Patents Represented by Attorney Adrian J. LaRue
  • Patent number: 5975235
    Abstract: A connector connects sound-conduction tubing from a hearing aid to sound-conduction bore in an earmold. The connector is an elbow-shaped member with one end receiving an end of the sound-conduction tubing while the other end has latching means that latchably mate with a seating member disposed in an entry section of the sound-conduction bore. The inside diameter of the sound-conduction tubing, the diameter of the sound-conduction tubular passage in the elbow-shaped member and the diameter of the sound-conduction bore are the same therealong thereby defining a continuous-flow sound-conduction path from the hearing aid to the end of a canal of the earmold. A filter can be disposed in the one end of the connector with the sound-conduction tubing engaging the filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 2, 1999
    Inventors: Norman D. Schlaegel, Chester J. Jelonek
  • Patent number: 5921792
    Abstract: A card-ejection mechanism and a card connector has a low profile for use with a memory card which can be manufactured by stamping from a thin metal sheet with subsequent forming. The card connector 10 includes a connector housing 20 and a card-ejection mechanism 30. The card-ejection mechanism comprises a fixed frame 40 and movable ejection parts 50. The frame 40 has two opposed guiding rails 42, 44 of a U-shaped cross section and an integral flat connecting plate 46 joining together guiding rails 42, 44. Approximately in the center of plate 46, a nearly square opening 46a is located. An ejecting blade 60 and an arm bar 70 are placed on opposite surfaces of this plate 46, and one end of the arm bar is joined by a pivoting rivet connection to the ejecting blade through the opening 46a; the other end of the arm bar 70 is linked to a push bar 80 attached to a side surface of the guiding rail 42. The mechanism is operated by pushing the push bar to partly eject the memory card therefrom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 13, 1999
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: Robert Chen
  • Patent number: 5584514
    Abstract: A window guard locking device (34) comprises a flange member (36) having a keyhole (42) therethrough, a member (40) having a central cavity (50), an intermediate member (38) having an opening (46) disposed between the flange member (36) and the member (40) with the axis of the keyhole, the opening and the central cavity being coincident, and at least one projection (48) extending inwardly from a wall of the opening (46) adjacent the keyhole (42) with a surface of the projection (48) being aligned with a respective wall of the keyhole (42).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 17, 1996
    Inventor: Lawrence L. Mascotte
  • Patent number: 5503568
    Abstract: An electrical connector comprising an insulative housing, a pair of inmoulded terminals and a separate core support member, makes electrical contact with a twin core flexible conductor comprising a flexible elastomeric outer tube and flexible spaced apart inner conductors. The core support member comprises a core section substantially filling the inner space formed by the conductors and tube thereby providing support to the flexible tube conductor such that pin sections of the terminals can be sandwiched between the conductors and the core section and additionally sandwiching the flexible outer tube between strain relief projections of core support member arms and the core section for securely fixing the connector thereto. The connector is of a cost-effective and simple construction that is also easy to assemble.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 2, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: John E. Pryce
  • Patent number: 5503573
    Abstract: The locking device 30 is intended for locking contacts 11, and is inserted in the opening 26 made in the side wall 27 of the connector housing 20, which has long and narrow openings 36 made in a back surface 31a of the lower wall 31 of the locking device 30 and extending through its entire width. Inside these openings 36, arms 37 for a fully-locked position are made as an integral part of the locking device which start from the wall in which the openings 36 are formed and extend in a longitudinal direction of the locking device 30. The arms 37 for the fully-locked position are engaged with steps 26a made inside the opening 26, thus preventing extraction of the locking device 30 from the connector housing 20. Reuse of the locking device and increased design freedom for connectors having a locking device inserted through the side wall is therefore possible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 2, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsuya Sagawa
  • Patent number: 5503564
    Abstract: An assembly for connecting an IC card to a printed circuit board includes a surface mounted connector and an ejector unit. The surface mounted connector has contacts arranged in an upper and a lower row at a narrow pitch to achieve a high degree of density of electronic components while maintaining high accuracy of contact positioning. Contacts are made by punching out from a metal sheet and have round contact sections for electrical connection with an IC card, termination sections with a portion for soldering connection to the printed circuit board, U-shaped retaining sections for insertion into contact holding openings of housing and supporting legs fitted in locking sections of the housing. The ejector unit is small but sufficiently strong and is simple to manufacture. It comprises a frame with left and right edges bent to form a guiding section wrapping around the side edges of the inserted IC card. Retaining members and a grounding contact for the card are also made by the same stamping operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 2, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Futatsugi, Ikuo Enomoto
  • Patent number: 5494455
    Abstract: Pressure-type connector 1 has a base 10 retaining a pressure contact 50 and a closure member 30 connected to the base 10 by means of a hinge 28. On a side surface of the base 10, locking bosses 18 are provided, and on the side surface of the closure member 30 locking rings 38 are located to be engaged with the locking bosses 18. At the outer end of the locking rings 38 a pair of protrusions 42 is disposed with a space between them being approximately equal to the width of the locking boss 18. When the closure member 30 is rotated toward the base 10, protrusions 42 which form the guiding device, slide along the side surfaces 24 of the locking bosses 18, thus preventing a skewed attitude relative the base 10. This arrangement makes it possible to provide for a better connection between electric wire 3 and the pressure contact 50.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1995
    Date of Patent: February 27, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Mikio Shindoh, Yohichi Kashiwa
  • Patent number: 5492486
    Abstract: An electrical connector (1,1') having multiple contacts (40') are arranged in the insulating housing (10) at a predetermined pitch and have a J-shaped connecting section (44). When an external force (F), which tends to pull a flat cable (4) in a direction away from connector (1) is applied to the flat cable (4), connecting sections (44) of all contacts (40) are bent and their back surfaces (56) are pressed against the inner wall (30) of the insulating housing (10). This pressure generates resistance from the inner wall (30) resulting in a strong frictional force between connecting sections (44) and flat cable (4), thus reliably securing cable (4) in the connector housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 1995
    Date of Patent: February 20, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: Junichi Tanigawa
  • Patent number: 5490791
    Abstract: The card edge connector (1) has frames (2) facing each other. Partition (14) is secured by means of lances (60) retained by protrusions made in the main body (16). By inserting partition (14), one can obtain cavities (28) formed on both sides of the partition for accommodating thin cards. By removing partition (14) one can obtain a single cavity (29), thus cavities (28) can be combined to accommodate thick cards.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 13, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Shoji Yamada, Yoshitsugu Fujiura
  • Patent number: 5489221
    Abstract: The four corners of the pressure section (20) of the contact (10) punched out of a metal sheet are rounded off to form an oval surface (22). The lower portion (38) of the contact mounting opening (32) of the housing (30) is made of the same configuration as the pressure section (20). Since the dimensions of cross section of the lower portion (38) are made smaller than the corresponding dimensions of the pressure section (20), a tight joining is formed around the pressure section (20).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 6, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshitsugu Fujiura, Takeo Niwa
  • Patent number: 5486122
    Abstract: When double-lock member (42a) is in an incompletely inserted state, the contacting part (43a) projects from the plug housing (20). In this incompletely inserted state, the plug housing (20) and cap housing (30) are in a position prior to being tentatively latched to each other, and the contacting part (43a) of the double-lock member (42a), which has not been inserted into the plug housing (20), makes contact with the end (30a) of the cap housing (30), so the drawing together of the plug housing (20) and the cap housing (30) cannot proceed. Also, the end of the bolt case (14) in which the bolt (12) is clasped into the hole (22) of the plug housing, and the bolt (12) is held in the plug housing (20) by the bolt stop plate (40). Therefore, the bolt (12) is held in an unengaged state in the when in the incompletely inserted state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 1993
    Date of Patent: January 23, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Kenzo Oda, Shinji Amemiya
  • Patent number: 5484308
    Abstract: A data communications outlet kit is shown comprising a mounting frame, an outlet connector module and an external outlet cover. The outlet connector module comprises a housing, an edge connector and a connector insert, whereby the edge connector is for electrical connection between a data communications cable and the insert and the insert is for making electrical connection between the edge connector and an external connector, such as a modular plug. The outlet connector housing comprises an outlet housing box integrally molded to an outlet box cover by thin breakable webs, and to the cover are integrally molded two strain relief means that can be broken off the cover, one for a smaller cable diameter range and the other for a larger cable diameter range. Tapered pegs provisionally support the strain relief means to the cover while mounting the cover to the rear of the outlet housing box, engaging in holes in the strain relief means such that the strain relief means can be held thereon with a wedge effect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 16, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Klaus-Peter Gotz, Rainer Schwan, Gunter Feldmeier
  • Patent number: 5484302
    Abstract: A latching device (10) for a card edge connector (30) and auxiliary board (60) having a first arm (12) and a second arm (14), wherein the second arm includes a latching unit (20) and a latching release unit (26), when the latching device (10) is inserted into a receptacle compartment (46) in the connector (30), the first arm (12) is biased toward the second arm for fixing the latching device (10) in the receptacle compartment. The latching unit (20) includes round shoulders (22, 24) which are provided to fit into round recesses (62) of an auxiliary board (60). A directed pressure (A, B, C) placed on the release unit (26) causes the latching unit (20) to rotate away from an area in card edge connector (30) where an auxiliary board is disposed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 16, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoo Yamada, Yoshitsugu Fujiura
  • Patent number: 5482475
    Abstract: A prepared end of a coaxial cable (30) is inserted in an insulating housing (11), which can be fixed to a circuit board, having a signal contact (12) and a ground contact (13) arranged in such a manner that a core conductor (31) and an outer conductor (32) of the coaxial cable (30) come against, respectively, the signal contact (12) and the ground contact (13). In this position, a cover (20) is joined to the insulating housing (11) by a hinge (21) and then is closed and secured by a mounting screw (25). The mounting screw (25) is located on one side of the coaxial cable (30) and the other side of the cover (20) is secured by latch lock (18, 28).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 1995
    Date of Patent: January 9, 1996
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: Akira Kawaguchi
  • Patent number: 5478251
    Abstract: An electrical connector assembly is shown having matable connectors. One of the connectors has a sliding latch which can be moved transversely to cooperate with lugs on another of the connectors. The lugs have camming surfaces which cooperate with entry portions of camming grooves which cams the sliding latch to a preliminary position, whereby shoulders on the lugs can rest on shoulders within the entry portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 26, 1995
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: Ralf Jaklin
  • Patent number: 5474472
    Abstract: An electrical connector assembly (10,30) includes a metal sheet (20,42), which is in electrical contact with a metal shell (14,32), is embedded in an internal partition (18,40) of a housing (24,44) separating rows of contacts (16,38) for reducing electrical cross-talk between the contacts (16,38).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 1993
    Date of Patent: December 12, 1995
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Takeo Niwa, Yoshitsugu Fujiura, Hiromitsu Kodama
  • Patent number: 5472129
    Abstract: The template (90) comprises a comb member (91) formed with guide grooves (91a) for guiding two of the plurality of electrical wires in the direction of movement, comb member (92) formed with guide grooves to guide three electrical wires to the predetermined direction, a comb member (93) to shift two electrical wires by one pitch thereof, a comb member (94) to shift three electrical wires by one pitch thereof, spacers (95), (96) disposed at both sides of the comb member (94), spacers (97, 98) disposed at both sides of the comb member (93), and a substrate (100) to arrange and hold the above comb members and the spacers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 1993
    Date of Patent: December 5, 1995
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroshi Yagawa
  • Patent number: 5470260
    Abstract: An electrical connector for electrically connecting to conducting circuit traces on a card, includes contact wheels rotatably mounted on resilient cantilever arms. The wheels project into a card receiving slot of the connector such that when the card is inserted therein, the wheel contacts are resiliently biased out of the slot to press against a surface of the card, whereby further insertion thereof causes the contact wheels to roll over the surface of the card thereby avoiding rubbing of the contact surfaces whilst nevertheless maintaining suitable contact pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 28, 1995
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Rainer Schwan, Rudi Kramer
  • Patent number: 5470258
    Abstract: The receptacle contact (10) includes a box-shaped contact section (12) with its upper wall folded over to provide protrusions (36) to abut against the tip of a resilient arm (48). Such receptacle contacts (10) are inserted into contact receiving cavities (42) in the connector housing (44). A double-lock member (150) may be used for double locking the contacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 28, 1995
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuru Suzuki, Mikio Shindo, Yoichi Kashiwa
  • Patent number: 5468162
    Abstract: To offer a locking connector having a double-lock device with a positioner determining the position of the contacts. Cavities 8 are formed in the housing 2. A double-lock device 50 having cavities 64 corresponding to the cavities 8 is inserted in a recess 14 in the housing 2. At the pressure section 54 of the double-lock device 50, an extension 56 is made. From the front end of the extension 56, a connector positioner 58 extends vertically downward along the joining surface 4. The positioner 58 has an opening 60 and front edge 62 which determine position of the contacting sections 102 of the contacts 100 when the double-lock device 50 is in the fully locked position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 21, 1995
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: Kenzo Oda