Universal circuit board connector

Claim 1

Circuit board connector apparatus comprising: an insulating body having three substantially orthogonally oriented surfaces and a fourth substantially orthogonally oriented surface extending longitudinally along the length of the body; said body including a plurality of recesses disposed in spaced relationship along the length of said body, each recess traversing the width of each of the three surfaces of said body to form a slot extending substantially continually about said three surfaces of the body and extending about the body at least partially in said fourth surface; and for each of said recesses, a contact element having a continuous form which extends about the slot in the three surfaces and in at least a portion of the fourth surface for providing locking engagement of the contact element with the body to retain the contact element within the slot, the contact element having a substantially U-shaped continuous form which extends about the slot in said three surfaces and having resilient contact fingers integrally formed thereon along the longitudinal portions and the transverse portion of the Ushaped continuous form to protrude from the slot in directions including substantially normal components to the corresponding ones of said three surfaces and having connection means extending from only one of, and in substantial alignment with, said longitudinal portion of said U-shaped form.