Plessey Overseas Limited

Plessey Handel Und Investments A.g.

Ab Electronic Components Limited

William C Duncan

A bayonet coupling connector having a coupling nut on a first coupling member arranged for cooperation with coupling pins of a second coupling member for enabling the two members to be joined together. The coupling nut carries a coupling ring provided with a spring loaded plunger which is capable of being displaced radially with respect to the nut, the coupling ring being effective for driving the coupling nut when the plunger is engaged therewith. The plunger further being capable of being displaced radially by a coupling pin of the second coupling member when the nut has been moved into a position where the two coupling members are locked together, the locking action thus causing the coupling ring to be suddenly disengaged from the nut thereby providing a tactile indication of the fully locked condition. The connector is suitable for different applications such as fluid supply lines and electrical connectors and it gives additional safety in reducing a risk of making a faulty connection between the members.

Bayonet coupling connector

A quick release electrical connector comprises a plug part and a socket part. The socket part has an external screw thread and a coupling sleeve is captive on the plug part. Connected to the plug part is a number of internally screw threaded portions which are adapted to engage the screw thread on the socket part. The coupling sleeve has a surrounding axially movable retaining sleeve which in one position retains the screw threaded portions in engagement with the socket screw thread. In another position the retaining sleeve allows the screw threaded portions to move radially outwards out of engagement with the socket screw thread allowing quick separation of the plug and the socket part. The connector includes a thrust washer to prevent relative rotation between the plug and the coupling sleeve in the event of vibrations causing inadvertent unscrewing of the socket part.

Electrical connectors

An electrical connector consists of a cylindrical body having an internal one piece insulator in which a plurality of elongate male electrical contacts are secured. These contacts are adapted to engage female electrical contacts in another similar mating body in a tight fitting manner when the two bodies are secured together. The electrical contacts are cylindrical and provided with two spaced flange portions of larger diameter than the remainder of the contact, and the contacts fit into parallel cylindrical bores in the insulator, each bore having inwardly projecting protuberances which enter the space between the flange portions on the contacts. These protuberances are shaped to permit normal insertion of the contacts from one end of the insulator, and removal from the same end.

The invention relates to a quickly detachable self locking coupling which is simpler and cheaper to produce than other self locking couplings such as bayonet couplings and couplings using separate spring loaded ratchet devices or interference fits. The coupling comprises male and female screw threaded bodies, the thread on the male body having a step along its length, and the thread inside the female body consisting of only one turn of 360 degrees with flat ends. The parts are screwed together until the end of the thread in the female body rides over the step in the thread of the male body. A rubber ring then urges the threads together so that inadvertent unscrewing of the bodies is inhibited.

Couplings

A coupling arrangement consists of two cylindrical parts, a shell having three radially extending projections and a track part having three helical tracks on its internal surface for the reception of the projections. Each track is provided with a locking member consisting of a rotatable pin having a recess. The projections enter the recesses on relative rotation of the two parts and are retained in this position by a compression spring which tends to urge the two parts apart and hold the projections in the recesses. The parts can be separated by compressing the spring and relatively rotating the parts in the opposite direction, or a sleeve surrounding the track part, which normally prevents rotation of the pins, can be moved axially on the track part to allow the pins to rotate and permit the shell and its projections to be withdrawn axially from the track part.

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Bugbrooke, United Kingdom

William C Duncan