The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 08, 1996
Filed:
Dec. 23, 1994
Michael J Stora, Boonton, NJ (US);
Kevin P Faith, Lake Hiawatha, NJ (US);
Gerard J Humphreys, Boonton, NJ (US);
Julian Pop, Boonton, NJ (US);
Thomas M Dlugolecki, Mechanicsburg, PA (US);
Daniel T Casey, Harrisburg, PA (US);
The Whitaker Corporation, Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
An operating mechanism (50,182) for providing mechanical advantage for mating and unmating a fixture (10) to a receiver (150) manually at a separable interface for mating complementary arrays of electrical connectors (12,152) for use in testing equipment. The leading end (80,88) of the operating mechanism (50) of the fixture is inserted into a receptacle (182) of the receiver and locks to secure the fixture to the receiver, simultaneously unlocking a subassembly (58) within the operating mechanism to be manually rotated to fully mate the now-adjacent arrays of connectors. The subassembly (58) is movably secured within an outer barrel (54) affixed to a frame (20) of the fixture and includes an axially spring biased central shaft (70) movable within an inner barrel (72). Arrays of locking balls (76,82) within apertures 86,90) of the inner barrel move between annular grooves 78,84) of the central shaft (70) and annular grooves 186,142) of a surrounding cylinder (either the receptacle 182) or the outer barrel (54)) to lock and unlock the central shaft from being axially moved with respect to the particular surrounding cylinder. An acme screw (100) within the operating mechanism converts manual rotation of a handle (52) into gradual axial movement with substantially enhanced force.