Contact frame for an i.c. card reader

Claim 1

In a contact frame for an I.C. card reader, said frame comprising a frame member of insulating material having a front and rear and defining a principal longitudinal plane and being provided with at least two windows and contact elements, said contact elements being constituted by two sets of blades consisting of a front set of blades for placing on the front of the frame member adjacent to an I.C. card insertion slot, and a rear set of blades for placing on the rear of the frame member, the blades in each set being parallel, and being shaped at one of their ends, with the shaped ends projecting downwards beneath the principal longitudinal plane of the frame member to provide electrical connections with conducting tabs on the I.C. card, the shaped ends of each set being disposed in a respective one of the windows and facing the shaped ends of the other set, the other ends of the blades forming connection pins for connection to a printed circuit board associated with the frame, the blades of the rear set being embedded in a rear bar of the frame member delimiting the rear window and having connection pin forming ends projecting from said rear bar, and the blades of the front set being embedded at least in a front bar of said frame member delimiting the front window, the improvement wherein the blades of the front set have their pin-forming ends projecting from the rear of the frame member in the vicinity of the connection pins of the rear set, and all of the connection pins lying substantially in the same plane.