US3226669A

US3226669A - Wire conductors in electrical connection fields

Info

Publication number: US3226669A
Application number: US244190A
Authority: US
Inventors: Lutz Josef Peter
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 1961-12-23
Filing date: 1962-12-12
Publication date: 1965-12-28
Anticipated expiration: 1982-12-28
Also published as: GB983177A; DK106150C

Description

Dec. 28, 1965 J. P. LUTZ 3,226,669

WIRE CONDUCTORS IN ELECTRICAL CONNECTION FIELDS Filed Dec. 12, 1962 J1 L23 FIG. 28 FIG. 2A

INVENTOR JOSEF PETER Lurz ,4 r raR/vE rs United States Patent ()1 3,226,669 Patented Dec. 28, 1965 [ice 3,226,669 WIRE CGNDUCTORS IN ELECTRICAL CGNNECTION FIELDS Josef Peter Lutz, Bromrna, Sweden, assignor to Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden, a corporation of Sweden Filed Dec. 12, 1962, Ser. No. 244,130 ,Claims priority, application Sweden, Dec. 23, 1961,

6 Claims. (Cl. 339-498) In many technical fields, particularly in the telecommunication fields, there is a need for jointing a plurality of conductors in or adjacent to the set of apparatus to be used, using terminal block arrangements. In such block arrangements the concentration of the conductors may be great, for example, in blocks composed of contact devices formed as rectangular plates having the individual contact members placed in one plane side by side. Whether the connection of these conductors is carried out by means of screw, soldered, or plug-and-socket connections, it is advantageous to arrange the conductors in a clearly observable manner, at least in the immediate proximity of the connections.

The invention has for its purpose to provide a wire guide which, especially in such block terminal arrangements, simplifies said problem of order. This is achieved according to the invention in such a way that the wire guides are shaped as suitably rectangular plates having parallel grooves or ducts for the wires, each of the grooves having a first end which opens into one of two edge surfaces arranged beside the connecting points of the contact members, and a second end which opens into the other edge surface running preferably perpendicularly to the first-mentioned edge surface.

The invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawing:

FIG. 1 shows an example of a wire guide plate;

FIG. 2A shows a contact device shaped as a rectangular plate;

FIG. 2B shows a contact element on an enlarged scale;

FIG. 3 illustrates how wire guides and contact plates can be put together to form terminal block arrangements; and

FIG. 4 shows an example of a terminal block arrangement ready for use.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the wire guide is shaped as a rectangular plate. From the upper edge surface 16 extend five ducts or grooves which open into the adjacent left vertical edge surface 17. The surfaces 16 and 17 form an angle of 90 with each other. The ducts in the example shown are open on side 18. They can of course be completely covered and extend inside the plate. The ducts are parallel and straight or slightly bent.

In FIG. 2A there is shown an example of a contact device shaped as a rectangular plate of insulating material with ten parallel grooves 21 in which ten individual contact members 22, of U-shaped cross section, are inserted. FIG. 2B shows one of said contact members 22 on a larger scale. As appears from said figure, the member 22 has between two U-shaped portions a plane portion connecting them with each other. The grooves 21 of the insulating plate are provided at one end with widened inlets 21a, and the shanks 22a of the contact members are provided with indentations 24 so that a wire that is inserted from above into the contact member must bend in one or the other direction, making contact at several points with the contact member, whereby a high quality electrical connection is formed. The lower parts 23 of the contact members have a form such that the incoming fixed conductors can be secured by means of soldering or swaging. The contact plates used can, of course, be arranged in another way, for example, as is shown in FIG. 3.

According to FIG. 3,

contact plates

10, 11, 12 each have four

contact members

101, 102, 103, 104 consisting of parallel wires of conductive material molded into the insulating material of the plate. The wires are shown protruding from the plates at the bottom of FIG. 3, where the incoming conductors are connected permanently thereto, and at the top of the same figure, where the outgoing conductors can be optionally connected. The contact plates 1042 are joined to form terminal blocks together with an equal number of guide plates 1315 made of insulation material. The

guide plates

13 and 14 are joined together with the contact plates 10, 11, the guide plate 15 being shown displaced and in section so as to illustrate the ducts therein more clearly. The wire guide plates consist of a plastic material and are provided with ribs that fit corresponding grooves in the contact plates when the side surfaces of the plates are placed together. In the wire guide plates are a number of ducts 131-434 corresponding to the number of contact members of the plates. These ducts have an area that corresponds to the dimensions of the outgoing optional conductors of the arrangement. The guide plates are placed so that one mouth of each of the ducts is located near a separate contact member and the other month of the duct is located in a plane perpendicular to the plane in which said one mouth lies. In the arrangement shown in FIG. 3, two outgoing

0ptional conductors

31, 32 are illustrated. One conductor 31 is inserted through the duct 132 in the wire guide 13 and is connected to a contact member 102 in the plate 10. In the same manner each contact member 101-104 can, in the arrangement shown, be reached by means of one optional conductor. The space necessary for the connection of the conductor to a connecting point by means of screwing, soldering, squeezing or the like is not concealed by the other conductors. Each connected conductor is furthermore clearly definable as to the connecting point and also in the mouth of the duct into which it is passed.

In FIG. 4 another terminal block arrangement is shown, ready for use, which is built up of ten guide plates each having five grooves (according to FIG. 1). To the terminal block arrangement are connected two hundred conductors formed in a cable 41. They are permanently connected to the two hundred contact members. The whole arrangement, except for the outgoing optional conductorsfor example, 43, 44is formed as an integral unit fixed to the cable 41, which unit forms a composite rectangular block. The arrangement is filled below the dotted line with a self-hardening plastic mass 42.

In FIG. 4 two outgoing optional pairs of

wires

43, 44 are run through the same duct 473 in the wire guide plate 47. They are both bent at their free ends and stripped so that their four individual conductors form

bare wires

431, 432 and 441, 442, respectively. These conductors constitute plugs which fit into corresponding grooves or jacks in the adjacent contact plate, namely, the pair of

wires

431, 432 fitted into grooves 455, 456 in a plate 45 and the pair of

wires

441, 442 fitted into grooves 465, 466 in a plate 46. The connections are formed by using a bending and stripping pair of pliers after the pairs of

conductors

43, 44 are passed through a duct 473. The plugs are pushed into their respective grooves by longitudinal displacement; that is, by pulling back the pairs of conductors. In the same manner all the one hundred pairs of outgoing conductors can be connected individually with optional pairs of incoming permanent conductors and remain unmistakably definable.

The grooves in the wire guide plates are, in the example shown according to FIG. 4, assumed to be so wide that two pairs'of wires can be pushed through each of the five grooves in a plate. Consequently, twenty conductors can be run through one wire guide plate. Since the contact plates are each provided with ten individual con-tact members, two such contact plates must be provided for each Wire guide plate; that is, one contact device on each side of a guide plate. Such an arrangement has been found to be advantageous from the view of saved space in many cases, but other arrangements also may be used, such as the arrangement shown in FIG. 3 having at least one guide plate and one contact plate cooperating with each other.

I claim:

1. A terminal block assemblage for interconnecting electric conductors, said assemblage comprising a contact plate having inserted therein a. plurality of contact elements electrically insulated from each other and exposed on one side of the plate, and a wire guide plate made of insulation material and having in one of its sides a plurality of parallel grooves extending from one edge of said guide plate to an adjacent edge, said contact plate and said guide plate being superimposed with the side of the contact plate on whichthe contact elements are exposed and the grooved side of the guide plate facing in the same direction.

2. A terminal block assemblage for interconnecting electric conductors, said assemblage comprising a substantially rectangular contact plate having in one of its sides a plurality of grooves extending substantially parallel to two opposite sides of said plate, contact elements inserted into said grooves secured therein and electrically insulated from each other, and a substantially rectangular wire guide plate made of insulation material and having in one of its sides a pluralityof parallel grooves extending from one edge of said plate to an adjacent edge, said plates being superimposed with the grooved sidesthereof facing -in the same direction, said grooves in the guide plate terminating at one end in substantial juxtaposition with the grooves in the contact plate.

3. An assemblage according to claim 2, wherein one edge of said contact plateextending crosswise tothe'dire'c tion of the grooves therein and one of the edges of said guide plate from which the grooves therein extend are disposed in substantial registry. g

4. An assemblage accordingto claim 1, wherein a contact plate is superimposed uponeach side of said guide plate. I

5. A terminal block assemblage forinterconnecting electric conductors, said assemblage comprising a contact plate including a plurality of contact elements electrically insulated from each other and protruding from one edge of said plate, and an insulation Wire guide plate superimposed upon said contact plate. with. one edge in substantial registry with the edge of the contact plate from which said contact elements protrude, said guide plate including a plurality of substantially parallel wire ducts extending from said one edge thereof toan adjacent edge.

6. A terminal block assemblage for interconnecting electrical conductors, said assemblage comprising a substantially rectangular contact plate including a plurality of contact elements electrically insulated from each other, said contact elements having exposed portions, and a'substantially rectangular insulation wire guide plate superimposed upon said contact plate, said guide plate includi'ng a plurality of wire guides extending from one edge of the plate to an adjacent edge.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,019,625 11/ 1935 OBrien. 2,471,970 5/ 1949 Miloche 179-98 X 2,558,008 6/1951 Smith 339-18 X 2,857,583 10/1958 Markley et al 339-198 2,903,502 9/1959 Martin et al. 317-1'12 X 3,156,783 11/ 1964 Alexandersson et a1. 17998 ALBERT KAMPE, Primary Examiner.

JOSEPH D. SEERS, Examiner.

Claims

1. A TERMINAL BLOCK ASSEMLBLAGE FOR INTERCONNECTING ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS, SAID ASSEMBLABE COMPRISING A CONTACT PLATE HAVING INSERTED THEREIN A PLURALITY OF CONTACT ELEMENTS ELECTRICALLY INSULATED FROM EACH OTHER AND EXPOSED ON ONE SIDE OF THE PLATE, AND A WIRE GUIDE PLATE MADE OF INSULATION MATERIAL AND HAVING IN INE OF ITS SIDES A PLURALITY OF PARALLEL GROOVES EXTENDING FROM ONE EDGE OF SAID GUIDE PLATE TO AN ADJACENT EDGE, SAID CONTACT PLATE AND SAID GUIDE PLATE BEING SUPERIMPOSED WITH THE SIDE OF THE CONTACT PLATE ON WHICH THE CONTACT ELEMENTS ARE EXPOSED AND