Novelty on the market – industrial connectors from WAIN

Wain Electrical is a manufacturer of industrial connectors with a very broad product offer. The company has been on the market for 12 years and focuses on the quality and advancement of technology in business. It has its own machine park and research-development facility, which allows it to integrate the whole process of design and manufacturing under one company, creating solid foundations for the development of the company. Micros is the distributor of Wain products on the polish market, which ensures fast delivery from the Krakow warehouse as well as technical support.

Wain product offer is addressed to demanding applications in broadly understood industry sectors, including machines, robots, automation systems, power engineering, renewable sources and railway transport. The company also offers high quality products and solutions for the elevator and escalator industry. In order to meet the quality requirements of those industries, the manufacture is certified according to the ISO9001: 2008 and ISO14001: 2004 standards, and products are designed and tested strictly according to the DIN VDE0110, DIN VDE0627, DIN ENTechnika 61984 and IEC 60529 standards. Products are also approved by the VDE, UL, CUL, CE and CQC.

They have an international certificate of railway industry quality (IRIS), thanks to which Wain is one of the qualified suppliers of products for railway transport. For applications in such industries, several hundreds of connectors models were prepared, with various pin arrangement, housings and accessories, which allows one to choose an element that strictly meets the requirements.

Current load capacity ranging to 650A, protection level of up to IP68 and many more design solutions in the field of housings and mounting of the cable by construction details makes no room for compromises when it comes to choosing Wain connectors by the designer. Manufactured connectors are modular, which means that a specific connecting element is created due to choosing a part from a wide selection of constituent elements. The modularity provides the construction flexibility, convenient installation, usage, manufacturing and launching a device, because every detail can be refined.

Rectangular connectors

Wain offer of the connectors can be divided into two groups: rectangular and oval ones. The most important part of the first group is an insert, that is a profiled element made of synthetic material which holds mechanical contacts (pins). Such insert is mounted in the housing, and supplemented with accessories such as grommets and cable glands, hooks that stabilise mechanical connection and prevent from disconnection by pulling the cable are added, and cable clamp fittings which makes the plug fit only its own socket. The potential of this solution is determined by the fact that these elements fit together. The insert can be chosen according to the contacts number, terminal pitch, load capacity and cable mounting method (e.g. for crimping). Housings can be made of metal or synthetic material, with clamp or screw pins, EMC screen etc. There are also special versions: hybrid inserts with various types of contacts, or even ones where the insert has a modular construction and can be clipped together from different pieces, creating variants with high power pins and signal variants. Because Wain connectors are addressed to industrial applications, many parts of the system are responsible for the environmental immunity. Housing and inserts have integrated gaskets protecting contacts, cable leads are carried out thanks to using cable glands, and contacts are covered in precious metals in order to protect them from corrosion or for carrying out special versions such as the ones which can be connected and disconnected numerous times. In such versions, apart from pins, there are also guiders in inserts, which task is to precisely adjust the plug and socket during mounting in order to align the position and forces to which the element is subjected and prevent bending of the pins, as well as breaking the material which undergoes high stress.

Many types have shielded construction and allow connecting the ground wire connector to the housing. There are also versions of the housing that are made out of stainless steel, which are characterised by very high mechanical durability. The mounting of a cable can be carried out by screwing on a bolt, using a spring clamp or by crimping. Individual product series have their functionality aimed at an application in a particular industry. The main series are HA (standard compact), HE (standard), HEE and HD (with high pin density – up to 216 pins per insert) and HVE (high-voltage), HSB (high-current), HM (with EM shielding), HK (combined, with high power and signalling pins), HE AV (with the expansion possibility), HQ (compact) and many more.

Circular connectors

For industrial automation, Wain offers round connectors in different sizes: bigger and smaller, straight or angled, or even with cables – wide offer guarantees optimal solutions for data transfer and power supply. The main production lines consist of M8 versions (up to 4 contacts, max 4A/60V), M12 (up to 8 contacts), M23 (max 19 pins). For M12, 4 subgroups were distinguished, with A,D, D and X pin coding, for standard automation applications. They have tips for soldering, crimping, spring tips and screw tips. Connector housings can be metal or plastic with cable output situated straight or at an angle. The connector design includes sealing, rings allowing the connector to be mounted in the socket and protection from accidental disconnection. Metal connectors are characterised by the accuracy of surface treatment, precision of details execution, such as knurled rings and also coverages providing environmental durability. Thanks to the fact that M8 and M12 connectors create an industry standard and can be freely changed for other ones, customers can change used solutions for ones delivered by another manufacturer, based on their quality, availability, price and other criteria. In the case of Wain circular connectors, the price-quality ratio is exceptionally beneficial.

Source: Elektronik 04/2021, pages 86-87

Fig. 1. HEE connector with high number of
 

Fig. 2. Standard HA series connector

Fig. 3. Circular connectors in plastic and metal housings

Fig. 4. Circular M12 connectors with "A" coding

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