Thomas & Betts Corporation

Jeffrey C Howland

Robert W Brush, Jr

Kevin G Henderson

Eric D Juntwait

Timothy A Jones

Phil B Parker

Charles Ray Murphy

An electrical connector comprises an elongate insulative housing having a plurality of cavities extending in side-by-side relation along the longitudinal housing direction. Each of the cavities is nominally spaced for fine pitch applications to be on the order of 0.050 inch. A wire contact assembly which is snapped into the connector housing and resiliently held therein by a releasable latch, comprises an insulation crimping portion that is formed during the crimping process to be of oval configuration. The oval configuration allows the use of wires at least as large as 28 AWG in such fine pitch spacings and permits installation of each wire contact assembly into the connector in the same orientation.

Fine pitch discrete wire cable connector

A method for making an electrical connector comprises the steps of configuring a housing and contact members such that the contact members may assume positions in the housing which are variable for each contact member and of assembling the contact members in the housing such that they assume positions therein giving rise to contact member coplanarity. An electrical connector so made comprises a housing defining contact member receiving channels and contact members resident in the channels, the contact members defining contact portions and contact member retaining means, the housing being configured to permit variable positioning of said contact member retaining means therein, whereby contact member contact portions may be coplanarly positioned irrespective of warp present in the housing.

Electrical connector and method of making same

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Inman, SC, United States of America

Jeffrey C Howland