Robot Arm and Cobot Connectors

Interconnect for multi-axis industrial arms and collaborative robots — fieldbus networking, encoder and servo I/O, and vision links engineered to hold signal integrity through millions of repeated movements.

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What Repetition Does to a Connector

The Same Move, Forever

An arm repeats one trajectory for years. Nothing about that is dramatic — it is simply relentless, and it finds every marginal contact and every under-specified latch eventually.

Cable Through the Axis

Every joint the harness crosses is a place it twists and bends. Flat flex earns its place here: it takes the movement in one plane instead of fighting it as a bundle.

Feedback Has to Be Exact

Encoder and force-sensor signals are what make the arm accurate. Lose integrity on those and you do not get a fault — you get parts that are quietly out of tolerance.

Serviced in Place

Arms are repaired on the line, not in a lab. Sealed parts that mate with standard connectors on standard footprints keep a repair to minutes rather than a rebuild.

Precision Is a Signal Integrity Problem

Robot arms are foundational in manufacturing, assembly and inspection, where precision, force control and repeatability decide whether the line runs. The motion is the visible part; what makes it accurate is a continuous stream of encoder counts, force readings and vision data moving cleanly between the arm and its controller.

That puts the interconnect in an unusual position. It is not carrying much power by the standards of a mobile robot — the cabinet handles that. It is carrying measurement, through a mechanism designed to move, in a cell surrounded by welders, drives and contactors. Degradation shows up as drift long before it shows up as a fault.

Amphenol’s answer is rugged interconnect that supports real-time communication, sensor feedback and motor control at production duty cycles, with sealed variants that drop into the footprints already on the machine.

Featured Products — Networking and Control

ix Industrial™ Magnetics

10G Ethernet with integrated magnetics and PoE++

A 10-position ix Industrial™ connector with the magnetics built in, which takes the discrete magnetics off the controller board and shortens the signal path. Cat6A performance with PoE++ to 90 W, and a two-point metal latch specified as more durable than an RJ45 tab.

Speed: Cat6A 10GBASE-T, compatible with 100/1000/10GBaseT
Power: PoE++ up to 90 W per IEEE 802.3bt
Protocols: EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, DeviceNet, EtherCAT, Modbus
Durability: 5,000 mating cycles
Latching: robust 2-point metal latch
Shielding: 360° through the mated pair, external tab option
Keying: Type-A and Type-B housings for controlled mating

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Rugged D-Sub

Sealed encoder and servo I/O in a standard footprint

The D-Sub is still where encoder and servo I/O lives on most arms. This is the same interface in a die-cast housing with silicone seals to IP67, so it drops into existing panel cut-outs and mates with the connectors already in the cabinet — a sealing upgrade without a redesign.

Sealing: IP67 via internal and external silicone seals
Housing: die-cast metal, resists shock, vibration and distortion
Sizes: 9-pin standard density, 15- and 26-pin high density
Contacts: machined, plated with 30 µin gold
Temperature: −44 °C to +105 °C
Retrofit: mates with existing standard connectors
Compliance: RoHS

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FloatCombo™ 0.50mm with Power Pin

Floating hybrid board-to-board inside the controller

Floating board-to-board for the controller stack, combining four independent power pins with high-speed signal in one connector. The float absorbs accumulated mechanical tolerance instead of transferring it into the contacts, which is what makes automated assembly repeatable.

Float: X/Y ±0.80 mm, Z ±0.60 mm below 15 mm stack height
Power: 5 A per pin across 4 independent contacts
Signal: 20 to 140 contacts, up to 16 Gb/s (PCIe® 4.0)
Stack height: 8.0 mm to 30.0 mm
Vibration: USCAR-2 T3V2 qualified
Temperature: −55 °C to +125 °C including T-rise

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Featured Products — Vision, Flex and Field Service

Rugged USB Type-C (MUSBR)

Sealed camera and teach-pendant interface

Generation 2 ruggedised USB Type-C in a die-cast housing sealed to IP67, for machine-vision cameras and pendant connections that live on the outside of the arm. Reversible, so there is no wrong orientation for an operator to find at the end of a shift.

Sealing: IP67 with internal and external silicone seals
Temperature: −55 °C to +105 °C
Housing: die-cast metal against shock, vibration and impact
Interface: non-polarised, mates either orientation
Configurations: right-angle and vertical, low-profile shell option
Compatibility: mates with standard USB Type-C plugs

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Rugged Modular Jack

IP67 Cat6A RJ45 for networked cameras and sensors

A sealed RJ45 for the parts of the cell where a standard jack would not last: die-cast housing, silicone seals to IP67, and the same interface every Ethernet/IP device on the floor already uses. Available in Cat6A, right-angle and vertical.

Speed: Cat6A harsh RJ45
Sealing: IP67 and higher across the temperature range
Temperature: −40 °C to +105 °C
Orientation: right-angle and vertical panel mount
Compatibility: mates with standard RJ plugs
Footprint: comparable in size to standard equivalents

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FFC Jumpers

Flat flex across the joint, board to board

Flat flexible cable jumpers for the board-to-board runs that cross a moving axis. A flat conductor takes bending in one plane rather than resisting it as a round bundle, and same-side or opposite-side contact layouts let the two boards mount whichever way the mechanics demand.

Pitch: 0.50 mm (FF3025) and 1.00 mm (FF5026)
Circuits: 4 to 60 at 0.50 mm, 4 to 30 at 1.00 mm
Layouts: Type S same-side and Type O opposite-side contacts
Temperature: −40 °C to +125 °C
Insulation: PET
Lengths: wide range of standard cable lengths

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Choosing an Ethernet Interface

Feature	ix Industrial™ Magnetics	Rugged Modular Jack	SPE IP20
Interface	ix Industrial™ 10-position	Standard RJ45	Single pair, IEC 63171-6
Speed	Cat6A 10GBASE-T	Cat6A	1 Gb/s to 40 m
Power	PoE++ to 90 W	Depends on the jack	PoDL to 4 A
Magnetics	Integrated	External	Not applicable
Sealing	IP20 (IP6X on NDH)	IP67	IP20
Durability	5,000 mating cycles	Standard RJ	Metal thumb latch
Best suited to	Controller board, highest bandwidth	Panel-mount cameras in a wet or dusty cell	Sensors and actuators on one thin run

Frequently Asked Questions

It removes the discrete magnetics from the controller PCB, which frees board area and shortens the path between the jack and the PHY — useful for signal integrity at 10GBASE-T. The ix Industrial™ Magnetics part is a 10-position connector rated for Cat6A with PoE++ up to 90 W under IEEE 802.3bt, so one interface handles both the network and the power to a downstream device.

Usually yes, and that is the main argument for the rugged range. The Rugged D-Sub, Rugged Modular Jack and Rugged USB Type-C all use die-cast housings with silicone seals to IP67 while remaining comparable in size to their standard equivalents and mating with standard connectors. In many cases they drop into the existing footprint and mounting hardware.

Flat flex, in most cases. An FFC jumper bends in one plane rather than resisting movement the way a round bundle does, and Amphenol offers them at 0.50 mm pitch in 4 to 60 circuits and 1.00 mm pitch in 4 to 30 circuits, rated −40 °C to +125 °C. Type S and Type O layouts mean the two boards can mount in either relative orientation.

It varies by interface and it is worth checking against your service interval. The ix Industrial™ Magnetics connector is rated at 5,000 mating cycles with a two-point metal latch that Amphenol specifies as more durable than a standard RJ45 latch. The Rugged D-Sub uses machined contacts plated with 30 µin gold for demanding, repeatedly serviced applications.

Because an industrial arm generally does not have one. Power arrives from a controller cabinet on mains, so the battery and battery-management subsystems that matter on a mobile robot or a drone do not apply here. If you are working on a battery-powered or mobile-mounted arm, the AMR and AGV page covers those subsystems directly.

For anything mounted on the moving structure, yes. FloatCombo™ is USCAR-2 T3V2 qualified and rated −55 °C to +125 °C including temperature rise. For panel-mounted parts on the cabinet, the die-cast housings on the rugged range are specified against shock, vibration and impact, and resist the distortion that eventually misaligns a plastic-bodied connector.

Yes. The ix Industrial range offers factory-certified cable assemblies as well as field-terminable IDC plug kits, and FFC jumpers come in a wide range of standard lengths. Field-terminable is often the better answer for spares, since a technician can make up a replacement on the line.

Specifying a Robot Arm?

Tell us which axis the cable has to cross, what the cell environment is like and how often it gets serviced. We will work back to a part, samples and full datasheets.