The present invention relates generally to electrical connectors which are panel mounted and more particularly to methods and apparatus for molding such plugs and the resulting mounting slot configuration in such connectors induced by such methods and apparatus.
It is frequently desirable to mount an electrical connector such as a plug or socket having two or three terminals permanently in some sort of panel or housing associated with an appliance or other electrical device. One rather common technique for accomplishing such mounting of electrical connectors is to provide an irregular hole in the panel and a matching irregular configuration to the connector so that the connector may be passed part way into the irregular hole and then translated or rotated so as to lock the connector within the hole. Another technique for mounting such connectors in the panels is to provide tapered locking lugs on the connector so that the connector may be forced into a hole with the locking lugs deformed somewhat along their tapered slope until the tapered portion passes completely through the panel aperture whereupon that tapered portion reexpands to its original configuration securing the connector in panel.
To more securely resist potentially dislodging forces generally perpendicular to the panel surface as well as resisting inadvertent twisting or translating of such an electrical connector resulting in its being dislodged from the panel, some electrical connectors have been provided with a pair of opposed laterally extending slots of generally rectangular cross sectional configuration with such connectors being intended for mounting in open ended apertures in panels. Of course, such configuration is easily translated and removed from such an open ended aperture, however, in cases where grounding of the electrical connector to the panel in which it is mounted is desired, a ground lug secured to the connector and having a screw or bolt receiving opening may be physically fastened to the panel after the connector is in position providing the dual benefit of grounding the connector as desired and further precluding its translation and removal from the panel.
In other installations the plug may be mounted in a cabinet bottom near the rear thereof and assembly of the cabinet back wall adjacent the plug receiving bottom notch will hold the plug securely in position. Numerous variations on this scheme are possible.
This last mentioned type connector and panel mounting scheme has met with considerable commercial success, however, this type connector is more costly than necessary due primarily to the complexity and high initial cost of the mold for fabricating such a connector and in particular the complexity of the mold for forming the parallel extending mounting slots in the generally parallel opposed side walls of the connector.
The molds heretofore used for forming insulating material about electrically conductive portions to form such electrical connectors include a pair of mold halves separable along a parting plane which when joined define a connector forming mold cavity and further include a pair of movable members, often referred to as cam pull sections, which extend somewhat into the cavity generally along the parting plane to form the desired slots and thereafter when it is desired to remove the form connector from the mold these cam pull sections must be moved laterally away from the connector typically by a cam actuating mechanism to provide the necessary clearance for removing the formed connector from the cavity. Mechanisms for actuating these cam pull sections, the mold configuration to accept the movable sections, as well as the sections themselves all contribute to the substantial initial mold investment for fabricating such connectors. It would be highly desirable to somehow reduce this significant investment while retaining the advantages of such laterally inserted electrical connectors.