1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of manufacturing an insertion-type connector having a plurality of first, mutually electrically insulated, conductor contacts which are cut from a metal sheet in such a way that they are connected together via a connecting part of the metal sheet, and having a plurality of second conductor contacts which are connected together and which are cut from a metal sheet, the conductor contacts being partly embedded in an electrically insulating material to form an electrically insulating housing which fixes the conductor contacts relative to one another, and the connecting part then being separated off.
2. Description of Related Art
Insertion-type connectors of this kind are generally produced by manufacturing, separately, the individual conductor contacts, an insulator which receives the conductor contacts and mutually insulates them, and a housing which receives the conductor contacts and the insulator, and then assembling these individual components. When this is done, provision may also be made for the housing, if formed from an electrically insulating material, to perform the function of the insulator as well.
This way of manufacturing an insertion-type connector involves in particular considerable costs for the assembly work, which increase the unit costs of the individual insertion-type connectors. Because insertion-type connectors are usually mass-produced articles for which only low unit costs are acceptable, the reduction of costs is a fundamental aim of the development work done on them.
Known from US 2004/0092169 A1 is a method of manufacturing an insertion-type connector in which two subarrays of signal contact members, which arrays are held parallel to one another at one end via respective connecting strips, are connected together by means of the connecting strips. Plastics material is then molded around the contact terminals of the signal contact members to form a first part of a connector body. A subarray of power contact members, which are held parallel to one another at one end via a connecting strip, then have another plastics material molded around them to form a second part of the body, which is molded onto the first part. All the connecting strips are separated off after the two stages of the injection molding process.
Known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,411 B1 is a high-density, high-speed connector wherein each signal conductor is always surrounded by four ground (earth) conductors. To reduce interference and reduced crosstalk between differential signal conductors provision is made in certain embodiments for the signal conductors to be so arranged in the connector that pairs of differential signals are orthogonal to one another.
Known from US 2008/0050969 A1 is an insertion-type connector having a plurality of parallel pins which are fastened into the connector. A printed circuit board is connected to the connector. Some of the pins are configured to transmit signals from the circuit board and other pins are electrically connected to a ground (earth) potential of the circuit board. The pins are so organized that some signal-conducting pins are surrounded by four pins carrying the ground.