Plug connector for a printed circuit board

Claim 1

An electrical plug connector for a printed circuit board which has electric circuits and associated edge connection pads on at least one side of the board comprising an electrical insulating moulding having a spine portion for disposition adjacent an edge of such a printed circuit board, and a plug portion extending from the spine portion on one side thereof for disposition remotely from such an edge of a printed circuit board, and having a transverse thickness suBstantially equal to that of the edge of the printed circuit board, with which it is adapted to be used, the spine portion having a greater transverse thickness than the plug portion, and two transversely spaced rows of throughholes, which rows of holes open adjacent the plug protion on opposite sides respectively of the plug portion, the holes in each row being spaced apart along the length of the moulding and the outer wall of each through hole having a recess forming an abutment therein facing away from the plug portion and, the plug portion having at its free end two transversely spaced rows of slots, the slots in each row being positioned along the length of the moulding in alignment with the respective through-holes which open on the same side of the plug portion, and a plurality of resilient strip, electrical contact fingers mounted on the plug connector in two parallel rows each comprising a median fastening part, a hooked plug and part extending from the median part at one end thereof, and a printed circuit board contacting free and part extending from the median part at the opposite end thereof, each contact finger having its median part extending through and fixed in one of the said through-holes in the moulding adjacent the outer wall and having an abutment in detent contact with the abutment in the outer wall and the contact having sets therein, proximate to the plug side of the spine portion, to cause the part of the contact finger lying adjacent the plug portion to lie snugly in the appropriate one of shallow grooves in the surface of the plug portion, its hooked plug end part engaged in an associated one of the said slots at the free end of the plug portion of the moulding, and its free end part extending from the spine portion of the moulding and at least one of the rows of contact fingers converging toward the opposite row of contact fingers to provide a reduced space between them for resiliently receiving between them a printed circuit board having a transverse thickness greater than the space between them for guiding a printed circuit board between the rows whereby to make electrical connection with an edge connection pad of a printed circuit board when the connector is presented to an edge part thereof, the said plug portion of the moulding and the contact fingers together simulating the edge of such a printed circuit board.