Electrical connector receptacle

Claim 1

A receptacle contact for receiving a male contact member, with the male contact member having a longitudinal centerline axis lying in a mating plane, comprising: a generally flat metal body having a center plane parallel to the mating plane; a first leg and a second leg having respective shoes stamp formed from the metal body and extending from a lower section of the body by removing a longitudinal elongated section of the metal intermediate the first and second legs, the width of material removed by stamping of the longitudinal elongated section being equal to the offset width of the respective shoes from their associated leg to provide a pair of parallel elongated rectangular legs, and removing a portion of the metal bordering adjacent both the side of the first leg and the end of the second leg to provide a pair of offset shoes having a wider dimension than the width of each leg, both shoes being offset to the adjacent inside surface of each leg and the legs being cantilevered from the lower body section thereby forming each leg into an L-shape, with the first leg shoe extending further from the lower body section and overlapping the second leg section along the longitudinal centerline axis; the first leg and second leg being bent from their parallel position to deformably move an inner edge of one leg transversely past an inner edge of the other leg so that the legs are out of the center plane; and the first leg and the second leg being further bent to partially overlap each other and with the centerline of each generally aligned with the centerline of a received male contact member at least along a mating region of each leg, each of the first and second legs being further bent towards the mating plane and forming a breakpoint on each leg at the location of the further bend, with the distance between the breakpoint and the shoe member on each leg being approximately equal.