This invention generally relates to electrical connectors and, particularly, to modular electrical connectors for use in connector harnesses which include individual connectors having different numbers of contacts for termination to printed circuit boards or the like.
Electrical connectors and termination machines have been designed for wiring connectors in harnesses with different sized connectors having different numbers of contacts and different lengths of wires. Fabrication of such harnesses is carried out by termination machines which, conventionally, are capable of terminating a given number of wires to appropriate connector contacts. For instance, and for purposes of illustration throughout this disclosure, a machine may have a "twenty-four position" termination head with the capability of terminating twelve pairs of wires to connectors having complementary contacts in multiples of twos. For instance, a twenty-four contact connector may be wired in a harness with three different connectors having twelve, eight and four contacts, respectively. Other combinations can be fabricated.
Heretofore, one method of terminating contacts in a harness, as described above, required that individual connectors be fabricated with the particular number of contacts in the different sized connectors. This was a very costly procedure because the termination machine had to be operated in plural terminating cycles and an inventory of the different sizes of connectors had to be maintained.
In order to solve the problems of wiring different size of individually terminated connectors in harnesses, a system was designed for fabricating connectors in "chains" with straps or webs joining a chain of connectors of different sizes whereby the connectors could be wired or terminated simultaneously. However, such systems could not use the termination machine to its maximum capacity or efficiency. In other words, if a twenty-four head termination machine is being used, wherever a strap or web is located between adjacent connectors, those termination positions of the machine head would be inoperative. An example would be in a situation where it might be desirable to wire a twelve contact connector to an eight contact connector and a four contact connector. This would be impossible in a twenty-four position head because the straps or webs which join the connectors would occupy certain of the wiring positions of the head. Therefore, any given harness requirement would result in one or more of the wiring positions of the head not being used. Such a system could not even wire two twelve contact connectors in a harness because the strap or web between the connectors would occupy one of the wiring positions of the head.
There is a need for a modular electrical connector for use in a system which will maximize the efficiency of termination machines and which will provide greater versatility in the numerical contact combinations affordable in connector wiring harnesses in a "one shot" termination machine.