Smiths Industries Public Limited Company

Brian Shepherd

Peter Dent

Donald Richard LaCoy

Gavin Harry Mintern

Amanda Jane Wilson

An electrical connector has a row of metal spring clips mounted on the lower half of its outer shell to the rear of the contact block. Screened cables enter the rear of the connector, each screening sheath being doubled over and trapped between an inner stiffening tube and an outer metal collar. The clips make electrical contact with the screening sheaths via the collars. A clamping member on the upper half of the shell bears on the cables on opposite sides of the clips.

Electrical assembly with spring clips connecting to cable screens

An electrical connector for several screened cables has a transverse metal ground plate formed with rectangular apertures, one for each cable. The conductors in each cable are secured at their ends in contacts and these are supported in rectangular insulating beads. The screen of each cable extends over the bead and is trapped in position within a metal cage secured to the outside of the bead. The cage is a resilient push fit in a respective one of the apertures so that the screens are connected via the cage to the ground plate.

Multi-contact connector for screened cables

An electrical connector has an outer metal shell containing a mounting block with columns and rows of mounting apertures. Some of the columns of apertures support electrical sockets; others support a grounding strip. The grounding strip makes connection at either end with the outer shell and has sockets extending in apertures in the block. Cables with two wires in a screening sleeve are connected with the connector by pins mounted at the ends of the wires and the screening sleeve. The pins on the screening sleeve are plugged into sockets on the grounding strip; those on the wires are plugged into sockets in the mounting block on either side of the grounding strip. A conductive gland is clamped about the screening sleeves where they enter the shell to form a second ground path

Electrical assembly with grounding strip connecting cable screens

An electrical connector has two parts each with a rectangular shell surrounding contact elements. The outside of one shell and the inside of the other are enlarged in the corners and so that the two shells can only be mated when presented square-on, thereby reducing the risk that the contact elements on one part will be inadvertently contacted by the shell on the other part. The two parts have mating coding members and clamping members located outside the shells, one part having two tower formations in which the coding and clamping members are located. The width of the towers is greater than the width of the shell on the other part.

Electrical connectors

An electrical connector assembly has several sockets mounted in apertures in a ground plane. Each socket has a metal tube supporting wires that engage the surface of a pin inserted in the socket. Each socket is filtered by means a tubular capacitor one electrode of which is soldered in the aperture and the other electrode of which is electrically connected to the wires. An annular, ferrite inductor embraces the tube within the capacitor. Protection from a transient at any one of the sockets is provided by a transient protector device on a flexible circuit board joined to each socket.

Electrical assemblies

Electrical sockets are positioned for insertion in holes in a circuit board by means of a sheet of a bendable plastics having an array of apertures in some of which the sockets are inserted. Each socket has a knurled region around its upper end just below a flange. The flange is undercut to give it a sloping lower surface and a peripheral edge that bites into the upper surface of the sheet. Ultrasonic energy is used to cause the sheet material around the sockets to flow into close contact with the terminals. The assembly of the sheet and sockets is used to insert the sockets in the circuit board following which they are soldered in place and the sheet is removed by pulling back from one edge over the sockets.

Terminal positioning assembly and methods

In a multi-conductor electrical assembly, each conductor is connected to a first common electrical plane via first unidirectional current devices and each conductor is further connected to a second common electrical plane via second unidirectional current devices having an opposite sense to the first unidirectional current devices. The assembly includes first and second energy-dissipating devices connected between ground and respective ones of the electrical planes such that an excessive positive or negative voltage excursion on any one of the conductors is conducted via a respective one of the first or second unidirectional current devices to the first or second plane and to ground via the energy-dissipating devices.

Electrical protection assemblies

A plug-in electrical connector includes a filter assembly formed by a printed circuit board supporting surface mounted capacitors. One electrode of each capacitor is soldered to a peripheral track that is in electrical contact with the outer metal shell of the connector. The other electrode of each capacitor is soldered to respective conductive regions around plated-through apertures. Each aperture contains a socket soldered to it and extending through the board. The sockets have several spring wire elements that establish electrical connection with respective pins 11 that extend through the sockets. One end of each pin is crimped to a respective conductor, the other end of each pin serving to make electrical connection with a cooperating connector. Electrical interference on signals passing via the pins is dissipated to ground via the capacitors.

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Wendover, United Kingdom

Brian Shepherd