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Online Value-Added Services
By Alice Tanghe, ConnectorSupplier.com
Value-added services run
the gamut, from modifying a simple component to providing the OEM with a
complete supply chain management system. The web is—once again—creating
more opportunities for companies to make the engineer’s and buyer’s
daily tasks easier and more organized. Here are a few online helpers for
you to review.
Tyco’s “My Part Lists” is a new tool to help you keep track
of products of interest while searching the Tyco Electronics eCatalog.
You can personalize your list by naming it, adding notes that you can
refer to at a later time, and even getting pricing and availability. If
you are registered, you can create multiple lists, organizing the lists
by project, product type—any way that makes sense for your application.
To get started, just
click
on
the Add to Part List
link,
whether you are on a search results page, in Product Feature Selector,
or on the Product Details screen. You will see your current list appear
in the lower right of the screen.
You can manage your lists by clicking on the
Manage List link in your
current list, or by clicking on the
My Part Lists link at
the top right of the screen. From the Manage My Part Lists screen, you
can easily create new lists, rename your lists, add product notes,
compare products, and get pricing and availability information.
Tyco Upload Pricing
Spreadsheet
Tyco Electronics
also offers a new tool which allows you to submit a spreadsheet of up to
2,500 part numbers, and receive a spreadsheet of pricing and
availability information for those requests in return. The Check
Pricing & Availability screen allows you to submit 20 part number
look-ups at a time. Save time by uploading the pricing spreadsheet when
you have many products to research. You can also use this new tool as an
efficient way to cross-reference various part numbers to TE part
numbers. In addition to being able to submit TE part numbers, you can
submit customer and even competitor part numbers.
This tool is currently available for the United
States location. To get started, select your United States account
number on the Check Pricing & Availability screen, and click on the
Submit a spreadsheet of 20+
part numbers link.
On the Upload Pricing Spreadsheet screen, click
on the Spreadsheet Template
link to download a template to your PC. This is the format to use for
submitting your requests. Click on the
Help link for information on filling out the
template. Create a pricing request spreadsheet on your PC with any name
you would like. Then click on the Browse button to select the
spreadsheet for upload. Notice that an input field appears. Naming your
request is optional, but it can help you to identify it later if you
submit more than one request. Click on the Upload button.
Your spreadsheet will be validated. Please be patient if your
spreadsheet contains a large number of requests. If your request
produces warnings or errors, they will be presented to you for your
review. If multiple part number matches are found for any of your
requests, you will have an opportunity to select the parts for which you
would like pricing. Click on the Submit Pricing Spreadsheet button to
continue. You will see a screen confirming that your request is in
progress. If there are no warnings or errors or multiple matching part
numbers upon validation, you will go directly to the confirmation
screen. You will receive an email notification when your results are
ready. You can click on the links in the email to download your results.
Avnet Electronics Marketing Part Search
Using Avnet Electronics Marketing’s new part search capability for
electronics components, website users can search Avnet’s available 2.6
million parts for whatever they need. Within a given component search,
results display the technical part attributes and alternate
products available. Searches can further be narrowed to:
“Our website helps
engineers and purchasers pick the optimal parts by guiding them through
the part selection process, and helping them make well-informed
component selection choices,” said Beth Ely, senior vice president and
director of new channel development for Avnet Electronics Marketing
Americas. “As a global, broadline distributor, we have the visibility on
what parts the electronics industry is using in high volume—and our
customers have been asking us to add that business intelligence to our
ecommerce site. No one wants to design-in a part only to find it can’t
be purchased on a large scale, once that design is ready for
production.”
Search results also bring back a host of related content, including part
data, events and seminars, product news, special offers on that part,
and content from Avnet’s Design Resource Center—all with information
related to that search. Users can also do side-by-side part comparisons
on results from a given search. The search tool is free and available at
http://em.avnet.com/.
Additional distribution sites for selecting connectors include:
TTI Inc.,
Heilind,
Digi-Key Inc.,
Power & Signal Group ,
RS Electronics,
Avnet Time,
TLC
Electronics, and Powell Electronics.
More information on these sites will be available in future issues of
ConnectorSupplier.com Extra.
FCI’s MezzSelect Product Selector Simplifies Selection
FCI has
introduced the MezzSelect™
product portfolio to help designers of printed
circuit board assemblies complete mezzanine designs faster, easier, and
with less risk. This product portfolio consists of a number of mezzanine
connectors addressing a wide range of markets, including high-speed data
networking, industrial, instrumentation, telecommunications, and medical
electronics applications.
“FCI
has become the partner of choice for mezzanine products,” said
Rob Poort, global product portfolio director, board-to-board products,
FCI. “The MezzSelect product selector reduces the complexity that
mezzanine interconnect designs bring, and also reduces lead time, with
instant access to technical information on each connector.”
FCI’s product selector allows designers to choose a product based on a
number of different factors, including contact pitch, module size,
operating transmission speed, density, termination style, and stack
height. Finding the right product for a specific application is easy
with the use of a web-based product selector and design tools, such as
drawings, models, SPICE files, and datasheets. With this portfolio,
designers are able to optimize the cost and performance of the
connectors that they choose for their designs, and maximize the space on
printed circuit boards.
The MezzSelect program also includes a product selector, which can be
accessed via FCI’s website, and is available in printed copies as well.
Based on mechanical and electrical selection criteria, the MezzSelect
product selector allows for quick and easy selection of the product that
best suits the application.
Today, eight of FCI’s product families are part of the MezzSelect
product portfolio. The portfolio includes MEGArray®, GIGArray®, Bergstak®,
Conan®, Ribcage™, Minitek™, Bergstik®, and Dubox™. With a number of
developments currently ongoing, the MezzSelect product portfolio will
be expanded with high-speed, high-density, and small-contact pitch
mezzanine connectors.
 Huber+Suhner
RF Cable Assembly Configurator
Build your own RF cable assembly using
Huber+Suhner’s WEB PCF online configurator. This value-added service
offers an intelligent, fast, and easy way to
design, specify, and request a coaxial RF cable assembly online.
Flexible RF cables, hand-formable microwave cables (Sucoform),
flexible microwave cables (Sucoflex), corrugated RF cables (Lisca),
semi-rigid microwave cables, and flexible test cables (Sucotest) are
some of the options available.
WEB PCF provides the following benefits: It allows the engineer to
create, save, and print a HUBER+SUHNER datasheet based on the user’s
input. It sends a request for quote and delivery information online. The
user receives a confirmation e-mail after the request, in addition to a
datasheet per configuration.
Newark Connector Selector Guide
OK, here’s
the culprit that got me started on this article:
Newark’s interactive connector
selector guide. This selector helps engineers locate the right
connector, even though they may have a limited amount of product
information. This interactive tool enables the engineer to source the
right connector by comparing images, or by selecting a specific
application or type.
Newark stocks more than 163,000 different connectors from 96 brands,
including: Tyco Electronics, Molex, 3M, Amphenol, Wago, Wieland,
Weidmuller, FCI, Harting, and Harwin.
Newark developed this tool in response to their customers' need to find
the right connector without exact specifications.
"With tens of thousands of connectors available, it can be frustrating
to find the right connector if you don't have a manufacturer's part
number," says Barry Litwin, senior V.P. marketing, Newark. "Design
engineers can now narrow their search by application or type, while
maintenance customers can visually compare the connector they need to
replace with an image."
Other tools include a custom power supply configurator and a shrink
tubing selector.
Hopefully, this information will help you get the connectors you need,
when you need them.
Let me know what other sites you’re using and/or give the sites in this
issue a test drive, then send me your thoughts and I’ll send you a
ConnectorSupplier.com T-shirt. Email
atanghe@connectorsupplier.com.
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