Harnesses and connectors withstand shallow immersion
Immersible connectors have to meet specific mechanical and chemical constraints. Bringing experience in connectors for submarines, oceanography, marine renewable energies and the oil industry, Souriau has introduced a range of harnesses and connectors designed for shallow water-immersible equipment.
Vincent Mansour, marine product manager at Souriau explained: “The saying that if you can do more, you can also do less is not always true. Just because a connector is watertight at great depth does not mean that it will be equally so in shallow water. The watertight design has to take into account the pressure exerted on the seals, and therefore the immersion depth.”
Connectors in the Shallow Water Immersion (SWIM) range have a plug screwed into the receptacle to lock both parts together and two O-rings at the mating interface to ensure the connection stays watertight, even at low pressure.
They are manufactured in thermoplastic material and are lightweight and watertight. They are resistant to corrosion, cathodic delamination and UV exposure, which makes them particularly suitable for prolonged immersion in a marine environment. The screw mating and the polarisation keyways make it easy to mate the plug with the receptacle, regardless of the number of pins, added the company.
Manufacturers of equipment that is immersible in shallow water have to address sealing, contact corrosion and connector installation. The SWIM half-harnesses are available on the two housing sizes with 13 contact arrangements, in lengths from one to 10m with cable connector over-mouldings that can be straight or 90 degrees angled.
Souriau also supplies specific harnesses on request. As Vincent Mansour explained that some customers want direct connection of two pieces of equipment without intermediate splices, and request complete harnesses with a connector at each end. “In this case, the customer chooses [the] cable and connectors as well as the length and type of straight or angled over-moulding on each connector,” he said.
The design and manufacturing quality of Souriau’s SWIM harnesses ensure secure connections in applications up to 300m deep. They match the requirements of surface drone applications which are drones are used for marine mammal research missions, oil exploration or military-type applications such as maritime surveillance. SWIM harnesses also meet the needs of meteo-oceanographic buoys, observation class remotely operated vehicles (OCROVs) or remotely operated underwater observation robots and a wide variety of marine equipment integrating sensors (hydrophones, temperature, salinity) and electronic devices.
Souriau manufactures, assembles and tests SWIM connectors in-house.
