The TE Connectivity Buchanan 3-282836-0 is an 8-position, single-level PCB-mount terminal block. It uses a rising cage clamp termination — the screw pushes a clamp plate down onto the stripped wire, giving a gas-tight connection that won't cold-flow or loosen under thermal cycling. Rated 13.5 A at 300 V, it handles motor control, lighting ballasts, HVAC controllers, and industrial power supplies — anything that needs a field-serviceable screw termination on a PCB.
Screw Torque and Wire Prep
The M3 screw takes 0.68 Nm (6 Lb-In) — that's the torque spec to hit for the rising cage clamp to grip the conductor without stripping the PA66 housing. Accepts 16 to 30 AWG solid or stranded. The brass, nickel-plated clamp and screw resist corrosion in industrial cabinet atmospheres. Tin-plated brass contacts mate with the PCB trace; the contact plating is adequate for the current but not designed for repeated disconnect cycles — this is a semi-permanent termination, not a plug connector.
Orientation and Ganging
Wire entry is horizontal with the board — the screw faces the board edge, so wires run parallel to the PCB. The interlocking side feature lets you snap adjacent blocks together without extra brackets, building multi-level or multi-circuit strips from single-level blocks.