Electric and electronic connector company Harwin Inc. (Salem, NH) manufactures an extensive range of standard and custom products for the military, aerospace, medical, automotive and consumer electronics industries. Recently, the company expanded its product line to include high-reliability Datamate jackscrew connectors that include four-finger Beryllium copper contact clips and are available in the 2-milleter-pitch range.

Central to this effort is a new "Datamate" assembly machine, in which the connector production process has been optimized for maximum automation, thus making the connectors both cost effective and competitive to produce. Because many of the system's movements are controlled pneumatically, Harwin incorporated the latest in valve island technology from Norgren Inc. (Farmington, CT) to cut down on the number of pneumatic systems the machines require and simplify wiring.

Specifically, Harwin Inc. installed a number of multipole VM10 valve islands in conjunction with Norgren's FD67 wire technology distributed I/O. The modular VM10 valve island can be configured to provide up to 20 stations in one unit, all with interchangeable Fieldbus protocols for applications requiring complex, highly coordinated automation. The VM10 delivers pneumatic control for all the cylinders that are associated with the automated sequences of the machine. Because of its flexibility and modularity, the VM10 facilitates ease of installation, reducing overall system costs and commissioning time.

In conjunction with the FD67 distributed I/O system, an onboard PLC continuously scans the position signal from each cylinder. When the Datamate machine is in operation, the PLC checks for the correct position of the cylinders, after which it goes through an automated sequence of events that assembles each finished connector.

By using the FD67, Harwin was able to cut down the number of individual connection wires from 44 to two, saving vital machine real estate and further enabling ease of installation.

For more on automation control, visit www.norgren.com, call 800-722-5547 or eInquiry 11.