What Is a Wire-to-Wire Connector?
Wire-to-wire connectors serve as relay connectors that electrically and physically connect wire cables.
Unlike board-to-wire connectors, wire-to-wire connectors are pre-installed connectors to extend or disconnect a section of wire for a specific purpose.
Generally, a box-shaped housing contains male and female contact pins, and the wire cable is connected to the pins by crimping.
Uses of Wire-to-Wire Connectors
Wire-to-wire connectors are used to safely and easily connect and disconnect pairs of wires in high-density conditions without error. They are used in a variety of applications in the world, including general industrial machinery and infrastructure control applications, automotive control applications, and information equipment such as computers.
In particular, wire-to-wire connectors for automotive control use are high-performance products that meet extremely strict reliability standards, such as waterproof function, withstand voltage characteristics, and high connection stability under stress and vibration loads, in addition to various heat-resistant performances to withstand the harsh operating environment inside automobiles.
There are also relay connectors that enable impedance matching for high-frequency applications for high-speed transmission.
Principle of Wire-to-Wire Connectors
Wire-to-wire connectors exist to perform the function of physically and electrically connecting and disconnecting wire cables that are housed in two housings, which are physically and electrically stable without connection errors. One of the two housings is called a plug, and the other is called a receptacle, corresponding to male and female cables, respectively.
Both plugs and receptacles have pins called contacts that are electrically connected to the wire cable. The contact is the most important component of the connector and is generally made of a highly conductive copper alloy to minimize contact resistance. Non-spring pin contacts are often used on the male plug side, and spring-loaded socket contacts are often used on the female receptacle side.
Each pair of connectors consists of a housing that holds the contacts and consists of an insulator made of plastic for insulation and an outer shell, called a shell, that protects the insulator.
The spring characteristic of the socket contact is a very important elemental technology to maintain a stable electrical contact connection even when the frequency of connector insertion and removal increases, and connector manufacturers are working hard to develop compact, high-density, and high-performance connector technology.