Abstract: A thin electronic card (10) can securely receive and connect to contacts of an RJ or telephone type plug (40). The card has a vertical hole (52) through which the RJ plug can be inserted. The front wall (84) of the hole has downwardly-facing card shoulders (80,82) for abutting the upwardly-facing shoulders (70,72) of the RJ plug latch (62), and the front wall has a rib (96) with an upwardly-facing shoulder(100) that lies below and laterally between the other card shoulders to engage a largely downwardly-facing shoulder (92) on the latch. The hole is formed in an adaptor (50) that can slide forward (F) and rearward (R). The adaptor includes a frame (110) that forms the front wall of the hole and the shoulders thereat, and a separate contact block (112). The contact block slides a shorter distance than the frame when both of them are slid to the fully stowed position within the card frame (32).

Abstract: A rotary switch includes a housing (14) with a pair of fixed select terminals (44a, 44b) and a fixed common terminal (44c). A rotor (28) that can pivot about an axis (A1), carries a connector (48) with a contact pad (60) for engaging one of the select contacts at a time and a common contact (58) for engaging the common terminal on the housing. The common terminal on the housing is in the form of a track extending in an arc centered on the rotor axis to enable the common contact to remain in continuous engagement with the common terminal as the rotor turns. The common contact on the rotor forms a pair of tabs (62) that slideably engage opposite sides of the track. The connector on the rotor can shift radially to the axis, and is biased by a spring (64) to urge the contact pad toward a select terminal. A cam arrangement shifts the contact pad radially away from a select terminal as the rotor begins to turn from a center position, to minimize the duration of electric arcs.

Abstract: A PC card has a sheet metal forward housing part (13) whose rear edge (36) is connected to a plastic molded rear extension part (14) before a sheet metal lower housing element (11) is connected to them, which enables simple coupling of the forward and rearward parts so the two of them can be handled prior to full assembly of the card. The rear edge of the sheet metal forward housing part includes a pair of side tabs (38, 39) at laterally opposite sides and a center tab (44) at the center. The plastic molded part has a front edge portion (110) with a pair of vertical slots (28, 29) at opposite sides for receiving the side tabs, and with a groove (36) at the middle for receiving the center tab. With the plastic molded part lying horizontal, the sheet metal forward part is held in a vertical plane with the side tabs projecting down into the side slots and the center tab lying in the center recess. The sheet metal forward part is then pivoted down, causing the side tabs to bend about 90.degree.

Abstract: A tool (34, 144) is provided for extracting a contact (16, 112) from the front end of a connector, which not only has a sleeve (70) to release a locking clip (30) that holds the contact in position, but that also has a highly resilient grasping clip (80) that grasps the contact to pull it out when the tool is withdrawn from the connector. In a tool for a connector which has a barrel (29) lying within the locking clip and that has a smaller diameter location (32) forward of the barrel, the grasping clip (80) with spring fingers (86) lies in the sleeve at a position wherein the spring fingers can grasp the smaller diameter location of the contact to pull out the contact.

Abstract: An electrical switch (26) is mounted in a rigid housing in the form of a control handle (10), where the housing has a soft flexible covering (32) with a portion (40) that can be depressed to operate the switch. The housing is in the form of a shell with first and second separately molded shell parts (14,16). The first shell part has a hole (24) in it that is aligned with the switch actuator, and the covering is overmolded onto the first shell, with the portion of the covering lying over the hole in the first shell being thickened at the middle (44) of the hole to indicate the area to be depressed and for more comfortable depression.

Abstract: A connector (1) including a contact (3) for connecting to a mating half and a locking element (2), the locking element (2) having a locked position preventing connection or disconnection of the contact (3) with the mating half and an unlocked position preventing connection or disconnection, wherein transition between the locked and unlocked positions is governed by a spring means (5) formed as an integral part of the locking element (2), the spring means (5) being unbiased when the locking element (2) is in the locked position.

Abstract: Apparatus is described for transmitting signals between electric terminals through photo diodes to electrically isolate circuits connected to the terminals, which is compact and rugged. The apparatus includes a metal shell, (24, FIG. 2) a pair of circuit boards (40, 42) mounted in the shell and axially spaced apart, pairs of terminals (12, 14) with one terminal of each pair mounted on a different one of the circuit boards, and pairs of photo diodes or other optoelectric transducers (16, 18). Each transducer of a pair is mounted to a different circuit board and connected to a corresponding terminal, and the two transducers are aligned and extend toward each other. A separator element (90) of opaque material occupies most of the space between the circuit boards and has holes (92) that receive the two transducers of each pair. The separator element prevents the leakage of light between different pairs of transducers, and also helps to assure alignment of each pair of transducers.

Abstract: A receptacle (12) is provided for mounting on a board (14) and for receiving a plug (16), where the receptacle is strengthened to prevent the plug from tilting about a lateral (L) axis when a cable (18) extending from the plug is pulled up or down. The receptacle has laterally opposite sides that each forms at least the upper wall (44) of a key-receiving slot (24, 26), for receiving keys (20, 22) at laterally opposite sides of the plug, to fix the vertical position of the plug and prevent the plug from tilting. The receptacle includes a body (80) of molded polymer material, and also includes first and second pairs of clips (60,62) that are each formed of an engineering metal. Each clip has a clip part (64) that forms a portion of the upper slot wall that prevents upward movement and tilting of the plug, and each clip has downwardly projecting pins (70, 72) that are received in holes (77, 78) in the board and are soldered thereto.

Abstract: An electrical connector includes a housing (12) and a coupling assembly (35) that has a mateable contact (32) at the front of the housing and a conductor-terminating coupling (34). The coupling has a pair of arms (38, 40) with jaws (48) that are biased toward an axis (37). A holder member (54) has a pair of projections (58, 60) with surfaces that hold the arms in a ready position wherein they have been resiliently deflected away from the axis. When a cable conductor (66) is inserted forwardly (F) through a bore (28) in the housing, the forward tip of the cable presses the coupling assembly forwardly. As the coupling assembly moves forward, the arms are released from the holder members, so the arms can move toward the axis and the jaws (48) on the arms can engage the cable conductor.

Abstract: Tooling is provided for inserting electrical contacts into holes (20) of a connector insulator (90), which enables easy setup for different connectors. The tooling includes a lower tool (12) for supporting a connector housing (14) and an upper tool (16) which is vertically slidable toward the lower one and which carriers insertion pins (30, 32) for pushing contacts into the insulator. The upper tool includes a block (22) having three long rows of pin passages (24) and a backup device (50) which lies over insertion pins lying in the passages to push them down. Insertion pins of a desired type (for inserting pin or socket contacts) can be inserted into selected passages corresponding to the particular connector into which contacts are to be inserted.

Abstract: An electrical connector is disclosed in which a mounting flange, for mounting the connector on a panel, is releasably secured to the connector body while simultaneously providing a seal between the flange and the body. The seal is preferably in the form of an O-ring which cooperates with locking pins on the flange and matching recesses on the connector body to provide a detent mechanism that permits the releasable locking of the flange onto the body.

Abstract: A welding fixture (30) can hold a part (12) that is to be welded by a weld head (22) that has a flat head surface (32) that must press against a flat part surface (56), where the fixture automatically tilts to assure that the surfaces lie coplanar so the fixture can be fixed in that position. The fixture has upper and lower assemblies (60, 62) that respectively include upper and lower washers (84, 92) with mating spherical surfaces (96, 98) that allow the upper assembly to pivot about horizontal axes with respect to the lower assembly. The washers have central holes (102, 104), and a bolt (112) extending through the central holes can be tightened to clamp the upper and lower assemblies together after the upper assembly has been tilted to the desired orientation. The spherical surfaces are preferably centered on a sphere center (100) that lies above the fixture, with the spherical surfaces subtending an angle (C) of no more than about 60.degree. with respect to the sphere center.

Abstract: Apparatus is provided for connecting the rear termination ends (32, 34) of connector contacts (12, 14) to wires (42, 44) of a cable (40) in a design where the solder connections are encased in molded plastic, which maintains the contacts so their axes (20, 22) extend precisely along forward-rearward directions. This is accomplished by providing a mold with an alignment mold part (110) with holders (114, 120) that either directly engage shoulders (160, 162) of the contacts or that engage shoulders (140, 142) formed on a circuit board (54) with holes (62) that closely receive rear termination ends (32) of a contact.

Abstract: A PC card (10) of standard width and thickness (e.g. 54 mm and 5 mm) is constructed to receive a chip card (20) of smaller width and thickness (e.g. 18 mm and 0.8 mm) so the PC card can be used to connect contact pads (60) of the chip card to an electronic device such as a laptop computer into which the PC card is inserted. A frame (22) is mounted in a fixed position on a circuit board of the PC card, the frame having a recess (82) substantially the same width as that of the chip card for closely receiving the chip card to locate it so pads on the chip card engage chip contacts (76) that are also mounted on the circuit board. A planar top portion (86) of a sheet metal cover part has an aperture (24) that communicates with the recess in the frame to permit the insertion of the chip card through the aperture and into the recess of the frame.

Abstract: A connector is provided for use with a microcircuit card that has contact pads on its lower face, which assures that connector contact blades fully engage the card pads when full insertion of the card is detected. The connector includes a body with a contact body portion that holds the card-engaging contacts and a switch body portion that holds a switch with an actuator. The body portions are integral and have coplanar upper faces which assures precision relative positioning of the card-engaging blades and the actuator that detects full insertion of the card. The switch body portion is preferably offset from the contact body portion, which facilitates routing of circuit board conductors when the connector is mounted on a circuit board, especially where the connector has surface mount terminals. The switch actuator has a fixed rear end and two forward arms, one for depression by a card and the other for depressing and releasing a snap dome.

Abstract: A new host (14) and new PC card (12) are provided that have more than the standard two rows (16,18) of 34 contact positions each, where the new host can not only engage the new card but can also engage types I, II, and III standard PCMCIA cards so the new host is backward compatible to the large number of existing standard cards. The new PC card has the standard two rows (16,18) of 34 contact positions vertically spaced by 11/4 mm and has third and fourth additional rows (20,22) of card contact positions vertically spaced from the standard rows. The new card front end has laterally opposite card sides forming runners (44,48) of the standard thickness of about 3.3 mm, with the runners having upper and lower surfaces (72,74) lying respectively above and below the standard pair of rows, and with at least the third row lying above the level of the upper runner surfaces.

Abstract: A system includes mateable connectors (12, 14) with mateable optic fiber termini, which provides for precision alignment of the termini and which facilitates installation of an insert whose front end must be of rectangular shape. Two mating sets of optic fiber termini (30, 32) are precisely aligned by a pair of pin-receiving alignment holes (44, 46) in one connector and a pair of pins (40, 42) projecting from the other connector, wherein a first (40) of the alignment pins is precisely cylindrical and fits closely in the first hole, and a second (42) of the pins is also precisely cylindrical but fits into a hole (46) that is elongated in a direction toward and away from the first hole. A front portion (110) of an insert is of largely rectangular cross-section, while the rear portion (112) of the insert is of largely circular cross-section to enable retention by a circular retainer clip (120) and to provide threads (122) for threading into a backshell.

Abstract: A switch is provided that includes a circuit board support (12) with a contact bump (24, 26) thereon, and a sheet metal terminal (16) having a deflectable blade (20,22) with an elongated H-shaped slot (70). The slot forms rear and front tines (72, 74) with adjacent free ends (84, 86) that lie over the bump, to contact the bump when the front end of the blade is allowed to move towards the support.

Abstract: Apparatus is provided for sensing the pressure and temperature of fluid within a cavity of a block, such as hot plastic that flows into a mold cavity. The apparatus includes a piston (30) lying closely but slideably within a bore that extends from the cavity in the block. The outer end of the piston is coupled through a beam structure (36), in a shape of a diaphragm, to a rigid support (40). A strain gauge (44) mounted on the diaphragm senses piston deflection which is proportional to the pressure of fluid in the cavity. A highly heat conductive rod (80) extends through a hole in the middle of the piston, the rod having an inner end (84) that is flush with the piston and the rod having an outer end (86) joined at a thermocouple joint (92), so the temperature of the rod is sensed by the thermocouple to thereby sense the temperature of material in the cavity.

Abstract: An adapter for connection of an RF connector to a printed circuit board (PCB), the adapter comprising a plastics body adapted to mate with an RF connector, one or more contacts for electrical connection with the RF connector upon mating therewith and one or more attachment means disposed so as to permit connection to tracks on a printed circuit board, wherein coupling between each contact and an associated attachment means is effected via a conductive layer provided on the surface of the body.