The correct selection of IDCs presents opportunities for significant improvements in quality, interchangeability and cost effective handling and assembly. Important consideration in the selection of IDC components are contact integrity, insulation, mating and interchangeability. Contact integrity must be maintained in two places, between the contact and the cable conductor and between the contact and its mate. A properly designed contact will completely displace the insulation, and provide clean metal-to-metal contact with the conductor, insuring a long-term, gas-tight connection. The excellent electrical insulating characteristics of IDCs, their physical ruggedness, ability to withstand extremes of environmental conditions, and ease of assembly are the result of careful and detailed material testing and selection as well as insulator design. Where the connector is exposed to soldering, the insulator must be resistant to dissolution by solder, fluxes and PC board washes. The material should be rugged enough to be handled without breaking or chipping and strong enough to hold the contacts firmly in place. It should be chemically inert and have dielectric properties consistent with the application requirements. An important consideration in the design and development of every CW connector is compatibility and mate-ability with connectors of other manufacturers. CW connector designs, in almost every instance, minimize electrical or mechanical mismatches resulting from mating connectors of various manufacturers. CW’s designs permit dual sourcing of almost all elements. To this end, CW has worked closely with the US Defense Electronic Supply Center in the development of industry standards and specifications as defined in Mil-DTL-83503.