AB Connectors

The AB name in the Cynon and Rhondda valleys goes back to Kenure, Heslop and Holt, incorporated in 1957, which as Kenure Developments won the Queen's Award for export in 1968 and in 1977 became A. B. Electronic Components Ltd, with plants at Dinas Road, Dinas, Rhondda and Ynysboeth, Abercynon, later part of the AB Electronic Products Group. AB Controls and Connectors Limited was incorporated on 16 May 1985, the year TT Electronics gives for the opening of its 5,500 square metre Abercynon facility, and took the name AB Connectors Limited on 14 March 1989.

In the 1990s TT Group, the former Tyzack Turner steel firm remade as an electronics group, bought the AB Electronic Products Group among other acquisitions (Grace's Guide dates the AB purchase to 1993), and in 2000 renamed itself TT Electronics. AB Connectors continues as one of TT's product brands, its principal site in South Wales designing, testing and making harsh-environment interconnection systems, bespoke harness assemblies and equipment sub-units for aerospace and defence, industrial and rail customers.

The firm's Land Rover connection is the SB-ORD inter-vehicle connector, designed to give a quick, foolproof way of restarting electrically disabled military vehicles in the field through a vehicle-to-vehicle battery jumper: a snap-in single-connection receptacle with a one-piece moulded rubber body impervious to fuel and lubricants, rated at 500 A continuous and 1,000 A for six minutes at 24 V, and compatible between types and makes of NATO combat vehicles regardless of manufacturer. The AB ORD sockets, terminal links and 6-, 15- and 30-foot slave leads in the 2005 catalogue are the pattern fitted to 24-volt Land Rovers. AB Connectors Limited is registered at Abercynon, Mountain Ash, CF45 4SF and remains active, and TT Electronics records 163 staff at the site.