What is a WtoB connector?
WtoB is an abbreviation for wire-to-board, and is a connector for connecting wires and PCBs. As I touched on in "What is a connector?", the world's first connector is said to be the one that made it possible to remove the soldered connection of electric wires. It is a product from
There are two types of paired Connectors: a board-side connector that is mounted on the board and a wire-side connector that attaches the electric wire (there are also connectors that mount the electric wire directly to the board, and these are also included in this category).
The size varies depending on the compatible wire. Wires range from thin as a thread to as thick as a club, and there are connectors to suit each type.
Except for special ultra-fine wires, wires used for internal wiring of equipment are mostly #30 to #18 in terms of AWG (American wire gauge), and the pitch between connectors is 1.0 to 1.0. About 5.0mm corresponds. There are various methods of attaching wires to connectors, but the most common methods are crimping and pressure welding.
crimping and pressure welding
What is crimping
In this method, a crimping terminal is placed over a conductor (mainly a stranded wire), and the terminal and conductor are fixed by "crushing" them within the specified dimensions. It also includes the part that holds the insulator, usually called the insulation barrel. It is common practice to attach (crimp) a terminal to an electric wire in a single state, then insert it into a housing and fix it to form a harness.
What is pressure welding
In pressure welding, the conductor is clamped between opposing blades with a gap smaller than the dimensions of the conductor. This blade is usually incorporated as a part of the connector, and it can be harnessed by directly attaching (crimping) the electric wire there.
Each feature
Pressure welding does not require insertion of the terminal into the housing, and it often has the advantage of reducing the "harness cost" due to the simplification of the processing process, such as the ability to attach multiple wires all at once. However, when comparing the connectors themselves, crimping is cheaper, and the process of crimping connectors is becoming more automated, so the difference is case-by-case. On the other hand, crimping is often better for mechanical reliability, especially when it is thicker than a certain size, and considering vibration resistance, etc., there is a strong tendency to prefer crimping, especially for in-vehicle equipment.
