Dual beam connector

Claim 1

A connector for use with wave soldering, said connector having contacts with solder tabs on the leads thereof, which tabs are positioned above a printed circuit board, said printed circuit board having through-holes to accommodate said leads and to which said connector is mounted such that solder used to connect the leads to the board through-holes flows to the corresponding tabs for improved electrical contact between the connector contacts and respective printed circuit board through-holes, said connector including a housing which includes a number of sockets for receiving the pins of a mating connector, a number of contacts having coacting arms with flat portions for engaging opposite sides of said pins, said contacts being located in said sockets, each of said contacts having a lead which depends downwardly from the bottom surface of said housing, and a laterally running tab forming said solder tab, said laterally running tab being wider than the lead and folded on itself to form side by side tab portions in contact with each other and with each said tab portion running in the same direction as that of the flat portions of the corresponding coacting arms, said laterally running tab extending from said lead below the bottom surface of said housing, said housing having standoffs depending from the bottom surface thereof, said standoffs spacing the bottom of said laterally running tabs from the corresponding through-holes so as to permit the upflow of solder during wave soldering, such that when said connector is mounted to a printed circuit board having through-holes, the leads of said connector are inserted into corresponding through-holes, and with wave soldering, said connector leads are soldered to said printed circuit board, with solder extending through said through-holes and forming a solder bubble onto corresponding ones of said side by side tab portions of each laterally running tab.