Electrical Connector Design and Manufacturing 1

[dirtydiverdave]

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!

 

[IRstuff]

Why do you need to design a new connector? Aren't there literally thousands of connectors already in existence?

TTFN

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[VEBill]

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.

 

[IRstuff]

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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[BrianE22]

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.

 

[IRstuff]

38999 connectors, but they're pricey, but probably less pricey than a brand-new connector fab from scratch:

http://www.glenair.com/interconnects/mildtl38999/pdf/connector_performance_spec.pdf

TTFN

FAQ731-376
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[dirtydiverdave]

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.

 

[pstuckey]

You could give Glenair a try, they claim to have connectors up to 10 kpsi.

http://www.glenair.com/interconnects/geomarine/index.htm

Peter

 

[jraef]

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.

"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe." -- Abraham Lincoln
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[ScottyUK]

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!

 

[Compositepro]

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

 

[ScottyUK]

Are you suggesting HCC-Ametek are expensive?


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

 

[Compositepro]

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.