Texas Instruments Corporation

Joseph Pollak Corporation

Gennady Baskin

Diethard Unterweger

Ronald J Candelet

Pravin N Popat

Gary L Tonnies

Richard L Jenne

Steven K Sullivan

Kayvan Hedayat

David R Cummings

A tow socket connector for receiving a plug from a towed vehicle and having multiple electrical terminals sealed axially through the socket from one side to the other. Each terminal is locked in its associated opening in the connector by a snap member and the thickness of each terminal is expanded by jogs formed along a portion of its length to provide a slide fit and a sealant block between the terminal and its opening. Each terminal includes a horizontal opening to permit the flow of sealant in a well formed at the upper end of the socket.

Tow socket connector having sealant

A surge protection device to protect telecommunication equipment coupled to telephone lines is shown having in a first embodiment three cells with each cell having a semiconductor element with a reverse breakdown PN junction mounted on a heat sink. The device includes a lead frame having a first pair of leads formed with a platform raised out of the plane of the remainder of the lead frame to provide suitable clearance relative to the semiconducting elements and each platform has a finger extending downwardly into engagement with a top electrode of a respective semiconducting element and is soldered thereto. A second lead lies in the plane of the lead frame and is soldered to a first heat sink plate mounting two semiconducting elements and another finger extending from one of the platforms is soldered to a second heat sink plate mounting the third semiconducting element. The heat sinks, semiconducting elements and portions of the leads are encapsulated in thermally conductive, electrically insulative epoxy. The device, when subjected to excessive current and voltage conditions, is adapted to fail closed. A second embodiment has two cells mounted on a single heat sink plate mounted in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

Telecommunication equipment protector

A circuit breaker has two thin flat terminals embedded in an electrically insulating housing exposing respective broad flat sides of the terminals in spaced side-by-side relation to each other in a housing chamber. The circuit breaker has a thermostat metal member secured at one end to one exposed side of one terminal to mount the member extending along a chamber wall and has a contact at its opposite end to engage and disengage the other terminal to close and open a circuit in response to a selected current in the circuit. The contact comprises a material which erodes during repeated cycling of the circuit breaker. The thermostat metal member has a portion of reduced cross-sectional area adapted to burn out and separate the member into two sections to open the circuit if the contact welds or sticks to the other terminal. A stop on the housing intercepts movement of one of the member sections after burn out to avoid shorting of the circuit. An abutment on the housing prevents reclosing of the circuit after the contact has eroded to a selected extent. In one embodiment, an electrical resistance heater of positive coefficient of resistivity having an improved electrical wire insulation is wound on the thermostat metal member and retains the circuit in an effective open circuit condition until the heater circuit is separately interrupted to reset the breaker.

Circuit breaker

Growing community of inventors

Sharon, MA, United States of America

Gennady Baskin