A reliable sealing type high current deep water sealed connector

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of deep water sealing connector, and particularly relates to a reliable sealing type large-current deep water sealing connector, which comprises a plug assembly and a socket assembly in plug-in cooperation, the socket assembly is detachably installed at the outer end of an equipment cabin installation panel, the plug assembly comprises a plug shell, the socket assembly comprises a plug-in sealing sleeve shell sleeved outside the plug shell, and the plug-in sealing sleeve shell is installed at the outer end of the equipment cabin installation panel through a sealing installation plate; a plurality of sealing grooves are sequentially arranged in the plug-in sealing sleeve shell and the plug shell in an axial direction; the reliable sealing type large-current deep water sealing connector adopts a three-stage series sealing ring and polytetrafluoroethylene gasket combined structure on a plug-in cooperation surface, can avoid the sealing ring from being squeezed into a gap and being damaged by shearing, and can keep the sealing function of the remaining stages after single-stage sealing failure, so that the sealing reliability and service life under deep sea high pressure and high frequency plug-in working conditions can be improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of deep-water sealed connector technology, and specifically to a high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing. Background Technology

[0002] With the rapid development of marine resource development, deep-sea exploration, underwater robots, and ship and marine engineering equipment, watertight connectors, as the core components for underwater equipment to transmit electrical energy and signals, directly determine the operational stability of underwater systems through their sealing reliability.

[0003] Currently available watertight connectors mostly employ simple sealing methods, resulting in poor waterproofing and low pressure resistance, making them unsuitable for long-term stable use under harsh conditions such as high pressure in the deep sea and complex ocean currents. For example, most high-current deep-sea connectors use a single-layer sealing ring structure on the mating surface. Under high pressure, high-frequency insertion and removal, and vibration and shock conditions in the deep sea, the sealing ring on the mating surface of the plug and socket is easily damaged, leading to seal failure and allowing seawater to seep into the connector, which in turn causes equipment damage and failure. Meanwhile, low-current watertight connectors often use insert injection molding and glass sintering to achieve multi-layer internal sealing, but this process has the drawback of poor vibration and shock resistance, making it difficult to adapt to the large size and high load requirements of high-current products.

[0004] In summary, to adapt to and improve the reliability of high-current deep-water connectors, a redundant sealing structure is designed to ensure the normal operation of the sealing ring, thereby avoiding the problem of complete loss of waterproof capability due to first-level failure and improving sealing stability. In view of this, we propose a high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of this invention is to address the shortcomings mentioned in the background section and provide a reliable, high-current, deep-water sealed connector.

[0006] To solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the present invention adopts the following technical solution: A high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing includes a plug assembly and a socket assembly that mate with each other. The socket assembly is detachably mounted on the outer end of an equipment compartment mounting panel. The plug assembly includes a plug housing, and the socket assembly includes an insertion sealing sleeve that fits over the plug housing. The insertion sealing sleeve is mounted on the outer end of the equipment compartment mounting panel via a sealing mounting plate. A pin body is installed along the inside of the plug housing and at the axis of the insertion sealing sleeve via a locking ring, and an installation clamp is provided between the exposed section of the pin body located outside the plug housing and the insertion sealing sleeve. The insert sealing sleeve and the plug housing are provided with multiple levels of spaced sealing grooves along the axial direction, and a polytetrafluoroethylene gasket is installed in the sealing groove. The polytetrafluoroethylene gasket is used to support the sealing ring under pressure and prevent deformation damage.

[0007] Preferably, the inner end section of the insert sealing sleeve is inserted into the equipment compartment mounting panel, and the locking ring is installed at the inner edge of the inner end section of the insert sealing sleeve. An inner sealing ring assembly is provided at the outer edge of the insert sealing sleeve and the locking ring.

[0008] Preferably, the sealing grooves are arranged in three stages in series along the axial direction. An outer sealing ring and a polytetrafluoroethylene gasket are installed in the sealing grooves. The polytetrafluoroethylene gasket is used to support the sealing ring and limit the deformation of the outer sealing ring in the direction of the mating gap when under pressure.

[0009] Preferably, the insertion sealing sleeve and the insertion surface of the plug housing are provided with gradient grooves, and an intermediate sealing ring for sealing the connection surface is installed in the gradient grooves.

[0010] Preferably, the mounting clamp, the exposed section of the insert body, and the corresponding side plate wall of the insert sealing sleeve are all provided with multi-level inner sealing grooves, and O-rings are installed in the inner sealing grooves.

[0011] Preferably, the axial width of the sealing groove is greater than the total axial width of the outer sealing ring and the polytetrafluoroethylene gasket assembled together.

[0012] Preferably, an O-ring is installed at the mating surface between the sealing mounting plate and the equipment compartment mounting panel.

[0013] Preferably, the inner end section of the insert sealing sleeve inserted into the equipment compartment mounting panel is provided with multiple levels of clamping grooves along the axial direction, and the O-ring is installed in the clamping groove. The O-ring is used to seal the connection surface between the insert sealing sleeve and the equipment compartment mounting panel.

[0014] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are: 1. This reliable high-current deep-water sealed connector uses a combination structure of three-stage series sealing rings and polytetrafluoroethylene gaskets on the mating surfaces. This can prevent the sealing rings from being squeezed into the gap and sheared. At the same time, even if a single-stage seal fails, the remaining stages still maintain their sealing function, which can improve the sealing reliability and service life under deep-sea high-pressure and high-frequency mating conditions. 2. This application incorporates multiple waterproof barriers to effectively prevent seawater from seeping into the equipment compartment through internal gaps, ensuring the safety of the entire equipment. 3. This application replaces the insert injection molding or glass sintering process used in existing low-current connectors, which helps to reduce processing costs and mold complexity, and has excellent vibration and impact resistance performance, and can adapt to the large volume and high load requirements of high-current connectors. Attached Figure Description

[0015] The accompanying drawings, which form part of this application, are used to provide a further understanding of the invention. The illustrative embodiments of the invention and their descriptions are used to explain the invention and do not constitute an undue limitation of the invention. In the drawings: Figure 1 This is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of the overall structural installation relationship of the present invention.

[0016] The meanings of the labels in the diagram are as follows: 1. Plug housing; 2. Insert sealing sleeve housing; 3. PTFE gasket; 4. Outer sealing ring; 5. Middle sealing ring; 6. Mounting clamp; 7. Pin body; 8. Sealing mounting plate; 9. Locking ring; 10. Inner sealing ring assembly; 11. Plug assembly; 12. Socket assembly; 13. Equipment compartment mounting panel. Detailed Implementation

[0017] The technical solutions of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. Unless otherwise specified, the embodiments and features in the embodiments of this application can be combined with each other. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0018] Please see Figure 1 The present invention will describe the above technical solution in detail through the following embodiments: This application provides a sealed and reliable high-current deep-water sealed connector, including a plug assembly 11 and a socket assembly 12 that are mated together. The socket assembly 12 is detachably mounted on the outer end of the equipment compartment mounting panel 13 to realize electrical connection between the underwater equipment compartment and the outside.

[0019] Specifically, the plug assembly 11 includes a plug housing 1; the socket assembly 12 includes a plug-in sealing sleeve 2, which is plugged into the plug housing 1. A sealing mounting plate 8 is fixedly installed on the outer wall of the middle section of the plug-in sealing sleeve 2. The plug-in sealing sleeve 2 is detachably installed on the outer end of the equipment compartment mounting panel 13 through the sealing mounting plate 8, thereby realizing the fixed connection between the socket assembly 12 and the equipment compartment.

[0020] A pin body 7 for connecting to a cable is provided along the interior of the plug housing 1 and the axial direction of the insertion sealing sleeve 2. The pin body 7 is fixedly installed on the inner end section of the insertion sealing sleeve 2 by a locking ring 9. A mounting clamp 6 is also provided between the exposed section of the pin body 7 on the outside of the plug housing 1 and the insertion sealing sleeve 2. The mounting clamp 6 is used to radially limit and provide auxiliary insulation support and sealing for the exposed section of the pin body 7.

[0021] As one of the core technical improvements of this invention, multiple sealing grooves are sequentially arranged axially between the inner wall of the insert sealing sleeve 2 and the outer wall of the plug housing 1. In this embodiment, the sealing grooves are arranged in three series, and each sealing groove is equipped with an outer sealing ring 4 and a polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3. The polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3 is closely attached to the back pressure side of the outer sealing ring 4, that is, the side close to the direction of the high-pressure seawater flow. Compared with the traditional single-layer sealing structure, the polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3 of this application acts as a rigid limiting ring. When the seawater pressure in the deep-sea high-pressure environment acts on the outer sealing ring 4, the polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3 can provide rigid axial support for the outer sealing ring 4, accurately limiting the outer sealing ring 4 to be squeezed and deformed in the direction of the mating gap between the plug housing 1 and the insert sealing sleeve 2, thereby avoiding the outer sealing ring 4 from being sheared and squeezed and damaged under high pressure.

[0022] Meanwhile, the axial width of the sealing groove in this application is designed to be greater than the total axial width of the outer sealing ring 4 and the polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3 after assembly, so as to reserve a reasonable space for pressure deformation, ensure that the sealing ring works normally within the elastic deformation range, and at the same time, not lose the support effect due to excessive gap; the combination of the above three-stage series outer sealing ring 4 and polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3 constitutes a triple redundant sealing barrier for the mating surface. When the first-stage seal fails locally due to extreme working conditions, the second-stage and third-stage seals can still maintain the sealing function independently, thereby preventing seawater from seeping into the connector through the mating surface and completely overcoming the industry pain point of "one failure means overall failure" of traditional single-stage seals.

[0023] This implementation example Figure 1 As shown, a gradient groove is provided at the insertion surface of the insert sealing sleeve 2 and the plug housing 1. An intermediate sealing ring 5 is installed at the gradient groove. The intermediate sealing ring 5 is located on the axial outside of the three-stage sealing groove. It is used to provide auxiliary sealing to the outermost end of the insertion mating surface after the plug housing 1 is fully inserted, and to further prevent the initial intrusion of external seawater along the insertion gap.

[0024] Regarding the sealing of the mating surfaces of internal parts, the present invention has also made important improvements. In this embodiment, the mating wall corresponding to the exposed section of the mounting plate 6 and the pin body 7, as well as the mating wall corresponding to the side plate of the mounting plate 6 and the insert sealing sleeve 2, are provided with multiple levels of internal sealing grooves. Each level of internal sealing groove is equipped with an O-ring sealing gasket. This structure enables independent radial seals to be formed between the pin body 7 and the mounting plate 6, and between the mounting plate 6 and the insert sealing sleeve 2, thereby constructing the first internal waterproof barrier inside the connector.

[0025] In addition, the exposed section of the insert sealing sleeve 2 is axially inserted into the internal mounting hole of the equipment compartment mounting panel 13. A locking ring 9 is installed at the inner edge of the inner end section of the insert sealing sleeve 2, and an inner sealing ring group 10 is provided at the mating point between the inner wall of the sealing sleeve 2 and the outer edge of the locking ring 9. The inner sealing ring group 10 is used to seal the assembly gap between the insert sealing sleeve 2 and the locking ring 9 to prevent seawater from seeping into the equipment compartment from the inner end section of the insert sealing sleeve 2 along the locking ring 9.

[0026] Furthermore, O-rings are installed at the mounting interface between the sealing mounting plate 8 and the equipment compartment mounting panel 13. Simultaneously, the inner exposed section of the insert sealing sleeve 2 inserted into the equipment compartment mounting panel 13 in this embodiment has multiple levels of clamping grooves along its outer wall along the axial direction, and each level of clamping groove is also equipped with an O-ring. These O-rings are used to seal the connection surface between the outer wall of the insert sealing sleeve 2 and the inner wall of the mounting hole of the equipment compartment mounting panel 13, thereby constructing an external waterproof barrier at the mounting interface between the socket assembly 12 and the equipment compartment.

[0027] It should be noted that the working principle and dynamic sealing process of this embodiment are as follows: After the plug assembly 11 and the socket assembly 12 are inserted into place, the plug housing 1 and the insertion sealing sleeve 2 are inserted and fitted together. At this time, the outer edge sealing ring 4 in the three-stage sealing groove is tightly attached to the outer wall of the plug housing 1 under its own elasticity, forming an initial contact seal. When the connector is in a deep-sea high-pressure environment, the external seawater pressure pushes the outer edge sealing ring 4 axially toward the polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3. Since the polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3 has extremely high rigidity and compressive strength, it can firmly support the outer edge sealing ring 4, restrict its radial expansion and axial extrusion, and effectively prevent the outer edge sealing ring 4 from being squeezed into the tiny fitting gap between the plug housing 1 and the insertion sealing sleeve 2 by high-pressure seawater, thereby avoiding the problem of the sealing ring failing due to shearing by the metal edge of the housing in the traditional structure.

[0028] Meanwhile, even if the first-level outer edge sealing ring 4 is damaged due to extreme abnormal operating conditions, the second and third-level outer edge sealing rings 4 and the corresponding polytetrafluoroethylene gaskets 3 still maintain a good sealing fit and continue to perform the sealing function, realizing three-level redundant protection of the mating surface; if all three-level seals of the mating surface fail completely due to force majeure, after seawater enters the connector, it will first be isolated by the intermediate sealing ring 5, and then encounter the O-ring sealing gasket in the multi-level inner sealing groove of the mounting plate 6. This seal can block the path of seawater to penetrate into the equipment compartment along the surface of the pin body 7; at the same time, the inner sealing ring group 10 and the O-ring sealing gasket at the mating surface of the sealing mounting plate 8 and the equipment compartment mounting panel 13 further form a final barrier at the installation interface between the connector and the equipment compartment.

[0029] Therefore, this invention constructs a progressive protection system with full path and multiple levels by organically combining the three-level redundant sealing of the mating surfaces and the multi-layer sealing of the mating surfaces of internal parts. Even if the mating surfaces fail completely, it can still ensure that seawater cannot enter the equipment compartment, thus fundamentally guaranteeing the operational safety of the entire underwater equipment.

[0030] Compared with traditional technologies, this invention does not require high-cost insert injection molding or glass sintering processes that are susceptible to vibration and impact damage. It achieves a low-cost, high-vibration-resistance, easy-to-assemble, and reliable sealing effect for high-current deep-water sealed connectors through a clever combination of sealing groove, standard sealing ring and polytetrafluoroethylene gasket 3. It is particularly suitable for high-current transmission conditions with large volume, large weight and high load.

[0031] It should be noted that if the embodiments of the present invention involve directional indicators (such as up; down; left; right; front; back, etc.), the directional indicators are only used to explain the relative positional relationship between the components in a certain specific posture; movement, etc. If the specific posture changes, the directional indicators will also change accordingly.

[0032] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the details of the exemplary embodiments described above, and that the invention can be implemented in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the invention. Therefore, the embodiments should be considered in all respects as exemplary and non-limiting, and the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description. Thus, it is intended that all variations falling within the meaning and scope of equivalents of the claims be included within the present invention.

Claims

1. A high-current, deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing, comprising a plug assembly (11) and a socket assembly (12) for mating, wherein the socket assembly (12) is detachably mounted on the outer end of an equipment compartment mounting panel (13), characterized in that: The plug assembly (11) includes a plug housing (1), and the socket assembly (12) includes a plug-in sealing sleeve (2) that is fitted onto the outside of the plug housing (1), and the plug-in sealing sleeve (2) is mounted on the outer end of the equipment compartment mounting panel (13) via a sealing mounting plate (8). A pin body (7) is installed along the inside of the plug housing (1) and the axis of the insert sealing sleeve (2) via a locking ring (9), and an installation clamp (6) is provided between the exposed section of the pin body (7) located outside the plug housing (1) and the insert sealing sleeve (2). The insert sealing sleeve (2) and the plug housing (1) are provided with a series of sealing grooves arranged in a axial direction, and a polytetrafluoroethylene gasket (3) is installed in the sealing groove. The polytetrafluoroethylene gasket (3) is used to support the sealing ring under pressure and prevent deformation damage.

2. The high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The inner end section of the insert sealing sleeve (2) is inserted into the equipment compartment mounting panel (13), and the locking ring (9) is installed at the inner edge of the inner end section of the insert sealing sleeve (2). The insert sealing sleeve (2) and the locking ring (9) are provided with an inner sealing ring group (10) at their outer edges.

3. The high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The sealing grooves are arranged in three stages in series along the axial direction. An outer sealing ring (4) and a polytetrafluoroethylene gasket (3) are installed in the sealing grooves. The polytetrafluoroethylene gasket (3) is used to support the sealing ring and restrict the outer sealing ring (4) from deforming in the direction of the mating gap when under pressure.

4. The high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing as described in claim 3, characterized in that: The insertion sealing sleeve (2) and the insertion surface of the plug housing (1) are provided with gradient grooves, and an intermediate sealing ring (5) for sealing the connection surface is installed in the gradient groove.

5. The high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing as described in claim 1, characterized in that: The mounting clamp (6), the exposed section of the pin body (7), and the corresponding side wall of the insert sealing sleeve (2) are all provided with multi-level inner sealing grooves, and O-rings are installed in the inner sealing grooves.

6. The high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing as described in claim 3, characterized in that: The axial width of the sealing groove is greater than the total axial width of the outer sealing ring (4) and the polytetrafluoroethylene gasket (3) assembled together.

7. The high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing as described in claim 1, characterized in that: An O-ring is installed at the mating surface between the sealing mounting plate (8) and the equipment compartment mounting panel (13).

8. The high-current deep-water sealed connector with reliable sealing as described in claim 7, characterized in that: The inner end section of the insert sealing sleeve (2) inserted into the equipment compartment mounting panel (13) is provided with multiple sleeve grooves along the axial direction. The O-ring is installed in the sleeve groove and is used to seal the connection surface between the insert sealing sleeve (2) and the equipment compartment mounting panel (13).

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