A modern car has advanced electrical equipment, during the formation of which it is necessary to connect a large number of wires. This operation can be carried out in various ways, but among them the use of adhesive tape locks is becoming increasingly popular.
The main idea of the tape lock and the design of this component
Scotchlock (the term Scotchlock is often used in the original English spelling of Scotchlok ™) is one design options for electrical wire connectors developed by an American company 3M. Due to the convenience of its use, it is widely used in the automotive industry, and is also very popular in telecommunications and electro-acoustic systems.
The connector is based on an IDC contact, Figure 1, the working area of which is made in the form of a plate with a central slot, which forms knives interacting with the wire to be connected.
Before connecting, the wire is simply inserted into the installation socket; for installation, just press the pusher cover. The knives cut through the insulation on both sides and cut into the conductive core.
Contact blades can be positioned perpendicular to the axis of the wire (Type 110 contact developed by Bell Labs, form an angle of 45 ° with it (German company Krone) or be located perpendicular to each other (corporation Molex). Both the contact itself (adhesive tape produced by 3M) and the wires can act as a moving element, which is not of fundamental importance.
IDC contact properties
Splicing wires using IDC-based connectors is vastly superior to other technologies. This is determined by:
- ease of implementation, since only two operations are required: insert the wire into the socket and press the cover;
- a low percentage of scrap due to the absence of complex manipulations and the presence of the effect of self-centering of the wire, which is achieved by giving the edges of the knife a convex shape;
- durability, because the insulation tightly covers the plane of the knife, does not allow oxygen to the contact area and, thereby, blocks the development of corrosion;
- low cost due to structural simplicity and lack of expensive materials.
A few disadvantages boil down to:
- limited current load capacity, which is determined by the small interaction area of the contact knife and the wire;
- insufficiently high degree of protection against accidental touch, which makes the use of adhesive tape locks in 220-volt circuits undesirable.
Execution of scotch locks
Scotch locks have two main types of performance:
- dead-end circuit, Figure 2, which are characterized by the input of the connected wires from one side of the element;
- loop-through diagram, Figure 3, based on the input of the wires to be connected from different sides of the case.
Installation in a triple, quad, etc. case is possible. IDC contact, which allows you to assign the functions of a splitter to the tape-lock, Figure 4.
Some connector options have dielectric hydrophobic gel-filled receptacles for use in humid environments. To eliminate confusion with conventional elements, they have a pusher cover made of plastic of a different color.
The cover is provided with a latch-lock, which increases the overall reliability of the element and additionally takes on the functions of a tactile indicator of the completion of installation.
The body and cover of the element are often made of transparent plastic, which allows visual control of the installation quality.