Blog

  • Battery Charging Connectors for Fast Charging Applications (EBC and SBE®)

    Fast Charging is rapidly becoming a mainstream charging technology due to cost savings, increased productivity, and safety. While Fast Charging of batteries is not a new technology (used in many handheld devices in the past) it really started to take off to reduce charging time of on-road electric vehicles. Fast Chargers are different from conventional chargers in many ways. First off the power rating can be 3-4 times the rating of a conventional charger often requiring the use of dual cables and connectors for charging rates in excess of 300A. In addition, Fast chargers incorporate advance controls that maximize the battery’s’ acceptance of the charge while monitoring the battery temperature rise to avoid overheating. In order to achieve this information transfer, connectors that include auxiliary contacts are needed. The common two types of connectors used are the SBE® style and the Din 43589-1 style connectors. Both connector styles offer robust housings and contacts that will handle 5000 or more mating cycles. In addition they offer 4 or more auxiliary contacts for applications such as battery monitoring. Both connector types are rated to EN1175:1998 and have attributes that make them the right choice depending on your application needs...
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  • Supporting the FIRST® Robotics Competition

    We have been a proud supporter of the FIRST® Robotics Competition since 2001! FIRST® means For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) is comprised of high school robotics teams in the “Ultimate Sport for the Mind”*. This takes place each year with over 3,000 teams from more than 20 countries. Teams work with a mentor to build an industrial-size robot in an intense six-week period to compete in multiple competitions completing a set of tasks with their robot. The individual districts have regional events with a final competition in St. Louis, Missouri. We attended the New England FIRST® Robotics WPI District event and were inspired by the enthusiasm of the teams that attended. The excitement and passion that we felt in the Harrington Auditorium was great to see from these high school students and their mentors. It was uplifting to talk with the teams to see how they used our donated pink SB®50 connector in their robots. They also had some of our other connectors like the Powerpole® PP75 attached to their batteries. Our favorite part of attending this event was walking out to “The Pit” to see the teams in action working together on their robots. They were just as excited to speak to us, as we were to learn about their robots and how we can aid them further...
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  • Deciphering Amperage Ratings

    There are two important points to keep in mind The Technical Support Team here at Anderson Power Products® regularly receives questions regarding the suitability of the amperage ratings. A common question is “How can a Powerpole® PP15-45 be rated 40A on a multi-conductor #10 AWG cable when NEC (National Electric Code) restricts current to 30A on a #10 AWG?” There are two important points to keep in mind when reviewing the ratings of any electrical component: Safety Standards and Capability vs Suitability. Safety Standards Electrical components, like connectors, are used in a broad array of global applications. Each region or country can have different standards & requirements for the same application. Connectors have two groups of the standards for regions and applications...
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  • Protect Your DC Power Connector Against The Elements

    Do not get caught without your boots on! Our SB® Environmental Boots protect SB® connectors in outdoor or industrial applications. The thick rubber connector boots are chemical and UV resistant. They shield the SB® connectors from water and dust while mated or unmated to IP64. This environmental protection maintains the designed reliability and safety of Anderson Power Products SB® connectors. The added insulation further protects the end user from electric shock by covering wire insulation creep. SB® Environmental Boots are easy to install with a broad range of wire sizes by simply cutting at the appropriate AWG and metric markings on the boots. We can even customize our Boots to fit your wires. Have you ever wondered what exactly IP64 means? I know we are always mentioning acronyms to each other, but how often do we really explain what they mean. Let us dive into what IP64 means! Ingress Protection (IP) rating classifies the degrees of protection provided against solids and liquids. This allows us to provide more than just words like “water resistant”. The first digit stands for the level of protection against hazardous parts and ingress of solid foreign object...
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  • 3 Reasons Why Genuine Anderson™ Connectors Shouldn’t Be Mated with Copies

    Have you been wondering if Anderson Power Products® (APP®) connectors should be mated with similar connectors from other manufacturers? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could mate all of the connectors that you have? This would be an ideal situation but there are three main reasons why this can’t be true. Now, before we get started let’s understand the key component… flat-wiping contact. This contact system has been so popular that other manufactures also copied Anderson’s original designs. The flat-wiping contact technology (click here for a flat-wiping technology video) can be found in a lot of the APP connectors like SB® and Powerpole®. Let’s get back to the three reasons now…
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