Han® product family a major growth driver for the Technology Group

The rise of the HARTING Technology Group started with the Han® connector - developed by the company’s founder Wilhelm Harting in the 1950s. The Han® product family has been a major growth driver for the family owned and managed company for decades. The Han-Modular® range is now taking this impressive success story to a new level. The Han® Pneumatic Module Metal connector has been created to suit high mating cycles and meet the increased demands of flexible production processes. The module makes its debut at HANNOVER MESSE (24 to 28 April 2017, Hall 11, Stand C15).

The Han-Modular® series allows customers to assemble connectors in the optimum configuration for supplying machines and facilities. This is enabled by combining individual modules for different transmission media – Data, Signal, Power and compressed air – in standard size industrial connector housings. Han-Modular® makes highly flexible solutions requiring little space and multiple functions easy to achieve. “Han-Modular® is the market standard for modular industrial connectors”, says Andre Beneke, Director Product & Industry Segment Management at HARTING Electric.

Han® industrial connectors have combined housings, contact inserts and contacts for the efficient transmission of electric power since the 1950s. A small number of basic components can be put together to create a powerful solution to meet specific requirements.

When hybrid interfaces appeared on the scene in the 1990s, HARTING took things a step further: the need to bundle various transmission options for different media − electric power, signals, gases, fluids - in a single connecting element led to the idea of a range of modular connectors. The result - Han-Modular® - offers lots of different modules that can be configured into interfaces tailored to specific tasks. Retaining frames and adapters developed by HARTING mean they can also be adapted to various types of housing.

The reason behind the industry demand for hybrid connectors is the increasingly modular nature of industrial production. Controlling automated manufacturing lines requires the intensive exchange of data and signals. Han-Modular® connectors can not only transmit the necessary electric power, but optical and electric signals and compressed air as well.

Modular manufacturing requires compressed air

HARTING has developed a new Pneumatic Module to meet the increased demand for interfaces in the flexible production process – Han® Pneumatic Module Metal. The benefit to customers: it uses robust and durable metal contacts and can cope with at least 10,000 mating cycles. The new module offers users the advantage of using compressed air, even in production equipment that has to be converted frequently – e.g. in assembly plants, processing cells or production modules for loading and unloading machines.

The new interface is distinguished by push-in fittings that operate on the push-pull principle and its ability to be used use at high operating pressures of up to 10 bar (previously 8 bar). This translates into a significant increase in the types pneumatic hoses that can be used while also extending the possible applications for the entire low pressure area.

“This innovation attests to the capabilities of the Han-Modular® connector range of over 100 individual modules, which is continuously adapted to industrial requirements”, as Andre Beneke states.