Electrical connecting element

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the invention

The invention relates to an electrical connecting element.

The prior art

In order to fix a male or female contact in a base of insulating material it has been proposed to insert in a cylindrical cavity in the base a cylindrical casing with a number of resilient tongues to cooperate with an annular flange on the contact. The tongues are so arranged that they are pressed aside when the contact with its flange is inserted in the casing. When the flange has passed the tongues, these snap shut behind the flange and lock the contact to the base. When releasing the contact from the base, a cylindrical tool is placed around the contact and is pressed against the flange, whereby the resilient tongues are pressed aside and lose their grip on the flange so that the contact and tool can be drawn out.

The shape of the casing with its resilient tongues makes it necessary to use a cylindrical tool which has to be placed around the contact and the cable attached to the contact.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a connecting element, arranged in a contact base, in order to removably hold a contact element insertable in the contact base, in which locking and releasing of the contact element is carried out in a simpler way with the help of a much simpler tool than in the known construction. The connecting element according to the invention consists of two rectangular tongues pointing in the same direction and connected to each other at one end, said tongues being of resilient and electrically conducting material and between which it is possible to insert the mentioned contact element. Most characteristic of the connecting element is that at least one of the tongues is provided with a notch which is arranged in such way that a flange on the contact element engages in the notch when the contact element is inserted in its working position in the contact base.

BRIEF DESCIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawing shows an embodiment of the connecting element in two perpendicular directions. FIG. 2 shows the appearance of the sheet from which the connecting element is manufactured. FIGURES 3 and 4 show in two sections perpendicular to each other a contact base with inserted connecting elements and with mounted contact elements. FIG. 5, finally, shows the apperance of the tool used when removing and possibly also when inserting the contact element.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The connecting element consists of two tongues 1 and 2, connected to each other at one end. The connection is made by means of an intermediate piece 3, as most clearly seen in FIG. 2. The connecting element is manufactured of a resilient and electrically conducting material, preferably some suitable bronze, and is bent from a sheet as shown in FIG. 2. The sheet is bent along the broken lines 4. The tongues 1 and 2 can be straight or curved, as shown in the figures. At approximately the middle at least one of the tongues, suitably both, are provided with a notch 5 so dimensioned that an annular flange on that connecting element which is to be connected can engage the notch and hold the connecting element. A hole 6 is made in the intermediate piece 3 for each pair of tongues, the diameter of the hole being somewhat greater than that of the inserted connecting element.

FIG. 3 shows how the connecting element is placed in a contact base 7 of insulating material, carrying and enclosing the connecting element. The connecting element is arranged in a cavity 8 in the contact base. The contact element 10, attached to a cable 9, is provided with an annular flange 11 and is inserted from the right between the tongues 1 and 2 until the flange 11 falls into the notches 5. The left end of the contact element has then passed through the hole 6 in the intermediate piece 3. Thus, the hole provides a guide for the left end of the contact element and by cooperation between flange 11 and the hole in the resilient tongues, the contact element 10 is locked in the contact base. In order to release the contact element a tool is used according to FIG. 5. This is made of insulating material in the form of a plane strip 15, both ends of which are shaped as tongues 16 and 17 of different widths, making it possible to use the tool for different sizes of contacts. For voltage measuring of the different contact elements in the base, a tool of an electrically conducting material can be used, connected to a measuring instrument.

When a contact element with cable is to be released from the base, the tool is placed near the cable and perpendicular to the plane of the tongues 1 and 2. Thus, in FIG. 3 the tool is imagined to be placed in the plane of the paper. After this the tool is inserted between tongues 1 and 2 in the connecting element, whereby the tongues are pressed apart so that the flange 11 loses its engagement with the holes 5, and the cable with the holes 5, and the cable with the contact element can be taken out.

Due to the fact that the connecting element is manufactured of a flat sheet it is possible in a simple manner to connect two adjacent pairs of tongues. By punching of the material shown in FIG. 2, the two apertures 12 are produced, ending a short distance from the lines 4 along which the sheet is bent. In this way the two pairs of cooperating contact tongues 1 and 2 will be connected to each other by the intermediate piece 3, and a direct connection is obtained betwen the cables 9 and 13 in FIG. 4. Should switching-over between two cables not be desired, the double connecting element shown in FIG. 4 is substituted by two elements separated from each other of the type shown in FIG. lb.

A suitable field of application for the invention is in contact bases for relays with many connecting contacts. The relay is provided with male contacts to cooperate

3,470,525 with the female contacts 10 and 14 shown in FIGURES 4 and 5. FIG. 3 is a vertical section through a part of such a contact base and FIG. 4 is a horizontal section through the upper contact row 10, 14 along the line IV—IV in FIG. 3 and can, for example, show the supply ₅of feeding current to a single relay in a relay chain. From a relay not shown, the feeding current flows through the cable 9 and its contact 10 which is in connection with the connecting element. From there the feeding current flows through the lower part of the connection element, ιθ shown in FIG. 4, through the contact 14 out in the cable 13 to the next relay in the chain. On the left side in FIGURES 3 and 4 a relay can be connected by means of a male contact in one of the contact elements 10 or 14. The current is returned by means of a pair of 15 contacts 10' and 14', arranged in a lower contact plane. The last mentioned contact is not shown, but it is situated under the contact element 14.

In the arrangement shown, any of the relays can be removed without breaking the feeding circuit for the 20 other relays.

The above should be regarded only as an example of how the connecting element produced of a flat metal sheet can very simply solve two fundamentally important problems, namely to operate as a locking arrangement for 25 contact elements attached to cables and to act as a connecting part between two adjacent contact elements.