Page 37 - 2021 High-Reliability, Harsh Environment Connectivity eBook

while maintaining a robust and reliable gold-to-gold connection with a gold-plated mating pin and keeping costs to a minimum.
5. Vendor Versatility
Broad product lines comprised of various pin receptacles help provide design engineers with the right pins for virtually any application. Pin receptacles are available in many sizes and in both solder-mount and press-fit options. Look for vendors that offer a range of internal contacts to better address a range of lead size, force, and temperature requirements. It is also a good practice to ask vendors whether their machining capabilities allow for precisely controlled lengths, diameters, and hole depths, as well as special characteristics, such as multi-faceted press-fit shapes, and wire termination features including solder cup, crimp, forked, and bifurcated terminations.
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» Mill-Max precision machined pin receptacles.
A varied vendor design portfolio will support surface-mount, through-hole, press-fit, solderless press-fit, low-profile, and innumerable combinations of receptacles in tandem with male pins to accommodate any spacing requirements in board-stacking applications. The combination of horizontal surface-mount or right-angle through-hole receptacles and male pins is ideal for a variety of edge card and perpendicular board-to-board connection applications. Vendor versatility also includes the ability to make, design, and develop custom products when needed, whether from scratch or an existing design. Tooling costs for custom machined pin receptacles are negligible compared to the cost of new tooling and dies for stamped pins.
Another critical measure of vendor versatility is the availability of packaging options including carrier sockets, tape and reel, and bulk. With carrier sockets, SIP, DIP, PGA, or custom configurations, the receptacles come pre-loaded on male carriers so they can be placed as a group into the PCB holes and soldered before the carrier is removed to create low-profile receptacle assemblies. This assembly approach takes a fraction of the time it takes to install individual receptacles. Receptacles packaged on tape and reel are also available for automated assembly, and bulk products can be auto-assembled utilizing bowl-fed electronic assembly equipment.
Visit Mill-Max online to learn more.
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