Bivalve housing for electrical terminal

Claim 2

A continuous plastic strip of unassembled housings, each of said housings being adapted to be assembled to an electrical contact terminal which is crimped onto one end of a wire, said terminal being of the type comprising a relatively wide contact portion and having a crimp portion integral with, and extending centrally from, said contact portion at one end thereof, said strip comprising: a plurality of individual housings in side-by-side relationship, said housings being spaced apart along the length of said strip, each of said housings comprising a complementary pair of housing sections, said sections being substantially identical and being arranged in opposed relationship with the proximate sides of said housings being spaced-apart in the direction of the width of said strip, each of said sections having a relatively wide portion with a central recess therein for reception of said contact portion of said terminal, said wide portions being proximate to each other and including said proximate ends, each of said sections including a narrow portion extending laterally of the length of said strip, said narrow portions being adapted to receive said wire, flanges extending from said wide and narrow portions in the plane of said strip, said flanges being against each other and providing bonding surface when said sections are assembled, and each of said housings being connected to the next adjacent housings by integral hinge means, each hinge means being connected to each of said proximate sides of both of said housing sections of two adjacent housings in said strip and being entirely between said two adjacent housings, said hinge means being foldable along a fold line extending in the direction of said strip, whereby, the leading housing of said strip can be assembled to one of said terminals by locating said terminal in said depression of one of said sections, closing said sections, bivalve fashion, onto said terminal, bonding said surfaces of said flanges to each other, and servering said hinge means from said leading housing.

Claim 3

A continuous plastic strip of unassembled housings, each of said housings being adapted to be assembled to an electrical contact terminal which is crimped onto one end of a wire, said terminal being of the flag type and comprising a relatively wide contact portion and a crimp portion on one side of said contact portion, said terminal being secured to said wire in said crimp portion and extending axially from said one side of said contact portion, said strip coMprising: a plurality of identical housings in side-by-side relationship, said housings being spaced apart along the length of said strip, each of said housings comprising a complementary pair of housing sections, said sections being generally rectangular and having proximate opposed sides which are spaced apart in the direction of the width of said strip, each of said sections having a recess therein extending in the direction of the length of said strip, said recesses being located adjacent to the sides of said strip and being adapted to receive said wire and said crimp portions of said terminal, flanges extending from said side portions of said sections in the plane of said strip, said flanges being adapted to be located against each other and providing bonding surface when said sections are assembled to said terminal, and each of said housings being connected to the next adjacent housings of said strip by integral hinge means, each of said hinge means being connected to each of said proximate sides of both of said housing sections of two adjacent housings in said strip and being entirely between said two adjacent housings, said hinge means being foldable along a fold line which extends in the direction of said strip whereby, the leading housing of said strip can be assembled to one of said terminals by locating said terminal against one of said sections with said wire in said depression in said on section, and said sections can be closed, clamshell fashion, onto said terminal until said surfaces of said flanges are against each other, and upon bonding said surfaces to each other, said housing will be permanently assembled to said terminal.

Claim 4

A continuous plastic strip of unassembled housings, each of said housings being adapted to be assembled to an electrical contact terminal which is crimped onto one end of a wire, said terminal being of the flag type and comprising a relatively wide contact portion and a crimp portion on one side of said contact portion, said terminal being secured to said wire in said crimp portion and extending axially from said one side of said contact portion, said strip coMprising: a plurality of identical housings in side-by-side relationship, said housings being spaced apart along the length of said strip, each of said housings comprising a complementary pair of housing sections, said sections being generally rectangular and having proximate opposed sides which are spaced apart in the direction of the width of said strip, each of said sections having a recess therein extending in the direction of the length of said strip, said recesses being located adjacent to the sides of said strip and being adapted to receive said wire and said crimp portions of said terminal, flanges extending from said side portions of said sections in the plane of said strip, said flanges being adapted to be located against each other and providing bonding surface when said sections are assembled to said terminal, and each of said housings being connected to the next adjacent housings of said strip by integral hinge means, each of said hinge means being connected to each of said proximate sides of both of said housing sections of two adjacent housings in said strip and being entirely between said two adjacent housings, said hinge means being foldable along a fold line which extends in the direction of said strip whereby, the leading housing of said strip can be assembled to one of said terminals by locating said terminal against one of said sections with said wire in said depression in said on section, and said sections can be closed, clamshell fashion, onto said terminal until said surfaces of said flanges are against each other, and upon bonding said surfaces to each other, said housing will be permanently assembled to said terminal.

Claim 5

A continuous plastic strip of unassembled housings, each of said housings being adapted to be assembled to an electrical contact terminal which is crimped onto one end of a wire, said terminal being of the flag type and comprising a generally rectangular contact portion and a crimp portion on one side of said contact portion, said terminal being secured to said wire in said crimp portion and extending axially from said one side of said contact portion, said strip comprising: a plurality of identical housings in sideby side relationship, said housings being spaced-apart along the length of said strip, each of said housings comprising a pair of identical housing sections, said sections having proximate sides which are spaced apart in the direction of the width of said strip, said sections having parallel laterally extending sides which are spaced-apart in the direction of the length of said strip and which extend from said proximate sides laterally of the length of said strip, said sections having remote sides which extend generally parallel to said proximate sides and between said laterally extending sides, said proximate and laterally extending sides of each section defining a corner, each of said corners being connected to the corner of the next adjacent housing section by hinge means, each of said hinge means being entirely between adjacent housings in said strip, whereby said sections can be folded towards each other bivalve fashion, and a depression in at least one of said housings for reception of said crimp portion of one of said flag-type terminals, said depression extending to said remote side of said section whereby, upon positioning a flag type terminal between said sections with said crimp portions in alignment with said depression and with the wire crimped to said terminal extending laterally of the length of said strip, and upon closing said sections, securing said sections to each other, and removing said hinge means, said terminal becomes encased in said housing.

Claim 6

A continuous plastic strip of unassembled housings, each of said housings being adapted to be assembled to an electrical contact terminal which is crimped onto one end of a wire, said terminal being of the flag type and comprising a generally rectangular contact portion and a crimp portion on one side of said contact portion, said terminal being secured to said wire in said crimp portion and extending axially from said one side of said contact portion, said strip comprising: a plurality of identical housings in sideby side relationship, said housings being spaced-apart along the length of said strip, each of said housings comprising a pair of identical housing sections, said sections having proximate sides which are spaced apart in the direction of the width of said strip, said sections having parallel laterally extending sides which are spaced-apart in the direction of the length of said strip and which extend from said proximate sides laterally of the length of said strip, said sections having remote sides which extend generally parallel to said proximate sides and between said laterally extending sides, said proximate and laterally extending sides of each section defining a corner, each of said corners being connected to the corner of the next adjacent housing section by hinge means, each of said hinge means being entirely between adjacent housings in said strip, whereby said sections can be folded towards each other bivalve fashion, and a depression in at least one of said housings for reception of said crimp portion of one of said flag-type terminals, said depression extending to said remote side of said section whereby, upon positioning a flag type terminal between said sections with said crimp portions in alignment with said depression and with the wire crimped to said terminal extending laterally of the length of said strip, and upon closing said sections, securing said sections to each other, and removing said hinge means, said terminal becomes encased in said housing.