Douglas Electrical Components had an incredibly successful showcase at the recent 2023 Turbomachinery & Pump Symposia held in Houston. The three-day event was a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with both our loyal customers and potential new clients. Many attendees were pleasantly surprised to discover our expertise in hermetic sealing and the capabilities we offer. Throughout the event, we received numerous inquiries that we believe will be valuable for you in your design endeavors.
Are your feedthroughs NEMA rated?
While the answer is yes, we pride our technology on the ability to hermetically seal and exceed standard NEMA ratings. Our proprietary epoxy hermetically seals to both the conductor and housing to create a liquid and gas tight bond. Each assembly is helium leak tested to ensure there is no potential leak path for liquids or gases to penetrate the feedthrough. Additionally, we can offer pressure testing for our hermetic feedthrough assemblies up to 12,500 PSI (About 860 bar) at our NJ manufacturing facility.
How are your hermetic feedthroughs sealed? How are they different than a compression fitting?
Epoxy feedthroughs have three basic components, the mechanical interface (or housing), the conductor (wire, pin, socket, etc.), and epoxy. Douglas employs a proprietary, chemically inert epoxy that creates a hermetic seal or bond to the housing as well as the conductor. Our highly skilled technicians will expose the conductor within the housing to ensure that the epoxy hermetically seals beyond the wire jacket and directly to the conductor. The illustration to the right shows the exposed conductor within the blue epoxy and housing.
Conversely, compression feedthroughs use a mechanical strain on the outside of the conductor or jacket to seal within the feedthrough housing. While compression fittings are common in various industries and applications where field customization is more desirable, there are limitations to the sealing capability.
For more information visit our page on epoxy feedthrough technology.
Does Douglas Electrical Components offer ATEX certified feedthroughs?
Not yet, but soon. Douglas currently has samples being agency tested to be qualified to ATEX and IECEx Exd Zone 0 ratings. We have received audits for QAR/QAN to achieve ATEX and IECEx ratings. Additionally, Douglas has partnered with various customers to develop hermetic feedthroughs and circuits that are then certified within our customer’s ATEX file. Contact our team today to learn more about our capabilities for hazardous locations.
Are Douglas feedthroughs used in marine and submersible applications?
Yes. We offer hermetic feedthrough and connector solutions for marine applications. Our team can integrate a wet pluggable connector into a feedthrough design as well as create a wire or optical fiber solution that is hermetically sealed for operation in a subsea environment, but terminated in a non-subsea environment. Our feedthroughs are designed in OEM marine equipment in pressure and vacuum environments.
Do the terminations at each end of the feedthrough need to be the same?
Absolutely not. Epoxy offers the design flexibility to customize both ends of the feedthrough to meet the exact requirements of the application. So, if a mag bearing assembly requires a cable with integral connector on one end and lead wires on the other, Douglas will hermetically seal that termination within the feedthrough housing using epoxy. This creates the ultimate design flexibility to increase reliability while decreasing cost.
Are there any questions we can be answering for you? Do you want to revisit any previously quoted items or discuss new applications? Reach out to our team to start designing.
Thank you to all that visited! We will back next year for the 2024 Turbomachinery & Pump Symposia.
