Lubricants

Lubricants are often used in the manufacture and use of connectors. Lubricants help to reduce mating and unmating forces, extend plating durability, enhance corrosion protection (fretting, galvanic, and harsh environments), extend solderability shelf life, and to reduce stamping, assembly, and application tooling wear. However, care must be taken to select the proper lubricant to achieve the desired results.

APEX can help select, specify, or custom-formulate a lubricant to meet product specifications and increase reliability.

WHY APEX:

• Utilize hands-on R&D and manufacturing experience
• Obtain technical recommendations not influenced by sales
• Acquire knowledge on contact lubrication
• Gain independent and impartial feedback
• Proceed with confidence that knowledgeable industry professionals reviewed the application

APEX PROVIDES THE FOLLOWING:

• Compatibility with plastic housings and base metals
• Lower cost by reducing precious metal plating thickness
• Safety, health, and environmental requirements
• Development of application-specific proprietary lubricant formulations
• Lubricant application techniques
• Identification of potential lubricant sources

EXAMPLES OF APEX CONNECTOR LUBRICATION RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Formulated a custom lubricant for a product to pass the Telecordia specification
• Allowed the use of thinner gold plating by pore blocking (thin plating)
• Reduced the insertion/extraction forces of a high temperature automotive connector
• Extended the shelf life of a surface mount connector
• Increased the mating durability of a card edge connector
• Tripled wire crimp tooling life