Connectors Satisfy Stringent Requirements of Industrial Robots

JAE’s range of connectors is backed by extensive experience in the industrial machinery market as well as defining USB standards.

Background

The manufacturer discussed in this article was in the process of upgrading the PCs used to control, configure, and maintain their industrial machines to the USB Type-C^® interface. The first device to receive upgraded USB ports was a new robot controller that the company was developing.

The manufacturer’s design team had to find connectors that conformed to specification in time to start work on the prototype but predicted a challenging selection process due to the large number of requirements.

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Challenges

The Struggle to Find the Right Connectors and Suppliers

Industrial robots operate for many hours every day and for months on end without a break. These conditions mean that the robots require regular maintenance and servicing. It is also vitally important that all connectors used are reliable, as when a robot stops working it results in costly downtime. The long design cycle of industrial equipment means that the supplier’s ability to provide ongoing support is equally important. Suppliers must be able to speedily identify the cause of, and rectify, any anomaly that should arise. In other words, choosing the right supplier is even more important than choosing the right connectors.
An employee from the design team who was assigned to the project recalls:

“Unlike manufacturers of consumer electronics, which operate on a short update cycle, manufacturers of industrial machines must be able to offer ongoing support. To guarantee safety and reliability, suppliers must be able to offer maintenance services for at least 5 to 10 years. Operators also need to be able to be ascertain that there is no possibility of their suppliers going insolvent or shutting down. On our project, stringent quality control and assured supply were non-negotiable, and we had to satisfy a lot of other requirements as well. We were worried that we would be unable to find an optimum solution.”

While the manufacturer’s other connector suppliers offered USB Type-C connectors, the options were limited and did not include anything that would have satisfied their requirements. The design team member assigned to this project therefore decided to look for a new supplier. However, not many USB Type-C connector manufacturers had experience with connectors for industrial machinery, and he could not find a connector that met his company’s requirements. He was on a tight development schedule and did not know what to do.

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Summary of the Challenges

The manufacturer was looking for a USB Type-C connector for industrial machinery but found nothing that satisfied its requirements.

While the manufacturer considered sourcing the connectors from a new supplier, it could not find a supplier that had experience with industrial machinery.