Sari Wilde, a managing vice president at Gartner, studied 5,000 managers and identified four different types of leaders. The surprising result is that the “always on” manager is less effective at developing employees, even though many companies encourage supervisors to give constant feedback. Instead, the “connector” manager is the most effective, because they facilitate productive interactions across the organization. Wilde explains what the best connector managers do, how to be one, and how to work for one. With Jaime Roca, Wilde wrote the book The Connector Manager: Why Some Leaders Build Exceptional Talent — and Others Don’t .
CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch.
One of the best ways to achieve personal success in the modern organization is to become the type of manager that the best people want to work for.
And that manager is the one who is great at developing employees. After all, business is changing. Responsibilities are constantly shifting. Workers want to upgrade their skills.
A team of researchers at the global advisory firm Gartner wanted to know what the best managers do to develop employees in today’s busy work environment. They surveyed 5,000 managers around the world in different functions.
And they looked how successful employees of those managers are. What the researchers found is that many companies are telling managers to lavish a constant stream of feedback on their direct reports, that’s actually not working. In fact, it’s counterproductive.
The data reveal that are four main types of managers out there – and the manager giving constant feedback is not the most effective one in today’s climate.
Here to talk about the different types of managers – and which one comes out on top – is Sari Wilde. She’s a managing vice president at Gartner. And along with Jaime Roca, she wrote the book The Connector Manager: Why Some Leaders Build Exceptional Talent — and Others Don’t. Sari, thanks for being here.
SARI WILDE: Thank you so much for having me.
CURT NICKISCH: You use this term crisis of confidence as something that you saw, which is a pretty alarming term. Like, that’s a term that you hear when people feel like their government is failing them or they can’t trust institutions that are out there. What did you see and why are you using that term?
SARI WILDE: So one, when we asked leaders themselves about how equipped they feel to lead their organizations into the future, what we found was only 50 percent of those leaders answered positively which we felt was huge. I mean, historically, as we’ve looked at leader confidence levels generally in our jobs today and even as they look at the future, those numbers have always been higher so that was the first piece. The second piece was when we asked employees about how affective they are at the skills that are most critical for their jobs today and we found that nearly 70 percent of employees feel like they have not mastered the skills that they need for their jobs today.
CURT NICKISCH: Where do you think this is coming from?
SARI WILDE: We kind of boil it down to what we call three tectonic shifts. So, the first shift is what we call a big organizational shift. So these are shifts – think about reorganization, mergers and acquisitions, big culture or strategy leadership changes. These types of changes are occurring more and more frequently in organizations today.
The second piece is around the interdependency of work today. Right around 2008, around the great recession, we found that a lot of companies were delayering to cut costs, so taking out levels of middle managers. And over the last several years as the economy began to grow again, companies were not replacing that middle management layer.
So managers had to manage through more people, they had to manage overall, they had much bigger spans of control. Today what we find is the average manager has a span of about nine director reports and all of those director reports, many of them are working on cross matrix teams across geographies virtually, and it’s tough, as a manager.
And then the third piece is just really around the predictability of work today. Looking at digitalization and how that has impacted changes in skills, in goals, automation replacing a lot of types of work today, and really that, you know, work is, you know, on shorter time horizons and managers kind of have to adjust their plans and workflows a lot more frequently than ever before.
CURT NICKISCH: All right. So this is a world where managers don’t all feel super confident and confident about what they need to be doing all the time. What did you find in your research were the things that the best managers did?
SARI WILDE: So every manager falls into one of four types or approaches in how they coach and develop their employees.
CURT NICKISCH: And those types are teacher, cheerleader, always on, and connectors. Can you break those down for us?
SARI WILDE: So let me start talking about the teacher. So this is the manager who is going to develop their employees based on their own expertise and experience. So their mantra is, I did it this way and therefore you should do it this way too. So these are the, often the people who have kind of risen up in the organization based on their own individual contributions, not necessarily because they were the greatest managers, but they were just really good at their, at their tasks or their skills.
The cheerleader is the manager who tends to take a more hands-off approach to development. So when they do provide that feedback, it tends to be very positive and empowering but they, they encourage a lot of self-development and empowering of their employees. They want employees to really learn by doing themselves.
CURT NICKISCH: Always on, explain that one.
SARI WILDE: Right. So the always on manager is the manager who always wants to be there for their employees. They have good intentions. They’re there when their employees need them. They want to be the ones who are providing that ongoing continuous coaching and feedback across a wide breadth of skills. And what was interesting about this type is that as we started to talk to a lot of human resource executives and leaders themselves, we found that many, many companies are promoting this always on kind of continuous coaching and feedback approach within their organizations. So this was, in many ways, the desired approach, not necessarily where everybody is today, but where they are trying to move towards.
SARI NICKISCH: And finally, the connector manager.
SARI WILDE: So this is the manager who provides that targeted feedback when they have the expertise but then connect their employees with others who are better suited to provide that coaching and development. So that means that they have the right skills and knowledge or expertise to provide coaching. And they’re also known for creating a trusting and transparent environment that is, that really facilitates peer-to-peer coaching and feedback.
CURT NICKISCH: Gotcha. Now you said that companies are really demanding and asking for and trying to develop always on managers. Let’s talk for a moment just about where that motivation is coming from and then, and then I want to know in your research, like, what, you know, how are those types of managers performing?
SARI WILDE: So a lot of people think that managers need to spend more time coaching. So there’s this, there’s this idea that the more time you spend coaching and developing, the more impact that you’re going to have on your employees, the more it’s going to help them. So in our research, we actually looked at the relationship between the time that managers are spending coaching and then the employee’s performance, and what we found was really interesting. We found that there’s no significant relationship between employee performance and then the manager’s time spent developing their employees.
CURT NICKISCH: I don’t, I don’t know if that’s a positive insight or a negative one.
SARI WILDE: Well, you know, it’s interesting because we talk a lot about the, the always on world that we live in today and this also, I think, contributes to the, the always on, the prevalence of the always on manager and the desire. So this idea we’ve looked at across different generations and looked at their own desires around what they want from their managers and we found that Millennials, who make up a large portion of the workforce in a lot of organizations, actually would like more coaching and feedback than other generations.
So managers feel this pressure to do more from their employees, and then a lot of human resource functions and leaders are continuing to reinforce that through these ongoing coaching and feedback initiatives. So really kind of it gets to this point that managers are feeling very overwhelmed today.
There’s actually an interesting statistic that we also looked at where we asked human resource executives how much, what percentage of time do you think that managers should spend developing their director reports? And what they said was just over a third, so 36 percent of their time. So if you think about what that translates to, that’s almost two days a week that you are spending just doing coaching and developing, so that’s a lot of time.
But then when we went and asked managers themselves how much do you actually spend, what percentage of your time, they said it’s less than 10 percent.
CURT NICKISCH: And where is the always on manager going wrong? Like, why is that model not working?
SARI WILDE: You know, a lot of us have had these managers in our careers, I know I certainly have, where you have someone who is constantly on top of you and giving you feedback on every single little thing that you do, it can feel really stifling and disengaging. And in a lot of ways, you know, you don’t grow and learn. It doesn’t give you that space to do that.
The other piece is, you know, always on managers feel like they are the expert on everything and in so many organizations, when you think about the job that employees were doing, are doing today, when their managers had that job, it looked a little different and so the manager kind of, the always on manager often assumes that they know what’s best when, in many cases, they don’t and the job has changed, they may not be close enough to it anymore, and so that’s where almost, that’s where the negative piece comes from, where they can steer employees toward the wrong path.
CURT NICKISCH: Okay. So if the connector manager is the star here, what are they actually doing to be a connector manager?
SARI WILDE: Connector managers make three connections for their employees. The employee connection, and this is really about that one-to-one connection between employees and managers where they’re really getting to know their employees at a deeper level. They’re focused on diagnosis, really understanding their motivations, their interests, their goals, their development areas in ways that we don’t see in other managers. They’re focused on asking the right kinds of questions to get underneath the surface.
The second connection is what we call the team connection, and this is the way that managers create an open and transparent environment so that team members can develop one another so that all of the coaching doesn’t have to come from the manager as the sole source. Often times you work more with your peers than you do with your manager, and your peers are closest to you and best, you know, best prepared to kind of provide that feedback. They’re there when a lot of the work gets done and sometimes, often times the manager is not.
And then the other piece is that, you know, people come in with a lot of different skill sets and a lot of times, in most organizations, those are not used and so the manager in the team connection, the connector identifies individual differences. They’re really good at embracing those, pulling those apart. They’re known to create a more inclusive team environment so that people feel respected and comfortable sharing their individual skills with one another.
And then the third connection is what we call the organization connection, and this is really all about how connectors, one, have the self-awareness to recognize that they don’t have all of the skills that their employees need and they’re also forthcoming with their employees about that, and then they help their employees navigate to find the right skills or expertise outside of themselves. And the other key there is that they’re really good at helping their employees learn from those connections. So it’s not just about delegating development to someone else, but it’s really about helping them apply the learning.
CURT NICKISCH: It sounds like they have to be pretty well networked within their organization and just know how to, you know, make connections. I mean, is there pretty strong correlation there with connector managers or how is this different from being a good networker in your company?
SARI WILDE: Yeah. And that’s a question that we get a lot and I think it’s actually one of the misconceptions about connectors is that you don’t necessarily have to have a really large network to be a good connector. It’s really almost about more resourcefulness. So it’s, you know, in a lot of instances, the connector manager is not necessarily making the connection for you from their own network, but they’re helping you figure out how would you, how would you determine or how would you get the learning that you need if they’re not able to provide it.
So a good example of this is a leader we interviewed, his name is Pranav Vora, he is the CEO of a men’s apparel company called Hugh & Crye. This is a small company, 15 employees, based in Washington DC. And Pranav had recently hired a new digital marketing manager onto his team, and he realized after some time that his marketing manager needed to improve his skills in the e-commerce space. And within their small company of 15 people, they didn’t have the skills and expertise in-house to help his employee, nor did he really have a lot of resources to pay for a lot of, you know, extra development or hire anyone new.
So he helped the employee connect to individuals outside the organization. And he helped the employee connect with some of their technology business partners, peer companies in a similar space, and even looking at customers who they had spoken with and who had expertise in that area.
So Pranav calls those individuals his benevolent outsiders. And I think the lesson that we really love from that story is that, you know, you don’t have to have a really big network within your company, and it’s also really about helping your employees to find the right connections themselves and that it doesn’t have to be coming all from your own network as a manager.
CURT NICKISCH: It seems like this approach might be scary for some managers, especially people who have been in their careers for a while, to give up control or make it seem like they don’t have the answers for things. Can it sound that way to some skeptical managers?
SARI WILDE: It could but I think the most important thing is not necessarily forget what you know, but it’s about being kind of honest about what you know. And then it’s also about really setting up the environment in the right way. So I have another example I’ll share that’s actually a really timely and personal one. It’s something, an exercise that I just did literally this morning with my own team of about 22 people and everybody is kind of split between, some of us are in our Arlington, Virginia office, we have individuals in Boston, in London, in India, and a lot of us, it’s a fairly new team so I really wanted to try, myself, to kind of build some of these connector, build some of these connector behaviors.
So I put into practice something that we wrote about in the book. It’s a practice called, each one teach one, and the idea is that everybody goes around the room and shares one skill or piece of knowledge that they’re willing to share with somebody else. So for example, we had people, everybody went around and people talked about writing skills, some people talked about, you know, graphics visualization, just for us and what we do, those are some important skills.
Other people literally, you know, shared their baking skills outside of work, skills that they use as well. And there’s something that I found where, just how people started to loosen up, like, the more people started to share, and we kind of tracked these online. And my ask to everyone on the team is, take a look at these skills and over the next couple of months, if one of these skills is one of your own development areas, set up a meeting, set up a 30-minute session with that person who has that skill and, you know, help each other.
And it’s really simple. It’s something that, you know, I think, as you said, people can sometimes feel intimidated by this idea or feel like, you know, people aren’t going to see me as the manager or the leader, but the truth is that the leader has to play a very active role in creating this kind of environment to create, it has to set the right tone and really kind of set up that idea of sharing because not everyone is going to initially feel comfortable doing that. But by setting an example, that’s kind of, we believe it’s one of the first steps.
CURT NICKISCH: How does this change the role of your peers at an organization when you have a connector manager?
SARI WILDE: We have found that when on teams that have connector managers, they tend to be a lot more trusting, they tend to be a lot more open with each other. Even on teams that are naturally competitive, so if you have sales teams, you know, they’re all competing for the same kinds of incentives, a great connector sales manager can orchestrate the right kind of environment where they may be setting up shared objectives so that, you know, you don’t achieve, you don’t get your goals unless everybody else, or you help someone else hit their goals. You tend to see team dynamics that are more healthy. They’re – connector managers tend to be a lot more comfortable and confident talking about tough issues. We see that in that one-to-one employee connection and also in that team connection it becomes important as well.
CURT NICKISCH: And then what does having a connector manager mean to you as an employee? Like how do your interactions or how does your job change if you, if you have a connector manager as opposed to an always on manager?
SARI WILDE: You tend to feel a sense of empowerment. I think the other thing that we do see for the big result is that employee performance improves when you have a connector manager. So you are able to get coaching, the right coaching and guidance that you need more quickly than a lot of these other types, than the always on manager. You make more connections across organizations within your teams.
In many cases, it also means that employees need to be more upfront about what they need. So they need to, you know, to help their connector managers get them the right support. Both roles are – they’re very active, as I mentioned, kind of in creating those connections and environments. And the employees also have an important role to play there.
CURT NICKISCH: To play devil’s advocate here, is there a risk that having this type of manager can annoy you? You know, do some workers, especially, so let’s say you are a Millennial and you’re expecting constant feedback and you’re asking for it all the time.
Is there a danger that you’ll have the perception that your boss doesn’t have the expertise or know what to do and just goes around trying to, like, pass you off on other people and try to make connections and collaborations happen without actually, you know, pointing you in the right direction themselves?
SARI WILDE: Yeah. Well, you know, I think in actuality, you know, most people are not getting that level of coaching that, you know, that we talked about earlier that Millennials seem to desire. And the thing that’s great about the connector is that you actually are getting more feedback, it’s just not all coming from one person.
The connector provides, what we call, we say, the first thing is they provide targeted coaching and feedback when they have the expertise, when they’re there to experience your, your work, they are the right person and they do that and they do that well.
But they ensure that you actually do get more coaching and guidance than a lot of the other manager types because they are making those connections and they’re not just doing it in the instances where, when they’re there and where they can help.
So, you know, I think for the employees who feel like it’s just about delegation, in a lot of those instances, you actually have a cheerleader rather than a connector. Because the cheerleader, cheerleaders are the ones that tend to delegate. So, go talk to this person, they can help you, and then you never have a conversation again about it.
Whereas the connector is, will say, go talk to this person. We talk about warm up and cool down routines that the connector does before they’re making that connection, so they’re preparing you to have, around, kind of, what are the goals of these conversations. There’s a lot more precision about what are we trying to get out of it.
And then you go and have the right conversation and then you come back and the connector manager is the one that says, okay, what did we learn, how do we, how are we then going to apply that to do our jobs better? So it’s still a very active role, it’s just a slight, you’re focusing your time in different places.
CURT NICKISCH: Gotcha. It sounds like there’s a lot of momentum and inertia at organizations towards the always on manager model and so it may be really difficult to get your organization to change how it approaches that or what kind of managers are promoted and rewarded and cultivated at their company. So if you are a manager or you are an employee who is looking to work for, you know, a connector manager or wants to work for a connector manager because they know that that is a successful model, how do you push for it and how do you, how do you get it to happen? What would you tell a friend who came up to you and said, well that’s not how we do things at my company?
SARI WILDE: It depends on, I guess, how much influence you have in the organization. If it’s someone who just, you know, I want a connector manager, I’m looking for someone who is a connector. So what we found in our research is about 25 percent of the population are connectors, and that cuts across all industries, functions, you, there are a number of connectors in a lot of organizations.
And so even if, you know, employees don’t always have control around who their manager is, it’s about finding projects under those individuals. We see employees who look for mentors who are connectors. There are things as an employee that you can do, even if you’re stuck with that always on manager or a different manager type, to work more closely with connectors because they do exist in all, in all organizations.
You mentioned this continued focus from organizations around the always on approach and as you start to dig into it, the truth is that about 22 percent or so of managers are actually always on. So that’s not a huge percentage but a lot of the push from organizations comes from this belief that, well managers aren’t really doing anything today, so we’re just trying to get them to do something. And they go all the way to this other extreme of, you’re not giving enough coaching and we want you to do it all the time continuously.
CURT NICKISCH: And what they’re basically saying is, we want you to be sometimes on.
SARI WILDE: Right, right, right. Exactly. And I think as we work with organizations on the connector approach, you know, it doesn’t have to be doing nothing to doing always on, you know, by taking the connector, there are some, a lot of kind of small behavioral changes that a lot of either cheerleader managers, teachers, or even always on managers can take to change their approach.
CURT NICKISCH: So if someone listening to this realizes, oh no, I’m a cheerleader manager, or I’m a teacher manager and that’s not going to fly anymore, or I am always on and I know that that’s not working, what can they do to try to make this transition to become a connector manager themselves?
SARI WILDE: Some of that is going to depend on your starting place. So if you’re, for example, if you’re an always on manager and your tendency as an always on manager is going to be just to coach, so regardless of whether your employees are necessarily asking for coaching or whether they need it, they’re going to provide feedback and coach. And so there, what we would advise is, think about asking questions rather than just providing feedback and coaching.
So this is, we talk about overinvesting in diagnosis, and we have a number of, we actually have a tool in the book that’s called the most powerful connector questions, so some specific questions that can help you kind of really get underneath what makes your employees tick, what their needs are, what their interests are. So that’s the first thing.
If you’re more on the cheerleader side, then you’re going to have to lean in a little bit more and be a more active leader or coach. So for example, on the organization connection, instead of just, you know, suggesting that your employee connect with someone and then often times the cheerleader will kind of forget about it and assume that development took place, they will do their, what we call warm up and cool down routine.
So before the conversation, spend a little bit of time working with the employee and prepping them for the conversation, setting clear goals. And then the most important thing is the reflection afterwards and helping them understand, you know, what did you learn, how can we then apply that, and making sure that that application is happening.
CURT NICKISCH: It’s been really great to talk about this. It’s cool research and we’re glad to share it with our audience. Thanks for coming on the show to talk about it.
SARI WILDE: Great. Thank you so much for having me.
NICKISCH: That’s Sari Wilde. She’s a managing vice president at Gartner and a co-author of the book, The Connector Manager: Why Some Leaders Build Exceptional Talent — and Others Don’t.
This episode was produced by Mary Dooe. We get technical help from Rob Eckhardt. Adam Buchholz is our audio product manager. Thanks for listening to the HBR IdeaCast. I’m Curt Nickisch.
Components of an electrical circuit are electrically connected if an electric current can run between them through an electrical conductor. An electrical connector is an electromechanical device used to create an electrical connection between parts of an electrical circuit, or between different electrical circuits, thereby joining them into a larger circuit.[1]
The connection may be removable (as for portable equipment), require a tool for assembly and removal, or serve as a permanent electrical joint between two points.[2] An adapter can be used to join dissimilar connectors. Most electrical connectors have a gender – i.e. the male component, called a plug, connects to the female component, or socket.
Thousands of configurations of connectors are manufactured for power, data, and audiovisual applications.[3] Electrical connectors can be divided into four basic categories, differentiated by their function:[4]
In computing, electrical connectors are considered a physical interface and constitute part of the physical layer in the OSI model of networking.
Physical construction
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In addition to the classes mentioned above, connectors are characterised by their pinout, method of connection, materials, size, contact resistance, insulation, mechanical durability, ingress protection, lifetime (number of cycles), and ease of use.
It is usually desirable for a connector to be easy to identify visually, rapid to assemble, inexpensive, and require only simple tooling. In some cases an equipment manufacturer might choose a connector specifically because it is not compatible with those from other sources, allowing control of what may be connected. No single connector has all the ideal properties for every application; the proliferation of types is a result of the diverse yet specific requirements of manufacturers.[7]: 6
Materials
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Electrical connectors essentially consist of two classes of materials: conductors and insulators. Properties important to conductor materials are contact resistance, conductivity, mechanical strength, formability, and resilience.[8] Insulators must have a high electrical resistance, withstand high temperatures, and be easy to manufacture for a precise fit
Electrodes in connectors are usually made of copper alloys, due to their good conductivity and malleability.[7]: 15 Alternatives include brass, phosphor bronze, and beryllium copper. The base electrode metal is often coated with another inert metal such as gold, nickel, or tin.[8] The use of a coating material with good conductivity, mechanical robustness and corrosion resistance helps to reduce the influence of passivating oxide layers and surface adsorbates, which limit metal-to-metal contact patches and contribute to contact resistance. For example, copper alloys have favorable mechanical properties for electrodes, but are hard to solder and prone to corrosion. Thus, copper pins are usually coated with gold to alleviate these pitfalls, especially for analog signals and high-reliability applications.[9][10]
Contact carriers that hold the parts of a connector together are usually made of plastic, due to its insulating properties. Housings or backshells can be made of molded plastic and metal.[7]: 15 Connector bodies for high-temperature use, such as thermocouples or associated with large incandescent lamps, may be made of fired ceramic material.
Failure modes
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The majority of connector failures result in intermittent connections or open contacts:[11][12]
Failure mode Relative probability Open circuit 61% Poor contact 23% Short circuit 16%Connectors are purely passive components – that is, they do not enhance the function of a circuit – so connectors should affect the function of a circuit as little as possible. Insecure mounting of connectors (primarily chassis-mounted) can contribute significantly to the risk of failure, especially when subjected to extreme shock or vibration.[11] Other causes of failure are connectors inadequately rated for the applied current and voltage, connectors with inadequate ingress protection, and threaded backshells that are worn or damaged.
High temperatures can also cause failure in connectors, resulting in an "avalanche" of failures – ambient temperature increases, leading to a decrease in insulation resistance and increase in conductor resistance; this increase generates more heat, and the cycle repeats.[11]
Fretting (so-called dynamic corrosion) is a common failure mode in electrical connectors that have not been specifically designed to prevent it, especially in those that are frequently mated and de-mated.[13] Surface corrosion is a risk for many metal parts in connectors, and can cause contacts to form a thin surface layer that increases resistance, thus contributing to heat buildup and intermittent connections.[14] However, remating or reseating a connector can alleviate the issue of surface corrosion, since each cycle scrapes a microscopic layer off the surface of the contact(s), exposing a fresh, unoxidised surface.
Circular connectors
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Many connectors used for industrial and high-reliability applications are circular in cross section, with a cylindrical housing and circular contact interface geometries. This is in contrast to the rectangular design of some connectors, e.g. USB or blade connectors. They are commonly used for easier engagement and disengagement, tight environmental sealing, and rugged mechanical performance.[15] They are widely used in military, aerospace, industrial machinery, and rail, where MIL-DTL-5015 and MIL-DTL-38999 are commonly specified. Fields such as sound engineering and radio communication also use circular connectors, such as XLR and BNC. AC power plugs are also commonly circular, for example, Schuko plugs and IEC 60309.
NMEA 2000 cabling using M12 connectorsThe M12 connector, specified in IEC 61076-2-101, is a circular electrical plug/receptacle pair with 12mm OD mating threads, used in NMEA 2000, DeviceNet, IO-Link, some kinds of Industrial Ethernet, etc.[16][17]
A disadvantage of the circular design is its inefficient use of panel space when used in arrays, when compared to rectangular connectors.
Circular connectors commonly use backshells, which provide physical and electromagnetic protection, whilst sometimes also providing a method for locking the connector into a receptacle.[18] In some cases, this backshell provides a hermetic seal, or some degree of ingress protection, through the use of grommets, O-rings, or potting.[15]
Hybrid connectors
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Hybrid connectors allow the intermixing of many connector types, usually by way of a housing with inserts.[19] These housings may also allow intermixing of electrical and non-electrical interfaces, examples of the latter being pneumatic line connectors, and optical fiber connectors. Because hybrid connectors are modular in nature, they tend to simplify assembly, repair, and future modifications. They also allow the creation of composite cable assemblies that can reduce equipment installation time by reducing the number of individual cable and connector assemblies.
Mechanical features
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Pin sequence
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Some connectors are designed such that certain pins make contact before others when inserted, and break first on disconnection.[1] This is often used in power connectors to protect equipment, e.g. connecting safety ground first. It is also employed for digital signals, as a method to sequence connections properly in hot swapping.
Keying
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Examples of keyed connectors
XLR connector , showing the notch for alignmentA 4-pin Mini-DIN S-Video cable, with notches and a rectangular alignment pin
Many connectors are keyed with some mechanical component (sometimes called a keyway), which prevents mating in an incorrect orientation.[20] This can be used to prevent mechanical damage to connectors, from being jammed in at the wrong angle or into the wrong connector, or to prevent incompatible or dangerous electrical connections, such as plugging an audio cable into a power outlet.[1] Keying also prevents otherwise symmetrical connectors from being connected in the wrong orientation or polarity. Keying is particularly important for situations where there are many similar connectors, such as in signal electronics.[7]: 26 For instance, XLR connectors have a notch to ensure proper orientation, while Mini-DIN plugs have a plastic projection that fits into a corresponding hole in the socket (they also have a notched metal skirt to provide secondary keying).[21]
Locking mechanisms
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Some connector housings are designed with locking mechanisms to prevent inadvertent disconnection or poor environmental sealing.[1] Locking mechanism designs include locking levers of various sorts, jackscrews, screw-in shells, push-pull connector, and toggle or bayonet systems. Some connectors, particularly those with large numbers of contacts, require high forces to connect and disconnect. Locking levers and jackscrews and screw-in shells for such connectors frequently serve both to retain the connector when connected and to provide the force needed for connection and disconnection. Depending on application requirements, housings with locking mechanisms may be tested under various environmental simulations that include physical shock and vibration, water spray, dust, etc. to ensure the integrity of the electrical connection and housing seals.
Backshells
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Backshells are a common accessory for industrial and high-reliability connectors, especially circular connectors.[18] Backshells typically protect the connector and/or cable from environmental or mechanical stress, or shield it from electromagnetic interference.[22] Many types of backshells are available for different purposes, including various sizes, shapes, materials, and levels of protection. Backshells usually lock onto the cable with a clamp or moulded boot, and may be threaded for attachment to a mating receptacle.[23] Backshells for military and aerospace use are regulated by SAE AS85049 within the USA.[24]
To deliver ensured signal stability in extreme environments, traditional pin and socket design may become inadequate. Hyperboloid contacts are designed to withstand more extreme physical demands, such as vibration and shock.[20] They also require around 40% less insertion force[25] – as low as 0.3 newtons (1 ozf) per contact,[26] – which extends the lifespan, and in some cases offers an alternative to zero insertion force connectors.[27][25]
In a connector with hyperboloid contacts, each female contact has several equally spaced longitudinal wires twisted into a hyperbolic shape. These wires are highly resilient to strain, but still somewhat elastic, hence they essentially function as linear springs.[28][29] As the male pin is inserted, axial wires in the socket half are deflected, wrapping themselves around the pin to provide a number of contact points. The internal wires that form the hyperboloid structure are usually anchored at each end by bending the tip into a groove or notch in the housing.[30]
Whilst hyperboloid contacts may be the only option to make a reliable connection in some circumstances, they have the disadvantage of taking up greater volume in a connector, which can cause problems for high-density connectors.[25] They are also significantly more expensive than traditional pin and socket contacts, which has limited their uptake since their invention in the 1920s by Wilhelm Harold Frederick.[31] In the 1950s, Francois Bonhomme popularised hyperboloid contacts with his "Hypertac" connector, which was later acquired by Smiths Group. During the following decades, the connectors steadily gained popularity, and are still used for medical, industrial, military, aerospace, and rail applications (particularly trains in Europe).[28]
Pogo pins
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Pogo pin connectorsPogo pin or spring loaded connectors are commonly used in consumer and industrial products, where mechanical resilience and ease of use are priorities.[32] The connector consists of a barrel, a spring, and a plunger. They are in applications such as the MagSafe connector where a quick disconnect is desired for safety. Because they rely on spring pressure, not friction, they can be more durable and less damaging than traditional pin and socket design, leading to their use in in-circuit testing.[33]
Crown spring connectors
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Typical crown spring plug and its female socketCrown spring connectors are commonly used for higher current flows and industrial applications. They have a high number of contact points, which provides a more electrically reliable connection than traditional pin and socket connectors.[34]
Methods of connection
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Whilst technically inaccurate, electrical connectors can be viewed as a type of adapter to convert between two connection methods, which are permanently connected at one end and (usually) detachable at the other end.[7]: 40 By definition, each end of this "adapter" has a different connection method – e.g. the solder tabs on a male phone connector, and the male phone connector itself.[3] In this example, the solder tabs connected to the cable represent the permanent connection, whilst the male connector portion interfaces with a female socket forming a detachable connection.
There are many ways of applying a connector to a cable or device. Some of these methods can be accomplished without specialized tools. Other methods, while requiring a special tool, can assemble connectors much faster and more reliably, and make repairs easier.
The number of times a connector can connect and disconnect with its counterpart while meeting all its specifications is termed as mating cycles and is an indirect measure of connector lifespan. The material used for connector contact, plating type and thickness is a major factor that determines the mating cycles.[35]
Plug and socket connectors[
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Plug and socket connectors are usually made up of a male plug (typically pin contacts) and a female socket (typically receptacle contacts). Often, but not always, sockets are permanently fixed to a device as in a chassis connector (see above), and plugs are attached to a cable.
Plugs generally have one or more pins or prongs that are inserted into openings in the mating socket. The connection between the mating metal parts must be sufficiently tight to make a good electrical connection and complete the circuit. An alternative type of plug and socket connection uses hyperboloid contacts, which makes a more reliable electrical connection. When working with multi-pin connectors, it is helpful to have a pinout diagram to identify the wire or circuit node connected to each pin.
Some connector styles may combine pin and socket connection types in a single unit, referred to as a hermaphroditic connector.[6]: 56 These connectors includes mating with both male and female aspects, involving complementary paired identical parts each containing both protrusions and indentations. These mating surfaces are mounted into identical fittings that freely mate with any other, without regard for gender (provided that the size and type match).
Sometimes both ends of a cable are terminated with the same gender of connector, as in many Ethernet patch cables. In other applications the two ends are terminated differently, either with male and female of the same connector (as in an extension cord), or with incompatible connectors, which is sometimes called an adapter cable.
Plugs and sockets are widely used in various connector systems including blade connectors, breadboards, XLR connectors, car power outlets, banana connectors, and phone connectors.
Jacks and plugs[
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A jack is a connector that installs on the surface of a bulkhead or enclosure, and mates with its reciprocal, the plug.[36] According to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,[37] the stationary (more fixed) connector of a pair is classified as a jack (denoted J), usually attached to a piece of equipment as in a chassis-mount or panel-mount connector. The movable (less fixed) connector is classified as a plug (denoted P),[37] designed to attach to a wire, cable or removable electrical assembly.[38] This convention is currently defined in ASME Y14.44-2008, which supersedes IEEE 200-1975, which in turn derives from the long-withdrawn MIL-STD-16 (from the 1950s), highlighting the heritage of this connector naming convention.[36] IEEE 315-1975 works alongside ASME Y14.44-2008 to define jacks and plugs.
The term jack occurs in several related terms:
1
⁄4
inch (6.35 mm) telephone plug1
⁄4
inch (6.35 mm) phone jack common to many electronic applications in various configurations, sometimes referred to as a headphone jackCrimp-on connectors
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A wire and connector being crimped together with a crimping toolCrimped connectors are a type of solderless connection, using mechanical friction and uniform deformation to secure a connector to a pre-stripped wire (usually stranded).[1] Crimping is used in splice connectors, crimped multipin plugs and sockets, and crimped coaxial connectors. Crimping usually requires a specialised crimping tool, but the connectors are quick and easy to install and are a common alternative to solder connections or insulation displacement connectors. Effective crimp connections deform the metal of the connector past its yield point so that the compressed wire causes tension in the surrounding connector, and these forces counter each other to create a high degree of static friction. Due to the elastic element in crimped connections, they are highly resistant to vibration and thermal shock.[39]
Crimped contacts are permanent (i.e. the connectors and wire ends cannot be reused).[40]
Crimped plug-and-socket connectors can be classified as rear release or front release. This relates to the side of the connector where the pins are anchored:[20]
Soldered connectors
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Many plug and socket connectors are attached to a wire or cable by soldering conductors to electrodes on the back of the connector. Soldered joints in connectors are robust and reliable if executed correctly, but are usually slower to make than crimped connections.[1] When wires are to be soldered to the back of a connector, a backshell is often used to protect the connection and add strain relief. Metal solder buckets or solder cups are provided, which consist of a cylindrical cavity that an installer fills with solder before inserting the wire.[41]
When creating soldered connections, it is possible to melt the dielectric between pins or wires. This can cause problems because the thermal conductivity of metals causes heat to quickly distribute through the cable and connector, and when this heat melts plastic dielectric, it can cause short circuits or "flared" (conical) insulation.[40] Solder joints are also more prone to mechanical failure than crimped joints when subjected to vibration and compression.[42]
Insulation-displacement connectors
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Since stripping insulation from wires is time-consuming, many connectors intended for rapid assembly use insulation-displacement connectors which cut the insulation as the wire is inserted.[1] These generally take the form of a fork-shaped opening in the terminal, into which the insulated wire is pressed, which cut through the insulation to contact the conductor. To make these connections reliably on a production line, special tools accurately control the forces applied during assembly. On small scales, these tools tend to cost more than tools for crimped connections.
Insulation displacement connectors are usually used with small conductors for signal purposes and at low voltage. Power conductors carrying more than a few amperes are more reliably terminated with other means, though "hot tap" press-on connectors find some use in automotive applications for additions to existing wiring.
A common example is the multi-conductor flat ribbon cable used in computer disk drives; to terminate each of the many (approximately 40) wires individually would be slow and error-prone, but an insulation displacement connector can terminate all the wires in a single action. Another very common use is so-called punch-down blocks used for terminating unshielded twisted pair wiring.
Binding posts
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Binding posts are a single-wire connection method, where stripped wire is screwed or clamped to a metal electrode. Such connectors are frequently used in electronic test equipment and audio. Many binding posts also accept a banana plug.
Screw terminals
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Screw connections are frequently used for semi-permanent wiring and connections inside devices, due to their simple but reliable construction. The basic principle of all screw terminals involves the tip of a bolt clamping onto a stripped conductor. They can be used to join multiple conductors,[43] to connect wires to a printed circuit board, or to terminate a cable into a plug or socket.[7]: 50 The clamping screw may act in the longitudinal axis (parallel to the wire) or the transverse axis (perpendicular to the wire), or both. Some disadvantages are that connecting wires is more difficult than simply plugging in a cable, and screw terminals are generally not very well protected from contact with persons or foreign conducting materials.
Terminal blocks of various typesTerminal blocks (also called terminal boards or strips) provide a convenient means of connecting individual electrical wires without a splice or physically joining the ends. Since terminal blocks are readily available for a wide range of wire sizes and terminal quantity, they are one of the most flexible types of electrical connector available. One type of terminal block accepts wires that are prepared only by stripping a short length of insulation from the end. Another type, often called barrier strips, accepts wires that have ring or spade terminal lugs crimped onto the wires.
Printed circuit board (PCB) mounted screw terminals let individual wires connect to a PCB through leads soldered to the board.
Ring and spade connectors
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Ring style wire-end crimp connectorsThe connectors in the top row of the image are known as ring terminals and spade terminals (sometimes called fork or split ring terminals). Electrical contact is made by the flat surface of the ring or spade, while mechanically they are attached by passing a screw or bolt through them. The spade terminal form factor facilitates connections since the screw or bolt can be left partially screwed in as the spade terminal is removed or attached. Their sizes can be determined by the gauge of the conducting wire, and the interior and exterior diameters.
In the case of insulated crimp connectors, the crimped area lies under an insulating sleeve through which the pressing force acts. During crimping, the extended end of this insulating sleeve is simultaneously pressed around the insulated area of the cable, creating strain relief. The insulating sleeve of insulated connectors has a color that indicates the wire's cross-section area. Colors are standardized according to DIN 46245:
Blade connectors
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Blade connectors (lower half of photo). Ring and spade terminals (upper half). Bullet terminals, male and female (right-center, with blue wires)A blade connector is a type of single wire, plug-and-socket connection device using a flat conductive blade (plug) that is inserted into a receptacle. Wires are typically attached to male or female blade connector terminals by either crimping or soldering. Insulated and uninsulated varieties are available. In some cases the blade is an integral manufactured part of a component (such as a switch or a speaker unit), and the reciprocal connector terminal is pushed onto the device's connector terminal.
Other connection methods
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See also
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Connectors
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References
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Media related to Electrical connectors at Wikimedia Commons