Non-eBay source of zebra strips

[Tony_G]

Hey All,

I poked around at the usual large suppliers of components but didn't find anyone selling zebra strips - Has anyone ever actually bought some new strips from a non-eBay supplier? (I don't want to get into an eBay vs Mouser/Digikey argument, I just prefer to get my components from companies like them, YMMV and I appreciate that).

Thanks,

TonyG

[Stray Electron]

    I don't know if anyone still makes those and unless someone is, I'd be surprised to find any good ones. They flatten out under load and take a set and are then too loose to make good contact.

    Many, many years ago I found the company that made the zebra strips used in the HP calculators. I called them and talked to the man that was the project manager for that. He introduced me to the man that invented the zebra strips and that held the patent for them and I talked to both of them for a long while and they send me the last of the zebra strips that they had made for the HP-41s. Both the zebra strips and the HP-41s were long out of production at that point and that was probably 20+ years ago. They also sent me the production drawings of the zebra strips used in the HP-41. At the time, they still had the machinery (jigs mostly) that was used to make the HP-41 zebra strips and I tried to talk them into giving those to me too but they decided that they should probably keep them since they had cost the company an enormous amount of money. I've long since passed all of that material and the names and phone numbers, etc to someone in the HP collecting community but IIRC the company was Ampex.

   IIRC they told me that the conductors were plated unto the plastic body and then the insulating gaps were chemically etched into the plating. They told me that it was quite an engineering feat to make that work.

   You should be able to search around and find the patent and see who it's assigned to. IIRC that was how I found them.

[tooki]

    I don't know if anyone still makes those and unless someone is, I'd be surprised to find any good ones. They flatten out under load and take a set and are then too loose to make good contact.

Huh? Why would you think they’re not being made any more? They’re still commonly used in handheld multimeters, and probably in many other things.

[Stray Electron]

    Huh? Why would you think they’re not being made any more? They’re still commonly used in handheld multimeters, and probably in many other things.

   I don't know if they're being made now or not but when I talked to Ampex they weren't and they were still under patent at the time.  If the patent hasn't been renewed then anyone is free to make them. And China is likely make them regardless of the patent status. I had a lot of items that used them and I didn't think that they lasted very well so I would hope that manufacturers could come up with something better in the last almost 50 years.  I've seen newer devices that used COB and didn't need to use multiple circuit boards and zebra strips.

   I think that you're thinking of a different connector. Here is a picture of the zebra strip as used in the HP-41.  Hoping this link works. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFWRobrXwt2W67Dx02VqBAmUt8i6S2ZcpGrI_AzO2rgTSUREhoQ9LMRMdhLZw&s

   Or try post #12 for picture of a badly damaged one from an HP-71.  https://archived.hpcalc.org/museumforum/thread-147367.html

[tooki]

You do realize that it’s very strange to take one manufacturer’s exiting the market and extrapolate that into “nobody makes them anymore”.

Anyhow, that  isn’t what is typically understood under “zebra strip”, and so it’s unlikely that’s what the OP is looking for. They said they’re available on Ali, and what’s there are the common pink and black zebra strips.

P.S. please fix your quoting.

[Tony_G]

There are apparently 2 types of connectors that get referred to as "zebra" - The one I'm looking for are the elastomeric ones - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elastomeric_connector - Here is an image of the display with the connectors on it (ignore the location of the strips as I was trying to move them around to see if that addressed my display issue):



The other is like a flat flex that is adhered to a component most frequently by a heat bar.

TonyG

[tooki]

The other is like a flat flex that is adhered to a component most frequently by a heat bar.

I really don’t think those are ever called zebra strips by anyone even distantly familiar with electronics terminology. (I expressly discount the AliExpress listings, because they just use keyword diarrhea, not being at all specific, to come up in search results. And even if they weren’t doing keyword stuffing, I don’t think the people who sell “plastic deciders” (playing dice) and “long hair LEDs” (LEDs with longer leads) should in any way be considered arbiters of what is and isn’t correct English.)

[TheDefpom]

I've known these to be called Zebra strips for decades... so I don't know if there is perhaps a country based terminology that is different.

[TheDefpom]

In fact... I very quick search explains why... "Elastomeric connectors, also known by the registered trademark ZEBRA connectors", so yes, Zebra is the correct name.

[rsjsouza]

I sourced a number of Zebra strips from Aliexpress/eBay that have reasonable quality - not being used for twenty years yet, but also not throwaways. For a part cut to measure, the retail price is quite reasonable as well.

Of course I don't use them in the quantity of thousands, but for that you would have a trustworthy supplier lined up.