Existing materials used for marine cable connectors each have drawbacks in terms of cost or performance. Alden Products Company proposes a program to develop a family of cable connectors and adapters that lower the present cost/performance barrier in two ways; through the use of alternative materials and through new manufacturing methods using the existing materials. The main goals of Phase I of this program are: to select the most cost-effective of the proposed manufacturing materials and processes, to create a connector design for testing and eventual production of a family of connectors during later phases of the program, and to prepare a model to project production unit costs. We will evaluate the use of EMI-shielding thermoplastic materials and the use of insert-molded metal shields in the fabrication of these connectors. We propose to investigate modern manufacturing techniques (metal-powder injection molding and thixomolding) for low-cost fabrication of connectors in metal materials currently approved for this application. Finally, we propose to create a parametric solid-model design for the new family of cable connectors. The connectors will feature low parts count, low-cost manufacturing techniques, backwards-compatibility, and a simple design for manufacturing and assembly in order to reduce lead times for the connectors.
