Molex Corporation

Masahiro Sakano

Minoru Sano

Sumitaka Ogawa

Masaaki Ooya

Jun Deng

Kouji Kano

Cheng-Bing Qiu

Hiromichi Komatsu

An electrical connector comprises an insulative housing and a plurality of conductive terminals. The terminals are respectively provided in grooves of the housing. Each terminal has a portion fixed to the housing, an upper elastic portion extending from a top end of the fixed portion and a lower elastic portion extending from a bottom end of the fixed portion. The upper portion has a first arm extending from the fixed portion, a first contact section extending from the first arm, extending out of a top surface of the housing and bending, and a second arm extending from the first section, and a distal end of the second arm abuts against abutted structures in the corresponding groove when the first section is pressed down.

Electrical connector

An electrical connector assembly interconnects a flat flexible circuit and a printed circuit board. The assembly includes an elongated female connector having a dielectric housing with a mating face in a top side of the housing and an elongated receptacle in the mating face. A plurality of conductive terminals are mounted on the housing and are spaced along opposite sides of the receptacle. The terminals have flexible contact portions projecting into the receptacle and tail portions for connection to appropriate conductors of the flat flexible circuit at a bottom side of the housing. An elongated male connector includes a plug portion for inserting into the receptacle of the female connector and a plurality of terminals for engaging the contact portions of the terminals of the female connector, along with tail portions for connection to appropriate circuit traces on the printed circuit board.

Electrical connector assembly

A female electrical terminal has a contact end a terminating end. The contact end is generally rectangular in cross-section and includes a pair of opposing side walls extending upwardly from opposite sides of a bottom wall, along with a top wall. A deformable tab is provided in each side wall. A spring contact element is located in the contact end for biasingly engaging a male terminal inserted into the contact end. The spring contact element includes recess portions adapted to receive the deformable tabs of the side walls.

Female electrical terminal

An improved flat flexible cable connector (1) for a flat flexible cable (6) includes a housing (4), terminals (3) and an actuator (5) movable between an initial engagement position and a final engagement position. The terminals include integral contact pieces (16) that are deflected by a pushing piece (8) of the actuator during movement of the actuator to its final engagement position. When the actuator is in the final engagement position, the cable is held in position by way of projections (21) on the housing which engage and retain corresponding engagement holes (20) of the cable, and, at the same time, the pushing piece of the actuator presses conductors of the cable against contact areas of the contact pieces (16) of the terminals. Movement of the actuator to its initial position puts the cable (6) in a releasable position by moving the actuator away from the contact pieces of the terminals and from the projections of the housing, thereby causing the contact pieces to lift the cable and release the projections from the engagement holes of the cable. Thus the cable can be pulled out from the cable connector when the actuator is in this initial position. The cable is positively held in the final engagement position and cannot be inadvertently released. The cable is therefore put in a releasable position by a single action.

Flat flexible cable connector

Disclosed is an improved electric connector assembly which is compact in size, and is capable of simultaneously mating its plug and receptacle connectors (1a, 2a, 1b, 2b). Each connector has integrally formed projections (7a, 11a, 7b, 11b) on its sides, and a cover (13) encloses the plug and receptacle connectors (1a, 2a, 1b, 2b). The cover (13) has slider plates (14) which have guide slots (15, 16, 17, 18) to accommodate the projections (7a, 11a, 7b, 11b) and cause them to move toward each other when the slider plates (14) are moved laterally thereby pulling the plug connectors (1a, 1b) and the receptacle connectors (2a, 2b) toward one another by way of the projections and slot cam action until the connectors are fully mated.

Electrical connector assembly equipped with means for simultaneously

Disclosed is an improved electrical connector having at least one detachable spacer. The spacer is positioned so as to leave a space large enough for terminals to be inserted into the connector housing without interference with the overlying spacer or the spacer is adapted to float in response to the insertion of terminals after the terminals are located in the final terminal setting position. The spacer is moved into the final spacer mounting position, in which position latching projection of the locking arms of the spacer are fitted into the slots of top wall of the housing and at the same time, latching projections lock the underlying terminals, in the connector housing. To remove the spacer and hence the terminals from the connector housing it suffices that the spacer is raised up by its front edge to rotate until the latching projections are released from the slots. In the electrical connector no load is applied to terminals by the overlying spacer when the terminals are inserted and moved to the final terminal-mounting positions minimizing incomplete mounting of the terminals. All the locking arms of the spacer apply equal holding forces to the terminals; and rotating of the spacer permits removal of the spacer (and hence the terminals) from the connector housing without requiring extra tools.

Connector with terminal locking spacer

Disclosed is an improved multi-pin type of water proof electric connector which is guaranteed free of shortcircuit between adjacent pin-and-contact piece connections even if water should invade to any pin-and-connector piece connection through the very small gap between the conductor and the insulation sheath of the wire by the capillary action. The electric connector comprises a male half having contact pieces and a female half having pin terminals in its cavity, and a seal member placed in the space which is to be formed between the outer surface of the plug housing and the inside surface of the socket housing when the male and female halves are coupled. The plug housing has a plurality of hollow protrusions each containing a contact piece, and the seal member encircles each of the protrusions, thereby sealing each pin-and-contact piece connection independently from adjacent pin-and-contact piece connections when the male and female halves are mated.

Growing community of inventors

Ebina, Japan

Masahiro Sakano