US1779442A - Electrical connection clip - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 28,1930. 5 MUELLER 1,779,442

ELECTRICAL CONNECTION CLIP Filed Feb. 27, 1925 Patented Oct. 28, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE RALPH S. MUELLER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO MUELLER ELECTRIC GOM- PANY, A PARTNERSHIP GOMPOSED OF RALPH S. MUELLER AN D MAUDE K. MUELLER ELECTRICAL CONN EGTION CLIP Application filed February 27, 1925. Serial No. 11,956.

extension to which an electrical conductor is adapted to be attached. Generally the clip members are pivotally connected together, and the jaws are at the forward ends of 10 crossed portions or arms, in which event a spring is employed between the clip members to spread the body portions apart and thereby bring the jaws together.

Clips of this kind are made in various sizes, and especially when employed for certain purposes the clip members are required to have considerable strength. In clips which I have manufactured and sold very extensively, a certain amount of strengthening wasobtained by reinforcing the clip members by channeling or flanging them along their edges where the construction admitted of such channeling, the same being illustrated in Patent No. 1,521,903, granted in my name, on the 6th day of January, 1925.

One of the principal objects of the present invention is to increase the strength and durability of electrical connection clips, and particularly at and rearwardly beyond the point where the clip members are pivotally connected together, and along the extension to which the electrical conductor is adapted to be attached, as before stated.

A further object is to strengthen the clip members in an improved fashion at and adjacent the points where the crossed arms merge into the jaws.

A still further object is to provide a construction wherein a shunt which is employed for the protection of the spring as broadly covered in the Mueller patent, and particularly a U-shaped or bowed type of shunt, such as herein disclosed, is more completely housed than is the case with the channel construction such as shown in the Mueller patent.

The invention may be here briefly summarized as consisting in certain novel details of construction, and combinations and arrangements of parts which will be described in the specification and set forth in the appended claims.

In the accompanying sheet of drawings wherein I have shown the preferred embodiment of the invention, Fig. 1 is a side view of the clip; Figs. 2 and 3 are top and bottom views; Fig. lis a front end View; Fig. 5 is a sectional View of a rear portionof the clip substantially along the line 55 of Fig. 2; and Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional view substantially along the line 6-6 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

The clip is composed of two clip members 10 and 11 with crossed portions 12 and jaws 13 at their free ends, the jaws being pressed yieldingly together by a spring 14.

The clip members 10 and 11 are pivotally connected together in this instance by providing on the member 10 two spaced tongues 15 which are extended through slots 16 in the clip member 11, but instead of having these slots 16 in the form of open slots extended inwardly from the edges as in the patent referred to above, it will be noted that they are closed slots set in from the edges.

It is to be noted that the sides of both clip members are flanged inwardly or channeled as shown at 17, the flanges or channeling effect being extended along the arms or crossed portions 12, and beyond the bend at the forward end of the arms so as to extend well along the jaws and strengthen the device wherethe arms merge into the jaws. Likewise it will be noted that on the clip member 11 the flanges extend rearwardly beyond the pivot point, or beyond the slots 16 through which the tongues 15 of the companion member project, the flanging being continued back along an extension 18 adapted to receive an electric conductor and carrying a terminal screw 19 which extends through a threaded opening on the center line of the extension between the rear ends of the flanges. That is to say, the clip member 11 is flanged and thereby strengthened not only at and adjacent the pivot point, but also along the extension 18, the construction being such that the end of the conductor when clamped beneath the screw 19 is vertically housed between the rear ends of the flanges. It should be noted that the extension of these flanges along and rearwardly beyond the pivot point is rendered possible only by reason of the fact that the slots 16 are inset instead of being open slots as heretofore.

The spring 14 is a coil spring, and this spring is protected against the passage of current therethrough by a shunt 20, broadly covered by the Mueller patent above referred to, but in this instance the shunt is of difierentform and is arranged differently than in the Mueller patent, the shunt as here shown being in the form a U-shaped strip which extends along the body portions of the clip members 10 and 11 between the flanges 17 thereof, and has its free ends beneath the ends of the spring 14 and clamped by the latter against the body portions of both clip members.

By reason of the fact that the flanges 17 on the clip member 11 are extended back beyond the pivot point, and by extending the corresponding flanges of the clip member 10 rearwardly and downwardly substantially to the flanges of the member 11, as shown in Figs. 1 and 5, the shunt 20 is almost completely housed in the channels of the two clip members.

The improvements above described in the positioning of the slots 16 inwardly of the I side edges and the extension of the flanges,

particularly on the member 11 where the anges extend past the pivot point back along the extension which receives the electrical conductor, add considerably to the stren h of the clip, and additionally these speci ed improvements in connection with the new form of shunt enhance the durability and utility of the clip.

While I have shown the preferred construction, I do not desire to be confined to the precise details shown, but aim in my claims to cover all modifications which do not involve a departure from the spirit and scope of my invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A clip composed of two ivotally connected members having crosse portions and jaws at the forward ends thereof, one member being slotted and the other being extended through it to form a pivotal connection, both members being flanged, with the flanges of the slotted member extended back beyond the pivot point.

9- An electrical connection clip having rear portions pivotally connected together and forward crossed ortions terminating in jaws, a spring extending between the body portions of the clip members, and a U-shaped shunt having its ends pressed by the ends of the s ring into engagement with the two clip mem rs.

3. An electrical connection clip composed of two channeled members having rear portions pivotally connected together and forward crossed portions terminating in jaws, a spring extending-across and between the body portions of the clip members, and a U-shaped shunt lying in the channels of both members and having its ends beneath the ends of the spring and by the latter pressed against the two clip members.

4. An electrical connection clip composed of two channeled pivotally connected members having crossed portions with jaws at their forward ends, one of said members having a rearward extension to receive an electrical conductor, the flanges of both channeled members being continued forwardly along the crossed portions thereof and part way along the jaws, the flanges of one of said members being continued rearwardly past the .pivot point and part way along said extension, said last named member having adj acent'said extension and between the flanges thereof a pair of slots and said other channeled member having an end portion fitting between the flanges of the last named member and provided with spaced lugs extending through said slots and bent a ainst said last named member to form the pivotal connection between the members.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto afiix my signature.

RALPH S. MUELLER.

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