Heat, shock, vibration, and radiation are all in a day’s work for the special components that explore worlds beyond our own. by Ann R. Thryft The most mission-critical of military/aerospace systems are the ones that go into space, where they encounter the toughest environments. Mil/aero systems must be tough enough on Earth to withstand theRead More

In critical mil/aero applications, a connector’s dependability begins where the pins and sockets meet: the contact system. By Robert Kleinschmidt, Senior Vice President, Air & Defense Business Unit, AirBorn, Inc. Many electronic systems in the military, defense, and aeronautics industries are designed to excel in some of the harshest environments imaginable. Deep-sea systems must endureRead More

For more than a century, the UL mark has helped inspire confidence in a product’s safety and quality. For UL, facilitating the standards development process, developing standards and certifying to those standards helps ensure that quality starts at the component level. UL is a premier global independent safety science company that has championed progress forRead More

The US has implemented another round of tariffs against China. The electronics industry is caught in the middle. We have now reached the next phase of the Trump administration’s planned tariffs on imports from China. On September 24, a third round of tariffs went into effect on midnight. This round includes some products used byRead More

Driverless golf carts and neighborhood electric vehicles may become mainstream well before autonomous cars become common. By Terry Costlow Golf cart suppliers have beat the auto industry in the race to electric power. Now they’re striving to make big inroads into the autonomous vehicle field. The challenges and benefits of using both electrified powertrains andRead More

It’s easy to overlook backshells, but they play a critical role in protecting connectors, cables, and overall system reliability. Mike Kahn, Director of Marketing, NorComp Connector reliability is essential to the performance of electronic systems in transportation applications. Off-highway equipment, long-haul freighters, bus and rail systems, and all other modes depend on critical systems includingRead More

The results are in for the 2018 Bishop & Associates US Customer Satisfaction Survey of the Electronic Connector Industry. In this issue, we reveal the top 10 connector suppliers ranked by level of customer satisfaction with product quality and problem handling. View survey results from all survey years. Bishop & Associates recently completed its biennial USRead More

A team of scientists is tapping electronics distributors and open source data to create better, cheaper environmental monitoring stations — and they want to help others do it themselves. Our water resources are under constant assault. Agricultural runoff, chemical pollutants, pharmaceuticals, water-borne pathogens, and other factors can render water unsafe to drink or swim in,Read More

Panel builders can reduce wiring time, achieve a denser, leaner cabinet, and cut costs by moving to a system cabling solution. By Michael Hardman, Product Marketing Specialist, Phoenix Contact USA In today’s industrial controls marketplace, customers are insisting on control cabinets that are less cluttered and take up less real estate than ever before. TheyRead More

Automakers are moving away from incandescent bulbs at increased speeds, eliminating a longstanding connector market. Opportunities for interconnect suppliers to shift gears and merge into more advanced automotive LED lighting applications abound. Much of the automotive industry’s attention is focused on the requirements of safety systems and autonomous driving, but there’s a similar revolution happeningRead More

To make the connected car and autonomous driving possible, quality wire harnesses are essential. Since quality assurance is a complex and largely manual manufacturing process, the use of a specialized manufacturing execution system (MES) is paramount. By Bernd Jost, Managing Director, DiIT AG, and Pete Doyon, VP Product Management, Schleuniger, Inc. Digitization has long beenRead More

Innovative, high-density connectors deliver higher current-carrying capacity and help usher in new levels of performance for electric and hybrid vehicles. By Kirk Nelson, Director of Sales – Automotive, Hirose Electric The continued development of hybrid vehicles (HEV) and electric vehicles (EV) is central to most car manufacturers’ future strategies. One day in the not tooRead More