22 May
2009
22 May
'09
10:13 p.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
In the early 60's a machine control my employer used on a can-end making
stamping presses (think pull-top beer cans) was built using IBM "wire"
relays. The IBM sourced chassis had an array of sockets for the relays
with a wirewrap (?) backplane. The chassis was connected to the machine
with a large multi-blade connector very similar to the Jones connectors
that have been talked about, although smaller in size, they were larger
in contact count. The connector was always described as the "North
plug". Our BOM system says it was sourced from North Electrical.
The "wire" relays were quite simple. They consisted of multiple Form C
contacts. The moving contact was a wire tack welded to the armature. By
my time they had pretty much been replaced by a CD4000 based digital
logic system. Stories were told about the tack weld fatiguing and the
wire contact shorting things in arbitrary ways. Not a desirable feature
for a stamping press control.
I have been curious about the relays since I found a cannibalized
chassis about 10 years ago, which I still have. I thought that the
technology might have been used on tabulating machines, but I never did
any research. I can take pictures of it to jog memories.
Anybody (Mr. Donzelli) recall IBM equipment like this?
-chuck
There are two
series of "Jones connectors", a large pin series and a small-pin
series. One may also hear them referred to as Cinch connectors or Cinch-Jones
connectors. The large-pin is the 2400 series and the small-pin the 300 series.
There is a third series, with very large (about 3/8 inch wide) pins.
--
Will