Why are there no SMD AC Power Connectors?

Question

Is this just a matter of having the wrong search terms, or is there a reason why there are no SMD AC connectors. They all seem to be thru-hole, like this:

I can imagine several benefits to an all SMD power supply board, such as eliminating spacers and mounting directly to a metal back plate (if one uses tented vias and perhaps a layer of kapton-like film between the board and plate), potentially leading to improved ruggedness, thermal performance (chassis as heatsink, backplate allowing for greater heatsink mounting forces), and compactness.

The only reason I can think of is mechanical strength, but that seems like a non-issue for most applications where the connector is firmly mounted to the chassis and there are no plugging forces transferred to the PCB.

Answer 1

Most applications where an 'IEC' power connector like that is involved also use a whole bunch of through-hole components such as fuses, large capacitors, MOVs, large film capacitors, spark gaps, heat sinks, bridge rectifiers, large diodes, common mode chokes, surge reduction thermistors, large transformers, and so on, so an SMT version would not be of much benefit, and I think you've pointed out yourself the weakness of SMT parts, especially those with a load path to the outside world.

In fact I would say the through hole parts are relatively rare compared to wired chassis-mount parts. Below is one from this page, an X-box supply, and I think you can see what I mean:

There may be a few SMT parts on the bottom of that single-sided PCB, and there are certainly some on the small vertical green control board at the back, but there are an awful lot of bulky heavy parts that don't lend themselves to SMT.

Answer 2

"Power" connectors do exist, but the IEC type seems to lend itself to through-hole applications. There are things that exist in other form factors though, such as this Wago terminal block part that is rated for 630V and 9A: