To commemorate Singapore’s Golden Jubilee, Singapore has lined up a series of events and programs to celebrate what we call “ SG50 ”. While the whole nation looks into additional ideas of celebration ideas, it led me to reflect back on the past 50 years of nation development……

Quoting a Chinese saying,     (To have a home, you must first have a country), this why a country is known as  ( – Country, – Home/Housing), in Chinese.

As everyone knows, Singapore is just a small island, not more than a “dot” on the global map. To fully utilize the available land to house the population is a very big challenge. Today, many visitors to Singapore are wowed by our town planning and the impressive public housing that we have in Singapore. Having said this, how many people actually know about the history of public housing in Singapore?

This is the similar for Phoenix Contact, where many people know Phoenix Contact as a quality manufacturer for Device Connectors (PCB Terminal Blocks), Industrial Components as well as Industrial Electronic products. However, how many actually know that from the Device Connectors Division of Phoenix Contact, we are offering more than just simply just connectors……Connection Technology and Solution is definitely a word that is more apt, for what the Device Connectors Division can offer……

Together with PCB Terminal Blocks, Phoenix Contacts Device Connector Division offers, Housing Solution as a Connection Technology for all the customers out there who need some form of housing for their products.

This can be related to the “affordable housing” topic in Singapore, which I will be talking about today, so that you can see how Phoenix Contact has developed such a product to help you solve your housing needs…..

Back in the 1920s, the chronic housing conditions in downtown Singapore, prompted the British Colonial Government to look into developing affordable public housing for the common population of Singapore. Moving forward, in 1960, the Housing Development Board (HDB) was established to take over the task with a single objective to develop low-cost public housing and improve the quality of living environment for the people of Singapore. This was also part of the plan to speed up the developments, as the rate of building new housing was too slow, coupled with the massive damaged caused by the Japanese invasion during World War II.

Similarly, for Phoenix Contact, our first “Housing” solution was first introduced with limited options and offering. The idea was to focus on getting what the market requires and putting only these into the market.

The Housing family from Phoenix Contact was launched with the purpose of providing our customers with a standard housing / casing solution, which they can use to shorten their development costs and cycle, with a standard solution which with the necessary approvals. Although it is a standard solution, customers were given the option of having special printings or customization to suit their individual needs. This idea of offering standing housing solution is to help customer to have a ready solution which just needs to be improved on with different types of printing and labelling, so that it can be used for their final product. On top of ease of application, the customers would not need to fork out large sums of tooling charges to make and develop their own housing/casing for their final product.
When HDB first launched their “affordable” public housings, they were designed to be functional based on high-rise and high-density concept due to land constraints. In the early years, the HDB blocks tend to be of a single standard slab design of uniform height, typically averaging 12 storeys and arranged equidistant from each other.

Blocks of varied heights were subsequently introduced to reduce the uniformity and to cater to differing tastes, such as the 4-storey block and the 25-storey point-block.

During the 1980’s, when Phoenix Contact first launched our Housing product, we only had 3 product ranges in our housing offerings. This was the EMG, UEG and UM series, which was for the Interface Relays and MCR Control Relay customers, as empty housing. Subsequently, in 1993, 2 additional range of Electronic Housings were developed for more product offerings which were the EG and CM series joined the family.

50 years into the making of Singapore, the public housing by made affordable by HDB, has also evolved tremendously. From the standard designs, there are now many different designs of public housings to differentiate the estates and towns from other, giving every estate its own unique identity. Today, public housing comes in different designs which are both functional as well as aesthetically broken away from the previously “cheap” looks. Many visitors that come to Singapore have even mistaken the public housings from privately developed and owned properties.

Same for Phoenix Contact, we now have the most extensive range of rail mountable housings than other suppliers with more than 2000 standard articles of offering available for applications ranging from:

• Housing System for Building Automation
• Housing for Field Applications
• Housing Systems for Industry

Whoever you are, as long as you need any housing / casing solution, we may just have the right standard solution that can be customized to suit your need. This is made possible by our wide range of products:

• Modular Housing Systems (ME MAX, ME series)
• Compact Housing System (ME IO series)
• Multifunctional Housing System (ME PLC series)
• Flexible UM Profile Housing System
• Modular Housing System for BC Building Automation
• Robust Housing System for HC-ALU field Applications

The possibility to help you drill, mill and laser print, screen print or pad print is available to suit your requirements. Most importantly, this is without the need for tooling costs, for your small quantity of production. Even better, most of these housing comes with different standard connectors that can be used to suit your needs for inputs and outputs requirements.

Apart from the similarly being known as housing, the interior of the housing solutions offered by Phoenix Contact can also be related to be similar to that of a public housing. In your own house, you do up the interior ID design of your house; base it on your own preference, as long as it can fit within the physical house structure. For Phoenix Contact Electronic Housings, the interior is meant to house Printed Circuit Board (PCB), which is uniquely belonging to our customers. It is as simple as designing the PCB to their own preference, as long as it is contained within the recommended dimensions provided for the PCB, and it will be able to fit in the housing during final assembly.

Need a “Housing” for your PCB?

Let our specialists help you find the right solution!!!  You can also download the Housing brochure here.