What the hour is doing
Pin & sleeve bodies of one amperage share a shell. A 32 A blue plug and a 32 A red plug are the same diameter with the same pin sizes. If the only difference were paint, someone would eventually push 400 V into a 230 V machine. So IEC 60309-2 rotates the earth contact: every rated voltage gets an angular position, measured like the hands of a clock, and the socket carries a matching keyway. Wrong voltage, wrong angle, the plug stops short.
The colour is the same information a second time, for eyes instead of hands. Blue tells you 200–250 V from across a plant floor; the 6h position tells the socket.
Reading it on a real connector
- Face the connector (the female end) or the receptacle, keyway down.
- Find the earth contact: larger than the line contacts on every body.
- Call its position as an hour. Straight down is 6. Lower right is 4 or 5, lower left is 7 or 8, level left is 9, straight up is 12.
- On a plug you are looking at the mirror image, so read the code on the body instead; every listed plug is stamped with it.
Why 6h shows up on three different tables
The hour fixes the voltage for that pole count. 6h on a two-pole-and-earth body is 200–250 V single phase, blue. 6h on three poles and earth is 380–415 V three phase, red. 6h on three poles, neutral and earth is 220/380 to 240/415 V, red again. The clock finder asks for the pole count first for exactly this reason.
North American hours you will not find in a European catalogue
5h grey (277 V), 12h orange (125/250 V split phase), 5h black (600 V three phase) and the 7h 480 V family are hours the standard defines for systems North America runs. A European site rarely lists them; we build cords on all of them.
