Heavy duty electrical connector

Electrical connectors – Coupling part including flexing insulation – Sealing

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C439S577000, C439S277000, C439S320000, C439S319000, C439S278000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06722922

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to electrical wire connectors and more particularly, to multi-pin electrical wire connectors with a reduced number of component pieces, and, non-metal components.
Methods for attaching single or multiple wires to the rear end of a pin or socket contact which can be installed in an electrical connector, are well known in the art. Most of these methods require some type of tool to accomplish determination. Examples of existing methods to connect wires to the contact include soldering, crimping, wire wrapping, installation displacement, and compression of the wires between a screw or an anvil and terminal base.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,925 discloses an electrical connector with screw on or twist on electrical contacts. The contacts can be installed into their respective plug and receptacle housing bodies for the purpose of creating an electrical connector that can be mated and unmated many times to hook up and remove from service any electrical device or circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,754 discloses an electrical multi-pin snap connector. The multi-pin snap connector includes a snap fastener stud with a multi conductor current carrying electrical plug. The stud interfaces with a new ring snap fastener socket which has a multi conductor current carrying electrical socket disposed within a hollow inside a fastener socket. A spring is held within the fastener socket and grips the stud when the pair are mated.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,770 describes a multi-pin electrical connector of which a ring provided on the plug body can not under any circumstance move angularly or on the plug body during the operation of assembly with a socket, to guarantee absolutely that the plug of the connector can, in any case, be assembled with it's socket.
Previously, many types of coupling methods have been used in endeavoring to provide an effective means for producing a positive, yet easily removable method of attaching and releasing multi-pin electrical connectors. The most common method is to utilize only the spring characteristics of a female connector, specifically a pair of female leaf spring sockets into which a solid male blade is inserted, correlative with household receptacles and appliance plugs.
Already known are electrical connectors which comprise a socket and a plug, each of which is composed of a socket body and a plug body, inside which there is housed a block of insulating material comprising the male and female connecting pins.
A ring is mounted on the plug body by being screw-threaded, or by means of cam slopes, so that rotation of the ring, engaged on ribs on the socket body simultaneously causes a plug body to move towards a socket body with maximum insertion of the male pins into the female pins.
In order to permit this assembly, the male and female pins occupy precise radial and angular positions so that each male pin can be placed in the axis of it's female pin, to the exclusion of any other position, and to this end, non-confusable grooves, are provided between the socket body and the plug body.
However, in order to permit assembly of the plug on the socket of this connector, it is furthermore necessary for the ring to occupy a precise angular position in relation to the plug on the socket. The plug body is itself in a position of maximum withdrawal in relation to it's ring for, if not, the ring would only be able to turn incompletely, which would give rise to an incomplete axial displacement of the plug body and therefore, an incomplete insertion of the male pins into female pins.
In the field of electronics, more positive methods have been adapted, such as coupling metal nuts that incorporate threads on a metal barrel and a captive fully threaded nut to draw the plug and socket together in a positive and forceful manner. Other round connectors utilize a metal nut that engages and locks with a quarter to a full turn. Spring loaded mechanisms have also been in use where the halves are pushed together and rotated with the spring holding them in contact in a bayonet type connection. Other spring devices attach the connectors by pushing together to mate, and then again pushing further to release the latch allowing separation.
However, the various multi-pin electrical connectors require numerous components in their construction. The very nature of these components cause a manufacturing concern, as well as sealing performance concerns once they are assembled together. In some instances, an adhesive is used in the secondary operation of the construction to ensure that a proper seal is achieved once the component parts are assembled for actual operation. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide a cost effective design that functions better or equal to the existing part, while reducing the number of piece components used in actual construction, and improving the overall assembled component sealing performance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a multi-pin electrical connector with a first connector portion and a second connector portion. The first connector portion includes a first connector housing; a multi-pin cavity block; a plurality of electrical connections located at a predetermined interior diameter of the first connector housing; and a seal retaining ring that is snapped into an end of the connector housing, thus forming a seal and retaining a cavity block within the connector housing. The second connector portion includes a second connector housing with the mating half of a multi-pin cavity block with raised ribs at predetermined locations within the interior diameter of the housing which match up with the connector or multi-pin cavity block openings of the first connector portion. A retaining ring snaps into an end of the second connector housing, and thus forms a diameter seal and retaining structure for the second cavity block within this connector housing. A locking collar is also provided in this second connector housing for connecting the first connector portion to the second connector portion.
In an embodiment of the invention, the multi-pin connector includes a locking collar which is snapped over a retaining flange on the connector housing. A connector retainer is also snapped into the housing to retain the cavity block and a cable seal. One of the cavity blocks utilizes a raised rib design to add an additional barrier engaging a face seal to enhance the sealing performance of the multi-pin connector. To ease in manufacturing and construction of the multi-pin connector, a non-metal material is used in the construction of the component parts. This design reduces the overall number of component pieces and eliminates the need for adhesive, as used in the prior art when using metal component parts.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4521066 (1985-06-01), Kempe
patent: 4571018 (1986-02-01), Annoot
patent: 4593962 (1986-06-01), Knorreck et al.
patent: 4629269 (1986-12-01), Kailus
patent: 5478254 (1995-12-01), Holt
patent: 5604440 (1997-02-01), Tomikawa et al.
patent: 5743754 (1998-04-01), Cristich
patent: 5890925 (1999-04-01), Bernardini

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