Where to buy crimping dies for a HC (Holger Clasen) EPC-39 hydraulic crimper?

[Lomax]

Hi all,

I have a Holger Clasen EPC 39 hydraulic crimping tool for which I would like to get some additional dies. I don't mind if they're second hand, as long as they're in good condition, nor do they have to be OEM ones ($$$). I would be interested to hear if anyone knows a good source for these, or can suggest compatible dies from another manufacturer. This is what the crimping tool looks like:



And here's an example die:

[Lomax]

Having spent a fair amount of time researching, I'm going to try to answer this myself, and hopefully spare some future crimping enthusiast the same pain. It turns out that clones of the Holger Clasen EPC-39 crimp tool are legion, and that the compatible dies are often known as Beku / Izumi dies, where each die half measures 30x30x12mm and is held in place by a ball detent. These dies tend to be "double sided", in that a single set of dies will have crimp positions for two different size terminals at 180 degrees. I've found hexagonal, indent, trapezoid (ferrule), oval and rounding dies for cable areas up to 185mm2. Some of the sets I've seen (sensibly) combine smaller sizes with larger ones - so you might find 10mm2 combined with 185mm2, 16mm2 with 150mm2 and so on - others combine small with small and large with large (e.g. 10 + 16mm2 and 95mm2 + 120mm2) which leads to surprisingly flimsy looking dies for some sizes. Prices also vary considerably, I've seen individual die sets costing between £40 and £170 each (inc VAT). To cut a long story short, for the medium hexagonal sizes (25-70mm2), the cheapest option I've found are these "RS Pro" dies for their "THX-185" hydraulic crimper; £37 for the 50+70mm2 die, and (strangely) £45 for the 25+35mm2 die (inc VAT). I've not found a reasonably priced source for the 10 & 16mm2 die(s) yet. In case anyone is interested, below is a list of the tools I've found which I think use this type of die, many of which appear to be nearly identical:

Izumi EP-50:



Haupa HHs-6:



OPT Tools THX-185:



RS Pro THX-185 (seemingly identical to the above):



Rennsteig HPZ 50.1:



Mecatraction HVD-51:



Elpress V500 (discontinued):



BETE HCT-185 (cheap Chinese clone):


Add to that the Holger Clasen EPC-39, which started the search. All of these are 5-6 ton (50-60kN) hand operated hydraulic crimping presses, though I've seen both manual ratchet type and battery operated hydraulic tools which use the same dies.

Edit: Some other sources for compatible dies:

• Borencotools: Haupa 185-H6 series (~€65 ea)
• KW Hydraulik: Serie 50 (~€100 ea)
• Izumi Products: EP-50 dies
• Heamar: Rennsteig dies(~£150 ea)