Socket terminal positioning method and construction

Claim 1

A construction for temporarily positioning a plurality of socket terminals on an electrical circuit board in a predetermined configuration prior to solder connection thereto, comprising a sheet of relatively thin, flexible, electrically insulative, resinous plastic material having a plurality of holes extending therethrough, said holes arranged in a planar configuration about said sheet to correspond with said predetermined positioning of said socket terminals in said circuit board, a plurality of socket terminals each having a pin adapted for insertion into an opening in said board at their lower end and an enlarged generally cylindrical head at their upper end, said enlarged head having upper and lower sections defined by an inwardly extending perimetal groove intermediate the height thereof and of a lateral extent less said upper and lower sections, said holes of a perimetal extent less than said head sections but generally corresponding to or slightly greater than that of said groove, said terminals adapted for positioning upon said sheet with the heads thereof extending through said holes and the sheet extending into said grooves and wherein the leading edge of at least one of said upper and lower head sections is provided with a longitudinally oriented, sheet contacting surface to enable said terminals to be push positioned into said grooves.

Claim 13

The method of group positioning a plurality of socket terminals on an electrical circuit board in a predetermined configuration prior to solder connections thereto, comprising forming a plurality of holes in a sheet of relatively thin, flexible, electrically insulative, resinous plastic material in an array at least including said predetermined configuration, each of said socket terminals having a head of enlarged, generally cylindrical configuration and having an inwardly extending perimetal groove intermediate the height thereof so as to define upper and lower sections of said head, said holes of a perimetal extent less than said head sections but generally corresponding to or slightly smaller than said intermediate groove, the leading edge of at least one of said head sections provided with a longitudinally oriented sheet contacting surface, supporting one surface of said sheet and thereafter inserting the the heads of a plurality of socket terminals from the opposite surface of said sheet into said holes in said predetermined configuration such that said longitudinally oriented surface initially contacts peripheral edge portions of said sheet defining said holes so as to slightly deform said edge portions in the direction of head insertion until said sheet edge portions snap into said groove.

Claim 14

The method of group positioning a plurality of socket terminals on an electrical circuit board in a predetermined configuration prior to solder connections thereto, comprising forming a plurality of holes in a sheet of relatively thin, flexible, electrically insulative, resinous plastic material in an array at least including said predetermined configuration, each of said socket terminals having a head of enlarged, generally cylindrical configuration and having an inwardly extending perimetal groove intermediate the height thereof so as to define upper and lower sections of said head, said holes of a perimetal extent less than said head sections but generally corresponding to or slightly smaller than said intermediate groove, the leading edge of at least one of said head sections provided with a longitudinally oriented sheet contacting surface, supporting one surface of said sheet and thereafter inserting the the heads of a plurality of socket terminals from the opposite surface of said sheet into said holes in said predetermined configuration such that said longitudinally oriented surface initially contacts peripheral edge portions of said sheet defining said holes so as to slightly deform said edge portions in the direction of head insertion until said sheet edge portions snap into said groove.