A new Electrical Connector

Ron

Ron

Dum Spiro Spero
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Joined
Apr 16, 2005
Location
Sharon, SC
At least to me.
I was visiting with an old friend yesterday. Gentleman is an instrument panel builder, an electrical engineer (PE), licensed electrical contractor, and a retired navy aviation mechanic. All in all he is one of the most meticulous guys I've ever met, and does some super high end work for specialized applications. (think instrument panels in the $50k range)

He was building a quick ship panel while we were chatting and I watched him making up wires in a way I'd never seen...and I learned something new and thought Id share and see who else had used these.

The panels he was making used 20 AWG stranded and he was first making a standard western union lineman splice (nothing new here and time tested...literally started with telegraph lines) and then he was putting what resembled a butt connector on and just hitting it with a heat gun. What he was using was a version of these:
Amazon.com : AIRNIX 200 Piece Assorted Heat Shrink Solder Sleeve Crimpless Butt Splice Connectors : Sports & Outdoors

(his werent imported amazon variety) but apparently the premise is the standard for several aviation and under water connectors.

It started a long discussion, as I know how meticulous this guy is. He said they tested them against 5 other techniques (including traditional soldering a WULS) in a variety of stress tests to test both connection strength, moisture resistance, etc. and it was the best solution he had found.

Ive never used them...anyone else?
 
Looks a lot like the ones I've been using, although mine still have a crimp ring inside. I like 'em.
 
Yep, Ive been using the crimp butt connectors with heat shrink.
These have a low temp quick metal solder and no crimp. Heat gun. The "solder" flows and selas, the tubing heat shrinks for strain resistance and there is a glue band that Im not sure what it does...lol
 
I've used those for years at different jobs, they're not new. They're a TE/Raychem product, don't know if there are other brands as well. We mostly used them for terminating a ground wire to a braided cable shield, so the wire could be terminated into a connector pin. The biggest thing to watch out for is getting wire with insulation that can take the heat involved from the heat gun, and using a heat gun with a small/focused tip and reflector on it so the heat is concentrated on the solder sleeve instead of the wire insulation. You're not going to be using these with PVC insulation wire from AutoZone. I think they can work with TXL and GXL, my memory is hazy though. Most of what we did was higher quality wire than that.
They're $0.50 to $3 each in small quantities (depending on size) from what I remember. I haven't used one in 5 or 6 years probably.
 
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Used these for a couple years, a couple years ago. For our application I prefer the normal heat shrink butt connectors though. These are nice, but as mentioned, you have to be careful everything surrounding them can take the heat needed to flow the solder inside. This can be difficult if you are under a dash, because it does take a good bit more heat than the heat shrink glue/tube. I also found more failures from people not heating them enough and flowing the solder allowing the joints to come apart pretty easy.
 
If you slide it onto one of the wires, do a lineman's splice, then slide it back over the connection, the solder is gravy.
 
yep thems my thoughts
 
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