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www.sea-technology.com July 2015 / st 15 D eveloping equipment that safely and reliably transmits electrical power or signal through a manned submersible's pressure boundary requires ad- vanced engineering, manufacturing and testing proto- cols. Penetrators for manned submersibles must pass through the pressure boundary without compromising its integrity and, therefore, become an integral part of the boundary itself. Since the integrity of a penetrator in such an application becomes an essential compo- nent of the vehicle's life-support system, penetrators must be certifed by an organization like the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). Once approved, these sys- tems provide an ideal solution, delivering safe, rugged, long-term connectivity options that require nominal maintenance despite long-term operation in seawater. The high cost of downtime for any submarine can po- tentially be a serious issue, especially for tourist sub- marines, which work back-to-back tours, providing all income for the entire operation. Therefore, a con- nectivity solution like penetrators is ideal, eliminating the need to factor in regular maintenance on outboard cables. DeepSea Submarine Technologies Inc. (Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands) recently contacted BIRNS Inc. (Oxnard, California) to develop 18 ABS-certifed custom penetrators and cable assemblies for its 65-foot, 300-FSW-rated manned tourist submarine, Deepstar. The DS-48 class, 68-foot long, ABS-ASME-certifed sub is capable of carrying up to 48 passengers on a coastal route in Saipan Lagoon, Northern Mariana Islands, usually with dive durations of 60 minutes. DeepSea Submarine Technologies needed to retroft the 15-year- old sub to replace its thruster and control cables with BIRNS P3845 straight penetrators (P38 penetrator size, 45-millimeter thread length), in both four (P3845-4-LS) and 10 (P3845-10-LS) conductor confgurations. The penetrators were highly customized to include special marine-grade cable stock of various lengths, as well as electrical shielding and special termination. The P38 shell mounting threads were unifed thread standard (UTS) UNF-2A; 1.5 to 12 with a 12-threads-per-inch Custom ABS-Certifed Penetrators For Use on Tourist Submarine Penetrators Provide Safe, Effcient Solution By Amy Brown A J-STD-001 Class 3 certifed technician electrically terminates a double-ended insert for a P3845-10-LS penetrator for the submarine.