Microminiature printed circuit connector

Claim 1

In an electrical connector, the combination comprising: a connector block having walls defining a chamber thereinside including a front wall which perpendicularly intersects with a sidewall to form an inside longitudinally extending frontward inside corner and a backwall which perpendicularly intersects with the sidewall to form an inside longitudinally extending rearward inside corner; the front wall having a slot therein spaced laterally of the sidewall and extending longitudinally in a direction parallel to the frontmost corner, the sidewall having a longitudinal row of serially spaced laterally extending divider walls arranged inside the chamber to define a longitudinal row of serially spaced subchambers inside the connector block on the side of said slot in said front wall where said sidewall is located, the backwall having a longitudinal row of serially spaced row apertures therein with the apertures each being located in the backwall between adjacent divider walls and rearwardly of a respective subchamber defined by the adjacent divider walls; a longitudinal row of serially spaced identical contact elements extending through the aperture row in the backwall into the subchambers inside the connector block, each contact element being mounted in a respective subchamber between the inside of the front, side, and backwalls; the inside of the front wall between the divider walls being of concavely arcuate curvature and merging smoothly with the frontmost corner inside the connector block between the front and sidewalls, the frontmost corner being concavely rounded; each contact element having first and second sheet metal strips with the first strip being longer than the second strip, the strips each being formed from different segments of a common sheet metal member, the strips being integrally adjoined to each other along a longitudinal line in the contact element shorter than the second strip extending from adjacent a rear end of the second strip located frontwardly of a rear end of the first strip partway toward a front end of the second strip located rearwardly of a front end of the first strip whereby a frontward portion of said second strip is sepaRate from and not integrally adjoined to a frontward portion of said first strip; the second strip being folded double onto the first strip about the longitudinal line whereby the frontward portion of each strip projects frontwardly from the portions of the strips which have been folded double in the aforesaid manner, the frontward portion of the first strip being curved into an arcuate contact tab strip portion curving to the side of the first strip having the second strip folded double thereon and the frontward portion of the second strip being curved into a locking tab strip portion also curving to the side of the first strip having the second strip folded double thereon, the contact tab strip portion ending at the front end of the first strip and the locking tab strip portion ending at the front end of the second strip, the respective tab strip portions being spaced apart, the contact tab strip portion and locking tab strip portion each being curved so that the front end of the first strip is located generally frontwardly of a frontmost extending portion of the locking tab strip portion located intermediate the front end of the second strip and the portion of the second strip which has been folded double onto the first strip and so that the front end of the second strip is located further rearwardly of the contact tab strip portion than is the frontmost extending portion of the locking tab strip portion; each contact element being inserted into a respective row aperture into a subchamber inside the connector block so that the first strip touches a side of the respective row aperture close to the sidewall and extending frontwardly therefrom touching the inside of the sidewall, the inside frontward corner, and the inside of the front wall between the slot in the front wall and the inside frontward corner so that the contact tab strip portion thereof is fitted against the inside frontward corner and the inside of the front wall and then curves laterally beyond an edge of the slot in the front wall to terminate at a point inside the chamber located rearwardly of the slot in the front wall, the second strip being on the side of the first strip which is opposite to the side of the first strip which touches the inside of the front and sidewalls as aforesaid with the locking tab strip portion projecting away from the inside of the sidewall laterally and rearwardly toward the inside of the backwall so that the front end of the second strip abuts the inside of the backwall at a surface area thereof at the side of the associated row aperture furthest from the sidewall to resiliently lock the contact element into place.