Field Wireable Connectors - IDC Style Assembly Tutorial from AutomationDirect

What I am going to show you is how to take one of AutomationDirect’s Field wire-able cable connectors from MURR Electroniks and go from this to this. These are called Insulation Displacement Connection Technologies meaning – you don’t need a soldering iron, crimpers or terminals in order to assemble a cable connector onto a cable. These are simple, field wire-able connections that you can assemble with common tools like a pair of wire strippers and a pair of pliers. These were designed to assemble with only your hands. I am currently assembling an M12 male straight cable connector with 3 pins. This is being assembled to a 3 wire sensor cable with an M12 90 degree female connector made onto the opposite end. Automation Direct offers a huge variety of cables with 3 and 4 pin wires with M8 and M12 connectors in several styles. AutomationDirect also offers the cable connectors in many styles in M8 and M12 sizes like: male and female straight connectors, male and female 90 degree connectors in 3, 4 and 5 pin configurations. I have already pulled this cable out of its bag and as you can see, the wiring pin out is on the bag label. If for some reason you do not have the bag, you can find these pin outs on our website at: automationdirect.com. This label tells us the pin out for this particular 3 wire cable. Our brown wire is pin number 1, our blue wire is pin number 3 and our black wire is pin number 4. Next is our cable connector. This one is already assembled off of a wire, so I will disassemble and explain each part included in this bag. This connector has 5 parts – one of which we don’t need. It has multiple cord grips and many of these cable connectors will have multiple cord grips included for different sized wires. As you can see, this model has 3 cord grips and they are labeled in diameter sizes. This is our Metal, threaded – back shell. This is our cord grip. If you can see – the cord grip has tick marks and these tick marks line up with the next part – the coded insert. These tick marks will line up to the slots in the coded insert in any manner – they are NOT keyed. The next piece is the coded insert and it is keyed on the other end where it mates up to the plug, it will only assemble in one way. In the parts bag is a set of visual assembly instructions. As you can see on the top, the cables outer insulation needs to be stripped back 15 to 20mm. The conductor wires do not need to be stripped. The terminal insulation displacement technology means the compression of the assembly will force the knife blades of the plug through the insulation on the cable wires in order to make contact. As I mentioned this particular cable has one extra cord grip. The wire diameter will determine which cord grip to use. In this assembly, we will use this black cord grip and as you can see, it needs to slide over the wires, but stops on the outer insulation. This clear cord grip has a very small inside diameter and will not fit over our wires. We will discard this clear cord grip. First make sure we slide our metal threaded back shell on our wire. Next is the cord grip with the tick marks facing our plug. Next, we put our coded insert on and this is where you will need the cable pin out that was found on the cable bag. I want to arrange my wires in the proper order that they will be inserted into the coded insert. Next I simply slide the wires into the corresponding holes on the coded insert. Now press the coded insert and the cord grip together lining up the slots and tick marks on each piece. If you can see, the coded insert has a marked pin out on it as well. Each wire hole is labeled, 1, 3 and 4 and if you look closely each number is color coded. Number 1 is printed in brown, number 3 is printed in blue and number 4 is printed in black. Easy enough right?? I still suggest hanging onto the cable printout on the bag. Now we match up our coded insert with our plug and remember they are both keyed, so they will only mate up one way. If you notice, the coded insert does not seat all the way into the plug. When we screw the plug and the metal threaded back shell together it will force the insert all the way in while pressing the wires into the knife blades. Make note of the green O ring we have on the plug. We need to thread our back shell all the way against the o ring in order to complete the assembly and obtain an IP65 and IP67 rating. Now our cable is complete. Thank you for watching this AutomationDirect tutorial.