TAMPA, FL. Two products – one designed to fight corrosion in seven-pin connectors, the other to help prevent damage to trailer air and electrical cables – were unveiled by Phillips Industries here at the 2012 Technology & Maintenance Council annual meeting
The first is a new line of Sta-Dry Weather-Tite connectors, which will be available in July this year. Seven-way male connector plugs with integrated seals that stop moisture, especially when tainted with corrosive snow-removal chemicals such as magnesium chloride, the connectors prevent corrosive materials from entering a trailer or truck’s electrical system.
“Damage can be costly from unscheduled downtime, interruption in electrical power and even potential electrical arcing caused by moisture and contaminates in the socket,” noted Rob Phillips, Phillips’ vice president-global operations, during a press conference.
He noted that there are two versions of those Weather-Tite connectors – one made with unbreakable glass filled nylon and the second a hybrid combination using unbreakable glass filled nylon and zinc die cast. Each offers added protection from moisture with a three-blade Nitrile wiper seal at the mating end to effectively block any contaminants from entering at the seven-way connection.
The second product Phillips unveiled is the new Sta-Dry Tracker, also available in July. Its swivel electrical and air hose sockets are designed to help prevent damage to air and electrical cables, the nosebox, connectors and gladhands by allowing those cables to “turn” up to 80 deg. (40 deg. left or 40 deg. right), automatically disconnecting if the tractor-trailer turn exceeds those angles.
“Simply increasing cable length to account for this not a good option – each added foot of cable adds cost, plus a sagging cable that will rub on the deck plate causing damage and drawing attention with penalty points from CSA inspectors,” noted Bob Phillips, president & CEO.
“We’ve wanted to build this for years, but we could never find the method to make it functional without compromising the copper wire,” he noted. “Finally our engineers figured it out and we think this product can be a real game-changer because it simply saves fleets money with only a minor modification to their equipment. It pays for itself over and over again.”
Rob Phillips noted that one customer operating a fleet of 6,000 trailers typically had to replace 4,000 trailer air lines and 3,000 coiled electrical lines annually due to damage from overstretching and forced disconnect – at a cost of over $250,000 in maintenance work and downtime per year. “The Sta-Dry Tracker will prevent all of that,” he said.