Two-part electrical connectors and electrical interlocks including them

摘要

A two-part electrical connector for connecting a cable from a cathode-ray tube to an E.H.T. power-supply unit is incorporated in a safety interlock which ensures that E.H.T. is applied to the female part of the connector mounted on the unit only while the male connector part on the cable, is fully mated with the female part. Application of E.H.T. to the female part is controlled by a switching device that is operated via an interlock circuit only when two pins on the female part are bridged electrically by contact under a resilient-wire loop carried by the male part. The loop is sprung onto an electrically-insulative collar that embraces coaxially a tubular nose of the male part, and the pins project at diametrically-opposed positions through a flange of a tubular guideway of the female part. The pins enter slots in the collar and abut the wire within the loop such as to maintain the interlock circuit closed and apply E.H.T. to the female part, only so long as the nose is inserted in the guideway and the main connection-path remains established through the connector between a contact-pin at the end of the guideway of the female part and a metal insert within the nose of the male part.