GB1572551A

GB1572551A - Electrical connector assemblies

Info

Publication number: GB1572551A
Application number: GB10138/77A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Deutsche ITT Industries GmbH; ITT Industries Inc
Current assignee: TDK Micronas GmbH; ITT Inc
Priority date: 1976-04-08
Filing date: 1977-03-10
Publication date: 1980-07-30
Also published as: DE2615353A1; AU509900B2; AU2393677A; IE45132L; IE45132B1; IT1076135B; FR2347796B1; DE2615353B2; DE2615353C3; FR2347796A1

Description

(54) ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR ASSEMBLIES (71) We ITT INDUSTRIES INC., a Corporation organised and existing under the Laws of the State of Delaware, United States of America, of 320 Park Avenue, New York 22, State of New York, United States of America, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention relates to electrical connector assemblies, such as are used in electrical systems in which individual wires, are to be detachably connected to cables, e.g.

as in systems used in the fields of telephone switching engineering.

According to the invention there is provided an electrical connector assembly, including one or more cable connector units, and a contact strip comprising an insulating body having contacts arranged in each of a plurality of receptacles in said body each said receptacle being constructed to receive the or a said cable connector unit the one each said cable connector unit and the receptacles being provided with cooperable polarizing means, wherein the or each said cable connector unit includes an insulating body part in which contacts are mounted and a channel member substantially U-shaped in cross-section secured to the body member and providing a cover for the cable connector contacts, wherein the channel member has a plurality of detent projections for releasably latching with the contact strip, and wherein insulating housings are provided for the cable connector units, each said housing being constructed to receive one or a plurality of said units.

Since the basic form of the cable connector parts provided for establishing the connection with the contact elements arranged in the receptacles of the contact strip consists of one insert, it is possible by varying housings of a simple design, to increase the number of poles of the cable connector.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 shows a contact strip with two different cable connectors prior to the establishment of the connection, in a perspective representation, Fig. 2 shows a contact strip with an insert plugged into the receptacle thereof, in a cross sectional view, and Fig. 3 shows the example of embodiment of the contact strip capable of being mounted on a circuit board.

The cable connecting system is composed of various component parts. Amongst others, there are used high-density contact strips 1, of which one is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and which may be mounted on a base plate or wiring frame carrying the various wirings. The base plate or wiring frame may form part of any suitable facilities, such as racks or circuit card cages comprising wiring panels connected to the contact strips. The contact strip 1 consists of a one-piece elongated insulating body 2. At the ends thereof there is a mounting attachment 3. The insulating body 2, for example in the centre between the mounting attachments 3, has a strip section 4 which is traversed by a borehole 5 providing an additional mounting point.

Within the insulating body of the contact strip 1, there are arranged e.g. 136 contact pins 6 in two rows, in this case in eight groups of 17 contacts each. Each group of contact pins is separated from the other by a partition wall 7, so that there are formed receptacles 8 each of which forms a low-density male connector strip. One inner face of each receptacle 8 has a recess 9 for receiving a polarizing key (not shown) on a mating connector.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the inner longitudinal sides of the receptacles 8 each have at least one, but preferably four grooves 10 which are cut to extend in the plug-in direction, with a window 11 cut into the side walls of the insulating body 2 being associated either with each or with only some of the grooves.

Sleeves 13 project on the bottom side 12 of the insulating body 2, each sleeve 13 accommodating a contact pin 6 which is mounted in such a way that its contact end projects freely into a respective receptacle 8. The terminal end of the contact pin 6 projecting out of the sleeve 13 forms a post 14 to which two wire wraps may be attached.

The connector part designed complementarily to the receptacles 8 of the contact strip 1, consists of a seventeen pole female connector strip used as a module-type insert 15. The insulating body of the insert 15 consists of a body part 16 and of a cap-like part 17 which is a channel member of substantially U-shaped cross-section. Inside the body part 16 there are arranged forked contacts 18. The body part 16 is either welded or stuck into the part 17. The ends of the forked contacts 18 projecting from the rear side 19 of the insert 15 serve as posts 20 which may be used to take up wire wraps.

On the outer longitudinal sides, the part 17 of the insert 15 has a number of guide ribs 21 with detents, corresponding to the number of grooves in the receptacle 8. The detents 22 serve to latch the insert 15 in the receptacle 8 of the contact strip 1 by pushing the portion 23 of the side wall over the window 11 aside while being inserted into the receptacle 8. When completely sealed in the receptacle 8, the detents 22 project into the windows 11. As the detents 22 are bevelled on their sides facing the rear wall 19 of the insert 15, the latter can also be removed from the receptacle 8 of the contact strip 1 if so required.

On one end, the insert 15 has a (not shown) extension corresponding to the recess 9 in the contact strip 1. This extension provides a polarisation key when mated with the recess 9 in the contact strip 1 in the proper position. As an additional code, the guide ribs 21 on the one longitudinal side of the insert 15 may be designed to be wider than on the other longitudinal side. In that case, the grooves 10 in the receptacle 8 of the insulating body 2 of the contact strip 1 have a corresponding width. Since preferably all four guide ribs 21 on each longitudinal side have detents, it is possible, for example, for two grooves on each of the inner longitudinal side of the receptacle 8 to be shaped by cutting deeper into the insulating body 2, thus preventing the detents from becoming effective therein. In this way it is possible to influence the insertion and pulling forces of the insert 15, which are substantially co-determined by the number of windows 11 in the contact strip 1.

In order to protect the wire terminals of the insert 15, to maintain the strain relief of the connecting cable 24, and to enable easy manual handling, the insert is arranged within a housing 25. The insert 15 and the housing 25 together form the complete cable connector 26.

In order to connect simultaneously several contact groups to a connecting cable 27 containing a larger number of individual wires, it is possible to use a housing 28 of modified design which, for example, accommodates two or more inserts 15. In this way.

by using only one type of insert, there is provided a cable connector 29 having e.g.

double the number of poles.

For securing the inserts 15 in the housings 25, 28, the part 17 may have tenons 30 moulded to the side parts thereof. Preferably, two such tenons 30 are arranged on each longitudinal side of the insert 15. The housings 25, 28 each consisting of two shell halves, are provided with corresponding mortises 31 for being engaged by the tenons 30 when mating the halves of the housings.

The inserts 15 which, without being additionally mounted, are arranged in the receptacles of one such shell half, project to such an extent out of the housings 25, 28 as to be capable of being completely inserted into the receptacles 8 of the contact strip 1.

The two halves of the housings 25, 28 of both types of cable connectors 26, 29 are joined to one another with the aid of screws. Strain relief for the connecting cable 24, 27 is ensured by means of recesses provided for in each of the shell halves of the housing, between which the connecting cable is clamped when joining together the halves of the housing. In order that a cable connector 26 which only contains one insert 15, can be easily removed in the case of an arrangement with the contact units inserted close to each other in the contact strip 1, the housings 25 thereof each have on their rear sides a pulling loop 32. The housing 28 of the cable connector 29 accommodating several inserts 15, however, has a handle portion 33 integral therewith.

Fig. 1 shows an elongated contact strip 1 while Fig. 3 shows the example of embodiment of a shorter contact strip 1' containing two receptacles 8 only. This contact strip 1' is substantially identical in construction to the one described hereinbefore.

This shorter contact strip 1' can be connected either with a cable connector 29 containing two inserts 15, or with two cable connectors 26 each only containing one insert 15. As regards the other contact strip 1, however, there is provided a far greater possibility of variation as regards the use and the plug-in type arrangement of cable connectors 26, 29 which are alike or not alike as regards the number of poles.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. An electrical connector assembly, including one or more cable connector units, and a contact strip comprising an insulating body having contacts arranged in each of a plurality of receptacles in said body each said receptacle being constructed to receive the or a said cable connector unit, the or each said cable connector unit and the receptacles being provided with co-operable polarizing means, wherein the or each said cable connector unit includes an insulating body part in which contacts are mounted and a channel member substantially Ushaped in cross-section secured to the body member and providing a cover for the cable connector contacts, wherein the channel member has a plurality of detent projections for releasably latching with the contact strip, and wherein insulating housings are provided for the cable connector units, each said housing being constructed to receive one or a plurality of said units.

2. A connector assembly according to claim 1, wherein the receptacles of the insulating body of the contact strip are provided with grooves extending in the plug-in direction.

3. A connector assembly according to claim 2, wherein the side walls of the insulating body of the contact strip have windows associated with said grooves, said windows engaging the detent projections when the strip and the one or more connector units are mated.

4. A connector assembly as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, and wherein said cable connector housing or some of said cable connector housings is/are provided with a pulling loop.

5. A connector assembly as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, and wherein said contact strip contacts are pin contacts, the cable connector contacts being fork contacts.

6. A connector assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the insulating body of the contact strip has sleeves moulded to project from its bottom side.

7. A connector assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the insulating body of the contact strip comprises a strip section having a borehole in the centre between two mounting attachments provided at the ends thereof.

8. An electrical connector assembly substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. connectors 26, 29 which are alike or not alike as regards the number of poles. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. An electrical connector assembly, including one or more cable connector units, and a contact strip comprising an insulating body having contacts arranged in each of a plurality of receptacles in said body each said receptacle being constructed to receive the or a said cable connector unit, the or each said cable connector unit and the receptacles being provided with co-operable polarizing means, wherein the or each said cable connector unit includes an insulating body part in which contacts are mounted and a channel member substantially Ushaped in cross-section secured to the body member and providing a cover for the cable connector contacts, wherein the channel member has a plurality of detent projections for releasably latching with the contact strip, and wherein insulating housings are provided for the cable connector units, each said housing being constructed to receive one or a plurality of said units.