Written by Fraser Cowie- Product Marketing Manager- Interface
So what is it that Phoenix Contact does exactly? Everyone knows that we make those little green connections that are on Printed Circuit Boards, but what else?
The answer is we make just about anything that can connect, control and automate your application – from cabling solutions to programmable logic controllers. For now let’s focus on the simple side of the automation business – switching things on and off!
Written by Dave Hall, Industry Manager- UK Process
I’m back for another blog focused on the Process Industry to tell you about a new product introduction which has been launched recently. I can see this product being used in many applications, so on to the detail.
As the world’s largest manufacturer of DIN rail mounted terminal blocks, Phoenix Contact can announce the introduction of their own range of Ex approved junction boxes – this exciting new range of enclosures includes stainless steel and polyester versions complementing the well-known range of din rail mounted terminal blocks that are already being used extensively in the process related industry.
Written by Scott Mulholland, Product Manager- Industrial Components
We are all familiar with distribution blocks. They are an integral part of control cabinets around the world. They are functional and fit for purpose, that’s probably why they haven’t changed in their basic design in many, many years. As for the termination technology, ‘screw will do’ has been the mainstay of the market.
Here at Phoenix Contact, we think we can do better than your average, common or garden, distribution block. We have incorporated our market leading ‘Push In’ technology into our new PTFIX distribution blocks, which then builds in all of the advantages associated with push in technology.
Written by Tony Deane, CST Technical Manager
Cost Effective High Availability / Hot Standby PLC System
How many existing applications cry out for a high availability solution, but because of cost restrictions a compromise solution to the application has been arrived at? Or worse still, how many projects are never even realised for the same cost driven reasons?
At Phoenix Contact, we have a concept that offers high availability at the following levels:
This is achieved at a very competitive cost whilst delivering on all three of the above criteria.
Written by Mark Lloyd, Product Manager- Trabtech & Power Supplies
For my first blog, I wanted to steer away from just another product piece extolling features and benefits, but in this case it is almost unavoidable.
A few days ago at Hannover Messe, we unveiled TERMITRAB COMPLETE (TTC) the world’s narrowest range of surge protective devices for MCR technology. In the Phoenix Contact world, MCR stands for Measurement, Control and Regulation, or in other words surge protection devices for signal lines.
The protection of signal lines is an often forgotten concept with many machine builders and system integrators either fitting no SPD (Surge Protection Device) because they have never had a surge issue that they know about, or at the very least they have only protected the power lines with a Type 1, Type 2 or combination of the two.
Written by Gary Nelson, Senior Product Manager- Device Connections
When designing electronic devices the choice of available enclosures can be overwhelming and consist of numerous decisions you have to make, resulting in a long list of component parts you have to order. With the new UCS enclosure range from Phoenix Contact you have 4 sizes to choose from and the option to increase the standard height of 47mm with innovative corner height adaptors to 67mm. The UCS enclosure meets the standard form factors of embedded system printed circuit boards (PCBs) so is an ideal way of building your electronic systems using these products or for creating your own design using similar sized PCBs.
Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation
We’ve all had a play with a label maker. Whether it’s labelling the file cabinet, your colleague labelling his/her coffee cup or, in my case, your mother-in-law labelling the containers in her Tupperware cupboard. Most of us have had a minor organisation frenzy with a label maker.
Phoenix Contact is evolving in the world of marking. I’ve been at Phoenix Contact 10 years, of which the last 4 I have been in charge of Marking & Installation (M&I). I think it’s fair to say of all the product ranges we have, M&I have grown the most in variety. The catalogue for M&I has more than doubled in size in 5 years, sitting at a healthy 627 pages of marking and tooling joy…I know this because not only has the MPG of my car gone down with the extra weight in the boot but I also stand slightly off-centre due to my shoulder bag getting heavier.
Written by Nigel Dawbarn, Market Segment Manager- Industry Management & Automation
For many years, Phoenix Contact has had the ability to engineer solutions for building automation controls – in 2015 Phoenix bought the company Sysmik GmBH which has led to us now having a new controller with new software to offer the market – the ILC 20150 BI which is programmed via Niagara Framework Software from Tridium.
I will attend the Niagara Forum this week to learn about the new developments which will be available to us and our customers, so an exciting week ahead!
Written by Andy Neat, Product Manager- Marking & Installation
Over the last 4 years, I must admit that one of the best parts of my job is looking after the Phoenix Contact tool range. Not just because it comes in handy when changing a plug socket at home, but because there’s something oddly satisfying about playing and testing out top quality tooling on a daily basis. But, then again, I am the guy who couldn’t wait to rip his skirting boards off at home so I had an excuse to buy a new circular saw to fit the new skirting.
But, today, I’m not talking about the ground breaking hand tools such as Crimpfox 4in1 or Crimpfox Centrus (name-drop) but I’m going to talk about an unlikely partnership I’ve noticed over the years occurring in our automatic tool range. I say it’s unlikely because they both do completely different jobs, but work very well together. No, I’m not talking about Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film ‘Twins’ here, I’m talking about The CF 3000 and CUTFOX 10.
What are the CF 3000 and CUTFOX 10? Lets start with the CF 3000. I’ve blogged about this tool before so sorry if I repeat myself here. The CF 3000 will strip and crimp a cable in less than 2 seconds!! I could leave it there but there is more. It can crimp 0.5mm upto 2.5mm cable leaving a square crimping result.
A study showed that the average panel builder can strip and crimp around 5 cables a minute (I have seen a guy do it quicker) whereas the CF 3000 can do up to 25 a minute! With my rough estimations, if you are terminating, say, 700 cables in a panel- I’m going to give the panel builder the benefit of the doubt and say he/she can assemble 8 cables a minute (that’s stripped and crimped)- so it would take approximately 90 minutes to assemble all the cables give or take a minute or two for fiddling about and sipping brews. With the CF 3000, which is bench mounted (requires mains power) so a bit of walking back and forth may be required, straight away the assembly time is reduced to 35 minutes, or let’s say 40-45 minutes as your colleague may have asked you about the football last night. So based on just assembling the cables that’s around a 50% time saving straight away.
So where does the CUTFOX 10 come into this? Some poor sole has to cut all the cable to size. You can forget about the steel ruler you have screwed to your work bench as the CUTFOX 10 will measure it all out for you. There’s a handy little touch screen on the top of the device allowing you to insert quantity and length then just hit ‘start’ and walk off to sweep the floor, maybe. In my opinion, the time saving here is only a slight one between machine and a human cutting the cable, but the point is it’s completely automatic so you can walk off and leave it, that’s where the time saving comes in…and finger saver you might say!
So an unlikely partnership as I said earlier. These two machines have been purchased together more and more as an unofficial set as there is a clear time/cost saving benefit for machine builders and panel builders for compete cable assembly time. We could go one further and say let’s look at our Push-in terminals too, where you would save even more time when it comes to the installation side, but I’ll leave that blog for my colleague Scott 🙂
So if it’s Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger or perhaps even Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe getting the job done, either way if it works it works.
For more information, contact Andy by email aneat@phoenixcontact.com or telephone 07786 252414
Written by Fraser Cowie, Product Marketing Manager- Interface
There are lots of ‘Smart Relay’ solutions available today and to be honest it is difficult to choose one from another because they are all very similar and offer the same features.
They all have the same disadvantages too – in that to add more digital or analogue I/O you need more space in the cabinet and if an internal relay fails, or is not man enough to switch the load, you end up replacing the base unit or adding interposing relays – all of which increases the required installation space and adds cost!