cylinder to the 0-ring seal as mating occurred. The 

 early design had produced severe O-ring damage 

 because of sharp, rough edges at the interface. 



b. The bail linkage used for initial mating 

 operations of the experimental wet connector was 

 not adaptable to manipulator operation because 

 manipulator arms cannot in general effect rotations 

 about remote axes. The linkage also did not assist in 

 the basic assembly and alignment of the connector 

 halves. 



c. Because the mating guides had to be 

 adapted to the existing experimental connector 

 models, the final assembly was very heavy and bulky. 

 Even after prototype work there was still need for 

 considerable refinement in the mechanical alignment 

 system to provide smoother operation and easier 

 handling. 



d. The exposed male penetrator pins were 

 very fragile and required protection during handling. 



e. The face of the experimental wet female 

 connector was not protected against fouling or 

 siltation. Provisions for this protection must be 

 included in designs for long-term immersion. 



The wet connector mating, and powering of 

 SEACON through the two connector types concluded 

 the test phase of the work on the experimental wet 

 and dry connectors. Effort was next directed to the 

 development and test of the prototypes. 



PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT 



The prototype models represented a major 

 redesign of the connectors and in fact were the result 

 of a different design philosophy than that used on the 

 experimental models. The electrical portions of the 

 experimental models, including such items as the con- 

 tacts and conductor arrangements, had performed 

 quite well and were unaltered in the prototype 

 design. Most of the problems had occurred in the 

 sections of the connectors designed to prevent the 

 intrusion of seawater. The NCEL prototype 

 philosophy was to design the connectors to operate 

 with some seawater intrusion and to use a simple, 

 evenly balanced pressure compensation, rather than 

 the more elaborate scheme utilizing positive internal 



pressurization, multiple seals and extensive urethane 

 potting to totally preclude admission of seawater. 

 The prototype design therefore had these major 

 objectives: 



1. Make the internal insulation as self-healing as 

 possible. This implied the use of fluid dielectrics. 



2. Make the entire system as completely 

 pressure-balanced as possible. This also implied fluid 

 dielectrics, with minimal internal fluid constrictions. 



3. Provide tolerance of some seawater leakage. 

 Under the guidelines of Reference 6 this implied a 

 dielectric which was not miscible with seawater, and a 

 design which provided physical separation of contam- 

 inating water from high-voltage leakage paths. 



4. Build in reparability. This implied 

 interchangeability of parts, mechanical assembly 

 techniques (such as threads instead of welds) and 

 minimal use of permanently potted components. 



Prototype Dry Connector 



Modifications. While the experimental 

 long-term immersion test was still in progress, work 

 was completed on a modified or prototype version of 

 the dry connector (see Figure 6). The cable termina- 

 tion was changed to a large Dyna-Grip system from 

 Preformed Line Products, which uses preformed 

 helical rods wrapped around the cable as a gripper or 

 "stopper." These rods are then compressed in a sleeve 

 much as the armor wires would be in more conven- 

 tional designs. A heat-shrink boot from the AMP 

 Corporation was used to seal the conductor breakout 

 into the interior of the connector. The conductors 

 were then spliced to the salvaged penetrator pins by a 

 solder splice wrapped in insulating tape and covered 

 with a semiconducting heat-shrink tube from 

 Raychem Corporation. The heat-shrink tube provided 

 a linear voltage stress gradient along the surface of the 

 insulation. The existing connector shell was used with 

 the addition of an adapter ring to connect the cable 

 termination to the shell. The joints were O-ring 

 sealed, and the inside of the housing was filled with 

 white mineral oil. A small external bladder was used 

 to pressure-compensate the system. 



Tests and Results. The prototype connector 

 half was mated with the female half (original design) 



