Monthly Archives: April 2018

PCB Terminal Blocks

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Phoenix Contact is known worldwide as a manufacturer of industrial products where quality is never compromised and reliability is undeniable. One of the “bread and butter” products of Phoenix Contact is the PCB Terminal block. For more than 80 years, with continuous innovation of its products, Phoenix Contact never fails customers and has gained a high satisfaction rate and integrity through the years. From this Phoenix Contact will surely continue to satisfy its customers through innovative products and good services.

Here’s a glimpse of a one-of-a-kind PCB terminal block product range. It consists of metric pitches or pitches in inches from miniature PCB terminal blocks, with 2.5mm pitch through to power-level terminals with 20mm pitch. With easy-to-maintain connectors, from two to 24 positions, the comprehensive COMBICON product range offers the right connection technology for transmitting signals, data or power for almost every application.

Main Features:

  • Varying conductor cross sections from 0.14 mm2 (AWG 26) to 95 mm2 (AWG 3/0)
  • Current up to 232 A (IEC) / 200 A (UL B, C)
  • Voltages up to 1,000 V (IEC) / 600 V (UL B, C)
  • Screw, spring and insulation displacement connection for various connection directions
  • For pitches from 2.5 mm to 20 mm
  • Assembly method: Wave, THR and SMT soldering

If you would like to know more about our products, don’t hesitate to contact us!

The First Thing You Should Know about Phoenix Contact (but Probably Don’t)

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Think you know a lot about Phoenix Contact? Maybe you do, or maybe you don’t. Here I would like to shed some light on the first thing you should know about Phoenix Contact.

The birth of Terminal Blocks

Phoenix Contact was founded in 1923 in Essen, Germany.

The world’s first modular terminal block was developed by Phoenix Contact in 1928.

The birth of the terminal block occurred while working with the Rhine-Westphalia Electricity Works (RWE). This led to the development of today’s align-able terminal blocks mounted onto din rails.

As terminal block innovation is the soul of our company, Phoenix Contact never fails our customers with new terminal block innovations until today.

Evolution of Phoenix Contact Terminal blocks

In the early 1950s, our company went into re-engineering and upgrading the RWE terminals. A new generation of Phoenix Terminal series was born, and this proved to be an all-time game changer for us.

1956 was the year that Feedthrough & Disconnect Terminal blocks were developed along with the pioneer of Clipline Complete.

Phoenix Contact never stops developing innovative ideas and solutions for the market.

From the 1970’s onwards, we once again relooked into developing the different connection methodologies for Terminal blocks.

In the year 1978, we developed the ST “Spring Push-in” technology into modular terminal blocks. We created the first modular terminal block with a direct plug-in spring connection, designed to offer installation engineers an easy and safe conductor connection method.

Nearing the late 1980’s, QTC fast connection terminal blocks were developed and added into the Clipline Complete range. This design of connection can save up to 60 percent of the time required for wiring, and it is no longer necessary to strip the wire protection.

2009 is the year we proudly introduced our new PT – Push-in terminal block in a new series with a new design: the integrated push button. PT terminal blocks not only increased the safety standards required; it also allows easy conductor removal with no special tools required.

As a pioneer in electrical connection technology, Phoenix Contact offers Clipline Complete – a comprehensive terminal block system with an extensive range of accessories for industrial control cabinet wiring.

In spite of our universal range of applications, there are regional limitations to consider where acceptance is concerned. With this in mind, Phoenix Contact has closely studied the requirements of current and potential customers in Southeast Asian markets.

In the year 2015, BT Barrier Terminal blocks were developed and integrated into our Clipline complete. This is where a cultural aspect comes into play – and not just in Japan but also across much of Asia, most particularly Southeast Asia: the importance of tradition, customs, and the approach to decision making.

With our ever growing Clipline Complete range of Terminal blocks, we have the different connection technologies available for each application and the answers to all your market requests.

There are many more things to find out about Phoenix Contact and if you are interested to know more, please feel free to contact us!

 

 

 

Safe and Reliable Power

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Upon mentioning PCB connection or PCB connectors, one of the first things that usually come to mind is an Electronics board for various applications. When electronics are involved, most manufacturers of connectors cater their designs to digital applications for modern devices such Smartphones, Tablets, Laptops, LED TVs, Set-Top Box and simple remote controllers.

For the above mentioned, design engineers, electronics designers, field application engineers, sales engineers and module designers often overlook the challenges or requirements needed for Industrial Electronics.

Most PCB or Industrial Control boards in Industrial Electronics are required to take-in high levels of in raw current, for the heavy duty tasks of operating motors, sensors and measuring equipment needed on modern devices.

New generation versions of Vision Inspection, Test System, Pick & Place, Bonding, Dicing, Conveyors and Ovens, utilizes loads that go up to 60A and 80A AC Voltage.

Typically, such high current capacity demands stringent safety features and equipment to be rigorously tested in high temperatures to ensure reliability and safety, in order to prevent catastrophic breakdowns of such systems.

From Phoenix Contact’s vast array of devices, Combicon Power is tried and tested to be the most suitable and reliable High Power Connector available in the market. Phoenix Contact’s Combicon Power are certified in UL, VDE and EAC, to ensure standards are in place giving customers ease of mind when adopting Combicon Power.

Combicon Power

Phoenix Contact’s MKDS 10, MKDSP 10HV, IPC 16, PC 16, PC 4, PC 5, HDFK and UW, were all adopted and used in two of the most notable Test and Management MNCs in Malaysia, in the Test and Measurement Systems produced by these MNC.

When your applications, products or modules are Power Hungry, and yet you need a safe, proven and reliable Power Connectors, Combicon Power is the answer to your needs and concerns.

Feel free to contact us to find out more!

Remote Monitoring of Recloser in Rural Areas

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In the electric power distribution network, a recloser is a circuit breaker that can be closed automatically after it has opened due to an electrical fault. It is common to find reclosers in overhead transmission/distribution lines to clear commonly occurring electrical faults. Thus, a recloser is able to restore the power automatically to the line without human intervention.

Recloser

Recloser

The status of the reclosers is critical to utility companies. In large country like Vietnam, there are thousands of reclosers installed throughout the country, many of which are found in rural areas. Maintenance engineers have to travel hundreds of kilometres periodically to check the status of individual reclosers.

The utility company in Vietnam had rolled out a project to upgrade their control system to centralize the monitoring of the recloser in a common location so as to reduce manpower cost and time as well as to improve productivity and efficiency. We recognized that laying hundreds of kilometres of copper or fibre optics cables to gather all the information from the various installed reclosers will cost a lot of time and money. The best solution to this problem: wireless applications. There are several wireless solutions available in the industry; however, using mobile connection is the only solution due to the large territorial distances and areas. We decided to propose our new TC Router.

TC Router

TC Router

We presented and tested our TC Router with the system integrator highlighting the following points:

  1. Extended temperature range, -40 °C to +70 °C (Ensures reliable operation even in the most extreme temperatures)
  2. VPN connection and integrated firewall (Ensures secure connection)
  3. Fallback to 2G (Ensures reliable connection)

Our customer was very pleased with our solution and had gained approval from the end user. Subsequently, we were awarded with the first batch of orders for 100 units of TC Router. Beside the energy industry, our TC Router can also be implemented in other industries such as Process, Water and Waste Water treatment as well.

If you are interested in learning more about our TC Router, feel free to contact us and we will get back to you!

HCS Handheld Housing

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The housing for portable devices

HCS is one of the devices from Phoenix Contact’s housing series. The ergonomic and lightweight design is suited for mobile operations such as real-time measuring of data, inspection and scanning devices.

Membrane keypads and display screens can be easily integrated into the HCS housing for ease of operating. HCS comes in many shapes and sizes, so customers can choose a suitable design, depending on the intended function and PCS sizes.

Technical Information

Temperature range ( C) -20 to +80
Protection degree IP54
Material ABS
Flammability rating UL 94 – V0
HCS Handheld Housing Devices

Straight and graduated designs

Market applications

  • Logistics
  • Distribution
  • Process technology
  • Building automation

Advantages at a glance:

Perfect membrane keypad fit available

Easy integration of displays

Standard variants for different device interfaces

Interested to find out more? Feel free to contact us!