Two components designed to
enable quick and economical surface-mount connections to printed
circuit boards (PCBs) were used in the 2009 VDI/VDE-IT demonstration
production line at the SMT Hybrid Packaging Expo in Nuremburg, Germany.
Both components came from Zierick Manufacturing Corp. (Mt. Kisco, NY,
U.S.; www.zierick.com). The line was built to demonstrate “innovation
in PCB manufacturing technology—the foundation for complex electronic
systems.”
The line
used a Zierick fine wire connector to bring battery power to the board
and a surface-mount insulation piercing crimp terminal from the
supplier to connect the board to various LED readout devices. The
devices offer OEMs important advantages, according to Janos Legrady,
the supplier’s vice president of R&D. “The fact that they require
the smallest footprint and are the least expensive method of wire
termination is significant in today’s market.”
The
IPC-4-45 insulation piercing connector offers a cost-efficient solution
for stranded or tinsel wire terminations, and enables multiple wires to
be terminated simultaneously without being stripped first. This
connector’s unique design of four wire housing holes and four
individual piercing blades allows it to accommodate stranded or tinsel
wire. Because it eliminates the need to solder wires to the PCB, the
connector saves assembly cost and provides a durable wire connection.
The component provides the capability to terminate multiple wires at
the same time, for further labor time and costs.
The
piercing blades are made to go in one direction only, and maintain a
continuous force on each wire. The housing is designed to provide
excellent wire retention.
During
the assembly process, the IPC connectors are surface-mounted to the
PCB. After reflow, the insulated wires are inserted into the holes of
the housing. Force is then applied to the top of the plastic housing
and the piercing blades cut through the insulation and penetrate into
the wire core, thus completing the wire connection process.
For
hands-free connection of the demonstration board’s circuitry to LEDs,
the line designers chose Zierick Part Number 1295 surface-mount
insulation piercing crimp terminal.
Among other features, it requires no separate strain relief and lends itself to high-speed automated operations.
A
special tool crimps the wire into the surface-mounted insulation
piercing crimp terminal and locks it in position—a method of connecting
a wire to a PCB that is designed to be more economical than other
current methods. The terminals have a small footprint similar in real
estate size to a hand-soldered wire.
The
technique’s reliability comes from a proven crimping technology that
makes use of unique insulation-piercing spikes. The spikes inside the
part penetrate the wire insulation to the core of the wire, resulting
in a gas-tight connection during the crimping process.
The
method obviates the need to strip insulation from the wire and allows
the termination to be made at the end of the wire or at any point along
the length of the wire. The supplier says this capability makes the
crimp terminal particularly useful with in-line applications in which
multiple terminations are needed on a single wire—for example, a series
of diodes used in block lettering display applications.
The
wire terminating crimp tool comes in a semi-automatic version that
terminates the wire and offers the added benefit of reducing any work
related to wire handling.
