IBM spent a lot of time and money investigating IDC connectors for use in
Mainframes which I am aware of (can't speak to Military).

Here's what I can tell you.  There are design "secrets" that some connector
suppliers know.  The design can not rely on the plastic housings to support the
IDC fingers,  BeCu works better than Phos Bronze for the contacts, hardening
parameters matter, fork design matters, Only use the assembly tool made by the
company that makes the connectors, alignment of the wires in the fixture prior
to assembly is critical,  on and on it goes.  Tricky business.

Here's a VERY brief summary;  to make your life easier, skip IDC and stay with
a good Crimp and Poke system.  With Crimp and Poke we have found that most
designs work pretty well.  With IDC we found that most designs fail our testing
for reliability, so we suspect that you'd need to be very careful, select just
the right suppliers and do some extensive testing to meet any MIL specs.  One
more point, the fork design used even by any one supplier can vary .   Amp,
Thomas and Betts, and 3M  may be some folks to talk to who may have some
customers who've dared the MIL spec route.

hope this helps;

Jim Herard
KBL, Product Quality Engineering
IBM Microelectronics Endicott
t/l 857-7026

---------------------- Forwarded by Jim Herard/Endicott/IBM on 06-25-97 11:55 AM
 ---------------------------

        [log in to unmask]
        06-24-97 10:25 PM
Please respond to [log in to unmask] @ internet

To: [log in to unmask] @ internet
cc:
Subject: Insulation Displacement Connectors

Hi Technetters,
        Have any of you had any experience (good or bad) using insulation
displacement connectors on high reliability (ie, Mil-spec or satellite)
hardware? Responses to the list or private e-mail greatly appreciated.
        TIA,
        Howard Feldmesser
        The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
        Laurel, MD
        [log in to unmask]


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