Laboratory and Field Evaluation of Connectors and Other Accessories for Aluminum Conductors in Severe Marine Environments

This test equipment and procedure provided an excellent means of comparing the efficiencies of several commercially available connectors when subjected to heavy current loading cycles and a severe marine atmosphere. Failures produced during the course of these tests appear similar in every respect to failures which we have observed at various field test stations and those referred to us by customers. In some cases, the build-up of corrosion products or salt deposits has been greater than observed at field sites but the conditions relating to failure have been identical. We believe that this type of testing will provide much valuable information and that the performance of a connector in this test more closely approaches actual operating conditions than any other laboratory tests used to date. This entire test program is completely flexible and can very easily be adapted to other natural or accelerated environments. It is our feeling that any connector or fitting which will produce satisfactory results in these tests will also operate as well or better in most other natural environments. These tests showed that platings on a connector only add more metals to the unit and increase the damaging effects of galvanic corrosion. This applies to platings on aluminum-body as well as copperalloy connectors. In general, we can show that the stability of a certain connector in our accelerated tests will also indicate its reliability when used in actual field conditions.