US2869094A

US2869094A - Adjustable panel mounting for cord connector

Info

Publication number: US2869094A
Application number: US656234A
Authority: US
Inventors: Wallace R Francis
Original assignee: General Electric Co
Current assignee: General Electric Co
Priority date: 1957-05-01
Filing date: 1957-05-01
Publication date: 1959-01-13
Anticipated expiration: 1976-01-13

Description

Jan. 13, 1959 ADJUSTABLE PANEL MOUNTING FOR CORD CONNECTOR Filed May 1, 1957 44 a L5 [fire/2 2/ [KW/ac A. fire/ms M4 K M 4 W4 Adlai A/for/zgys w. R. FRANCIS" 2,869,094 7 Unite Patented Jan, 13,1959.

ADJUSTABLE PANEL MOUNTING FOR. CORD CONNECTOR Wallace R Francis, Milford, Conm, assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application May 1, 1957, Serial No. 656,234 2 Claims. (Cl. 339-69) readily adaptable to resilient bushings and grommets.

as well as to electrical connectors. Such connectors are either supplied with female contacts or male prongs but for purposes of this invention they will be described broadly as contacts.

Television and radio receivers are being produced with back panels that mustbe removed in order to service. the sets. It is always well to.disconnect the sets from the power supply before touching any of the electrical components. which comprise the chassis. Rather than. post elaborate warnings on the panel, it has been common practice to,fasten the connector of the power supply cordto the panel so that it will be automatically. dis connected from the chassis when the panel is removed. A typical example of theprior art. is the Francis et al. Patent No. 2,756,403 which is assigned to the same assignee as is the present invention.

One difliculty that has been experienced inre cent years is, that of assembling. the chassis in a. precise location sothat the connector mounted in the back panel will accurately engage in the chassis. A disproportionate amount of time and expense has been incurred in trying to hold the manufacturing tolerances within a certain range in order to eliminate this difiiculty. A bet ter solution is found in the present invention where the connector is adjustably mounted in an opening in the panel member so that the connector may be moved the necessary amount to engage with the chassis.

The principal object of this. invention is toprovide an adjustable mounting for a body member in an opening in a thin panel.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel clip member for an electrical connector so that the con ne'ctor. may be inserted into an openingin a panel member and locked therein by means of; the clip.

A still further object of this invention is to providean adjustable mounting. means for an: electrical connector in an opening in a panel member so that the effective locking features of either the clip or the connector must be destroyed in order to disassemble the connector.

A preferred embodiment of an electrical connector having my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing. It includes a body of resilient material that contains a pair of female contacts joined to the conductors of an electrical cord. The connector has a front portion, an enlarged abutment portion and a reduced central portion that separates the frontfrom the abutment portion. A panel member that is usable with this invention would contain an opening only slightly larger than the cross-section of the front portion of the connector. A recess is formed in the reduced central portion on opposite sides of the connector and between the contacts for reasons which will be discussed. hereinafter.

A clip member of flat construction is used to straddle, the central portion of the connector and, loclc the con The panel is then confinedbetween the abutment portion and the clip.. It-

necto-r in the opening of the panel.-

is necesseary to permanently hold the clip on. the con.- nector and this is accomplished by a pair of inwardly turned locking tongues on the, arms of theclip at the mid-height thereof to engage in the said recesses. These. locking tongues have an inclined, surface. to facilitate the. insertion of the clip on the connector, but. which make it impossible to disconnect. the clip without destroying either the clip or the connector.

My invention will be better understood from thefol lowing 'descriptiont taken in connection with the accom-. panying drawing and itsscope, will. be pointed out in theappended claims.

Figure 1 is an, isometric view of a portion of a thin panel member having an electrical connector containing my invention adjustably mounted therein.

Figure 2 is an isometric view. of the U-shaped clip, member that is used. to lock the connector. in thepanel. Figure 3. is a cross-sectional view. taken'onjthe lines 3-3 of Figure 5 through the.reducedcentral.portion of the connector showing the clip member partially assembled thereto.

Figure 4 is. a cross-sectional view similar to that of Figure 3 after. the clip member is finally assembled to to Figure 1, there is shown an electrical. connector 10; forming one end ofa two-conductor cord- 11, and;

mounted in an opening 21 in the thin panel member 13.

Two female contacts 14 are first crimped, soldered on otherwise fastened to the two conductors of. the cord 11. Then the connector body is, molded over the con: tacts to insulate them from each other as well astoprovide a hand-hold for assembling and disconnecting, the connector.

A better understanding of the connector 10 may be had with relation to the plan view of Figure 5; The,

connector maybe considered as containing three, seg: ments, namely, the front portion 15, the. abutment POI. tion 16 at the backof the connector, and the reduced:

central portion 17 that separates the front from the. abutment portion. The front portion .15is generally rectangularin cross-section in order to conserve the amount. of material needed to moldthe connector. opening 12in the panel member 13 is slightly larger than the cross-sectional shape, of thefront portion 15 toal-v low the connector, to betinserted through the opening. until the abutment portion 16: engagesthe. outerwsurfacei of the panel. The opening 12tisilarger-than: the.front= portion 15, but smaller than the abutmentiportioni 16:.

so that the connector may not extend completely through the opening.

The next consideration is to fasten the connector in the panel opening so that it is necessary to destroy the connector or the fastening means before the connector may be removed from the panel. First, it is well to study the nature of the reduced central portion 17. It forms an annular groove 20 with the front portion 15 and the abutment portion 16. This groove extends completely around the connector and below the surface of the crossectional outline of the front portion 15. It will then be understood that the amount of adjustability of the connector in the panel opening 12 is governed by the dimensional differences between the central portion l7 and the panel opening 12. Since the opening 12 is substantially Also, the

coextensive with the cross-sectional configuration of the front portion 15, a quick estimate of this adjustability may be had by comparing the size of the front portion with that of the central portion 17.

A recess 21 is made in the central portion 17 between the contacts 14 and on both the top and bottom sides as best seen in the cross-sectional view of Figure 3. These recesses are provided'to cooperate with a clip member 25 of U-shape that is cut from fiat stock. The two parallel arms 26 of the clip are each provided with an inwardly turned locking tongue 27 adjacent the mid height thereof for engagement in the recesses 21 of the connector. Each locking tongue 27 is in the form of a right triangle with the hypotenuse of each triangle converging toward the connecting base 28 of the clip when the locking tongues are considered as a pair. The hypotenuse or inclined portion of the locking tongue 27 serves to compress the resilient material of the connector as the clip is forced to slide over the central portion until the locking tongues 27 are confined in the recesses 21. The clip member 25 is not made to operate with a spring action but, on the contrary, is made rigid so that the resilient material will be compressed by the inwardly facing lock- There are several advantages in locating the locking tongues 27 adjacent the mid-portion of the arms 26 of the clip member. The parallel portions of the arms adjacent the free ends thereof serve the purpose of a guide when installing the clip so that the resilient material of the connector 10 will not be split or scored by the clumsy handling of the connector as it is forced over the connector body. Once the parallel free ends of the arms 26 straddle the side of the central portion 17, it is most difiicult to angle the clip. This insures that the clip will be properly centered as the locking tongues 27 first begin their travel from the side of the connector to the recesses 21.

Having described above my invention of an adjustable mounting for an electrical connector in an opening in a thin panel member, it will be readily understood by those skilled in this art that I have provided a simple and inexpensive clip member of novel construction. A connector or other resilient body member may quickly be assembled in the panel opening and locked in place by the novel clip member in one easy operation using known mass production factory methods.

Modifications of this invention will occur to those skilled in this art, and it is to be understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but that it is intended to cover all modifications which are within the true spirit and scope of this invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In combination with a thin panel member having an opening therethrough, an electrical connector of resilient material that is adapted to be adjustably mounted in the opening, the connector comprising a front portion and an enlarged abutment portion, these portions being separated by a central section having the least crosssection, two of the opposite sides of the said section being substantially parallel, and a central recess formed in both of the two parallel sides, a rigid U-shaped clip member of fiat construction having a pair of parallel arms, an inwardly-facing locking tongue on each arm near the mid-height, so that when the clip is made to straddle the reduced central section of the body the locking tongues will compress the resilient body material until they become confined in the said recesses where they are hidden from view, the parallel end portions of the arms serving to guide the clip onto the body, the said opening in the panel being slightly larger than the cross-section of the front portion of the connector so that the position of the connector in the opening may be adjusted by an amount that is determined by the size of the central section, the width of the section being substantially equal to the thickness of the panel plus the thickness of the clip i opposite sides of the central portion, the recesses being equally spaced from both of the underlying contacts, and a rigid U-shaped clip member of fiat metal stock, each arm of the U member having an inwardly-facing locking tongue adjacent the mid-height of the arms and being substantially in the form of a right triangle, the hypotenuse of the triangle when considered with the other locking tongue converging inwardly toward the base of the U member, the clip member straddling the central portion with the locking tongue confined in the opposite recesses where they are hidden from view, the said groove being of such a width as to confine the panel member between the abutment portion of the connector and the clip member, the said opening in the panel being slightly larger than the cross-section of the front portion of the v connector so that the position of the connector in the opening may be adjusted by an amount that is determined by the depth of the groove.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,171,331 Folsom Aug. 29, 1939 2,278,708 Miller Apr. 7, 1942 2,711,522 Goodwin June 21, 1955 2,756,403 Francis et a1. July 24, 1956 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No, 2,869,094 January 13, 1959 Wallace R. Francis It is herebfi certified that error appears in the-printed specification of the above "numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 2, line 36, for "opening 21" read opening 12 column 4, line 31, for "conductor" read connector line 45, for "tongue read m tongues Signed and sealed this 9th day of June 1959.

(SEAL) Attest:

KARL H. AXLINE Attesting Officer ROBERT C. WATSON Commissioner of Patents