The new har-flex® THR variants – industry-suitable miniature connectors for mechanically demanding applications
With the trend towards ‘Industrie 4.0’, intelligence is increasingly being directly integrated in the manufacturing process. This means there is growing demand for increasingly smaller, decentral control and drive technology. Smaller, however, is not always necessarily better. Harsh industrial conditions impose limitations on miniaturisation. The challenge lies in achieving industrial-grade miniaturisation without decreasing the reliability. This applies in particular to connectors employed in electronics which act as an interface between two printed circuit boards and must therefore be able to bear high mechanical stress. This is precisely what HARTING is focussing on.
Beside the miniaturized contact pitch of 1.27mm, the new har-flex® THR miniature connectors provide an extremely stable connection to the PCB despite their small size with 1.27 mm pitch spacing. THR stands for through hole reflow and describes the termination technology using binders attached laterally (soldering studs).
This makes them extremely well suited even to demanding mechanical applications which previously required larger connectors. SMT signal contacts soldered onto the surface ensure continued flexible separation of the conductor tracks within the circuit board and makes them usable on both sides to a large extent. Thanks to tape and reel packaging and reflow soldering capacity, the new har-flex® THR variants can be easily integrated into the automatic assembly process of other SMD components.
The connectors are impressive overall on account of their successful combination of miniaturization, robustness and automatable processing.
