Abstract:
The invention concerns a self-clamping connector for single-wire or multi-wire electrical conductors. It includes a spring loaded clamp; with one or more leaf springs and a corner-angle conductive core with eccentric slots, in which leaf springs with a larger loop shape with a greater effective length are used to contact an inserted conductor.

Description:
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention concerns a self-clamping connector. 
     Clamping connectors are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,514. In the connector presented in the named U.S. Patent, the effective length of the leaf springs corresponds approximately to the diagonally measured distance between the guide-member leg and the contact leg of the conductive core piece. If a &#34;soft&#34; spring characteristic is to be obtained with this known clamping connector, as is necessary for inserting multi-wire and particularly fine-wire electrical conductors, then the effective length of the leaf springs must be dimensioned appropriately larger. However, due to the greater length of the leaf springs, a greater distance results between the guide-member leg and the contact leg of the conductive core piece with the consequence that the material requirement for punching out and shaping the conductive core piece is correspondingly greater. 
     This is a disadvantage, since the material from which the conductive core piece is to be produced must be a good current conductor and is relatively expensive. Also, in current conductors of this type, we are dealing with a mass-produced product, and any increased requirement for expensive material considerably increases the total production costs. 
     The task of the invention is to create a clamping connector of the above-named type, which makes possible the use of softer (longer) leaf springs without increasing the material consumption for the conductive core piece thereby. 
     In the clamping connector of the invention, the large loop part of the leaf spring is the determining factor for the desired soft spring characteristic. The loop part extends in a direction opposite the direction of conductor introduction and utilizes the free space of the construction inside the insulation-material housing of the clamping connector, which is present in connectors of this type due to the structural constriction of the channel of conductor introduction in order to form a point-precise inlet hopper for the clamping site. 
     The looped leaf spring is mounted with its head part in the guide-member leg, which is connected directly to the contact leg of the corner angle at the point of the corner-angle construction of the conductive core piece. According to the invention, if the foot end of the leaf spring forms with the contact leg a clamping place next to the point of the corner angle (which is possible in the contact insert according to the invention without adversely affecting the desired spring characteristic), then the guide-member leg of the corner-angle conductive core is essentially loaded in a pulling manner by the clamping forces of the leaf spring. Undesired bending moments do not occur on the guide-member leg, so that the strength of the guide-member leg must be calculated only relative to tensile strength, whereby there can be a corresponding savings of material with the constructive dimensioning of the guide-member leg. 
     This applies also to the constructive dimensioning of the contact leg of the corner-angle conductive core. With this feature (arrangement of the clamping site in the vicinity of the corner point), the latter also need not absorb noteworthy bending moments and remains free overall of mechanical loads of all types (=no bending forces, no pulling forces). The contact leg essentially serves only for current conduction and thus may be optimized in its cross-sectional dimensions exclusively from the point of view of a sufficient cross section for conducting current. This also saves material. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Examples of embodiment of the invention will be described below in more detail on the basis of drawings. Here: 
     FIG. 1 shows a cross section through a connector according to the invention. 
     FIG. 2 shows in perspective representation the contact insert according to the invention, 
     FIG. 3 shows the connector according to FIG. 1 with an inserted electrical conductor. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     FIG. 1 shows a connector with an insulation-material housing 4, which is closed by an insulation-material cover 5 on the front side. Several openings 6 are present in a row next to one another in the insulation-material cover (see also FIG. 3 for this). Each opening for introducing a conductor is the beginning of a conductor-introduction channel, which extends through the entire insulation-material housing (see the depicted central line 7 in FIG. 1 for this) and which with its blind-hole end 8 also forms an end stop for an inserted electrical conductor. 
     A contact insert is arranged in the insulation-material housing, which is presented more precisely in FIG. 2. The contact insert comprises a conductive core piece with six leaf springs in all, which are mounted next to one another in a row and parallel to one another in the conductive core piece. 
     The conductive core piece has a cross-sectional profile in the form of a corner angle with a guide-member leg 10, which is connected at the point of the corner angle directly to contact leg 11 of the conductive core piece. This corner-angle conductive core is incorporated in the insulation-material housing of the connector (see FIG. 1 for this) in such a way that guide-member leg 10 is arranged crosswise to the direction of introduction of the conductor in the channel for introducing the conductor, and that contact leg 11 extends in the direction of conductor introduction. 
     A slot-shaped oblong opening 13 is present in guide-member leg 10 for each leaf spring 12, and the upper end of this slot serves for mounting head end 14 of the leaf spring and the central region of the slot along with its side edges 15 guides the leaf spring (in the function of a so-called eccentric displacement slot) and this slot has in its lower end the required passage for inserting an electrical conductor. 
     Each leaf spring 12 is shaped as a type of U-shaped open loop. Loop part 16 running out from head end 14 of the leaf spring extends counter to the direction of introduction of the conductor from the back of guide-member leg 10 and loop part 20 running back to foot end 18 of the leaf spring in the direction of conductor introduction extends through eccentric slot 13 of the corner-angle conductive core. Foot end 18 of the leaf spring has a clamping edge, which is directed opposite contact leg 11 of the corner-angle conductive core and together with this contact leg, forms a clamping site for the electrical conductor to be connected. 
     Leaf springs 12 are inserted into eccentric slot 13 of the corner-angle conductive core from the inside of the corner angle (i.e., the left side shown in FIG. 2). The mounting or the insertion of the leaf springs into the corner-angle conductive core can be conducted without problem and fully automatically, since head ends 14 of all leaf springs of a contact insert are connected together, i.e., when the leaf springs are stamped out, their head ends are not separated from one another, but remain joined together in the form of a head strip running over all leaf springs. 
     FIG. 1 shows the connector in the finished mounted state with the contact insertion according to FIG. 2. The insertion of the contact insert into insulation-material housing 4 of the connector is performed basically by means of an assembly opening on the front side, and this opening is then closed by insulating-material cover 5 also on the front side by pressing this cover in the direction of the conductor-introduction channel into the insulation-material housing. 
     This type of mounting is combined with a special configuration of separating walls, which separate the conductor-introduction channel of one clamping site from the conductor-introduction channel of the adjacent clamping sites, separately for each clamping site. The separating walls between the clamping sites are each formed of two parts, one of which, part 21, is injection-molded on insulating-material cover 5 and the other part 23 is injection-molded onto insulation-material housing 4. Thus, edge contour 22 of part 21 and edge contour 24 of part 23 are shaped in such a way that they tightly bound between them (near the edge) leg 10 of the corner-angle conductive core, passing crosswise in the conductor-introduction channel. 
     Edge contour 25 of housing-side part 23 on the bottom side of the separating wall lies tightly (near the edge) also on contact leg 11 of the corner-angle conductive core extending in the direction of the conductor-introduction channel, so that the conductor-introduction channel of one clamping site is nearly hermetically sealed relative to the conductor-introduction channel of the adjacent clamping site. 
     Like all connectors of this type, the connector shown in FIG. 1 also has a test opening 26 for testing the potential applied to the corner-angle conductive core. 
     FIG. 3 shows in cutaway state the connector according to FIG. 1 with an inserted electrical conductor 27, which is a single-wire conductor in the case shown for reasons of simplification, but may be in practice also a multi-wire conductor, particularly a fine-wire conductor. While there is shown and described herein certain specific structure embodying the invention, it will be manifest to those skilled in the art that various modifications and rearrangements of the parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the underlying inventive concept and that the same is not limited to the particular forms herein shown and described except insofar as indicated by the scope of the appended claims.