What are Spade Terminals?

Meet the Connector: Spade Connector

A spade connector, also called an insulated spade terminal, is used to quickly and easily connect or disconnect a wire to a screw, lug, or battery. These simple devices provide tensile strength, thermal conductivity, and resistance to shock and corrosion. They are available with insulated housings, often color-coded, or as a bare conductive metal terminal. This metal terminal typically takes the form of a spade or a two-pronged fork (open spade terminals), which can slide under screw heads without fully removing them.

Spade terminals became common in the early 20th century, and their basic design hasn’t changed much. Spade connectors are used in applications such as industrial control panels, automotive wiring, and consumer appliances. They can handle 15-30 Amps, making them suitable for heaters, motors, and power supplies. They may be proactively replaced before corrosion, loss of spring tension, or heat cycling.

3M MH10-10FLK Scotchlok locking spade terminals from Waytek

Design Notes 

Material specifications:

A terminal must possess specific attributes, conferred by material selection. According to the text, Electrical Contacts: Principles and Applications, edited by Paul Slade, those attributes are low electrical resistance, appropriate spring constant, good structural strength, resistance to surface film growth, and low hardness to provide low constant resistance. Copper alloys that retain 75% or more copper are the most commonly specified material used for terminals. If a spring is part of the design, bronze is commonly used. Plating on a terminal improves its performance and longevity. Terminals may be plated with another noble metal (silver, gold, palladium, tin, and others) to improve resistance to film growth and keep contact resistance low.

Insulation material: nylon, vinyl, heat shrink

• Insulated vinyl terminals have a tinned plated copper body and tinned copper wire support with a PVC barrel.
• Insulated nylon terminals provide higher temperature resistance and resistance to solvents
• Heat shrink terminals are used where outdoor or environmental exposure is an issue.

TE Connectivity’s P.G. spade terminal

Max. voltage: 600V

Wire gauge: 8 AWG to 22 AWG

Color coding on insulators corresponds with AWG: Red: 18-22 AWG; Blue: 16-14 AWG; Yellow: 12-10 AWG

Termination: Crimp; crimping creates a gas-tight connection

Locking mechanism: Some spade connectors include retention dimples, positive-locking housing, or locking tabs to prevent vibration-related failures.

Blade widths: 2.8 mm, 4.8 mm, 6.3

Phoenix Contact Yellow M5 Stud Spade Terminal Connector Crimp 10-12 AWG

Markets and Applications

Automotive, Transportation, Consumer

Terminals are widely used in vehicles, consumer appliances (white goods), and small electrical devices.

Suppliers

Spade connectors and terminals are available in many variations from many suppliers, including DigiKey, Molex, Mouser,  TE Connectivity, and Waytek

Like this article? Check out our other Meet the Connector and Connector Basics articles, our Connector & Cable Special Topics Market Page, and our 2025  and 2026 Article Archives. 

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