Selecting Connectors for Harsh Environments
In a perfect electrical connector world, every heavy duty connector would be compact, hermetically sealed, resistant to temperature and vibration, easy to use and inexpensive. A design engineer would only need to know how many cavities, and what wire gauge is needed. Unfortunately, this is not the case and there is no universal connector that fits every application. It sometimes seems there there are as many different connectors for harsh environments as there are harsh environments. Motion, temperature, chemicals and fluids all present the opportunity to impede the flow of data and electricity and can create harsh environments. Electrical connectors need to protect vital data and power transmissions from all kinds of physical and environmental factors, and they need to do it without fail. One small leak or fault at any point in an electrical system can stop a production line, cripple a military vehicle or immobilize a fire truck.