Connector and connector assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9780488-B2
Application number	US-201615222247-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 31, 2015
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

A connector is disclosed. The connector has a housing and a conductive terminal disposed in the housing. The conductive terminal has a pair of resilient contact arms biased toward each other and a releasing mechanism adapted to move the pair of resilient contact arms away from each other.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A connector, comprising:
a housing; and
a conductive terminal disposed in the housing having
a base,
a first annular end portion disposed on an a first end of the base,
a second annular end portion disposed on an opposite second end of the base,
a pair of resilient contact arms biased toward each other, and
a releasing mechanism disposed between the first annular end portion and the second annular end portion and adapted to move the pair of resilient contact arms away from each other.

2. The connector of claim 1 , wherein the housing is formed of an insulative material.

3. The connector of claim 2 , wherein the releasing mechanism has a cantilever and a wedged protrusion disposed on an end of the cantilever.

4. The connector of claim 3 , wherein the wedged protrusion is inserted between the pair of resilient contact arms to move the resilient contact arms away from each other.

5. The connector of claim 4 , wherein a conductor is insertable between the pair of resilient contact arms through the first annular end portion.

6. The connector of claim 5 , wherein each resilient contact arm extends from a side of the first annular end portion toward the second end of the conductive terminal.

7. The connector of claim 6 , wherein the cantilever extends from a top of the first annular end portion toward the second end of the conductive terminal.

8. The connector of claim 7 , wherein an end of the conductor is disposed within the second annular end portion.

9. The connector of claim 8 , wherein the conductive terminal has a first solder foot extending from a bottom of the first annular end portion in a direction away from the conductive terminal and a second solder foot extending from a bottom of the second annular end portion in a direction away from the conductive terminal.

10. The connector of claim 9 , wherein the first solder foot and the second solder foot are soldered to pads of a circuit board.

11. The connector of claim 10 , wherein a top wall of the housing has a through hole aligned with the wedged protrusion.

12. The connector of claim 11 , further comprising an external releasing tool insertable into the through hole to move the wedged protrusion between the pair of resilient contact arms.

13. The connector of claim 12 , wherein the external releasing tool is cylindrical.

14. The connector of claim 1 , wherein the housing has a first side wall having a plurality of projections and an opposite second side wall having a plurality of connecting holes corresponding to the plurality of projections.

15. A connector assembly, comprising:
a plurality of connectors each having
a housing including a first side wall having at least one projection and an opposite second side wall having at least one complementary connecting hole corresponding to the projection, the projection of a first one of the connectors bring insertable into the connecting hole of a second one of the connectors to attach the connectors side by side; and
a conductive terminal disposed in the housing having a base, a first annular end portion disposed on a first end of the base, a second annular end portion disposed on an opposite second end of the base, a pair of resilient contact arms biased toward each other, and a releasing mechanism disposed between the first annular end portion and the second annular end portion and adapted to move the pair of resilient contact arms away from each other.

16. The connector assembly of claim 15 , further comprising an external releasing tool contacting the releasing mechanism to move the pair of resilient contact arms away from each other.

17. The connector assembly of claim 16 , wherein the external releasing tool is a cylindrical member insertable into a through hole disposed in a top wall of the housing.

Assignees

• Tyco Electronics Shanghai Co Ltd

Inventors

• Fu Xiaozhi
• Shi Ming
• Xu Xiang

Classifications

• H01R9/2416

  Means for guiding or retaining wires or cables connected to terminal blocks · CPC title

• H01R9/2408 Primary

  Modular blocks (H01R9/26 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01R13/635 Primary

  by mechanical pressure, e.g. spring force · CPC title

• H01R12/515

  Terminal blocks providing connections to wires or cables · CPC title

• H01R4/4827

  Electricity · mapped topic