Electrical connectors – Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient... – Spring actuated or resilient securing part
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-31
2003-02-25
Ta, Tho D. (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient...
Spring actuated or resilient securing part
C439S843000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06524142
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a unitary contact spring comprising a box-like contact part and two oppositely arranged spring legs extending to free ends in the direction of a mating face of the contact spring.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
A contact spring of this type is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,681.
As can be seen from
FIGS. 1 and 2
of this patent, the spring legs in the layout are attached laterally along the longitudinal axis of the contact spring and are folded inwards. The spring legs are therefore arranged on the inside of the sidewalls. The top wall, as a result of this folding technique, is divided in the middle and formed as a double wall.
Contact springs are needed in large quantities for use in industry as well as in the automotive field. It is therefore important to be able to manufacture a contact spring with controlled bending operations allowing a high number of strokes and requiring a minimum of consumption of material. The cost of the material for the contact springs of the prior art amounts to about 20% of the manufacturing costs.
The contact spring known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,681 has the disadvantage that, as a result of the double wall construction of the top wall as well as the lateral attachment of the spring legs in the layout, a high consumption of material is entailed. Furthermore the split top wall must be separately connected.
A further unitary contact spring having spring legs pointing towards the mating face is known from DE 19704311 A1. However, the spring legs of this contact spring are arranged side-by-side and not opposite one another.
As shown in FIG. 4A of DE19704311 A1, the spring legs are also laterally attached in the layout, resulting again in a high consumption of material. A layout which saves some material is shown in
FIG. 1
, where the spring legs are attached laterally and slightly obliquely to the longitudinal axis of the contact.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a contact spring of the type set out above which, despite well-controlled bending operations allowing a high number of strokes, minimizes the consumption of material.
It is further required that, even at the end of its service life, the contact force does not fall below 2 Newton and that the contact spring, as a whole, is robust.
According to the invention this object is obtained in that one of the spring legs is formed by inward bending over 180° and the other spring leg by separation out of the opposite wall.
This method of forming spring legs results in a very narrow layout per contact. The spring leg which is bent inwards over 180° is preferably attached in the layout to the extension of the wall on the inner side of which it is attached in its unbent state.
Compared with a lateral attachment in the layout, this configuration has the advantage that the layouts of the individual contacts can be arranged more closely, thereby achieving a higher utilization factor when stamping from the continuous strip of material.
The material utilization can be further increased by attaching the spring leg, which is to be bent inwardly over 180°, obliquely to the longitudinal axis of the wall on the inner side of which it is arranged in its bent state.
Further advantageous embodiments of the contact spring are disclosed in the dependent claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4540233 (1985-09-01), Saijo et al.
patent: 4564259 (1986-01-01), Vandame
patent: 4696530 (1987-09-01), Vandame
patent: 4834681 (1989-05-01), Chaillot
patent: 5540603 (1996-07-01), Fujiwara
patent: 5562501 (1996-10-01), Kinoshita et al.
patent: 5702272 (1997-12-01), Machida
patent: 5941741 (1999-08-01), Dobbelaere et al.
patent: 6042433 (2000-03-01), Chen
patent: 6305993 (2001-10-01), Heimueller
patent: 19704311 (1998-06-01), None
patent: 198 26 828 (2000-01-01), None
patent: 0 633 592 (1995-01-01), None
patent: 2 769 414 (1999-04-01), None
patent: WO 99/41807 (1999-08-01), None
European Search Report, Application No. EP 01 30 0888.
Ta Tho D.
Tsukerman L.
Tyco Electronics AMP GmbH
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