Application of High-density Electrical Connectors in the Medical Field (2)

4. Locking mechanism

To improve safety, IEC provides a locking mechanism to prevent accidental disconnection during medical treatment.

The locking mechanism usually conflicts with the electrical connection space. There are many forms, such as button locking (thumb lock), torsional locking (locking by rotation), and the popular push-pull locking system. The push-pull locking system integrates the locking design into the bite structure, eliminating the secondary actions required by other options and alleviating the design challenges they face.

5. Connector conforming to IEC60601

Some military power connectors can use simple methods to meet the challenges of IEC60601 requirements. For example, when the total number of contacts is very low, only a certain distance between the PIN pins is required.

As the demand for more pins increases, some designers use multiple off-the-shelf connectors to meet IEC requirements more easily. However, this solution often has some undesirable consequences.

The use of multiple off-the-shelf connectors means that the operator should properly assemble each plug to its respective socket, so that the physical key function used to prevent misfits may be limited, making the operator dependent on the label or the patient relying on caregivers with different levels of equipment processing expertise to achieve multiple correctly matched connections to ensure their safety.

With the use of multiple connectors, the wiring harness also becomes more complex and bulky, thereby leaving more hidden dangers and undesirable consequences of operation errors.

6. Standard high-density electrical connector

In response to the growing demand for higher density connector markets, many manufacturers are developing standard, off-the-shelf high-density connector solutions. When the connector needs to meet a specific application and the output is limited, this solution is Effective and feasible.

However, the development of standard high-density connector products will be targeted. Electrical connectors manufacturers must consider a variety of characteristics when developing to meet a wide range of application requirements and budget constraints, including materials, plating characteristics, cost, pin count, creepage distances and gaps, service life, operating voltage, and the same Whether the signal and power in LAYOUT are the same, or add features such as locking mechanism, shielding, sealing, polarization, color coding, etc., and maximize cost-effectiveness.

Mature connector manufacturers with industry-leading ideas can successfully use this strategy, but this strategy is not universal.

This challenge is currently being addressed in two ways. The first is to develop standard high-density connectors that use a modular contact system to meet various application requirements with standard components. Second, when the standard products still cannot meet the demand, design a customized solution based on the existing contact system, which not only shortens the time, but also reduces investment and risk.

This standard high-density (79PIN) connector has a metal housing with an outer diameter of 45 mm, a thread, a locking coupling nut, a waterproof sealing ring, and a creepage / gap size of 1.6 mm. Its rated temperature is 175 ℃ and its cycle life is high. When evaluating this standard connector, the designer should consider whether this non-passive screw coupling is the correct locking mechanism for a particular application.

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