Patent ID: 7507107

Claim:
An electrical connector arrangement, comprising: (a) a generally rectangular hollow connector body ( 4 ) formed by stamping and bending from a conductive metal sheet including; (1) a pair of parallel spaced vertical side walls ( 5 a , 5 d ; 55 a , 55 d ); (2) a generally horizontal top wall ( 5 b , 55 b ) orthogonally arranged relative to said side walls, respectively; (3) at least one vertical end wall ( 5 e , 55 e ) orthogonally arranged relative to said side walls; and (4) a generally horizontal bottom wall ( 5 c ; 55 c ) cooperating with said side and end walls to define a chamber; (5) said side walls being integral with and bent from parallel opposite edges of a given one of said end ( 5 e ) and top ( 55 b ) walls, respectively; (b) a generally U-shaped resilient spring contact ( 3 ) mounted in said chamber, said spring contact including: (1) a generally horizontal bottom leg ( 3 a ; 3 a ′) connected with said bottom wall; (2) a top leg ( 3 b , 3 b ′) adjacent said top wall; and (3) a connecting portion ( 3 c ; 3 c ′) connected between said bottom and top legs, said top leg being resiliently biased away from said bottom leg, thereby to bias toward said top wall a bare conductor ( 2 ) introduced into said chamber via an opening ( 7 ) contained at one end of said connector body; (c) said top wall being connected with one of said side walls by a corner edge portion containing an access opening ( 8 ) opposite said spring contact top leg, thereby to permit the insertion into said chamber of the tip of an operating tool ( 9 ) to release said top leg from engagement with the conductor, whereby the conductor may be withdrawn from said chamber; (d) said connector body having at least one generally horizontal bottom connecting surface ( 10 , 11 ) adapted for connection with an electrical component.