Before & After III – Plug & Socket Assemblies

Here are the 3 Phase Plugs for the control cabinets being made.  To begin with, you’ll see the connection points waiting for screws to be loosened and for crimped cable-ends to be inserted and secured.

You’ll notice 3 brown cables, 1 blue cable, and 1 yellow & green cable connected to each plug.

• L1, L2, and L3 marked brown cables are Live.
• N marked blue cables are Neutral.
• Green & Yellow cables are Earth.

A 3-phase plug delivers three-phase alternating current to high-power machinery, industrial equipment, or heavy-duty commercial appliances.

Unlike standard 3-pin single-phase plugs, these connectors feature 4 or 5 pins to manage three separate live (active) phases, ensuring balanced, consistent power, typically at 400V-415V in the UK.

You can also see one of many completed plugs on the Workshop shelf here as an example of an assembled 3 Phase Plug.

Next, these plug sockets were wired & connected to the panel. Below you can see the inside view of the panel as well as a glimpse of the fittings on the outer-side of one of the cabinets too.

Whilst each of our 10 control cabinets on this production run require a 3 phase plug & socket each, they actually each need several other different types of connectors as well.

Here I am crimping very small female sockets onto wires. Given the core of these wires are copper, I’m using a dark background with a blue folder to better see the contrast of colours whilst slotting the stripped wire ends into the very small female socket casings before securing with a dedicated crimping tool.

You may be able to spot the Dobot serving as a temporary cable stand in the background?

Each of these tiny female sockets has an inspection hole. Stripped cable core, in this case copper, must be seen through the inspection hole before crimping.

Those sockets will eventually be housed in this 3 x 25-Pin Rectangular Connector.

For insight into how many connector ports there are on this cabinet build, jump onto our Cabinet Assemblies Post.