Get connected!

When Peter Garder, managing director of Turck Banner, refers to connectivity he's not talking about a particular product range, but rather a concept that can be applied to an infinite range of applications. "In terms of solutions," he says, "connectivity can be as wide as your imagination."

The company's expertise in this area first started taking shape around 30 years ago when sensors were fitted to the multi-pin connectors commonly used by the military and aircraft builders. Facilitating rapid tool changes resulting in reduced downtime and aiding continuous production, this technology was used by the automotive industry before being more widely adopted throughout industry.

According to Gardner, today one of Turck Banner's biggest strengths when it comes to connectivity is the fact that all its expertise and production capability has been kept in-house, allowing high degrees of flexibility and innovation. This is in contrast to many competitors, which rely on buying in products from third parties.

Under the Escha brand, Truck Banner offers a range of 750 different cable types and 2000 different connectors as standard. In many cases, cables start off in basic forms that look similar and share common production processes and materials. From here they are developed in line with the application they are intended for. Active or passive connectivity can be in-built for any common Bus system. Point to point cabling is reduced, often to just a single 'homerun' cable.

Limitless combinations

There limitless combinations of configuration, style and material. In fact, Garder reckons there are now a staggering 30,000 standard products on offer. The company's in-house tool shop also means that custom designs are not just economical, but can also be produced in a relatively short lead-time. Items produced as 'one-offs' will often end up being made freely available. For example, the company produces products suitable for connection straight onto a PCB and well as single ended connectors developed for even higher degrees of flexibility that started off as special orders and are now available as 'standard' products.

All Escha products are built for industrial applications, but some are suitable for use in particularly arduous conditions such as the marine and off-shore sectors. Likewise, equipment used on wind turbines needs 360˚ shielding even at the highest mechanical stresses, in addition to being halogen-free, oil resistant, flame retardant and sealed to IP69K. In fact, Escha offers what is thought to be the only dual-component shielding system able to withstand the extreme conditions found in wind farm applications.

Gardner identifies the food and beverage sector as being a growth area at the moment, particularly as current contamination scandals continue to hit the headlines and producers look to implement greater levels of traceability throughout the supply chain. Cables and connectors in these applications often require sealing to IP69k, PVC-free construction and all stainless shell hard wear, with an operating range typically covering -40 to +105˚C.