Abstract
To accommodate electrification of marine transportation, robust connector solutions are required to allow safe and reliable power transfer. Accelerated aging tests have been performed to determine the influence of coastal climate (salt mist) on connectors for use to transfer power from a hub in the ocean to vessel batteries. The test objects were four 400-A ac connectors for such applications. Contact grease was applied to the contact surfaces on two of the connectors as a maintenance measure. The tests simulate about four years of operation in Norwegian coastal environments (marine corrosion index 8). The recorded resistance increases were low for the population that were regularly maintained with contact grease. An excessive contact increase was recorded for the population that was not maintained but the increase was still not large enough to cause the connectors to fail due to overheating during the simulated four years of operation.