Connectors having insulation displacement contacts (IDC) are widely used in the telephone and computer industries as well as in other industries. Such an IDC connector, for example, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,055 which issued Jun. 25, 1972 to Hufnagle. In line with the miniaturization trend in the manufacture of electronic and electrical components, these IDC connectors are beginning to be made quite small with closely space contacts. The insulated housings of these connectors have relatively thin wall sections that are delicate and easily deformed or damaged. When terminating insulated conductors to these connectors, tabs on each of the contacts must be crimped onto the insulation of its respective conductor to form a strain relief. This crimping process tends to bulge the crimped area outwardly against the wall sections of the housing that separate the contacts. A wall section can be deformed or bent over into the area of an adjacent contact that has not yet received a conductor so that, when termination of a conductor is attempted the insertion tooling may engage this deformed wall section and damage the connector. This is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 where there is shown a connector 10 having a series of insulation displacement contacts 12 positioned in a tool 14. The tool includes an inserter 16 that both inserts the conductor into the contact 12 and rolls over and crimps a pair of tabs 18 that project upwardly from each contact, to form a strain relief in the usual manner. Each contact 12 is separated by a relatively thin insulating wall 20 that is part of the connector housing. During the insertion operation the crimped area of the contact 12 tends to bulge out in the horizontal direction, as shown at 22 in FIG. 1. While the end wall 24 is relatively thick and rigid, the opposite wall 20 in the first contact cavity is relatively thin and deflects toward the right a small amount under the pressure of the crimped first contact. In the case of a relatively shallow crimping depth this deflection of the wall 20 is only slight in the first couple of contacts, however, when the third contact is crimped, as shown in FIG. 1, the effect of cumulative side pressure caused by the bulging of the first several contacts causes a significant deflection of the wall 26 into the fourth contact cavity. When the connector 10 is indexed to the fourth cavity, the inserter may engage the edge of the wall 26, as shown in FIG. 2, resulting in damage to the connector 10 or the tool 14. In the case where the crimping depth is relatively greater, the wall 26 can be significantly deflected after only the first contact is fully crimped so that the wall intrudes well into the cavity of the second contact. In this case, when the connector 10 is indexed to the second cavity, the inserter may engage the wall 26.
What is needed is an apparatus for terminating such IDC connectors while assuring that the inserter does not damage the walls of the connector housing.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds