Wire spring jacks vs ordinary jacks in connectors

Wire spring jacks and ordinary jacks are both used in electrical connectors, but they differ in structure and performance. The wire spring jack, whose full name is the single-leaf rotary hyperboloid wire spring jack, is a highly reliable jack component used in electrical (aviation) connectors.

Principle of the hyperboloid wire spring jack

The hole is formed by a number of elastic, gold- or silver-plated wires arranged along the straight busbars of a single-leaf rotary hyperboloid, at an angle to the straight busbars of the inner sleeve. When the pin is inserted, the spring wires deform elastically in both the radial and axial directions and contact the pin simultaneously through multiple independent wires, forming multiple independent current paths. Even if an individual wire cracks, the spring hole still forms a useful current path.

Performance advantages

The design gives low insertion force, small contact resistance and high reliability. The elastic wires envelop the pin tightly and make multi-line contact, so one pair of pinholes equals several pairs of ordinary pins and holes used in parallel, which greatly improves contact reliability. The outstanding advantages are low and stable contact resistance, low mating force, low wear of the contact parts and long mating life. In strongly oscillating impact environments the electrical contact remains highly reliable, with a transient disconnection time of less than 1 microsecond.

The ordinary connector jack

The ordinary jack is the simpler product. Its diameter range is 0.5 mm to 20.0 mm, it is environmentally friendly and RoHS compliant, and the surface treatment is gold, silver, tin or nickel plating. It is produced mainly for military, medical and computer connector manufacturers. Parts are made from phosphor bronze, brass, tin bronze and beryllium bronze. Machining steps include slotting, closing, punching side holes, opening transverse grooves and milling radii, and a 0.5 mm tin-copper hole can be machined to a depth of 6 mm. Crown spring jacks are also available and better guarantee contact quality, the number of mating cycles and long-term durability.

Applications and sizing

Jack diameter can be made as small as 0.3 mm, in environmentally friendly copper, phosphor bronze and tin bronze, suited to electronic products, printed circuit boards and connectors. Beyond electrical connectors, hyperboloid wire spring jacks are widely used in aerospace, weapons equipment, medical equipment, automotive electronic testing, railway rolling stock, electronic communications, intelligent equipment, and petroleum, chemical and exploration applications.