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Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

(OP)
Hey everyone,

I have a need to design an electrical connector - the shell is fairly straight-forward, but finding a company which can pot the contacts in ceramic seems to be the difficulty.

1)  Is anyone out there an Electrical Contact Designer?

2)  If so, what is the process of embedding contact pins in a ceramic plate (to isolate the back side of the pins from water intrusion)?

Thanks!

 

RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

Electrical contact (just the contacts themselves) is a science unto itself. I know just enough about it to realize that I know nothing about it.

Also, there are plenty of waterproof connectors, and I don't believe that fused ceramic plates are the usual approach.

 

RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

Sorry, I must have blipped over the details.  There are connectors that are already designed to be waterproof, and none of them use ceramic.

Ceramics are very difficult to manage for tight tolerance fittings, and they are prone to fracture, none of which is conducive to watertightness.

How much water and how much pressure?

TTFN

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RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

The connectors we buy (sealed) have metal shells, a plastic insert and what looks to be an electrical potting compound to hold it all together.

RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

(OP)
Guys - The purpose of this thread was to ask anyone out there if they could point me to an Electrical Connector Design firm - not to tell me why the connector I need can't be done...

There is an old Bendix Connector, which is based on a .750 Hex in 316 Stainless that has 6 gold plated conductors sealed in place in Ceramic.  The Open-Face pressure rating of this connector is 10,000 psi.  They were probably the best underwater connector ever made, but they aren't made anymore.

I want to re-create these connectors.  Making the 316 Stainless Shell is no biggie - I can get those made very easily - but I need to find a company which can seal the pins in Ceramic, and also then seal the Ceramic into the Shell.

Thanks for your help.

RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

You seem very hung up on the ceramics idea. You must also consider that maybe the reason Bendix is no longer making that connector is because there are better and less expensive ways to do it now besides ceramics. That seems to me to be a very poor way to make a watertight connection to something, but I'm not a materials engineer. Maybe they had a way, but at what cost to develop it?  Knowing Bendix, most likely the US taxpayers paid a hefty sum to develop that technology for some military purpose, and when something came along that was better, cheaper and easier to make, nobody thought to keep paying to maintain the production of that style.

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RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

HCC-Ametek are a supplier in to the hybrid electronics industry. They specialise in glass-metal seal technology and can design for very high pressure applications. Not sure that they make connectors, but probably not a massive step from the bulkhead feed-thru terminals.

http://www.hccindustries.com/files/HCC-Connector-Terminals-and-Headers-Design-Guide.pdf
   

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

Your refrigerator's hermetically sealed compressor uses a glass-metal sealed connector. So it doesn't have to be expensive.

RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

Are you suggesting HCC-Ametek are expensive? tongue
  

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing

Actually, Scotty, I had not checked your link. But, now that I have, I must say that it is very educational and worth a read.

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