polyethylene outer jacket to protect the armor from 

 abrasion and corrosion. 



The cable as delivered was different from the 

 initial concept because of procurement problems. The 

 conductor configuration was a triad with three 

 separate neutral conductors for better structural and 

 electrical balance. The cable armor was stranded wires 

 rather than solid. The inner jacket was polyurethane 

 (0.050 inch) and the outer polyethylene jacket was 

 0.160 inch thick. The cable was not waterblocked, 

 had no shielding, and had no bedding for the armor. 

 As delivered, it weighed 2.14 lb/ft in air (1.07 lb/ft in 

 water) and was very stiff. Although the basic config- 

 uration of the delivered cable was satisfactory, the 

 absence of the many refinements in shielding, water- 

 blocking, jacket thickness and armor configuration 

 resulted in only marginal cable performance during 

 later system tests. 



Dry Connector Concept 



The dry connector concept (Figure 3) involved a 

 stainless steel cylindrical body with one internal main 

 bulkhead near each mating end. Fused-glass pene- 

 trator pins through this bulkhead extended back into 

 the body toward the cable termination area and 

 forward into an oil-filled, pressure-compensated 

 chamber which was formed when the two connector 

 halves were mated. The pins in the oil-filled chamber 

 mated with an interference fit. The pins were solder- 

 spliced to their respective phase leads, shielded with 

 stainless steel sleeves, and completely potted in 

 polyurethane. This potting included the entire 

 interior of the connector body. The cable armor was 

 terminated by flaring it and clamping it between two 

 flat compression rings. 



Wet Connector Concept 



The wet connector concept (Figure 4) utilized 

 the same urethane-potted cable termination and 

 penetrator pin techniques as the dry connector. The 

 design differences were primarily in the area of the 

 mating ends of the penetrator pins. 



The male half was fairly simple and had no 

 moving parts. The penetrator pins simply extended 

 out from the face of the connector about four inches 

 with a ring contact about halfway back along their 

 length. 



The female half was much more complex. Each 

 of the penetrator pins had an offset sleeve contact on 

 the mating end and was completely potted in poly- 

 urethane, except for a hole from the front of the 

 connector through the urethane to the sleeve contact. 

 This hole was filled with a sliding dummy piston 

 made of glass-filled Teflon. This piston was double 

 O-ring sealed near the outer end and the piston was 

 spring loaded and pressure compensated via a small 

 oil-filled chamber behind it. The piston was to 

 exclude seawater from the interior when the 

 connectors were unmated. 



During mating the two halves were held in 

 alignment by two large projecting surfaces from the 

 male half which acted as a guide cradle. The two 

 halves were pulled together by a large single-throw 

 lever linkage and as the male pins entered the female 

 cavities they displaced the dummy pistons. The 

 0-rings were intended to wipe the seawater from the 

 male pins. 



Fabrication and Delivery 



Considerable difficulty was experienced in the 

 manufacture of the fused-glass penetrator pins, in 

 producing void-free massive urethane pots, and in 

 achieving reliable compensator designs. The design 

 was amended to include a cable strain relief after the 

 first dry connector tested failed at 2,300 feet from 

 seawater intrusion near a bend in the cable termina- 

 tion. Further problems were encountered in attempts 

 to disassemble the urethane-potted cable termination 

 and pin splices. As the main body was being 

 unscrewed from the base the urethane transferred 

 enough stress to the penetrator pins to shear off three 

 of the four pins. The remaining urethane required 

 three weeks to dissolve. There is no way to easily 

 disassemble a large urethane pot of this type without 

 seriously damaging the rest of the connector compon- 

 ents. This poor reparability proved to be a constant 

 source of aggravation during the test program. 



Six sets of hardware were fabricated (three dry 

 and three wet). Two sets were supplied with short 

 sections of cable attached (20 to 60 feet) and the 

 remaining sets were used to assemble two 600-foot 

 cable sections for use in loop power tests. 



