Electrical connectors – Contact comprising cutter – Insulation cutter
Patent
1997-05-12
2000-03-28
Lovering, Richard D.
Electrical connectors
Contact comprising cutter
Insulation cutter
H01R 424, H01R 426, H01R 1120
Patent
active
06042415&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to insulation displacement connectors (IDC's) used to terminate insulated wires in voice and data communications systems.
Insulation displacement connectors are very well known in the voice and data communications industries. Typically an IDC comprises a metallic blade contact receiving and establishing contact with an insulated wire, and a housing or connector block. Usually, a number of contacts are housed in a single connector block, typically 4 or 8. Each contact has a pair of tines at one end for receiving the wire or wires to be connected. Some contacts will have a further pair at their opposite end for connection to a wiring block or individual wires, or will be provided with, for example, a tail for connection to a PCB, depending on the application. The pair of tines for receiving a wire is located in the housing in between teeth in the housing which define a slot into which a wire is inserted using an insertion tool. The wire is guided, by the slot and tool, between the tines which are displaced less than the width of the wire insulation. The manner of displacement depends on the type of contact design used. Accordingly, the insulation is cut or displaced and contact is established between the wire and contact.
Such an IDC is known in US patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,668 which describes an IDC having a slot housing two tines for displacing the insulation of a wire to establish contact. This IDC has a wire guide for suporting the wire through the connector, and a wire termination pad against which the wire is trimmed using a chisel type inserter tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,812 (Siemon) discloses an IDC contact which comprises two opposed cantilevered beams each comprising a pair of tines extending from a central portion. Each tine pair is separated by an elongate opening along a point of its length and is formed from an original cantilevered beam by shearing along a shear axis which forms the cutting surface for displacing the insulation on a wire.
Another type of IDC contact is used in the 110 type connector of AT&T Corporation. The displacement contacts are described in a number of US patents, for example: U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,264 (Ellis), U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,587 (Ellis) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,095 (Berglund).
As there are a number of different IDC housing designs, there are a number of different industry standard wire termination tools. Our copending application WO 92/22941 describes a housing design that can locate the terminating heads of two different tools, by the incorporation of horizontal castellations in one or both lateral walls of the connector. These horizontal castellations serve to locate the inserter blades of both tool types in such a manner as to prevent the tool blade from damaging the connector contact during wire insertion. Such wire insertion tools are well known and insert wires in the contact tines and then cut off the excess length. In some cases the tool includes a cutting blade in others it does not. There are two major types of wire insertion/termination tools; those compatible with connectors made by Krone AG of Berlin, Germany, and those made by AT&T Corporation and compatible with their 110 series of connectors. Neither tool can be used to insert wires in connectors of the other manufacturer. Consequently, an installer must carry two types of wire insertion tools.
Our copending application, WO 92/22941, thus describes a connector block which may receive both of the above types of wire insertion tool. This connector block accepts both the chisel type cutter of the AT&T 110 tool which slices through the excess wire as well as, for example, the Krone inserter tool which employs a scissor-type cutter. A feature of the AT&T 110 tool is its ability to terminate wires fed into the connector from either side of the row of contacts when used with the AT&T connector. Similarly, the connector block of WO 92/22941 also accepts wires for termination in either direction by the AT&T tool. However, this connector may fail to cut off the excess wire when terminating
REFERENCES:
patent: 3798587 (1974-03-01), Ellis, Jr. et al.
patent: 4118095 (1978-10-01), Berglund et al.
patent: 4262985 (1981-04-01), Muehlhausen, II
patent: 5302137 (1994-04-01), Suffi
Ivey David Ernest
White Rowland Spencer
Lovering Richard D.
Molex Incorporated
Tirva A. A.
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