Shunt

The present invention relates to a shunt connector and in particular to a shunt connector which cannot be improperly mounted on a pair of adjacent pin terminals.

Terminal junction or shunt systems are well known in the electrical and electronic arts since it is frequently necessary to temporarily interconnect two or more adjacent terminals. Terminal junction wiring systems generally employ single or multiple modules in the form of a housing of rigid insulating material, conventionally of rectangular configuration, incorporating means for physically mounting the housing in a support wherein a plurality of such housings may be mounted in side-by-side fashion depending upon the number of electrical interconnection being made. Each housing is provided with a pair of terminal receiving cavities which extend in parallel spaced fashion within the housing. Conventionally the shunt terminal is generally formed by standard receptacle terminals joined by a metallic bus strip, with the bus strip being folded to draw the terminals closer together for insertion into the closely spaced cavities in the housing. This type of shunt connector has several disadvantages in that, first, it is expensive to manufacture the conventional receptacle terminals for a shunt purpose and, second, it requires additional steps to bend the carrier strip for proper spacing of the formed terminals. A further disadvantage is that there is the possibility of improper (reversed) mounting of the shunt which will result in either destruction of the shunt itself or, at the very least, an improper shunt being established.

It should further be appreciated that shunt connectors of the present type are generally used for shunting pin terminals that are on 0.100 and 0.200 inch centers. Therefore the connectors themselves are rather small making it difficult to determine which is the mounting end and which is the back end of the connector.

The present invention concerns a shunt connector having an insulative housing defining a pair of closely spaced, parallel terminal receiving passages and a single shunt terminal mounted in said housing and exposed in the passages so that good electrical and mechanical contact can be made between the shunt terminal and a pair of terminal pins inserted into the respective passages from either end thereof.

The present invention will be described by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a shunt according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section taken along line FIG. 2--2 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 3 is a transverse section taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2, part of the terminal being broken away; and

FIG. 4 is a transverse section through the housing only taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 2.

The subject shunt connector 10 comprises a housing 12 and a terminal 14 received therein. The shunt connector is used to interconnect pairs of closely spaced pin terminals 16.

The housing 12 is an integral rectangular member of rigid plastics material defining a pair of parallel closely spaced terminal passages 18, 20 extending between a mating face 22 and an oppositely directed rear surface 24. A transverse slot 26 interconnects the passages 18, 20 within the housing and defines a lug or stop 28 projecting from a first inner wall 30 towards an opposite inner wall 32. Each passage 18, 20 has oppositely directed flared entrys 34, 36, 38, 40, respectively. Each passage 18, 20 further includes a side ramp 42, 44 forming a shelf 46, 48.

The terminal 14 is stamped and formed from a single strip of conventional conducting material and includes a pair of parallel spaced contact arms 50, 52 joined at their opposite ends by cross bars 54, 56. A latching tine 58 extends from the cross bar 54 to lie between the parallel spaced contact arms 50, 52. It will best be appreciated from FIG. 3 that the contact arms 50, 52 have a bowed longitudinal configuration with a portion 60 intermediate the cross bars 54, 56 having the maximum arc. The tine 58 has a first portion 62 which is bent in a direction opposite the contact arms and then has a portion 64 reversedly bent beyond itself so that the free end 66 extends in the direction of the contact arms. The terminal 14 also includes a pair of lateral flanges 68, 70.

The present invention is assembled by simply slipping the terminal 14 from the rear 24 of housing 12 into the passages 18, 20 and slot 26 with the cross bar 54 leading. The flanges 68, 70 will encounter and ride up ramps 42, 44 to seat on shelves 46, 48. At the same time tine 58 will ride over stop 28. This will bring the terminal into a stable position with cross bars 54 and 56 engaging wall 32 and portions 60 of the contact arms lying in the respective passages 18, 20 spaced from wall 30.

It will be appreciated from a comparison of FIGS. 3 and 4 that the tine 58 engaging with the lug 28 will prevent the terminal 14 from being displaced from the housing 12 by a terminal entering from mating face 22. It will also be apparent from these Figures that because the contact arms 50, 52 are bowed and lie in the respective passages 18, 20 that a pin terminal 16 can be received in the subject shunt connector from either the mating 22 or rear 24 ends thereof without damaging or displacing the terminal 14.