Industrial Connectors 101

Industrial connectors are specialized electrical connectors designed to provide reliable and efficient connectivity in demanding industrial environments. These industrial connectors are essential for the functionality of machinery, automation systems, industrial infrastructure, and various other industrial applications, ensuring secure connections for power, data, and control signals.

A connector provides a quick electrical connect and disconnect between devices and equipment and sources of power. We use connectors every day, whether it's connecting a phone to its charger, an appliance to a wall outlet, or an ethernet line into a computer.

Traditionally, hardwiring is the alternative to these industrial electrical connectors. Hardwiring connections are more permanent than using connectors, requiring a manual unwiring and rewiring each time a disconnection is needed.

HARTING Product Manager, Goda Inokaityte, answers "What is an Industrial Connector?" with visual examples and real-life applications.

Industrial connectors are more practical and economical than hardwiring.

Many manufacturers and industrial engineers have switched from point-to-point or hardwiring to connector-based cable assemblies. Adopting progressive connectivity solutions, including industrial power connectors, has improved their unit costs and productivity, allowing them to complete installations and run processes much faster and more efficiently.

Most industrial equipment contains extensive electrical wiring between its components and subsystems. When the equipment is manufactured, the machine builder (OEM) typically assembles and tests it at the manufacturing location, before disassembling it for shipping and reassembly at a customer location.

With hardwiring, hundreds or thousands of connections are individually disconnected for shipping and reconnected during setup — an incredibly labor-, time-, and expense-heavy process. If wiring errors are made during final setup, they can cause equipment damage or delays in getting online.

Because industrial connectors can be connected and disconnected instantly, it allows for faster equipment assembly, disassembly, and reassembly. They enable the ability to move, upgrade, or scale equipment quickly. And provides more streamlined maintenance and troubleshooting, while decreasing human error when changing connections. All these factors contribute to significant cost savings over the lifetime of the connector, when compared to hardwiring.

Watch this time-lapse video comparing engineers installing and re-installing a device using HARTING industrial connectors vs. manually hardwiring and re-wiring.

A modular industrial connector empowers nearly limitless customization through various module options. HARTING’s Han Modular connectors are used for large industrial control panels and systems. The innovative har-modular connectors enable modularity on PCBs and smaller devices. Both modular industrial connectors allow designers to design a tailored, plug-and-play connector with off-the-shelf parts.

1. Select modules: options include power, signal, data (fiber, Ethernet, copper, coax), pneumatics

2. Choose frame: various sizes, shapes, and materials

3. Decide housing: made from rugged or eco-friendly materials

Designs can combine these options in thousands of combinations, saving footprint — up to 50% of space savings — by concentrating connection types within one connection point. This also allows for future-proofing, as modules can be swapped as application needs evolve.