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the selection significantly.
Thirty years ago, there wasn’t a
choice. If you were involved in
industrial automation, everything
was hardwired. Most often, sensors
and actuators came with long
wires already attached or individual
wires, that weren’t even jacketed
together. Those wires would be
threaded through conduits and
then wired into the system. This
was a time-consuming process
that required the services of an
electrician, costing organizations
significant time and money.
Building the system is one thing, but
servicing it is another. If a sensor or
actuator needed to be replaced in a
hardwired system, the entire device
would need to be disconnected,
removed and replaced, and then
rewired. Again, this required an
electrician. In addition, any machine
downtime with repairs like this were
very costly.
Enter M8 and M12 to the rescue.
A system that is connectorized with
M12 and M8 connectors makes
assembling, testing and servicing
an industrial control system faster
and less expensive. While the
upfront investment of cord sets
and connectors is greater than
cables and wires, the cost savings
comes from a reduction in labor and
maintenance costs. A large system
that might take a week to hardwire
could be wired with connectors in
as little as two days. The savings
accrued by reducing the installation
time is significant, but now, wiring
a connectorized system does not
need to be done by electrician,
which adds to the savings and
further justifies the higher price
point for M8 and M12 connectors.
Another advantage: Start-up and
controlled environment isn’t the
most effective solution.
First, list out the environmental
needs of your application, and
start with the lowest cost solution
for your application. An unshielded
cord set with a PVC jacket is typically
the lowest cost option. If your
application requires cable flexing,
moving to PUR-jacketed cable is a
good choice with only a slight price
premium.
For example, in a high electrical
or electronic noise environment, a
shielded cable may be required to
ensure communication reliability
with sensors or actuators. If the
equipment will be exposed regularly
to water or will reside in a high
humidity/salt spray environment,
consider stainless-steel coupling
nuts for the cord sets.
Each of these additional features
described will increase the cost of
the cord set, but that slight increase
in price will help you avoid replacing
the cord sets due to product failure
- or worse, intermittent failure.
Although 30 years is a long time for
any product to exist in the market,
the M12 and M8 product families
continue to be used in new designs
every day. With the continual
addition of new product features,
these connectors will be around for
a long time to come.
About
the Author
Tim Senkbeil, a product line
manager at Lumberg Automation,
brings more than 25 years of
experience in the electronics field
to his role in managing connectivity
products and offerings for Belden’s
Lumberg and Hirschmann brands.
testing of a machine is faster. A lot
of time spent during start-up is the
result of miswired devices. Prewired
and tested cord sets eliminate the
majority of wiring errors. Additional
cost reductions come from reduced
downtime, as cord sets can easily
be replaced without the help of an
electrician. Connectorized sensors
and actuators can also be replaced
without rewiring the system.
Choosing the Right Cord
Set
Like most engineering decisions,
there’s a balance between cost and
performance. For instance, using an
armored cable with stainless-steel
coupling nuts for an application
where cord sets are run in wire trays
in a temperature- and humidity-
Fiber-Focus
48 l New-Tech Magazine Europe