Card-edge connectors are receptacles that mate directly with the gold-plated finger contacts along a PCB edge — the board itself becomes the plug, and the connector is the female half. That eliminates a separate header, cuts cost, and holds up well over many mating cycles provided the PCB fingers are designed properly. Gold plating thickness is the variable most engineers underestimate: ENIG (electroless nickel immersion gold) runs 0.05–0.1 µm and wears through quickly under repeated insertions. Hard electrolytic gold at 0.8–1.27 µm is what you want for anything that gets pulled and reseated regularly.

The category covers a wide range of variants. Standard 0.1" and 2.54mm pitch connectors turn up in legacy industrial and embedded add-on boards. PCIe slots use 0.8mm pitch contacts — different from older ISA/PCI standards and not interchangeable with them. Memory slots (DDR4, DDR5, SO-DIMM) have tight card-thickness tolerances that punish sloppy PCB stackups. M.2 breaks into key types: B-key for SATA and select PCIe lanes, M-key for PCIe/NVMe, E-key for wireless modules — the notch positions differ and the cards won't seat across key types. Lower-pitch versions (1.27mm) show up in compact embedded designs where board real estate is the constraint.

Applications run from expansion cards and memory modules to M.2 SSDs, wireless cards, and industrial process-control daughterboards. When selecting, pin down pitch, contact count, card thickness (1.6mm is standard but DDR and M.2 slots are tight), normal force per contact, and whether you need a locking or ejector mechanism for serviceability.

TRX sources card-edge connectors from Amphenol, Molex, TE Connectivity, and Samtec through authorised distribution. No minimum order, so you can qualify a design before committing to volume. In-stock lines ship to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and Pretoria. For parts that need to be sourced, we'll give you an actual lead time.

Send us your part number or describe the application — we'll come back with availability and pricing.