There are three stages to terminating a socket to a ribbon cable. At the Alignment stage, the cable is laid on the cover so that the conductors precisely align to grooves in the plastic part. In the 3M™ 3000 Series socket, the cover has a strip of tacky adhesive that holds the cover onto the ribbon cable. During Insulation Stripping, the blades of the U contacts displace the insulator seating the conductor wires securely in the slot. In the final phase, Termination, the cover is closed over the body. At this stage the connector is complete and ready to use.