Astute Electronics, the leading supplier of electronic components and value added services, has introduced the Amphenol Titanium HTC range of aero-engine connectors that made their first appearance at this year’s Farnborough Air Show.
Aero-engines provide one of the harshest environments for connectors and interconnection systems. This precludes the use of standard plated aluminium alloy connectors and has led to the use of stainless steel as standard. Steel provides excellent strength and temperature stability but is significantly heavier than aluminium and this is a major disadvantage in an application where weight is a significant factor.
To address this issue, Amphenol Titanium HTC connectors are based on EN2997 and have been designed to meet the requirements of Rolls-Royce specifications ESC20 and ESC21. Titanium offers comparable performance to stainless steel but is significantly lighter leading to an approximate 30% weight saving on assembled connectors.
To develop this range of connectors, Amphenol has invested in state-of-the-art turning centres in the UK and has made significant improvements in processing methods and set-ups that have led to major reductions in machining run-times. This expertise has been used to set up a duplicate facility in the company’s AS9100 approved manufacturing centre in India using the same machines, tool sets and programmes with UK trained operators
Available in shell sizes 08 to 24, the HTC Titanium connectors are in full production and are extensively used on major civil aerospace engine programmes.
“This capability also allows us to offer other connector series such as MIL-DTL-38999 in Titanium and, in conjunction with Amphenol’s new hermetic facility at Martec, we also supply Titanium connectors with hermetic sealing,” said Gary Evans, E-mech Divisional Manager at Astute Electronics.