Low mating force connector for connecting groups of wires

Claim 1

A multi-contact electrical connector of the type comprising a generally rectangular dielectric housing having a wire receiving face and an opposed mating face and laterally opposed sidewalls and endwalls bounding said faces, a plurality of stamped and formed contact terminals mounted in and extending through said housing, each of said terminals having a wire receiving portion on said wire receiving face and a mating portion on said mating face, said connector being mateable with a complementary connector comprising a complementary housing by mating said mating face of said housing against a complementary mating face of said complementary housing, characterized in that the housing of said connector is identical to the housing of said complementary connector, each said housing having aligning means comprising an L-shaped latch arm integral with each said side wall and extending normally of said mating face, each said latch arm extending partially over an adjacent recess in said sidewall, said latch arms being positioned to fit into a recess in the complementary housing when said mating faces are guided toward each other substantially normally of the planes of said mating faces to a partially mated position in which said housing and said complementary housing are against, but offset from, each other, said latch arms being thereafter interlocked by guiding said housing and complementary housing by movement of said housings parallel to said mating faces into aligned relationship, said mating portions of said terminals lie adjacent to but offset from mating portions of terminals in said complementary housing when said housings are in said partially mated position, said mating portions of said terminals being engageable with complementary mating portions of terminals in said complementary housing upon relative movement of said housings from said partially mating position to said fully mated position.