Molex Corporation

Bradley M Dick

Yves Lepottier

Scott P Marceau

Christopher Dillon

Xin Wang

Xiaojian Yang

Dwaraganathan Bhagyanathan-Sathlanathan

Aaron Puetz

Matt Bailey

Cristopher Dillon

A connector has a housing configured to mate with a second housing, a pair of slide members movably mounted on the housing, and a lever pivotably attached to the housing and slidably coupled to the slide members. Each slide member has a cam groove in a side surface which provides an angled lead-in surface into the cam groove and cam surfaces engageable with a cam follower post of the second housing. A blocking shoulder partially blocking an opening of the cam groove to prevent entry of the cam follower post unless the cam follower post is in a correct position. When the cam follower post engages the angled lead-in surface, this provides a visual and tactile indication to a user that the connector is ready to be mated with the second housing.

Electrical connector with mate assist having feedback

An electrical terminal fitting includes a body and a hood. The body is formed from a first material and includes a connection section and a contacting section with the contacting section having a flexible contact beam and stiffening beam for receiving a male pin of a mating terminal. The hood is formed from a second material having a higher tensile strength than the first material and is secured to the body. The hood includes a rib having tapered ends and a locking beam that engages a housing to secure the terminal. The locking beam further includes a stop having a rounded end.

Terminal fitting with hood

The present disclosure is directed to TPA connectors. The TPA connectors of the present disclosure can have a connector body that can include a plurality of cavities for receiving terminals. The TPA connectors can also include a retainer for locking the terminals in their seated position and for locking to the connector body to prevent unwanted removal thereof. The connector body can include posts with stop surfaces which can prevent the retainer from moving from a pre-lock position to a fully locked position by engaging contact surfaces on the locking arms of the retainer. The locking arms can be cantilevered and have outwardly directed projections to engage the posts for locking the retainer to the connector body. The locking arms can be deflected inwardly with a squeezing or pinching motion to disengage the contact surfaces from the stop surfaces of the posts and permitting the retainer to move to the fully locked position by pushing retainer towards the connector body. Once the projects pass the post, locking arms can be release to allow the projections to engage the posts to lock the retainer to the connector body.

Electrical connector having finger-actuated retainer

Growing community of inventors

Linden, MI, United States of America

Bradley M Dick