Electrical connectors often employ separate mechanical latching and EMI/RFI shielding components, which adds to their size and weight. In the presentation below, we’ll discuss how contact springs can deliver significant benefit for use in electrical connector applications by reducing size, weight and power consumption challenges.
Electrical Connector Design Challenges
Electrical connectors consist of a male jack, female jack, and plug design. These join electrical terminations, which ensures the continuous flow of current and signal.
A common challenge engineers face is that electrical connectors often employ separate mechanical latching and EMI/RFI shielding components. This increases their size and weight, which can affect the overall efficiency of the design.
Other common challenges of connector engineering include:
- managing high current in small form without temperature spike
- resisting shock and vibration
- consistently performing over thousands of cycles
To solve these electrical connector challenges, engineers can utilize contact springs in their design.
Benefits of Using Contact Springs for Electrical Connector Designs
Contact springs are capable of fulfilling multiple latching, conducting, and EMI/RFI shielding functions. As a result, they can help improve electrical connector designs by reducing size, weight, and power consumption challenges.
Benefits of utilizing contact springs in electrical connectors include:
- Reduced size and weight
- More power conduction
- Extended product life
- Simplified installation and maintenance
They’re also highly customizable to meet unique land, sea, and air service requirements. For example, contact springs can be created using various wire materials to meet specific application requirements such as corrosion resistance and conductivity.
Spring-Loaded Electrical Connector Design Assistance
If you’re interested in learning more about how contact springs can be used in your electrical connector design, the experts at Bal Seal Engineering can help:
- custom-design connecting, conducting, and EMI shielding components to meet all your application requirements
- produce high-quality prototypes
- perform testing to verify force, conductivity, and shielding effectiveness
- transition successful prototype to full production from anywhere between 100 to over a million units
To speak to a Bal Seal Engineer about your application, click here.
