Real-time pressure measurement inside sealed electrical connectors has been achieved using a new experimental approach. This approach has significant benefits to designers of connectors and the seals used to waterproof the connectors. The seal designer needs to know what pressure is in the connector but until now, pressure measurements were inaccurate due to the slow response time of the equipment. The result was that a peak in pressure of less than 1 second duration would be not recorded. This lack of accurate pressure data has resulted in overdesigned seal plugs - to compensate for the unknowns in testing - and potentially connectors that do not seal as well as required. With the new experimental technique described in this paper, data sampling rates have been increased to 100 samples per second with high accuracy. The new technique uses a portable micro pressure transducer that has been repackaged to fit where a connector wire normally fits.Invention of this instrument benefits the automotive industry by providing a tool that determines the actual pressures experienced inside a connector and allows for correlated specifications to be written. The most immediate benefit is that seal “plugs” used to block unused terminal cavities can be engineered to assure they will stay in position without overdesigning and making assembly difficult. In the past, plugs were at risk of moving out of position if the pressure was incorrectly predicted to be lower than the actual pressure. This development has improved automotive sealed connector robustness; use throughout the automotive connector industry is expected.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Internal Pressure Measurement for Sealed Electrical Connectors on Automotive Wire Harnesses: A method to improve Seal Plug Design


    Additional title:

    Sae Technical Papers


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    SAE 2013 World Congress & Exhibition ; 2013



    Publication date :

    2013-04-08




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




    Internal Pressure Measurement for Sealed Electrical Connectors on Automotive Wire Harnesses: A method to improve Seal Plug Design

    Price, D. / Society of Automotive Engineers | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2013


    Internal Pressure Measurement for Sealed Electrical Connectors on Automotive Wire Harnesses: A method to improve Seal Plug Design

    Price, D. / Society of Automotive Engineers | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2013


    Water sealed wire for corrosion resistant automotive harnesses

    Thuermer,J. / 3M Laboratories,DE | Automotive engineering | 1992


    Analysis and optimisation of automotive wire harnesses

    Patterson, A. / ERA Technology Ltd | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1999


    WIRE HARNESSES MANUFACTURING METHOD AND DEVICE FOR MANUFACTURING WIRE HARNESSES

    FUJISAWA TAKANORI / ONODA TETSUYA | European Patent Office | 2023

    Free access