December, 2014 Continued from previous page
rather than an electrician. Such harnesses require little if any rigid or semirigid conduits that protect point-to-point wiring from damage and the harness- es do not require extensive rewiring. Since power and signal needs often vary within a machine, a sin- gle connector can be configured for different DC voltages or both AC and DC power. The alterna- tives, like mounting multiple terminal blocks inside a control cabinet, require additional labor and mate- rials and occupy more space.
Only Male Crimp Contacts Needed As another means of saving labor through the
use of a connector, the Harting Han-Yellock® con- nector requires only male crimp contacts for con- nection. The electrical feed can supply as many as five contacts per wire by using a multiplier insert inside the connector, replacing terminal blocks in a system. A Han-Yellock housing can be populated from either side, allowing mounting from outside once a machine is built, for ease of installation. Applying modular design approaches and
connector-based wiring, a machine can be shipped to a customer in smaller pieces, reducing trans- portation costs and the risk of damage and con- tributing to OEM savings. A modular approach also eases troubleshooting and maintenance on the machine. During a system’s warranty period, this can represent savings to an OEM and benefits to a customer in the form of reduced downtime during scheduled and unscheduled maintenance periods. These benefits continue for the customer long after the warranty period, with reduced downtime and ease of maintenance because of the modularity and connectors. In addition, if the wiring in a cable assembly ever does have flex wear problems, it can be replaced quickly and easily.
Cost Myth of Hardwiring With the many benefits offered by connectors,
it is difficult to understand why some electronic OEMs would still prefer to perform hardwiring in their systems. Some may be hesitant to make such
RENT
Connecting cables to devices using connectors is a matter of plug and play.
their customers buy solely on the basis of the lowest available sticker price for the system. Most OEMs who compare their use of hard-
wired approaches vs. connectors find that connec- tors save time and money, particularly when the full cost of making hardwired connections is con- sidered. Unlike connector-based wiring where most associated costs are incurred just once, up front, the costs associated with hardwiring are recurrent and often unpredictable because of the possibility of wiring errors. Each manufacturer has different labor and
overhead costs, but a time study performed by one company determined that its fully allocated cost for hardwiring each pair of connection points on a complex piece of equipment was about $80 if done in-house. Experience shows that whatever a com-
www.us-
tech.com Industrial Connectors Outperform Hardwiring
a significant change in their manufacturing process, while other OEMs may not fully appreciate the cost of assembling a hardwired system in the field. They view the connectors as another addition to the sys- tem’s bill of materials (BOM) and consider that
pany’s costs for performing hard-wiring in-house, the cost is about 30 percent higher for doing such connections in the field, for installations or for warranty service and repairs. Many OEMs echo what these North Amer -
ican companies found in switching to connectors. A manufacturer of paper conveyors for commercial printing presses had been hardwiring over 200 wires to the control box of each unit prior to final testing. This process could take as much as four work days per unit. Switching to six modular con- nector assemblies in a plug-and-play solution reduced that time by as much as 2.5 days. The con- nectors cost $1,400 per unit, but the savings of $3,500 in labor and time enabled the firm to increase its production rate.
Transitioning from a Hard-Wired Approach
A manufacturer of large, material-handling
cranes disassembles each one prior to shipment to a customer’s location where it is reassembled. The transition from a hardwired approach to the use of hybrid connectors cut field installation time from weeks to a mere 3 to 4 hours. Through the initial setup in the field, the manufacturer calculated its costs using connectors was, on average, $622 less ($12,540 for connector-based wiring, $13,162 for hardwiring). However, when hardwiring errors occurred during installation, the cost associated with a hardwired system doubled to $26,325, so that the total savings using connectors could actu- ally reach as much as $13,000. A builder of large, automated, precision-weld-
ing machines was hardwiring over 300 contacts per machine. A week was needed to build and test a machine, then several days to dismantle it and another week to reassemble it at the customer’s location. Switching to pluggable connectors cut wiring time dramatically, saving extensively on labor costs. Now, each step that formerly required a full week with hardwiring is completed in less than a day with connectors.
Continued on page 63
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