2022/06/30
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Factory Automation
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Service Robots
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Board to Board Connectors
Board-to-Board Connectors Ideal for Industrial Equipment
Manufacturer Y’s industrial equipment design department was developing new industrial PCs. With future expandability in mind, Y was considering the use of board-to-board connectors in an effort to modularize the new model. They were having great difficulty with their search as they were unable to find an ideal board-to-board connector for their industrial equipment while considering environmental withstanding and longevity of use.
Challenges
Environmental Withstanding Performance and Useful Lifespan Requirements Lead to Difficulties in the Connector Selection
Industrial PCs are specially designed for use in an industrial environment, mainly in areas such as manufacturing sites and equipment control devices, and they are expected to be used for long periods of time in harsh environments. In recent years, there have been increasing customer requests calling for products that allow easy additions and changes of functions as well as easy replacement and maintenance. This led to the development considerations of a new industrial PC with better expandability and ease of maintenance. With these development requirements also came the start of a search for connectors to connect each board, which in turn led to a variety of issues.
The designer who was in charge of the connector selection recalls the initial design stage:
“With industrial PCs, you have to take into account the stress placed on the board-to-board connector’s soldering surface area as a result of vibrations and minute shocks at the manufacturing site. In addition, a very concerning problem when incorporating expansion boards are measures required to prevent contact failures due to foreign contaminants.”
The design was to incorporate new features causing the number of components mounted on the board to increase, bringing a new challenge in deciding on the number of signals and height between boards for the final design.
“Are there connectors that will fit within the allowed board space and also have the stacking height requirements?”
Concerns continued to stack up as board-to-board connectors that met the requirements could not be found even as the design process progressed.
Summary of Challenges