Insulation displacement technology as technically equivalent and more cost-effective alternative compared to crimping technology

Apart crimping technology, in recent years the insulation displacement technology (IDT) becomes more and more established as connection technique between connector and cable. In the appliance industry as well as entertainment electronics, insulation displacement connections became state of the art technology not only in Europe. Also in the USA such tendencies are noticed. In the automotive engineering IDT still plays the role of an outsider and is predominantly used in the area of signal wiring. Currents above 10 A are nearly exclusively reserved for crimping connectors. This article shows that IDT is also a good alternative for currents higher than 10 A. After a short historical overview about the development of IDT and an explanation of their most important parameters (like design and calculation methods, standards, wire-definition), for a 25 A contact system IDT and crimping connections by means of FEM simulations and laboratory tests are compared and advantages and disadvantages of both solutions are discussed. Among others it is shown that with a comparable electrical and thermal efficiency the