As gas continues the march toward $5 per gallon, there are more and more headlines on electric vehicles.  And with that, high current batteries.  I have been talking to many in the industry on the new requirements for connectors in this evolving high-current market and one thing is jumping out. The concept of rating these proposed harness products for temperature and T rise is anything but clear!

Often times I am asked about a product handling a current in rush or spike. Usually we’re talking some amperage spike in milliseconds. Now I hear comments from folks looking for a 200 amp product that may have to handle 250 to 300 amps, but for minutes not milliseconds!

So now as we work on new test programs for these 200+ contact systems, we have to consider this new duty cycle! How do connector companies put together a test profile that will accurately predict future performance for such a requirement?

This is a new and exciting market to be in, but much more research is needed to answer questions about end-of-life performance for separable interfaces in the high current applications.