New Rugged Multicontact Connectors

Current and anticipated Army field tactics, requiring rugged communication ground equipment to withstand a wide range of environmental conditions such as humidity, temperature extremes, shock, vibration, sand, and mud, with a high degree of mobility, have established the need for a series of reliable general purpose, multicontact, power connectors which are capable of meeting these requirements. The AN series of connectors which have been employed to a great extent on military electronic equipments are considered unsuitable for present-day needs because of their high insertion and withdrawal forces, tedious coupling mechanisms, relatively high contact resistance characteristics, susceptibility to contact damage, poor mounting features, large number of maintenance parts, variety of connector classifications for specific applications, and general lack of ruggedness. The Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories in conjunction with the Scintilla Division of the Bendix Aviation Corporation have recently completed a five-year program which resulted in the development of a new series of connectors, designated as the Q series, to replace the AN series for Army applications. This paper presents the design features and performance data on the Q connectors with emphasis being placed on those features which contribute to its ruggedness and reliability.