Ask the Expert!

Our interview with Craig Fox, Sr. Product Manager Connectivity, continues this week as we ask "What kind of new applications can be implemented now?"

The trend in automation for decades has been to reduce installation and wiring effort of equipment while increasing its reliability after it is installed and commissioned.  For control and signal distribution, the adoption of M12 and M8 connection interfaces on devices such as sensors, switches, valves and actuators have had a huge impact toward achieving that goal.  What was once an innovative concept is now common practice and anyone today would scrutinize installing a device without such a connection.

While control and signal wiring benefitted from advancements in pre-assembled connector technologies, most of the power and motor connections remained traditional hard-wired connections because of the high voltage or high current requirements of the application.  The development of connectors such as the M12 Power and MQ15 are changing that narrative because these do have the capacity to support high power applications.  The benefits of pluggable connection technology can now be realized with industry standard connections for motor connections, both DC and AC to three phase, linear drives, conveyor power distribution, high power lighting for vision, and distributed power for I/O systems.