Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc.

Peter Jordan

Ian James Stafford Gray

Derek Andrews

Jean Christophe Villian

An electrical connector for terminating an electrical cable and for engaging with a mating electrical connector comprises a body, resilient member, and a collar. The body has an engagement portion including a sleeve which extends in a longitudinal direction for engaging with the mating electrical connector. The sleeve comprises a keyway configured to receive a keyed mating connector. The resilient member is arranged on the sleeve and can deform in a transverse direction perpendicular to the direction and provide a reaction force for maintaining the engagement of the connector with the mating connector. The collar is configured to rotate about the sleeve, and comprises a radially inwardly protruding pin which extends into the sleeve and can be moved between two positions. One position is within the keyway between the key of the mating connector and the keyway opening such that the pin prevents axial disengagement of the connector.

Electrical connector

An electrical connector for mounting to a flexible substrate and for coupling with a mating connector having a low-profile. The connector comprises a cover portion arranged to extend in a plane parallel to the substrate so as to cover a mounting hole in the substrate. The connector further comprises a body portion comprising a connection port projecting from the cover portion, the connection port having electrical contacts within an end face of the port. The body portion further comprising an alignment collar arranged circumferentially around the connection port, the alignment collar being provided with an alignment feature at a discrete circumferential position for angularly aligning the mating connector with respect to the connection port.

Electrical connector for mounting to flexible substrate and coupling with mating connector

An angled electrical connector has a body having an engagement portion including a sleeve which extends in a longitudinal first direction for engaging with a mating electrical connector. The sleeve has a cylindrical inner portion at the base of the sleeve and a tapered portion, such that the opening of the sleeve is larger than the base. A corresponding receptacle part is also provided, having a projecting connection port, with a corresponding cylindrical portion at or near the end.

Connector plug assembly

A first electrical connector () for terminating an electrical cable () and for engaging with a mating electrical connector (). The first connector comprises a body () having an engagement portion including a sleeve () whose passage extends along a mating axis () for engaging the mating electrical connector. The connector comprises at least one resilient member (), such as a coil spring, arranged on the sleeve. The resilient member is capable of deforming radial to the mating axis () to provide a reaction force for maintaining the engagement of the connector with the mating connector. The first connector can be detached by lifting a boot () to pry apart the connectors.

An electrical connector comprises a dielectric spacing element having elongate through holes and a forward end surface; a plurality of parallel, elongate conductive contacts arranged in respective through holes of the spacing element, the conductive contacts providing electrical connections; an outer body arranged about the spacing element and the conductive contacts, the outer body having a longitudinal position fixed relative to the dielectric spacing element and having a forward end for engagement with a mating connector; and a collar slidably mounted about the outer body. The collar has an engagement position in which a forward surface of the collar is positioned in front of the forward end of the outer body for mechanically coupling the connector with the mating connector and a retracted position in which the forward surface of the collar is positioned behind the forward end surface of the spacing element for cleaning access to the conductive contacts. The connector further comprises means, such as a resilient member, for maintaining the collar in the retracted position.

A connector arrangement comprises a rigid inner conductor (), a dielectric sleeve () arranged around the inner conductor and a rigid outer conductor () arranged around the sleeve. A surface of at least one of the inner conductor, the sleeve and the outer conductor is provided with a taper, such that the sleeve fixes the relative transverse positions of the inner and outer conductors at a first end of the arrangement and not at a second end of the arrangement. The inner conductor is longitudinally slidable relative to the outer conductor. Such an arrangement is suitable for use in hostile environments, such as in high temperature pipelines, in which there are large temperature variations and in which the positional variation of mating connectors is high.

Connector arrangement

An electrical connecting device for two electrical components which, when assembled, have electrical contact areas facing each other. The electrical connecting device comprises: a plurality of metallic connecting elements, each connecting element having first and second contact portions resiliently compressible against each other; and a flexible dielectric carrier sheet for the connecting elements, a portion of each connecting element being attached to the carrier sheet. Each connecting element comprises a strip of material having a bend at an intermediate portion. In the device, the connecting elements are resiliently compressible against each other, independent of any supporting structure. A rigid supporting structure is accordingly not required.

Electrical connecting device

A surface mount electronic chip () is mounted on a holder () and electrically connected to holder terminals () by the use of a carrier device (). The carrier device has clips () mounted on walls of the carrier frame. The chip is merely pressed into a cavity () between inner tabs () of the chips. The carrier with the chip in place is merely pressed into a cradle () formed in the holder by the holder terminals, so outer tabs () of the clips press against the holder terminals.

Carrier device for electronic chip

A connection arrangement includes a first connector () with an opening leading to first and second contacts (), where the first contact includes a beam () that is biased upwardly against the second contact but which can be depressed out of engagement with the second contact. The beam is depressed by a plug inner contact () of a mating second connector () that passes into the opening and depresses the beam, in an arrangement that assures firm engagement of the plug inner contact with the beam despite small beam movement. A stop () lying under the beam, limits its downward movement by the plug inner contact. The plug inner contact is spring biased downwardly with respect to the second connector frame () but can move up, so the second connector can continue to move down a short distance after the plug inner contact has pushed the beam against the stop, to enable-full engagement of largely coaxial outer contacts () of the first and second connectors. The arrangement enables reduced downward movement of the beam while assuring considerable pressure contact between the plug inner contact and beam.

Connection-switch arrangement

A switch assembly is provided for mounting on a circuit board and for receiving a coax connector plug that opens the switch and connects the central coax plug element to one of the switch contacts, which enables the use of a plug ( ) without a long projecting center contact element ( ) and which enables many degrees of misalignment between the plug and switch. The switch ( ) includes a housing ( ) with an exposed upper face ( ) having an entrance ( ) for receiving the connector plug. First and second contacts ( ) are mounted on the housing, with the first contact including a resilient beam ( ) biased up against the second contact but deflectable downwardly out of engagement with the second contact. An electrically conductive projection ( ) projects upward at least partially through an opening ( ) at the bottom entrance, so the center contact element of the plug does not have to project deeply through the opening in order to operate the switch and electrically connect to the beam. The entrance is tapered and has electrically conductive entrance walls. The outer element ( ) of the connector plug preferably has a largely spherical front end, to make contact with the entrance tapered surface along a circular band ( ) when fully pushed down into the entrance, despite many degrees (A) of misalignment of the axis ( ) of the entrance with the axis ( ) of the plug.

Coax switch assembly

An electrical connector element, especially a coaxial connector body (1), includes a forward connector part (2) and a rearward crimp barrel part (3), formed of a single piece of thin sheet metal, wherein the crimp barrel part is constructed to avoid resilient collapse during crimping. The sheet metal has been rolled into a cylinder with adjacent edges (7, 8), with each edge provided with a circumferentially-projecting tab (11, 12) that overlies the other edge. The two tabs prevent one edge from riding over the other to thereby prevent resilient collapse of the cylinder during crimping, but instead hold the edges adjacent to cause plastic deformation of the crimp barrel part during crimping.

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Basingstoke, United Kingdom

Peter Jordan