In material bonding, overmolding connector increases the bonding strength at the interface up to 25MPa (whereas traditional adhesive is only 8MPa) by secondary injection molding (such as TPU coated nylon substrate). A test for an automobile wiring harness factory reveals that the normal connector loosens and fails within 240 hours after vibration testing (frequency: 10-2000Hz, acceleration: 50g), while overmolding connector’s displacement deviation is less than 0.05mm within 2000 hours, and the life will be 8 times longer. With this technology being used in the 2023 Tesla Model Y, the incidence of harness failure was reduced from 0.8% to 0.02%, which resulted in a maintenance cost savings of $12 million per model year.
For impact resistance, the elastomer overmolding connector coating (Shore hardness 60D) absorbs 90% of the impact energy. A consumer electronics brand test has shown that the standard Type-C connector has a failure rate of up to 23% in a 1.5-meter drop test, while the overmolding connector has a failure rate of only 1.5% (TPU cladding thickness of 1.5mm). Its stress dispersion construction doubles the insertion and withdrawal force endurance value from 50N to 120N (IEC 60512 standard), doubles the insertion and withdrawal life from 5,000 to 20,000 cycles, and reduces customer returns by 85%.
Environmental tightness dimension, the overmolding connector offers IP68 protection in a single molding (water depth 1.5 m /30 min). Data from an industrial sensor manufacturer reveals that under a dust concentration > 10mg/m³ condition, the typical connector failure life is 6 months, while the overmolding connector maintains a contact resistance < 10mΩ (ISO 16750 standard) even after 36 months. Salt spray test (5% NaCl, 720 hours) revealed that the metal contact corrosion area was compressed from 3.2% to 0.05%, much lower than IPX7’s upper limit of 0.5%.
Temperature resistance optimization, the silica-PBT composite structure of overmolding connector shows a plug-out force fluctuation of ≤±5% (conventional structure ±20%) between -40℃ and 125℃. The case of a new energy charging pile illustrates that the problem of the contact impedance rising from 15mΩ to 35mΩ under a high temperature (85℃) environment is completely avoided, the capacity of overcurrent is still at 50A±0.5A (UL 2251 standard), and the frequencies of annual fault maintenance reduce from 120 times to 3 times.
From production efficiency and cost considerations, integrated injection overmolding of overmolding connector spares the assembly process 7 to 1 and the production cycle 45 seconds/piece to 12 seconds. The annual output capacity of a connector manufacturer increased to 50 million pieces (originally 18 million pieces), the cost of labor was reduced by 72% (from ￥0.8/ piece to ￥0.22/ piece), and the yield was enhanced from 88% to 99.5%. Its mold lifespan is up to 1 million times (ordinary mold 300,000 times), and one piece’s cost is reduced by ¥0.15.
Typical examples are medical device applications: After an MRI device manufacturer adopted overmolding connector, signal interference rate reduction from 0.5% to 0.01% in a harsh magnetic field (7 Tesla) environment, and the device MTBF (mean time to failure) rises from 8,000 hours to 50,000 hours. A second one is submarine cable connector, whose polyethylene-aramong fiber composite cladding structure enhances the tensile strength of 800MPa (original structure 450MPa), and the service life is extended from 15 years to 25 years.
These numbers confirm that overmolding connector is revolutionizing the connector’s reliability benchmark in mechanical, chemical, and harsh environments with technologies such as interface strengthening (25MPa binding force), environmental protection (IP68), and productivity enhancement (3.75x).
