Housing for electrical connectors

Claim 1

A housing for an electrical connector from which wires extend, said housing comprising: a pair of mating shells, each having a floor with a perimeter wall extending at least along the side and rear edges of said floor and a channel through said wall at a rear face, said channels cooperating to provide when said shells are mated, an opening through which wires may pass, said shells further having: block structures integral with said perimeter wall and located to one side of said channels with one of said structures having a threaded bore extending inwardly therethrough and with the axis thereof being at an acute angle relative to said channel; a first wall attached to said perimeter wall on the side of said channel opposite said block structure and extending inwardly to define one side of a wire receiving path, said path being coaxial with said channel in said perimeter wall; grooves in said floors with the longitudinal axis of each said groove converging with said wire receiving path at an angle of less than ninety degrees; a second wall attached to said block structure and extending inwardly parallel to the axis of said threaded bore and to said groove in said floor; a clamp having rails on two opposing sides thereof and positioned within said shells when mated for movement along said second wall with said rails being received in said grooves, said clamps defining another side of said wire receiving path; and a machine screw threadedly mounted in said threaded bore to engage said clamp and when rotated in said bore to move said clamp along said second wall towards said first wall to clamp wires therebetween which may be in said wire receiving path.