The text of our brand new way to report on products. Introducing the Automation Gear Blog. Add this to your RSS feed or your favorites. Kicking off the blog is a new product line from Opto 22.
For anyone who has had to wire control
panels, you know that it can be tedious, time-consuming and open to
error. Companies have been developing wiring aids for some time. Opto
22 has entered the fray and developed and introduced a family of
mounting and wiring accessory for its control and input/output systems.
Snap Tex includes a wide variety of terminal extender cables, breakout
boards, wiring harnesses, DIN-rail kits, jumper straps, rack adapters,
and other mounting and wiring components.
The first products in the new line are Snap Tex cables, six feet
(1.8 m) long jacketed, pre-wired cables that provide neat, bundled
connections from analog and digital I/O modules to field devices,
terminal strips, and breakout boards. Snap Tex cables snap neatly into
the tops of Snap I/O modules and terminate with color-coded flying
leads, pre-stripped and tipped, ready for wiring.
Three versions of Snap Tex cables are available, varying based on
the internal bus connections required by the application. Customers
have a choice of cables with even-numbered terminals commoned
(Snap-Tex-CBE6), odd-numbered terminals commoned (SNAP-TEX-CBO6), or
with wiring straight through (Snap-Tex-CBS6).
Next in the Snap Tex product family are several new breakout boards.
The Snap-Tex-32 is a simple 32-channel breakout board with
straight-through connections, designed primarily for use with the
aforementioned Snap Tex cables and Snap analog or digital I/O modules.
The Snap-Tex-FB16-H and Snap-Tex-FB16-L breakout boards offer
16-channel terminations and provide a fuse and a fuse-blown indicator
for each channel. With the use of an external power supply, these
breakout boards also bus power to loads. The Snap-Tex-F16-H facilitates
120-240 volts, and the Snap-Tex-F16-L works with 12-24 volts. These
breakout boards are used for digital inputs and outputs.
The Snap-Tex-MR10-16 and Snap-Tex-MR10-4 breakout boards are
designed for high-current output switching. These boards feature
mechanical relays that switch up to 10 amps per channel, expanding the
switching ability of standard Snap I/O modules by 13 times. These
boards include on/off indicators for each channel, and each can be
wired as normally closed or normally open.
Rounding out the new Snap Tex line is an assortment of wiring
harnesses (used for connecting field devices to high-density Snap I/O
modules), jumper connection straps (used with digital I/O modules),
DIN-rail mounting kits, module removal tools, and other accessories.
Moving these previously available accessories under the Snap Tex line
will help customers find the right parts for all of their wiring and
installation needs.
"Our new Snap Tex product line serves as yet another example of our
product research and development division responding to the stated
needs of our customers," says Mark Engman, Opto 22 President and CEO. "Many of our customers have expressed a desire for quicker, easier ways
to mount and wire their I/O. Ultimately, Snap Tex, like all of our
other product lines, is meant to provide the components, tools, and
methods customers need to get their projects done faster, simpler, and
in the manner theyâo[dot accent]re most comfortable with."
