Components and terminology of connectors

This article mainly introduces the basic composition and related terminology of Connectors, including: housing, head, contacts - terminals and pins, metal used for connectors, male and female, plating, keys and positioning, circuit identification, wire gauge (wire number)
Housing
The connector seat has the following functions: supporting the contact parts (pins, springs, etc.) to ensure that they are firmly and correctly seated; Dust, dirt, and moisture prevention, protecting contact parts and conductors; The connectors depicted on the diagram that insulate circuits from each other are in line connectors. The characteristic of a straight in connector is that the wire enters from half of the connector and exits from the other half. These two parts of the connector are called the plug (male) and the socket (female).
Base (header)
The connector installed on a printed circuit board is called a base, also known as a base or wafer. Molex Company adopts the name seat. The main difference between the base and the seat is that the base is always installed together with the circuit pins, while the seat is only an empty shell. There are two types of bases: covered and uncovered. Shield refers to the protective cover made of a seat or skirt around the mating part of the connector's pins and sockets. The base also has a friction lock style, which is a partially covered base with a locking device, making the connection between the base and the seat more reliable.
Plastic used for the seat
The plastic used in the seat is thermoplastic, which can be melted and solidified multiple times. Collect the remaining plastic from the molding process and crush it for reuse. Using specialized plastics for high-temperature environments, this type of plastic has excellent high-temperature resistance characteristics. This plastic is required for connectors used for surface mount method of termination (SMT) installation. There is also a type of surface mount compatible (SMC) connector. The difference between the two is that SMC inserts the pin into the through-hole and then welds it onto the PCB board; SMT uses solder pins to stick onto the surface of the PCB board. Due to the need for welding, plastic must be able to withstand high temperatures. That is to say, the connector base used for surface installation must be able to withstand high temperatures.
Contacts
The contact part in the connector combines the two conductors (or wires) to be connected together. After combining, the circuit is connected and the current flows through the connector. There are two main types of contact parts: terminal and pin. The specific shape of the physical object varies greatly.
The terminal (or pin) has two ends: the front end and the rear end. The front end always joins the end, forming contact with the other end. The back end always serves as a termination, or crimping or connecting wires (conductors).
Plating
Electroplating the contact part of the connector is to improve conductivity, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and weldability. Metals with good mechanical properties (such as formability and elasticity) often lack excellent conductivity, corrosion and wear resistance, as well as weldability.
Coating metal properties
Tin and tin lead alloy: It is the standard coating layer for most connector products to improve corrosion resistance and solderability, used for lower grade products.
Gold: Used for high-end products with excellent corrosion resistance and expensive price (selectively electroplated on key parts of the contact area).
Palladium nickel (surface coated with a thin layer of gold): It is cheaper than gold and has excellent corrosion resistance. Thin gold plating improves wear resistance and is more difficult to electroplating than gold.
Nickel: Used as a barrier layer for electroplating.
Circuit identification
Because connectors always have many circuit pins, there must be a way for users to correctly recognize the pin numbers of the circuit.
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