[TriEmbed] Improvement over Molex crimp connectors?

[Rick]

Good afternoon Shane,

Please pass along the crimp terminal part number(s), as well as the tool 
part number, and I'll see what I can dig up.

Usually, the insulation is captured by the rear tabs, and the bare 
conductor by the shorter front tabs (with the contact mating surface 
considered the front).

I've used the generic crimping tool as shown below:



Please note this tool costs about $60.00 from Newark (you may find the 
price vary about 20% ... this is NOT the $8.95 tool).

If you look at the crimp openings, one end is a concave "tooth" the 
other is an arc with a point in the middle ... or a double arc if you 
wish. The tabs on the crimp terminal go into the double arc, this forces 
the tabs around the wire and produce the double rounded top crimp. You 
must use the appropriately sized opening (marked in mm on the tool) for 
your crimp terminal; too large, and the wire will slide out of the 
crimped terminal, too small and you will deform the terminal (if you see 
shiny copper, or tightly folded tinned copper, you are using an opening 
that is too small.

You can look at the data sheet for the individual crimp terminal, and it 
should tell you what size to crimp both the bare wire portion, and the 
insulation-holding portion (they can be different).

You need to use firm pressure and ensure the tool closes completely 
(look below the hinge rivet and ensure the gap is closed the same as 
when there is not terminal in the tool.

A proper crimp requires rather precise die, terminal, and wire 
dimensions; you are cold-forming the terminal and wire to exclude oxygen 
(called a gas-free connection) ... no oxygen, no oxidizing!

If you still can't make sense of things, feel free to e-mail or call 
Molex; their applications engineering group is more than happy to help 
you select the correct terminals, housings, crimp tool and tool die size 
to use. I've been using my crimper for 15 years and have not had any 
issues, once I identify the proper die size and make sure I'm using the 
proper terminal for the wire size.


Hope this helps.

Regards,

Rick

- There are no shortcuts, just delays until you do the job correctly -



On 10/15/2015 10:14 PM, Shane Trent via TriEmbed wrote:
> Hey TriEmbed!
>
> I have a client who is having reliability issues with their 
> hand-crimped Molex connectors. They are using what appear to be 
> genuine Molex crimpers and the proper wire for the terminal size (by 
> wire gauge anyway, 20 ga)) but are still having problems getting 
> reliable connections. The wire seems to have larger insulation than I 
> expect to see. Their 20 ga with insulation has a larger OD than my 
> "house brand" 18 ga.
>
> Does anyone have a brand or type of connector that they like for 
> hand-crimping in the 2 to 6 circuit sizes? These are low current 
> circuits, expected to carry 4 amps or less. I am happy to treat for 
> coffee if anyone has wisdom to share!
>
> Thanks,
> Shane
>
> -- 
> A blog about some of my projects. http://fettricks.blogspot.com/
>
>
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