Covering for a connecting member

1,092,110. Housing flag connectors. AMP Inc. Feb. 11, 1965 [Feb. 27, 1964], No. 5933/65. Heading H2E. A machine is provided in which flag-type connectors are crimped one by one to leads and then enclosed in housings. Each housing is moulded from nylon or polypropylene in the form of two sections 1, 2 linked by hinge pieces 3 so that when the connector has been placed in section 1 with the end of the socket positioned over a raised part 16 and with the conductor resting in a groove 11, the section 2 may be folded over it, apertures 26 snap-fitting over projections 14. The raised part 16 serves to guide a mating tab connector between the resilient bent-round sides of the flag connector. A number of housings are moulded integrally with a carrier strip, Fig. 7 (not shown), having a hole at one end and a boss at the other by which it may be snap-fastened to other strips to form a long strip which may be wound on a spool of the machine for connecting and assembling the connectors. Another spool carries a strip of the flag connectors themselves. On operation of a foot switch, a single-cycle mechanism operates to cause the end of an inserted conductor to be crimped in known manner into the next flag connector by dies (CD, SD), Fig. 12 (not shown), and the flag connector to be severed from its strip. This mechanism then initiates a further single-cycle mechanism which actuates: (a) a feed mechanism, Figs. 16 or 23 (not shown), to move the flag connector into the housing-fitting position, (b) a mechanism, Figs. 13, 14 and 19 (not shown), including an external ring gear (118), through an aperture in the bearing of which the next housing is positioned and which carries a block (121) to fold the section 2 of the housing over the section 1 and the flag connector, (c) a mechanism, Fig. 18 (not shown), including a knife (107) for shearing the housing from its carrier strip and a pin (109) for locating the carrier strip and separating one length of it from another, and (d) a mechanism, Fig. 22 (not shown), for feeding the carrier strip (41) one step forward through the bearing of the gear (118).