Transformation of Connectors in the Era of Industry 4.0

Technological innovation and the emergence of 5g have led to the rapid arrival of the industrial 4.0 era, and many traditional industries have been impacted The development of connectors in the field of consumer electronics can be said to be like a duck to water, The market and business opportunities of the connector industry have attracted a large number of connector manufacturers to join in. In the fierce competition in quantity, especially with the development of science and technology, the connector industry also needs to carry out technical transformation from the traditional, which also brings more challenges to the connector manufacturers. Therefore, many connector manufacturers continue to enter emerging fields such as industry, smart home, new energy vehicles, and medical electronics, trying to seize the opportunity in the field of consumer electronics and keep up with the pace of the times.

From the connector market, more and more intelligent devices are used in various production fields. The industrial 4.0 era directly affects the demand for products in the connector market. More "high-precision" and "high-performance" connectors are needed, and the growth rate shows a stable and rapid trend.

With the advent of the industrial 4.0 era, the electronic equipment in the data center really requires that the interconnection system has enough flexibility to cooperate with the use in the space limited environment, and can withstand the harsh industrial environment at the same time. Compared with the military, medical, consumer, and automotive connectors, industrial connectors have many different characteristics, such as dust-proof, waterproof, shockproof, and high and low temperature, and the requirements of these characteristics will also increase the difficulty of connector designers. Reliability, working temperature, IP level, and shockproof performance are the key points of industrial connector production. Among these products, many have to meet the strict standards of the automobile and even the military industry.

The connector product solutions and technologies for "industry 4.0" and "intelligent production" put forward new requirements for the module production areas of "stamping, injection molding, assembly, and crimping" related to connector products. For example, for heavy-duty connectors, the increasingly harsh application environment not only requires the excellent performance of traditional heavy-duty connectors but also has a wider range of applications and fast and comprehensive service capacity, which can be widely used in industrial production. Especially for connection operations in harsh and complex environments, connector products need to meet the diversified needs of Chinese and global users for intelligent control equipment.

With the high demand of customers for connector products, connector manufacturers are also improving their production technology to adapt to various harsh environments. The such calculation, coupled with the cycle and design difficulty of connector designers in developing new products, will also greatly increase the cost of R & D, which is not suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises. Therefore, the comprehensive strength of connector manufacturers will be very tested. Obviously, the advent of the industrial 4.0 era has brought challenges to connector enterprises in technology research and development. In addition to the stringent requirements of the environment, "highly customized" is also a major challenge facing the connector industry.