Abstract: An electrical connector having a housing that includes a conductive piece and a plastic piece, electrical contacts mounted to the housing, and a circuit assembly connected to the contacts. The circuit assembly comprises circuit elements and a lead frame. The lead frame is formed from a bandolier used to carry the contacts and the circuit elements prior to insertion into the housing. One portion of the lead frame may form a ground plane and may be joined to the conductive housing piece. Bandolier index holes may be used for attaching the ground plane portion to posts on the conductive housing piece. An uncut section of the lead frame may form a bridge for grounding a contact. The lead frame may also be mounted onto a ferrite block.

Abstract: A connector assembly having a male connector body engagable with a female connector body. At least one female terminal is mounted in one of the connector bodies and the terminal includes a contact portion having a generally cylindrical shape with opposing ends and a plurality of contact beams extending between the ends to define a reduced effective diameter located between the ends. The assembly also includes a preassembled terminal position assurance mechanism, which for providing an indicia of whether the terminal is fully seated within the connector body, and a preassembled connector position assurance mechanism, which provides an indicia of whether the connector bodies are fully engaged with one another.

Abstract: A connector assembly having a male connector body engagable with a female connector body. At least one female terminal is mounted in one of the connector bodies and the terminal includes a contact portion having a generally cylindrical shape with opposing ends and a plurality of contact beams extending between the ends to define a reduced effective diameter located between the ends. The assembly also includes a preassembled terminal position assurance mechanism, which for providing an indicia of whether the terminal is fully seated within the connector body, and a preassembled connector position assurance mechanism, which provides an indicia of whether the connector bodies are fully engaged with one another.

Abstract: An electrical connector assembly employs a connector position assurance device to detect and interlockably secure complete mating of a pair of electrical connectors. In one aspect of the present invention, the connector position assurance device has a yoke which traps a cantilevered beam to a locking member. In another aspect of the present invention, a connector position assurance device has a yoke and a flexible arm. In yet another aspect of the present invention, a method of mating, installing and disengaging a pair of electrical connectors and a connection position assurance device is provided.

Abstract: An electrical connector assembly employing a connector position assurance device to aid in the retention of and signal full insertion of a pair of mating electrical connectors.

Abstract: An electrical connector assembly having a terminal stuffer member for securely maintaining a plurality of terminal members within a connector body. The terminal stuffer member includes a plurality of flexible locking arm members. The connector body includes a plurality of openings adapted to slidably receive a corresponding plurality of terminal members therein. At least one wall portion of the connector body includes a plurality of recessed portions associated with the openings for the terminal members, with each of the recessed portions having a ramped portion associated therewith. When the terminal stuffer member is slidably inserted into a first, preloaded position, the locking arm members are slidably received within the recessed portions and therefore do not interfere with the openings into which the terminal members are inserted. Accordingly, the terminal members may be inserted into the connector body when the terminal stuffer member is in the preloaded position.

Abstract: A cylinder pressure sensor of the annular insert type disposed within an access well to measure the flexure of a first wall relative to a second wall along a response axis has low-cost components thereof requiring only simple sequential assembly in axial stacked fashion providing contaminant protection and electrical shielding of the sensing element.

Abstract: An electrical female terminal of two piece construction comprising a base terminal and a spring member. The base terminal is stamped and formed from a blank strip of relatively soft copper alloy and includes a round, smooth, protrusion-free contact end in the form of a rolled socket that is attached to conventional crimp wings by an intermediate cylindrical neck of a rolled cylindrical form. The rolled socket has an annular lip at its front end defining an entrance for plugging a terminal pin into the socket and a pair of contacts near the front end that are formed from the material of the socket. The spring member is stamped and bent from a sheet of spring material into a generally T-shaped configuration comprising a spring finger that is attached to the middle of a c-shaped support at one end.

Abstract: An electrical connector comprising a multiple terminal connector body has a sturdy and easily installed end cap that is secured to the connector body for sealing the cable end. The end cap includes a seal chamber that is disposed in a common cavity at the cable end of the connector body and contains a compliant sealing material which seals the open ends of the terminal cavities and encapsulates projecting ends of the electric terminals and trailing portions of the electric cables. The end cap is configured to maintain the integrity of the seal chamber, to permit the electric cables to pass out of the common cavity at the cable end of the connector body, to assure that the electric terminals are properly located in the terminal cavities of the connector body and to provide a strain relief in cooperation with portions of the connector body.

Abstract: A fiber-optic connection system comprises three interfitting plastic parts. A two-piece cable terminal includes a cable receiving body and a terminal body. The terminal body has two spaced projections which mount the fiber ends and has a pair of converging cable guide walls. The cable receiving body has walls with gripper teeth complementary to the guide walls. When two cable strands are introduced and the bodies are interconnected to form the terminal connector, the walls trap the cables. The fiber ends are finished by hot plate melting. The terminal connector is inserted into a header having pockets to mount electro-optical devices. The pockets have integral spring rails to force the devices into contact with the projections containing the fiber ends upon assembly. A series of integral lock tangs and shoulders retain the component parts interconnected to prevent inadvertant disassembly.

Abstract: An electrical connector comprises a connector body and an elastomeric seal of one piece construction which seals the conductor end of the connector body and provides an interface seal when the connector body is plugged into a mating connector. The elastomeric seal is held in place by a backshell which provides a protective shroud for the interface sealing portion of the elastomeric seal. A lock arm is incorporated into the backshell which also provides a strain relief and a mount for a connector position assurance device.

Abstract: An electrical connector has dielectric connector bodies which are coupled and locked together by a resilient lock member of one connector body which snaps past and engages a lock member of the other connector body.The resilient lock member includes a slot which extends through one end and a lock shoulder which faces the opposite end.The other lock member includes a lock shoulder and a loop which passes through the slot of the resilient lock member and cooperatively forms a gauge hole of predetermined minimum size with the resilient lock member when the connector bodies are coupled and locked together by the lock shoulders. A gauge pin having a shank of substantially the same predetermined minimum size is disposed in the gauge hole to indicate that the connector bodies are locked together by the lock shoulders.

Abstract: An electrical connector socket comprises a sleeve member of conducting material, a support member having two juxtaposed pieces coaxially surrounding the sleeve member, and resilient contact means in the form of a stamped sheet metal cylinder. The stamped sheet metal cylinder has a pair of longitudinally spaced bands which are connected to each other by a plurality of resilient longitudinal contact strips which extend obliquely to the longitudinal axis of the sleeve when the stamped sheet metal cylinder is secured to the sleeve member in a twisted condition by the two juxtaposed pieces of the support member.

Abstract: An electrical connector comprises a connector body having two rows of terminal cavities which extend axially through the connector body. The connector body has a nose portion which comprises a plurality of ribs which define channels at the forward portions of the terminal cavities. An elastomeric seal ring is mounted on the connector body and extends across the channels to bias the terminals against the bottoms of the channels and into interference positions with respect to lock shoulders which retain the terminals in the rearward direction. A cap member mounted on the nose portion of the connector body retains the terminals in the forward direction, holds the terminals in their interference positions in the terminal cavities and fastens the elastomeric seal ring in the axial direction.

Abstract: A fuse package for a vehicle handles a row of plug-in type fuses in a simple and convenient fashion. An insulator block includes a plurality of terminals arrayed so that a row of fuses held in a cover will plug into the terminals as the cover is installed on the block. The terminals grip the fuses more strongly than the fuses are held within the cover so that the terminals will be pulled out of the cover and stay plugged in to the terminals as the cover is removed, giving easy servicing access to the fuses. The fuses are not held within the cover strongly enough to stay with the cover as the cover is handled, however. A retainer fits within the cover strongly enough to maintain the cover and fuses as a unitary assembly that can be separately handled and installed. The retainer also includes a locking means that interengages with a locking means on the block as the cover assembly is installed to cooperatively keep the cover on the block.

Abstract: A universal grommet retainer is structurally independent of, but acts in cooperation with, a grommet body of the type having a wire bundle held fast with respect thereto. A gripper member of the retainer, separate from the grommet body, is clamped to the wire bundle after the wire bundle is passed through an aperture in a bulkhead panel. Biasing members slideably received in tracks on the gripper member are then pressed against a surface of the bulkhead panel, thereby drawing a stop flange of the grommet body tightly against an opposed surface of the bulkhead panel. A ratchet means maintains the biasing members in place, and the grommet body is thereby attached to the bulkhead panel.

Abstract: A low profile socket assembly is provided for use with a wedge base type lamp bulb that has a reduced number of parts while providing uniform and reliable electrical contact. The socket assembly includes a housing having a socket adapted to receive the lamp bulb base, and a pair of substantially cylindrical barrel terminals. The barrel terminals are uniformly radially inwardly compressible without substantial resistance, and receivable within the housing so as to present a uniform contact surface through the walls of the housing socket regardless of the orientation of the terminals. The terminals are thereby uniformly compressible between the filament contact wires and the inner surfaces of the terminal passages by the opposed sides of the lamp bulb base when the lamp bulb base is received into the socket, thereby making uniform and reliable electrical contact with the lamp bulb.

Abstract: A wire bundle and grommet assembly includes a grommet body with an extension and a retention sleeve that slideably fits over the grommet body extension. Respective stop flanges are spaced from one another. The retention sleeve also includes a one-way ratchet means, and flexible retention fingers engageable with cam ramps on the grommet body extension. When the wire bundle is pulled through the aperture, the grommet body extension and retention sleeve move as one through the aperture, until the retention sleeve stop flange anchors on the bulkhead panel. Thereafter, the grommet body extension slides through the anchored retention sleeve, and the cam ramps flex the retention fingers outboard, past the perimeter of the aperture, and into engagement with one surface of the bulkhead panel. The grommet body stop flange concurrently engages the other surface of the bulkhead panel. The ratchet means keeps the various parts in that position, and the assembly is thereby attached to the bulkhead panel.

Abstract: A duplex insulation displacement terminal comprises first and second terminal members connected side-by-side in a laterally spaced relationship by an integral bus strip. Each terminal member has a pair of spaced, longitudinally slotted plates which are connected by a side wall. The side wall of each terminal member has an elongated window near its slotted end.

Abstract: A prepared ribbon cable is mass terminated to a preloaded electrical connector by wave soldering techniques. The preloaded connector comprises a housing and a plurality of terminals. The housing has an anvil in the form of a flange at the conductor end of the housing and a plurality of fins projecting from the conductor end to isolate the conductor attaching means of the terminals from each other. The terminals are inserted into cavities through openings at the mating end of the housing, retained by solder tabs which are bent over against the flange, and form part of the conductor attaching means. The conductor attaching means further includes slotted terminal portions which receive the conductors and position the ends of the conductors on the bent solder tabs.