The Whitaker Corporation

Manfred Schaarschmidt

Gunter Feldmeier

John C Farrar

Rudolf Kramer

James F Iannella

Klaus P Gotz

A connector for connection to bus conductors comprises terminals that have a pair of contact sections mounted on supple springs. The contact sections are for biasing against exposed conductors of a bus line. The redundancy provided by the two remotely spaced contact sections ensures high connection reliability, in particular in view of the exposure of the bus line conductors to dirt or damage to the contact surface.

Electrical installation bus connector

An electrical connector comprises a housing and terminals mounted therein, the terminals comprising contact tails for soldered connection to a printed circuit board. The contact tails have sealing material deposited thereon for sealing between the contact tail and housing to prevent solder and flux wicking onto contact sections of the terminals. The concept also advantageously provides sealing of the connector from the environment, whilst using minimal quantities of sealing material and having very small sealing surfaces for increased reliability thereof.

Connector with terminals having anti-wicking gel

A connector assembly is provided with a suction platform having a suction surface on one side and pin receiving pipes extending on the other side for mounting onto contact pins of the connector assembly. The pipes are provided with pin receiving cavities that have a cross-sectional profile slightly twisted with respect to the square profile of the pin contacts such that insertion of the pin contacts thereinto causes resilient torsional biasing of the pipes, thereby causing sufficient frictional forces therebetween for picking of the connector assembly via the support platform. Advantageously the suction platform does not depend on the shape of the connector, but rather only on the size and pitch of the pins therefore enabling use for different connectors. Additionally, the suction platform is well adapted for compact connectors that are difficult to hold onto otherwise.

Electrical connector suction platform for facilitating picking

A boardlock for securely connecting an electrical device or connector to a printed circuit board without requiring post-soldering thereof, is shown comprising a pair of rigid arms joined at the lower end by a thinner bridge section. The boardlock is a flat unitary edge-stamped sheet metal part that is insertable through a hole of a printed circuit board such that the bridge portion extends below the printed circuit board and whereby outer portions thereof, extend outwardly of the hole for provisionally holding the boardlock to the printed circuit board. A die comprising an elongate slot of slightly greater thickness than the boardlock, can be engaged against the bridge portion for permanent plastic deformation thereof. The die has a convex bottomed surface in order to arc the deformed bridge portion towards the printed circuit board in order to enhance the mechanical resistance of the boardlock with respect to an upwards pulling force thereon.

Solderless boardlock

An electrical connector (2) comprising rows of terminals (6) therein has capacitance filter elements (36,38) bonded to side walls (14,16) thereof. The filter elements are comprised of a thin dielectric film laminated on either side with conductive material, the one side serving as a ground electrode and the other side divided into a plurality of signal electrodes separated by gaps formed by conventional etching process. The filter elements also have connection tabs (48,49) extending from a lower end (50) thereof, each tab connected to a separate electrode (42,44) and electrically connected to corresponding terminals (6) of the connector (2). The invention therefore provides for a readily manufacturable and cost effective filtered connector for filtering unwanted frequency components of a signal to be carried, the filter being mountable to the connector housing in an unobtrusive and compact manner.

Growing community of inventors

Bensheim, Germany

Manfred Schaarschmidt