IEC 60352-2 ED3

Solderless connections - Part 2: Crimped connections - General requirements, test methods and practical guidance IEC 60352-2 ED3

Scope

IEC 60352-2:2024 is applicable to solderless crimped connections made with:
- appropriately designed uninsulated or pre-insulated crimp barrels as parts of crimp contacts, terminal ends or splices, and
- stranded wires of 0,05 mm2 to 10 mm2 cross-section or
- solid wires of 0,25 mm to 3,6 mm diameter;
for use in electrical and electronic equipment.
Information on the materials and data from industrial experience is included in addition to the test procedures to provide electrically stable connections under prescribed environmental conditions.
This part of IEC 60352 is not applicable to crimping of coaxial cables.
This part of IEC 60352 determines the suitability of solderless crimped connections as described above, under specified mechanical, electrical and atmospheric conditions and provides a means of comparing test results when the tools used to make the connections are of different designs or manufacture.

This document includes requirements and relevant tests as well as practical guidance in Annex A for crimped connections.
Two test schedules are provided:
– the basic test schedule which applies to solderless crimped connections which conform to all of the prerequisites of Clause 5. It is derived from experience with successful applications of such connections;
– the full test schedule which applies to solderless crimped connections which do not fully conform to all prerequisites of Clause 5, for example which are made with solid wires, using materials or finishes not included in Clause 4.
This philosophy permits cost- and time-effective performance verification using a limited basic test schedule for established crimped connections and an expanded full test schedule for connections requiring more extensive performance validation.
A detail product specification or the manufacturer's specification for crimped connections or associated cable assemblies or both, as well as for crimp contacts, terminal ends or splices, can include additional tests to verify enhanced performance or conformance with specified product classes or both. It can also reference this document with test severities and acceptance criteria other than those provided by either one of the two test schedules, as well as foresee an intermediate test schedule. The requirements of the detail product specification or the manufacturer's specification prevail.
The suitability of the crimped connection implies that the specified requirements and tests apply to all factors involved in producing a suitable crimped connection, namely:
– the crimp barrel, which can be part of a splice, a terminal end or a crimp contact, the contact deemed to be used in a single-pole or multipole connector;
– the wire (or range of wires) for which the termination is suitable;
– the tools required to produce that type of solderless connection.
The practical guidance in Annex A serves as a guideline for the required workmanship. Attention is drawn to the fact that some industries (e.g. automotive, aerospace, nuclear, military) can have specific workmanship standards or quality requirements, or both, which are outside the scope of this document.
IEC Guide 109 advocates the need to minimize the impact of a product on the natural environ¬ment throughout the product life cycle.
It is understood that some of the materials permitted in this document can have a negative environmental impact.
As technological advances lead to acceptable alternatives for these materials, they will be eliminated from future editions of this document.

This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition published in 2006 and Amendment 1:2013. This edition constitutes a technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous edition:
a) the former Clauses 6 through 15 have been moved into a new informative Annex A titled "Practical guidance";
b) several definitions have been added (conductor, wire, cable, crimping, crimped connection, crimp contact, terminal, terminal end, pre-insulated terminal end, termination, connecting device, splice, insulation support, insulation grip, pre-insulated crimped connection, crimping tool, locator, positioner, full cycle crimp mechanism, crimp anvil, crimp nest, crimp indenter, crimp height, crimp inspection hole, crimp barrel wire range, nominal cross-sectional area, geometric (actual) cross-sectional area, stranded conductor, crimp funnel, crimp depth, manufacturer, user, process indicator (PID));
c) a three-level classification by end-product class has been introduced in Clause 4 Workmanship, based on the expected level of reliability of the end-use application for which the crimped connections under subject are suitable, similar to what was done in 4.3 of IEC 61191-1:2018 for soldered electrical and electronic assemblies;
d) for better clarification, former subclause 4.5 Crimped connections, now renumbered and renamed 5.5 Prerequisites for crimped connections, has been split in several third level subclauses with assigned title;
e) allowable strand damage has been introduced with reference to the classification in three levels by end-use application, for the production of test specimens;
f) based on industry experience, in 5.3.1 the minimum copper content of a copper alloy suitable for making crimp barrels has been lowered to 57 % from original 60 %;
g) the elongation at break of annealed copper suitable for conductors to be crimped has been increased to 15 % from original 10 %;
h) the cross-sectional area of conductors for testing purposes is allowed to be the nominal (commercial) one, instead of the geometric (actual) one for wires with nominal cross-sectional area larger than 2,5 mm2 (see 5.4.3), the geometric (actual) one being the reference in case of dispute on test results;
i) consideration about wire insulation concentricity has been added in 5.4.5;
j) former subclause 5.2.1 General examination is now renumbered and renamed as 7.1 General examination of crimp barrels and wires (examination of parts as called later) and a new subclause 7.2 Examination of crimp dimensions has been added, to cover examination of dimensions after crimping, with several new third-level subclauses: 7.2.1 Crimp height Ch, crimp width Cw and measurable crimp width Cwm, 7.2.2 Contact deformation after crimping, 7.2.3 Visual examination of insulation distance and conductor overhang, 7.2.4 Visual examination of splice crimped connections, 7.2.5 Visual examination of crimped connections on closed (machined) crimp barrels, 7.2.6 Visual examination of crimped connections on B-crimp open crimp barrels, 7.2.7 Visual examination of crimped connections with open crimp barrel with insulation grip;
k) the pull-out force (tensile strength) requirements covering safety requirements of crimped connections in IEC 60352-2:2006, Table 1 have been kept, here renumbered Table 5; interpolated values for most used cross-sectional areas 0,34 mm2 and 0,37 mm2 have been added. Reference to IEC 61210 as source for these safety values has been removed, as partially inaccurate. Optional specification of higher pull-out force requirements, based on classification by end-use product as specified in 5.1, and more representative of what can be achieved based on the type of crimp barrel, the form of the crimping, the material and plating of barrel and wire, has been introduced in A.7.3;
l) a microsection test (optional) has been added in 7.3.2;
m) a vibration test (optional) has been added in 7.3.7;
n) a current-carrying capacity test (optional) has been added in 7.4.3;
o) an alternative current loading, cyclic test method has been added in 7.5.5;
p) a flowing mixed gas corrosion test (optional) has been added in 7.6.2;
q) crimping at low temperature (former subclause 5.4.2.5) has been completed in 7.5.6 by re-entering the test method already present in IEC 60352-2:1990, 11.4.5;
r) types of test specimens have been expanded: a new type A specimen is added, type B is former type A, type C is former type B, type D is former type C, type E is former type D modified with addition of reference wires, type F is former type E, and new specimen types G and H were added to perform tests on splices;
s) normative references, as well as Bibliography, have been updated and expanded as required;