Molex, Service-Grade Crimp Tooling: Making Your Own Calibration Certificates

Molex is a large and prolific manufacturer and distributor of interconnect products and interconnect product accessories. Among these accessories are a wide variety of crimp tooling of many different grades, from high-volume automated assembly tooling valued in the tens of thousands of dollars to the humble 0638111000 - a decades-long standby for the hobbyist, prototyper, or repairman in the field. One of the most common questions we get, on Molex tooling and every other form of crimp tooling known to electronics, is whether any of these tools are supplied with calibration certificates.

Per Molex, the majority of these tools are not supplied with calibration certificates and will not be supplied with calibration certificates. Instead, customers are directed to refer to their Quality Crimping Handbook, specifically Section 8: Crimp Process Control, beginning on page 15. This will help you figure out how to perform the sorts of inspections and testing on your crimps that will let you assure the calibration of your tooling yourself, in the field, as is the intent with almost all Service-grade parts from Molex and any other manufacturer.