Vehicular wiring must be protected against many potential failure modes. (The terms "vehicular" and "vehicle" are intended to include automobiles, trucks, motorcycles and other apparatus in which electrical splices are used.) One failure mode in vehicles is the possibility that the insulation on any of the many wires in the vehicle will be broken such that the affected wire or wires will short to ground or to other wires or components that may be bare and above ground. The magnitude of the problem is seen in the fact that a modern motor vehicle contains hundreds of circuits using hundreds of feet of insulated wire. Each wire must be protected against faults by using fuses or other circuit protection devices. Such protection devices are sized to handle the sum of the currents through all wires connected to the devices. Further, each wire that carries current provided through its fuse is sized such

that the fuse will melt and interrupt before the wire is destroyed. This requires that each wire have a current carrying capability larger than the load connected to the wire requires. This adds to the cost and weight of automotive wiring systems.

There exists in the art self- resettable materials and devices that possess positive temperature coefficient (PTC) characteristics. Such materials and devices are internally structured in a manner that will cause a rise in temperature of the material when excessive current flows through the material. This, in turn, causes the electrical resistance of the material to rise. The rise in resistance reduces the flow of current to a safe condition. Thus, when a fault occurs that causes an increased flow of current sufficient to heat the device, the device increases its temperature and resistance to reduce current flow.

Present technology places PTC devices within switches or loads. These are not optimum schemes because many switches control several different loads. In addition, circuit protection devices require that switches and loads be redesigned to include such devices which involves costly retooling.

The best location for circuit protection devices is the location at which a plurality of wires split off from a single wire to respective loads. Such locations are known as splices, which are distributed throughout a motor vehicle. In the present invention, circuit protection is accomplished using a splice connector provided with internal, automatically resettable protection and designed to be located anywhere in the vehicle. A

preferred approach is the use of positive temperature coefficient (PTC) material placed within the splice connector, as discussed in detail below, to protect individual wires connected to terminals of the connector. This allows, in addition, individual wires connected to individual loads to be sized for the currents of the individual loads and provided with optimized lengths since the length of an individual wire* to a load need only be the distance from the splice to the load. Further, with the use of such protective splice connectors, existing switches and loads do not need redesigning to incorporate such devices, thereby obviating any necessary retooling involved. In the present invention, one family of splice connectors can serve a multitude of on-vehicle applications.

The invention, along with its advantages and objectives, will be better understood from consideration of the following detailed description and accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is an exploded view of a splice protection device of the invention, the device, as shown, providing electrical protection for six branch circuits,

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic representation of the device of Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a schematic representation of twelve branch circuits protected by two splice connectors in accordance with the invention.

Referring now to Figure 1 of the drawings, a splice connector 10 is shown in an exploded view of its basic components, which include upper and lower conductive stampings 12

and 14, with each stamping having three integral legs 16, and an intermediate conductive stamping 18 having two integral legs 20. Between the respective stampings are located two planar pieces of material 22 and 24 that exhibit the positive temperature coefficient characteristic discussed above.

The stampings 12, 14 and 18 and planar pieces 22 and 24 are electrically and physically placed together in a sandwich-like structure to form the main body portion of connector 10. The connector can be placed in a hollow container 26 having a main body portion provided with an open end adapted to receive a female connector 27. Female connector 27 has terminals 28 located in the body thereof that engage legs 16 of the stampings when 27 is inserted into 26 for respective connection of the legs to individual loads 31 and 32 (Figure 3) via insulated branch circuit wires 33 terminating in the female connector. Legs 20 of intermediate stamping 18 are engaged by terminals 29 in connector body 27 to connect the legs to a power feed wire 30, as seen schematically in Figures 2 and 3. In this manner, a parallel set of circuits and loads (31 and 32) can be supplied simultaneously with electrical current and voltage via branch wires 33 of Figure 3.

In further reference to Figure 3, if the loads 31 and 32 are courtesy lamps, for example, that energize when a vehicle door is opened, a door relay switch 34 is depicted schematically in Figure 3 that is operated by such a door. Contacts 38 of the relay can be supplied with electrical current through a main fuse or other protection device (not shown) connected to a feed wire 40.

The operation of the arrangements depicted in the drawings is as follows. When relay 34 is energized, current is fed to splice connector 10 via contacts 38 and feed wires 30 and 40, and specifically to the legs 20 of center stamping 18. Current flows through the PTC material of members 22 and 24 to the legs 16 of outer stampings 12 and 14, and to the loads connected to them via female connector 27 and insulated wires 33 extending between connector 10 and the loads. As long as the insulated jackets of wires 33 are intact, current flow to loads 31 and 32 will remain at a proper level so that loads remain energized. If, however, one or more of insulated jackets becomes damaged such that the wire is bared to the extent that it contacts ground, a massive increase in current flow occurs through the bared wire and thus through the PTC material 22 or 24 (depending on which one or more of wires 33 are shorted) . The material of 22 or 24 immediately heats and increases its electrical resistance so that current flow to the shorted wire is substantially reduced. The PTC material functions as a latching circuit breaker, i.e., when a fault occurs, the power ( I R) dissipated in the PTC material causes the temperature thereof to rise past a trip point. This causes the resistance of the material to rise to a point in which the ( I 2R) heating equals cooli■ng effects. The PTC material remains in the tripped state until power feed is switched off. The faulted wire can be replaced since its location in the vehicle will be evident from the fact that the load it supplies is not functioning.

The operation of and protection

afforded by splice connector 10 is fully automatic so that its replacement is not necessary, as in the case of fuses.

Further, since splice connector 10 supplies a multiplicity of loads from a common power feed (30) , the multiplicity of individual wires connecting the multiplicity of loads to the splice connector can be small in gauge and of optimum lengths, thereby substantially reducing the weight and cost of the systems employing connectors 10. In Figure 3, if loads 31 and 32 are courtesy lamps, a suitable gauge for the individual wires 33 supplying the lamps can be twenty-two, as shown in Figure 3, while the feed wire gauge can be sixteen. Only one feed wire need extend from the power source to the splice of connector 10, and the lengths of branch wires 33 need only be the distance of the connector from the load. While the invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments, the claims appended hereto are intended to encompass all embodiments which fall within the spirit of the invention.