Elgin’s Harting of North America recognized for new product
Harting Inc. of North America, based in Elgin, received another prestigious design award Monday for an industrial electrical connector the company released a year ago.
The company owners, husband-and-wife team Dietmar and Margrit Harting, were in Elgin Monday making a rare visit together to accept the most recent design award for the privately held German company that employs about 75 people in Elgin and 3,000 worldwide.
The company’s year-old Han-Yellock connector, used in an array of products from windmills to telecommunications towers, was named product of the year in Electronic Products Magazine published by Hearst Business Communications Inc. in New York. The connector also earned the coveted International Forum Design Award earlier this year.
“This is a touching moment for us,” said Margrit Harting during a town-hall meeting Monday at its offices along Bowes Road in Elgin.
“The Han-Yellock is a newborn baby. It was unveiled just a year ago. It’s the star in our family,” she said proudly before a group of more than 100 employees and customers.
The Han-Yellock, an updated version of a connector the company created in the 1950s, was designed to offer improved assembly features implementing a new wiring system to reduce overall space with a new sleek design.
In April 2010, after about two years of design work, the product was launched at the Hanover Fair in Germany, where it was received with award-winning fanfare.
The new sleek black design with a Harting-yellow release button compares to a gray rectangular box that was used in the past.
The new connector is made to withstand “extremely rough conditions,” Dietmar Harting said Monday.
“We had to think outside the box for this,” he said in describing the connector’s enhanced functions and design.
The connector is just one of the many products that Harting develops, manufactures and sells. The growing company also focuses on other electrical and electronic connectors as well as device terminations, backplanes and cable harnesses for networks or machinery.
The products are used in mechanical and plant engineering, broadcast and entertainment, telecommunication and factory automation.
Harting even provides the power to light up the New Orleans Mardi Gras parade. The Han-Modular connector has replaced older twist-lock devices in the lighting circuits on Mardi Gras floats because they are more reliable, company officials said Monday.