What are wire terminals? There are various types of wire, or crimp, terminals. They’re typically used to connect a single wire to an electric device, multiple wires to a single device, or to fuse one or more wires together. In the past, this may have been accomplished with electrical tape or soldering, but soldering is not better than crimping in most cases now, thanks to evolving technology.
What Is a Wire Terminal?
When the butt end of a wire is not terminated properly it can still produce a signal, which sometimes results in unwanted distortion that can cause issues with your electrical devices. Wire terminals have one or more slots that you can use to insert the end of an electrical wire. Once inserted and crimped into a terminal, the connected wires become more flexible in the sense that they can be “plugged” or “unplugged” into multiple devices. To crimp a wire terminal, it is recommended that you use a specific crimping tool.
How Do You Crimp a Wire?
Why do you need a crimping tool? While it might seem like you can crimp wires with pliers, the actual physics behind crimped connections is a bit more complex. Crimped connections have the advantage of being gas-tight. And they are highly resistant to vibration and thermal shock, thanks to the elastic tension caused by the permanent force of the crimp over stranded or gathered wires.
With a crimping tool, the metal arms of a wire terminal hug around stranded or gathered wire, forcing the wire to effectively stretch or spread out before becoming re-condensed into a honeycomb-type shape that results in what is called a cold weld. A cold weld is a solid state welding process that resembles soldering, but doesn’t require heat or a molten phase.
Using a crimping tool helps ensure that the wire terminal wraps around the wires to join them and form this connection, by using a curved tooth and rounded edge to encircle the wires instead of merely flattening the arms.
The Difference Between a Wire Terminal and a Butt Connector
What are crimp wire connectors, or butt connectors, and how are they different from wire terminals? Butt connectors, also called butt splice connectors, connect wires together instead of connecting the wires to some type of electrical device. While wire terminals can connect multiple wires to a single device, butt connecters focus on protecting the connection between two or more wires to one another.
How Do You Crimp Insulated Wire in Terminals?
If you don’t have wire strippers or a crimper and are trying to use a butt connector to attach wires to each other, you can use a tap connector instead. Tap connectors are a type of wire terminal that work without the need for stripping a wire first. To use a tap connector, insert an insulated wire and apply force to click it into place. There is a specific type of pliers available to make clicking the connector simpler, but it’s not essential to have because some crimping tools also have this added feature.
Creating proper connections between electrical wires and devices is important to ensuring proper functioning and avoiding cross channeling or signal distortion. Failure to make a proper connection can also result in other damage or injury. Using terminals can also be more efficient and cost effective.
Product Compliance and Suitability
The product statements contained in this guide are intended for general informational purposes only. Such product statements do not constitute a product recommendation or representation as to the appropriateness, accuracy, completeness, correctness or currentness of the information provided. Information provided in this guide does not replace the use by you of any manufacturer instructions, technical product manual, or other professional resource or adviser available to you. Always read, understand and follow all manufacturer instructions.