FAQ

Connector Gender

When ordering a connector it is not always as simple matter of determining between 'male' and 'female' because this can refer to both the housing gender and the contact gender. Many manufacturers offer a given housing gender with both pin and socket. A common example of such confusion occurs in the Deutsch Industrial DT range, where the plug (or male connector) actually contains socket (or female) contacts. For this reason please specify both the contact and housing gender at the time of order.

IP Ratings

The IP Rating of a connector or accessory relates to the degree of ingress protection provided by that component. The first digit of the code relates to the degree of protection against access to hazardous parts (conductors etc) and against solid foreign objects. The second digit refers to the degree of protection against the ingress of water. For two examples of this system, consider the most commonly seen IP ratings in our products: IP44 and IP67.

  • IP44 4: Protection from solid objects ≤1mm | 4: Protection against splashing water
  • IP67 6: Protection from dust-sized objects | 7: Protection against immersion in water at depth of 1m for 30mins

A complete guide to all IP Ratings is available here.

Source or Drain

These terms are used by Phase 3 and ITT Veam on their high-current connectors.The source is considered the half of the connection from which the power is sourced; or the half supplying the electrical power. In an emergency power application, the generator is the source and would be fitted with Panel Source (panel-mount) connectors, a Panel Source Powersafe Box, or Line Source (inline) connectors on pigtails.
The drain is the half of the connection which drains the power from the source. In the same emergency power application described above, the network receiving the emergency power supply is the drain and would be fitted with Line Drain connectors, Panel Drain connectors or a Panel Drain Powersafe Box.

 

Wire size: AWG or mm2

We commonly deal with both American Wire Gauge (AWG) and square millimetre (mm2) dimensions as the units used by manufacturers can vary. To convert between measurements please refer this conversion chart.

Does Connector-Tech ALS sell cable?

Connector-Tech ALS is dedicated to doing one thing and doing it well: providing the most comprehensive range of harsh-environment connectors to our customers. At this stage we are not offering raw cable material for sale, however, we do supply complete cable harnesses built to your specifications.

Abbreviations

In order to provide as much information as possible in our item descriptions of our products we use a number of abbreviations. A guide to each of these is provided below.

Term Abbreviation Term Abbreviation
Adjustable Adj. Including Inc.
Aluminium Alu. Light LT
Appliance App. Nickel Ni.
Bayonet BYT Olive Drab OLV
Black BLK Orange ORG
Blue BLU Panel PNL
Breakaway B/A Receptacle Rec.
Brown BRN Red RED
Cable CBL Silver SIL
Compatible Comp. Socket SKT
Contact(s) Cont. Stainless Steel S-Steel
Conversion Conv. Straight Str.
Dark DK Switched SW
Gasket GKT Violet VIO
Gold GLD White WHT
Green GRN Yellow YEL
Grey GRY