The microribbon conectors were usually accompanied by large guide pins, even if the surrounding hardware was rail-mounted.
The connector should not be required to provide mounting support for the 'parked' hardware.
You might look at battery pack connectors, but anything small will collect dust. The simplest are spring-mounted pins aimed at flat conductive targets.
Optical or magnetic coupling are probably the most R&D-worthy modes of communication (and power) transfer between tools.
RL
Look at the connectors on the sliding door of a van. They are exposed to the weather and all kinds of abuse and they are probably available quite cheaply as replacement spares.
Ugh! Brain Fart! I've been reading "CNC" but *thinking* "3D printer", hence looking for smaller, "daintier" connectors. I was wondering why "sawdust" was an issue! <:-(
When I was a kid, I would get my "electrical" parts from scrapped "pin setters" (think: bowling). These typically had several 220V fractional HP motors to drive the various mechanisms (bowling pins are surprisingly heavy! moving ten of them at a time isn't something you do casually).
Many of the subassemblies were on sleds (1/4 thick steel plate) that would slide into the "chassis". As these are too heavy to lift and carefully align, they would be coarsely aligned and then "driven home" with a fair bit of blind force, hoping the connectors would mate and not break.
The connectors floated with a pair of tapered steel pins to "home" them relative to each other. The pins were flat copper strips better than .125" wide (there's 14AWG wire carrying a couple of amps attached to each so far from dainty -- but, no need to be as a pinsetter is probably 2 dozen cubic feet in volume!). They could tolerate a great deal of mechanical abuse as, invariably, these "sleds" wouldn't quite line up as they were driven home and the connector bodies had to absorb the abrupt impacts (including being mechanically "over driven")
We used a similar connector in the weight control module on tablet presses. But, I can't seem to find photos of either application by way of illustration.
Way back then, I didn't document things as that required real film and a trip to the drug store (and an expense!).
I'll try some image searches and see if I can find anything similar. But, you likely don't need as much current carrying capacity, I assume...?
You can probably also try searching for "blind mating" connectors. E.g., the battery packs in small (< 1KVA) UPSs are "driven home" with no real chance to ensure the connectors will line-up when they come into contact with each other. The connector *shells* are tapered to self-align.
But, again, you're looking at larger currents though the connectors are pretty small, considering.
[Also a ready source of surplus parts as so many UPSs are just discarded, intact]
Nope, it's just a touch probe. Tensl of milliamps at best, I would assume.
make it wireless and power it mechanically
Better to keep the intelligence in the rack, rather than the tool head itself.
A mechanical profile on the head can press buttons/switches in the rack for identity. Collar ring diameter, width, position, quantity etc.
RL
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required