Method of making compliant pins

Claim 1

An improved method for making an electrical contact pin from a generally flat strip of material, said pin having a shoulder segment, post segment, and, between the shoulder and post segments, a compliant segment which has a pair of outwardly biased beam members separated by an elongated opening having sharply pointed opposed ends, said method comprising the steps of: (a) cutting generally spaced-apart aligned windows in the strip so that a solid section is provided between adjacent pairs of windows, the compliant segment of said pin being formed from this solid section; (b) severing the solid section generally at right angles with respect to the longitudinal axis of the strip to form in the solid section a pair of metal pieces from which the beam members are made, one of said pieces moving in one direction away from the plane of the strip and the other piece moving in the opposite direction away from the plane of the strip; (c) pressing the pair of metal pieces together so that they return to the plane of the strip and coining the edges of each metal piece furtherest from the severed interface; (d) twisting the metal pieces to provide a generally V-shaped entryway between the severed interface of the pieces; (e) inserting a first spreading element to move the metal pieces at a right angle to the plane of the strip to form the opening in the compliant section while coining the upper edges of the severed interface; (f) inserting a second spreading element in an opposite direction from the insertion of the first spreading element to further coin the lower edges of the severed interface, and (g) forming from the strip, integral with the metal pieces, the shoulder and post segments of this pin.