Power connectors are specifically designed for the purpose of transferring power from one device to another or from one point to another point of a same unit. Connectors of this category generally have comparatively high voltage, current and temperature ratings. In this section we will be discussing about some of the common power connectors including IEC and DC connector.
IEC CONNECTOR
You might have noticed that some of the electrical appliances shipped from abroad have incompatible power plug connector with ours. The reason is that the device is not designed or modified for to sell in our market. Different countries have power plug connectors in different size and shapes. Let us take a look at the different standards of plug connectors in use.
Power plug standards
This variety in connector shape and sizes could have been a headache for multinational manufactures, because for each country they must modify their product. At least they must remove the wire from the main board and replace with one having the intended company’s power plug. This is difficult and non-profitable for the manufactures. People working abroad also face a similar issue, as they can’t bring home any devices from there.
The above mentioned trouble is solved by the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC). The IEC imposed some standard on the power cable male and female connector which connects the power cable to the device, so that whatever the type of plug might be, every power cable is compactable can be connected to the device. We call this IEC standard connector as IEC connectors.
An IEC standard male and female connector
Now the manufacturers are free to mass produce their same model irrespective of the various plug standard exist around the globe. Before shipping the product to a particular country all they need is to include the power cord with IEC connector at one end and plug type used in the country on other end inside the packet.
The IEC connectors have large and standard current and temperature ratings. These connectors are intended to be used up to 250 Volts. IEC 60320 is the standard defined for the IEC power connectors. Under this standard there are different types of power connectors with different shape and sizes. Each of these connector standards has different current and voltage ratings.
These standards can be identified by their number starting with an alphabet ‘C’. The number next to the ‘C’ is an odd number representing the female connector which follows by a forward slash ‘/’ and an even number representing the male connector. The IEC standard defines the size, shape, current ratings, temperature ratings and the polarization of the connectors.
Now let us discuss about some of the IEC standard connectors.
