Patent ID: 7485012

Claim:
An electrical connection system comprising: a connector shell and a plurality of wafer connectors holding a plurality of electric terminals that are attached to ends of electric cables, the connector shell having an upper wall, a lower wall and side walls that are spaced apart to define a stack of wafer compartments that extends from the upper wall to the lower wall, an uppermost compartment being defined in part by the upper wall and an lowermost compartment being defined in part by the lower wall, and the side walls each have slots in their confronting surfaces for each wafer compartment in the stack of wafer compartments for locating a wafer connector in each compartment, the slots being longitudinal and open ended so that a wafer connector can be inserted longitudinally into each wafer compartment from an insertion end of the shell, each wafer connector being insertable longitudinally into and withdrawable longitudinally from a wafer compartment individually through an opening at an insertion end of the connector shell, wherein the slots in the respective side walls for each compartment are different and wherein each wafer connector has a connector body that has side ribs that are different on each side of the connector of the body that match the different slots in the respective side walls of each wafer compartment, wherein one side rib of the connector body is a depressible beam that carries a lock nib that cooperates with a lock shoulder to latch the wafer connector in one of the wafer compartments, wherein the lock shoulder is in an outer side wall of the connector shell and the one side rib that is the depressible beam that carries the lock nib cooperates with the slot that is in the outer side wall, and wherein another side of the connector body cooperates with a lateral protrusion at the end of the connector body to provide a lock groove and wherein a lock bar that is attached to the connector shell passes through the lock groove to lock the connector body to the connector shell.