Patent ID: 6928906

Claim:
A self-forming socket comprising: a plurality of pins closely packed in parallel, each pin including at least a large top end and a narrow shaft under the top end; a biasing member disposed on each pin below the top end; a housing having an interior wall partially enclosing the biasing members and pins, wherein the top ends of the pins are exposed, and with each pin of an outermost ring of pins being immediately proximate to an adjacent pin and to the interior wall; a frame is positioned within the interior wall and includes a plurality of holes to receive the shafts; the pins slidable along the shafts within the holes; the frame is positioned axially within the housing by elongated hold elements, the hold elements extending inward within holes in an exterior of the housing, the holes being circumferentially aligned on the housing relative to the interior walls, whereby the hold element extends inward toward a central position between two adjacent pin shafts of the outermost ring of pins; and wherein at least one of the hold element extends inward from a head end to a distal end, and the hole includes a stop, the head end includes a flange that engages the stop at a predetermined inward position of the hold element, the distal end of the hold element being a predetermined distance from at least one of the adjacent pin shafts in the predetermined inward position of the hold element.