Insulation Displacement Connectors
Insulation Displacement Connectors
(OP)
I'm with an OEM manufacturer of industrial machinery, and we are always looking for ways to improve productivity and lower costs (well, duh!).
One area that I see great potential for time reduction is in our electrical control panels. Our typical panel contains a small PLC, a motor contactor or small VFD, a couple relays, some fuses and a bunch of terminals for connecting sensors and pneumatic valves.
I've seen demos of insulation displacement type terminal blocks where there is no longer the need to strip and/or crimp every wire. This has great potential for time savings in our panel builds.
My question is this: is anyone in North America actually using these things on industrial machinery? My big concern is customer acceptance. Are they perceived as light duty? Is there an inherent mistrust of such a device?
Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks,
Dean
One area that I see great potential for time reduction is in our electrical control panels. Our typical panel contains a small PLC, a motor contactor or small VFD, a couple relays, some fuses and a bunch of terminals for connecting sensors and pneumatic valves.
I've seen demos of insulation displacement type terminal blocks where there is no longer the need to strip and/or crimp every wire. This has great potential for time savings in our panel builds.
My question is this: is anyone in North America actually using these things on industrial machinery? My big concern is customer acceptance. Are they perceived as light duty? Is there an inherent mistrust of such a device?
Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks,
Dean





RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
TTFN
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
IDC connectors are fine on ribbon cable. They are a pain in the neck when used for anything requiring maintenance rather than exchange of whole assemblies. They make things easy and cheap for the panel builder, but harder for the maintenance teams. If the purchaser also has to maintain the equipment, they might be put off.
For power terminations I think IDC and the spring clamp terminals which are also used are too prone to melting under overload, where a 'proper' terminal would have probably survived. This is usually at the most inconvenient time imaginable. Terminals are frequently the only bit of the panel that the user interfaces to. Making that interfacing harder will give them an incentive to buy a panel from somewhere else.
Perhaps I'm a Luddite, riding round in my square-wheeled cart, afraid of technology. I still don't like these newfangled terminals though!
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If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
I would suggest investing in those simple strippers that can go at each wiring station. You just take the end of the wire and shove it in, pull it out and it is stripped and even twisted if you want it. Here is an example of what we used. It represented an up-front investment, but saved on installed cost in the long run when we were doing a lot of panels.
http:/
"Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more."
Nikola Tesla
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
We sell a lot of our equipment into Fortune 100 companies, and I would hate to put in terminals that raised the ire of our valuable customers. I suspect Boeing might not be the only large company to ban them.
My understanding is that these terminals are popular in the telecom industry, which makes sense when terminating 1000 conductors at a shot in a locked, underground, room with little need for maintenance by end users.
jraef: thanks for the link. I've seen another brand of wire stripper before, but I haven't seen this one.
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
On a personal experience (and with a long sentence to describe the environment)..... a radio repeater system located in a non temperature controlled, sealed cabinet on the communications platform 1000' off the ground on a 1300' tall TV antenna tower.. a pretty extreme temperature cycling environment.. and with some cabinet water leaks that have occurred, probably have had some dew point condensation,
I've had only one failure of the radio controller in this extreme environment, and that was an IDC ribbon connector that went intermittent.. wasn't the connector to PCB pin contact, but the IDC to wire connection that went bad..
To prevent this happening again, I pulled the cable header cover off and soldered the wires to the connector IDC.
I agree with the views expressed above that I would have concerns about IDC connector appropriateness in your operational environment.
At a minimum, if you decide to proceed with this, it would be a good idea to talk to AMP or whomever the IDC connector manufacturer is, to determine if, in their qualification testing, whether the specific IDC connector was qualified for use in your operational environment, especially if it is include the condensing dew point.
Many "computer origin" parts and connector systems are "non condensing" environment only..
As mentioned most telephone switch office environments are temperature/humidity controlled the same as computer room environments..
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
I too have encountered problems (intermittants) with ribbon cables and connectors at the crimp on one of our product lines. It is now SOP to suggest that the customer check these when I am providing telephone support. It is also one of the very first things I do when I travel to a customer for trouble with these older units. I'm just glad these are not a quarter mile up in the air! Kinda like terra firma myself.....
In a hundred years, it isn't going to matter anyway.
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
The inverters have ribbon cables all over the place and they are controlled by a Multibus II system in a rack with a solderless (press-fit) backplane.
"Everything" except the ribbon cables and the card cage have been replaced by people that went there before me and I think that replacing either the whole system or cables plus card cage is the right way to go. Probably best to change cables and cage first and then the system (delivery time issues).
The environment is gas (coming from the coke furnaces), dirt and vibration. Not much temperature change and (probably) a relatively constant humidity - not condensing, that's for sure.
We do not know if replacement helps. It will take place this week-end or next week. I will be back with the results when we have evaluated it for a while. t will take several months before we know for sure if it helped.
Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
I suspect you probably have noticed that Cokeworks often have nasty emissions in the air
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If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!
RE: Insulation Displacement Connectors
Significant corrosion of plated metals and degradation of plastics used in typical computer products occurred in the 8-12 week test cycle in this environment.