Industrial Ethernet Cable And Industrial Ethernet Connector

What Is Industrial Ethernet Cable

Industrial Ethernet cable is a cable that connects two devices in industrial ethernet. This cable usually has an RJ45 connector at one end and an M12 connector at the other end, or M12 connectors at both ends.
Industrial Ethernet cables generally use 4-pole or 8-pole ethernet cables, but because industrial Ethernet has extremely high requirements for data accuracy, the ethernet cable should have very good shielding performance. The cable jacket uses PVC or PUR. If the industrial ethernet cable needs to connect a robot or should be fixed in towline, then will need moving cable, which is also called towline cable, robot cable.

Difference Between Industrial Ethernet Cable And Industrial Ethernet connector

Industrial ethernet connector could be M12 field wireable connector without cables for industrial ethernet , and also can be prewired M12 connector .
Industrial ethernet cable could be prewired M12 connectors for industrial ethernet , and also can be cables without connector, while users ask for industrial ethernet cable , usually with connectors .

Popular Industrial Ethernet Cables

There are different protocol standards for industrial Ethernet. Different protocols use cables with different interfaces. The popular protocols are Ethernet CAT6a protocol , EtherNet IPprotocol , PROFINET protocol , EtherCAT protocol , sercos III protocol , and VARAN protocol .

Ethernet CAT6a Cables – Industrial Ethernet Connector

Ethernet CAT6a industrial ethernet cable adopt 8 pin M12 X coded , it support data transmission speed at 10G bps , which had been widely used in automation field. The industrial ethernet connector with the cable is normally male , and the female M12 X coded bulkhead connector installed on industrial ethernet equipments, such as industrial ethernet switch and industrial cameras.

The 8 pin M12 X coded industrial ethernet connector have overmoulded , field wireable , bulkhead type( have solder type , straight PCB type , right angle PCB type ) . The overmoulded M12 X coded connector have straight or right angle type, while using the right angle M12 X coded connector , the users should pay attention to the pin direction , or the cable will not be in the right direction.

The field wireable M12 X coded industrial ethernet connector is crimp type, have very good corrosion resistance, temperature resistance, anti-interference, anti-vibration performance. The connector can be male or female , straight or right angle type.

The M12 X coded bulkhead industrial ethernet connector can be solder type , PCB type , SMD type , the PCB industrial ethernet connector can be straight or right angle . The solder M12 X coded connector could be prewired with shielding metal tube.

The above picture shows how the M12 X connector and RJ45 connector wired with ethernet cable , it’s default Ethernet CAT6a wire definition.

Ethernet PROFINET EtherCAT Sercos III Industrial Ethernet Cable – 4 Pin M12 D coded

Ethernet , PROFINET , EtherCAT , Sercos III protocols adopt 4 pin M12 D coded connector as industrial ethernet connector . The data transmission speed could reach 100M bps , could be used for process control, motion control and other automation systems.

There are various M12 D coded industrial ethernet connectors:

• Metal shell straight or right angle 4 pin M12 D coded field wireable connector , screw termination , male and female
• Plastic shell straight or right angle 4 pin M12 D coded field wireable connector , screw termination , male and female
• Overmoulded straight or right angle 4 pin M12 D coded connector , one end with M12 connector , the other side open or with M12 connector , or with RJ45 connector , the cable length could be customized , cable jacket have PUR and PVC for option. The overmoulded M12 D coded connector is shielded.
• 4 Pin M12 D coded M12 bulkhead connector , front mount or back mount , solder type , PCB type and SMD type , the PCB type have straight and right angle for option.The panel mount M12 D coded connector could be prewired with ethernet cable.

Above picture shows how to wire 4 pin M12 D coded connector to RJ45 to make it work accord to Ethernet , Sercos III , PROFINET and EtherCAT protocols.

Ethernet EtherNET/IP VARAN Industrial Ethernet Cable – 8 Pin M12 A Coded Connector

Ethernet EthernetNET/IP VARAN protocols industrial ethernet cables adopt 8 pin M12 A coded connector for industrial ethernet . Although the Ethernet , EtherNET/IP , VARAN all use 8 pin M12 A coded connector as industrial ethernet cable , but the wiring diagram for these 3 protocols are different.

• 8 pin M12 A coded industrial ethernet connectors have various types as following :
• Overmoulded M12 8 pin A coded connector with full shielding performance, have male or female , straight or right angle plug . The cable length could be customized , PVC or PUR cable jacket , moving cable is also available.
• Plastic 8 pin M12 A coded field wireable connector , male or female , screw termination or solder termination , straight or right angle .
• Metal M12 A coded field wireable connector , male or female , straight or right angle , screw termination or crimp termination
• 8 pin M12 A coded bulkhead connector , front or back mount , male or female , solder type without wires or prewired with customized wire length , PCB type ( straight or right angle ) , SMD type.

As we can see from the above wiring diagram, the industrial ethernet cable for Ethernet couldn’t be used for Ethernet/IP or VARAN , each of the above three protocols has its own wiring definition.

Ethernet Industrial Ethernet Cable – 8 Pin M12 Y Coded Connector

Althought M12 Y coed connector for Ethernet is 8 pins , 4 of the pins are for power connection to the equipment, and the other 4 pins are for data transmission. So M12 Y coded connector is kind of M12 hybrid connector . As industrial automation is becoming more and more compact, the Y coded M12 hybrid connector combines the power and data transmission in one connector , it will save some space.

8 Pin M12 Y coded industrial ethernet connector have following types for option :

• Overmoulded male , female , straight , right angle , M12 Y coded connector with customized cable length , PVC or PUR cable jacket
• Metal Field wireable M12 Y coded connector crimp type , straight , right angle , male and female
• M12 Y coded bulkhead connector , front mount , back mount , PCB mount , SMD type , M12 Y coded PCB connector have straight or right angle for option

Features Of The Industrial Ethernet Cable

Shielding Of Industrial Ethernet Cable

Shielded cables are cables that use a metallic mesh braid to wrap the signal wires to prevent electromagnetic interference in the environment from having a detrimental effect on data transmission.

The accuracy and real-time performance of data transmission in industrial Ethernet are very important to production safety, so industrial Ethernet cables basically require shielding performance, and different applications have different levels of shielding requirements. Let’s talk about the shielding levels of industrial Ethernet cables .

The coding for the shielding industrial ethernet cable have 2 parts , the part before “/” for the shielding for the outer of the 4 pairs , the part after the “/” is for the shielding of each twisted pair.

• Letter S stands for braid shiedling layer
• Letter S stands for Foil shielding
• Letter U stands for unshielded
• TP stands for twisted pair

• UTP – Unshielded Twisted Pair : Two insulated copper wires are twisted together at a certain density, and the radio waves radiated from each wire during transmission will be canceled by the radio waves emitted by the other wire, effectively reducing the degree of signal interference.
• STP – Shielded Twisted Pair – Wrap each twisted pair with a braid shielding layer , enable the cable to have very good mechanical strength.
• FTP – Foiled Twisted Pair – Wrap each twisted pair with a foil layer , good shielding performance, but average mechanical strength
• F/UTP Outer foil shield/unshielded twisted pair – wrap the 4 pair (if 4 pole will be 2 pair) wires by foil
• S/UTP Outer braided shield/unshielded twisted pair : wrap the 4 pair (if 4 pole will be 2 pair) wires by braided shielding layer
• S/FTP Outer braided shield/foiled twisted pair : while each twisted pair wraped with a foil layer , then wrap the 4 pair by braided shielding layer , some may not have the cross divider
• SF/FTP Outer braided and foiled/foiled twisted pair : while each twisted pair wraped with a foil layer , then wrap the 4 pair by foil , then wrap the foil by braid shielding layer, some may don’t have the cross divider

S/FTP or SF/STP had been used most for industrial ethernet cables , as they have multiple shielding , excellent performance.

Cable Jacket For The Industrial Ethernet Cable

Industrial Ethernet cables is mainly used in automatic control systems. In some automation application environments, will have corrosive gases, corrosive liquids, dust, oil, vibration, high and low temperature, chemical reagents, and cables used in robots or towlines need frequent friction, bending, these all place demands on the durability of the cable.

• PVC industrial ethernet cable : From above chart we can see, PVC cable has some tolerance for general industrial environment, but the performance is not good enough for high and low temperature, oil pollution and other factors
• PUR Industrial ethernet cable : PUR has a good tolerance to the above factors. If it is a relatively harsh application environment, we recommend PUR.
• TPE industrial ethernet cable : If the working environment is very bad, then you may need to choose TPE , it has excellent performance for these factors.

Towline/Moving Industrial Ethernet Cable

Towline cable is also called moving cable , robot cable , as when used in towline or robots , the cables need to face moving, friction , bending , ordinary PVC or PUR cable may not handle these factors.

• The cable jacket adds other special materials to ordinary PVC or PUR materials to make the jacket flex and wear-resistant
• The conductor of the drag chain cable will be thinner, so the flexibility of the cable is better
• There will be some filling in the industrial ethernet moving cables , the filling can enhance the drag capability of the cable
• Each type of towline cable has a minimum bending radius, which needs to be paid attention to when installing and using

The above are some introductions about industrial enthernet cable. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.