Weidmuller EW35, 1608570000, and the Crimper Mistakes I Keep Seeing (FAQ)

Every couple of weeks, someone in our shop asks about a Weidmuller part and starts with a description instead of a part number. I get it. I've made the same mistake, and it's cost me more than the price of the part. I've worked in industrial controls for about nine years, and I've personally documented four big ordering failures—roughly $4,000 in wasted budget. This is the FAQ I wish I'd been handed in 2017.

• What is the Weidmuller EW35, and why does 1608570000 matter?
• Can I order by description instead of the part number?
• Which crimper do I need for RJ45 jacks and connectors?
• Should I pay for rush delivery on Weidmuller parts?
• What does “Weidmuller vs Broadcom” mean?
• How do I stop making these mistakes under deadline pressure?

1. What is the Weidmuller EW35, and why does 1608570000 matter?

The Weidmuller EW35 is an end bracket for DIN rail. It's the small plastic piece that locks terminal blocks in place so they don't slide around when you're wiring or when the machine vibrates. The current order number in Weidmuller's catalog is 1608570000, so you'll see it listed as Weidmuller 1608570000 on distributor sites. I'm not 100% sure if it's the only SKU for the same geometry, so I always check the data sheet before quoting.

The EW35 itself is not an expensive part—roughly $3 to $5 depending on distributor, as of January 2025 (distributor listings; verify current pricing). So nobody looks at this part onscreen and thinks 'this will cost me a day.' In 2022, I ordered 120 'EW35 compatible' brackets from a supplier's website by description only. The profile looked right in the photo, but the actual part was too thin and cracked when torqued. It cost about $300 in rework and a day of delay. That's when I learned: description is a hint; the part number is the contract.

2. Can I order Weidmuller parts by description instead of the part number?

Short answer: no. Long answer: I do not trust descriptions anymore, because I got burned.

In January 2024, I checked six online distributors for the same-looking EW35. Two had the Weidmuller original, three had lookalikes, and one had a part number that looked an awful lot like 1608570000 but wasn't. Same photo, different product. That's a fairly good example of why the 10-digit order number is the only reliable language.

To be fair, a description can point you in the right direction, especially if you're a beginner and don't know what to search for yet. But if you're quoting a machine build or replacing something on a live line, taking an extra 30 seconds to cross-check weidmuller.com is always worth it.

3. Which Weidmuller crimper do I need for RJ45 jacks and field-assembled connectors?

This one's kind of a trap, because the right answer is: 'the crimper that matches the die that matches the contact.' For a Weidmuller RJ45 jack, a generic 8P8C crimper is not necessarily wrong, but it's not a plan. You want the manufacturer's crimper with the correct die for that connector family.

In 2021, I watched a guy use a $25 crimper on a Weidmuller RJ45 jack. It looked fine on the bench. The pins seated, the boot went over, and the cable tester passed. But the jack failed after a few hundred vibration cycles on the machine. When we compared that connection with one made by the correct Weidmuller crimper, you could see the difference in the pin depth. Seeing that side by side made me realize I wasn't paying for a tool; I was paying for a repeatable connection.

I've also seen a huge gap between a worn-out knockoff die and a genuine Weidmuller die. Crimp height tolerance matters more than people think. If you only buy one Weidmuller tool, get a ratchet crimper with interchangeable dies. It'll handle the ferrules, pin contacts, and jacks you actually use in cabinets.

4. Should I pay for rush delivery on Weidmuller parts, or is the standard option fine?

For a stock item like the EW35, standard delivery is often fine. But when you're in an emergency, 'fine' is not a plan. In March 2024, we paid $180 extra for next-day shipping on a small order—maybe $200 worth of Weidmuller parts. The alternative was a three-day production delay that would've cost us around $4,000. $180 to guarantee a deadline is cheap.

I know the temptation: the part is cheap, so the cheapest shipping feels like the smart move. That logic works until the machine is down. It took me three years and about 200 parts orders to understand that the premium isn't for the part; it's for certainty. If you can't afford to wait, pay for the guarantee.

Don't hold me to exact numbers, but roughly 30% of our rush orders in the last 18 months happened because someone didn't verify a part number before ordering. The rush fee was usually the smallest cost in the chain.

5. What does “Weidmuller vs Broadcom” mean, anyway?

This gets asked a lot more than I expected. Broadcom is a semiconductor company. Weidmuller is a full-line industrial connectivity and automation company. They are not direct competitors in a way that allows a clean 'vs' comparison, even though the search term keeps showing up.

In the edge-switch world, Broadcom makes chips that go inside many enterprise networking products. Weidmuller makes complete industrial Ethernet switches plus the surrounding ecosystem—DIN-rail power supplies, terminal blocks, relays, surge protection, connectors, and crimpers. So if the query is 'weidmuller vs broadcom,' what people usually mean is: 'should I use a data-center-style switch in a machine cabinet?' That's the wrong question. The right question is whether you need an industrial switch designed for vibration, temperature, and panel mounting. For a typical machine cabinet, you're better off comparing Weidmuller's managed switches to other industrial switch vendors, not to a chipmaker.

Take this with a grain of salt—I'm not a network engineer. But I've pulled enough enterprise switches out of machine cabinets to know the difference matters.

6. How do I stop making Weidmuller ordering mistakes under deadline pressure?

I maintain a simple checklist and keep it in our team's shared drive. It looks like this:

• Photograph the old part, including the printed part number.
• Verify that number against Weidmuller's official catalog.
• Quote the full 10-digit order number, not just the product name.
• Confirm the crimper and die before ordering jacks or connectors.
• If it's for a live production line, ask for a delivery date in writing.

This works for us because we're a small controls integration shop with mostly standard TS35 cabinets. If you're managing hundreds of different machine types, you'll need a more formal system, but the habit of verifying the part number stays the same.

I've caught 47 potential ordering errors using this checklist in the past 18 months. Every one of those would've cost at least a day of someone's time. The point isn't to be perfect; it's to make sure the mistake happens in the office, not on the machine. And if that means paying extra for a guaranteed delivery once in a while, I do not regret it.