Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

James M Cardinal

Kurt L Jennings

Joseph Howard Gladd

Timothy N Tackett

James R Cirillo

A fiber optic inline connector includes mating connector bodies each of which has a concentric protrusion at a connector end and a concentric cable passage that extends through the connector body from the connector end to a cable end. The concentric protrusions include a pair of diametrically opposed prongs and a pair of diametrically opposed slots that are orthogonally related to the diametrically opposed prongs so that the slots of each protrusion receive the prongs of the other protrusion to align the cable passages when the connector bodies are mated. The mated connector bodies are locked together by a pair of diametrically opposed stiff lock tongues and a pair of diametrically opposed flexible lock fingers at the connector end of each connector body that are spaced radially outwardly of the respective protrusions. The flexible lock fingers are orthogonally related to the stiff lock tongues so that the flexible lock fingers of each connector body engage the stiff lock tongues of the other connector body to lock the connectors together. A one-way connector and several interconnectable multi-way connectors are disclosed. An alternate three-way connector has three equally circumferentially spaced prongs, slots, flexible lock fingers and lock tongues.

Fiber optic inline connector with hermaphroditic alignment and lock means

A fiber optic bundle connector includes a hollow cone having a neck ring and a larger inlet ring at opposite ends of a conical body, a divider disposed in the cone that divides the interior of the cone into several compartments and a terminal block having an end fitted into the inlet ring of the cone. The terminal block has a plurality of terminal cavities that extend through the terminal block to communicate with respective ones of the several compartments. A plurality of jacketed fiber optic cables each having a ferrule attached to its jacket, are inserted through the respective terminal cavities so that their jacket stripped core ends extend into the neck ring of the cone. The neck ring of the cone is deformed by a permanently deformed cinch ring to produce a tightly packed bundle of jacket stripped core ends at a connector end of the fiber optic bundle connector. The cables are terminated identically and the ferrules are then positioned in the respective terminal cavities so that each terminal cavity has substantially the same path length to the neck ring irrespective of its location in the terminal block.

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Columbus, OH, United States of America

James M Cardinal