Phoenix Contact Celebrates 50th Anniversary

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Phoenix Contact’s COMBICON product portfolio is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Since 1972, COMBICON PCB terminal blocks and PCB connectors have been providing the ideal connection technology for transmitting signals, data, or power in a wide range of applications, exemplifying “The Spirit of Connecting.”

“Back in 1972, it became apparent that developments in the control cabinet, in machine building, or in electricity were increasingly shifting toward industrial electronics. With the KDS terminal block for printed circuits, we developed the original terminal block that marked our entry into the world of electronics,” recalls Klaus Eisert, Phoenix Contact shareholder and the creative mind behind the first PCB terminal block. “And so began the era of the industrial PCB terminal block for Phoenix Contact. From the outset, the green terminal blocks radiated quality and continue to do so to this day.”

In the decades that followed, the product portfolio evolved into an ever-growing and varied product portfolio that now boasts around 100 different product families. All around the world, these products are used in inverters, complex controllers, or modern smart home applications. Since 1972, Phoenix Contact has produced several billion COMBICON PCB terminal blocks and PCB connectors.

“We have always been passionate about making the best technology even better. Through our continuous development efforts, we have succeeded time and again over the decades in setting new standards in the field of PCB connection technology on a global scale with COMBICON. Thus, year after year, new innovations are created that make the PCB connection more compact, more powerful, or easier to use,” explains Volker Koppert, Head of the Business Unit PCB Connectors in the Business Area Device Connectors.

The innovations that originated in Blomberg and have become generally accepted internationally include the first PCB terminal block with Push-in spring connection, the invention of single-row connectors with variable numbers of positions and with screw connection for individual field wiring, and the first lever-type terminal block with additional Push-in function. Through the company’s continuous development efforts, Phoenix Contact has succeeded time and again in setting new standards in the field of PCB connection technology on a global scale with COMBICON.

Phoenix Contact is able to keep challenging the technology that is used and to constantly strive for solutions that keep pace with developments. In order to provide an almost unlimited variety of PCB terminal blocks that are easy to manage and available quickly, Phoenix Contact implemented its first end-to-end digital process chain from the configurator through to production.

“We are naturally very proud of the 50-year success story of our COMBICON product portfolio,” states Torsten Janwlecke, COO of Phoenix Contact and President of the Business Area Device Connectors. “The COMBICON connectors and PCB terminal blocks represent our largest portfolio of device and PCB connection technology worldwide, enabling us, as the market leader, to constantly set new global trends and standards. As reflected in our anniversary slogan, ‘The Spirit of Connecting,’ we are always looking to the future. And of course, COMBICON as a ‘connector’ naturally plays an important role in this.”