Electrical connectors – Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient... – Spring actuated or resilient securing part
Reexamination Certificate
1995-10-20
2001-07-17
Ta, Tho D. (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient...
Spring actuated or resilient securing part
C439S856000, C029S857000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06261134
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a socket contact for an electrical connector and, more particularly, to a one-piece hooded socket contact.
Conventional hooded socket contacts for electrical connectors are formed of two pieces, namely, a hood and a contact body. The hood is usually formed of stainless steel and the body is formed of copper, or a copper alloy. The hood is pressed onto the body by complex machines. Such a contact is relatively expensive to produce.
In order to reduce the cost of a hooded socket contact, it is desirable to eliminate the separate hood, and form the contact out of one piece of metal. Such a one-piece hooded socket contact is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,256 to Seidler. Seidler teaches the forming of the spring fingers of the contact by making U-shaped cuts in the sheet metal blank from which the contact is formed, behind the forward edge of the blank. This results in a substantial amount of sheet metal material being disposed between the fingers, as well as in front of the fingers. When the forward region of the sheet metal blank is folded rearwardly and rolled to form the cylindrical hood of the contact, it is difficult to roll the metal and maintain the shape of the fingers and forward end of the hood due to the double wall construction of the contact resulting from the sheet metal material lying between and in front of the fingers. This problem is particularly acute for small size contacts, such as a size 16 (1.5 mm) contact or smaller.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a one-piece hooded socket contact designed in such a manner that the front end of the hood and the spring fingers of the contact will have the desired configuration even for small size contacts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to a principal aspect of the present invention, there is provided a one-piece socket contact that is formed from a sheet metal blank that is stamped to provide at its forward end a plurality of spring fingers and relatively short lead-in tabs that extend forwardly from the front edge of the blank. The fingers and tabs are bent rearwardly and then the blank is rolled into cylindrical form to form the hood of the contact. The fingers extend inwardly toward the center axis of the hood to form the contact beams for engaging a mating pin contact, and the short lead-in tabs, together with the forward portions of the fingers, provide a lead-in chamfer for the pin contact ensuring that the pin contact will mate properly with the socket contact even if the pin contact is not properly aligned with the center axis of the socket contact. Because of the manner in which the fingers and tabs are initially formed in the sheet metal blank, it is easier to roll the sheet metal to form the hood, and maintain the circular shape of the front end of the hood and the lead-in chamfer, and of the spring fingers of the contact than in the prior art double wall, one-piece hooded socket contact described hereinabove. The method of the invention allows the manufacture of relatively small one-piece hooded socket contacts, for example, size 16 (1.5 mm) or size 20 (1 mm) contacts, without any appreciable distortion occurring during the forming and rolling process of the front-end portion of the socket contact where the configuration of the contact is critical for proper operation.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the one-piece hooded socket contact of the present invention is constructed from a sheet metal blank having the front region from which the hood and spring fingers are formed made of a spring-tempered metal, and the rear region of the blank that forms the crimp barrel of the contact made of a relatively more malleable metal. As a consequence, it is easier to form and roll the front region of the blank to form the spring fingers and lead-in tabs, the fingers will have high resiliency, and the crimp barrel is formed of the more malleable material which facilitates crimping of the barrel to a wire. The front region of the sheet metal blank may be made spring-tempered by either coining the metal blank to a reduced thickness, which work-hardens the metal to cause it to become spring-tempered, or to utilize a separate piece of spring-tempered metal which is bonded to the rear malleable region of the blank. The use of a sheet metal blank having the characteristics described herein greatly enhances the ability of the manufacturer to form the one-piece hooded socket contact of the present invention in small sizes.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3083351 (1963-03-01), Nielsen
patent: 3519799 (1970-07-01), Bange
patent: 3538491 (1970-11-01), Longenecker
patent: 3564487 (1971-02-01), Upstone
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patent: 3973919 (1976-08-01), Simon
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patent: 4152042 (1979-05-01), Ostapovitch
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patent: 4834681 (1989-05-01), Chaillot
patent: 4934967 (1990-06-01), Marks
patent: 5119664 (1992-06-01), Schubert
patent: 5167543 (1992-12-01), Wurster
patent: 5186663 (1993-02-01), Wymelenberg
patent: 5188545 (1993-02-01), Hass
patent: 5230632 (1993-07-01), Baumberger
patent: 5281175 (1994-01-01), Chupak
patent: 5288252 (1994-02-01), Steinhardt
patent: 5350321 (1994-09-01), Takenouchi
patent: 2610456 (1988-08-01), None
patent: 2613141 (1988-09-01), None
patent: 0552741 (1993-07-01), None
ITT Manufacturing Enterprises Inc.
Ta Tho D.
Turner Roger C.
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