)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0420454B1 (ja)
JP (1) JPH0668990B2 (ja)
DE (1) DE69018748T2 (ja)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP3099111B2 (ja) * 1996-05-31 2000-10-16 モレックス インコーポレーテッド リセプタクルコンタクトおよびリセプタクルコンタクトストリップ並びにリセプタクルコンタクトの製造方法

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3966295A (en) * 1974-06-17 1976-06-29 Elco Corporation Terminating apparatus for flat conductor cables
JPS59201380A (ja) * 1983-04-30 1984-11-14 富士通株式会社 接触片の製造方法
US4784623A (en) * 1987-04-03 1988-11-15 Amp Incorporated Mass terminable flat flexible cable to pin connector
JP2628998B2 (ja) * 1987-06-25 1997-07-09 松下電工株式会社 コネクタ接触子の製法

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
DE69018748D1 (de) 1995-05-24
DE69018748T2 (de) 1995-09-14
JPH0668990B2 (ja) 1994-08-31
JPH03122988A (ja) 1991-05-24
EP0420454A1 (en) 1991-04-03

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