Electrical connecting means

Claim 1

As a new article of manufacture, means for providing electrical connections to a plurality of components which are supported in a plurality of rows in fixed positions relative to each other and which have electrical terminals which do not lie in a common flat plane, comprising a thin, flexible sheet formed of a material having high electrical resistance and which is readily manually bendable and of a size to overlie all of said terminals, contact portions on said sheet so positioned therein as to align with the terminals when the sheet is bent to a contour to bring the contact portions thereon into engagement with the terminals, a plurality of electrically conductive lead elements extending over the sheet in adherent relation thereto in closely adjacent but spaced parallel paths between and parallel to the rows and having branching continuation portions extending perpendicularly from said paths along the sheet for a substantial distance to connection with said contact portions, all of the lead elements for the terminals of each row being grouped in a path lying on the same side of the row, said lead elements being formed of a relatively ductile and readily bendable metal, the sheet being formed of a material which is adapted to be cut without fracturing, whereby the sheet may be cut along lines extending from an edge of the sheet to define severed edges extending around three sides of each component without severing any of the lead elements, and whereby such severed edges define hingeable sections bendable away from the component lying within the area bounded by such severed edges to permit removal and replacement of such component.