Electrical wire connector and an electrical terminal therefor

Abstract

An electrical wire connector comprises a female insulating housing receiving a male insulating housing. The female housing has anchored therein, a plurality of electrical terminals each having a wire receiving part comprising a pair of arms connected by a bight and defining a wire receiving slot between upper parts of the arms. The arms are resiliently deflectable away from each other as a wire is inserted into the wire receiving slot up to wire contact surfaces between the upper parts of the arms. The male housing has a row of wire receiving passageways each intersecting a slot in the male housing, which slot receives the wire receiving part of a respective terminal when the male housing has been fully inserted into the female housing. Wires previously inserted into the wire receiving passages are forced into the wire receiving slots of the terminals during the insertion of the male housing into the female housing. The parts of each arm are so dimensioned that the wire insertion force is desirably low. Since the arms of the terminals are not plastically deformed by the insertion of the wires, the connector can be used as a switch.