SWITCHES & CONNECTORS
SEAL-CONNECT® SOLUTIONS
Why Greene, Tweed Seal-Connect®?
Greene, Tweed’s Seal-Connect® product line has evolved over 30 years of experience, partnering with the largest oilfield service companies in the world to maximize downhole reliability. Seal-Connect® products move electrical signals while maintaining a seal in upstream operations, such as drilling, completions, and production.
Greene, Tweed pioneered the Seal-Connect® product line for the oil industry, and our connectors are in wide use
with major oilfield service companies. When uptime matters, our customers trust Greene, Tweed for our high-quality
electrical connectors manufactured from our best-in-class materials for reliable and consistent performance in critical applications.
Our Seal-Connect® solutions ensure measurement accuracy and maintain signal integrity during critical operations
in challenging environments, even as operating parameters become more extreme. Seal-Connect® pressure-rated
electrical connectors are rated to 232°C (450°F) and up to 35,000 psi, with specialized designs for 260°C (500°F) and 45,000 psi.
Our portfolio of Seal-Connect® solutions has been developed over decades in collaboration with equipment manufacturers, service providers, and operators. During our long history of research and development, we have commercialized hundreds of unique solutions leveraging elastomeric and thermoplastic materials and have been granted more than 80 U.S. and foreign patents.
Greene, Tweed pioneered the use of PEEK with its Arlon® family of materials to overcome the inherent weaknesses
in glass-to-metal connectors. Our Advanced Technology Group focuses on new material development, and the team
includes PhDs in diverse disciplines such as Polymer Science, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, and Coatings.
We have in-house testing capabilities for material characterization, fluid aging, rapid gas decompression (RGD),
high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) cycling, vibration, and more.
We rigorously batch test our raw materials at our ISO 17025-certified materials lab before we manufacture those
materials at our ISO 9001-accredited facilities using industry-leading compression and injection-molding capabilities.
All of our products must pass strict quality inspection criteria prior to shipping.
Our applications engineering team has experience designing equipment at OEMs and service companies in the
industries we serve. As such, Greene, Tweed’s engineers understand the needs of the energy industry, as well as
the failure modes of materials in a wide range of operating environments. We collaborate with our customers to
select and provide the best solution for the application to keep operations running safely and reliably.
Materials
Seal-Connect® uses Greene, Tweed’s proprietary Arlon® PEEK and PEK thermoplastics, which have excellent high-temperature insulation resistance and broad chemical compatibility. Arlon® may be used with a variety of metals to produce and maintain a hermetic seal throughout the operating temperature range.
The ability to injection-mold Arlon® PEEK and PEK enables close clus-tering of pins and greater insulation resistance. Greene, Tweed can custom-engineer small connectors with high pin densities to help maxi-mize available space in critical downhole applications. Our robust designs are more resilient to vibration and shock than glass-to-metal and other lower-grade polymer connectors, while our molding and machining processes ensure a consistently high-quality product.
Traditionally, conductors have been made from a wide variety of materi-als, including beryllium copper, nickel silver, Inconel, and stainless steel. Greene, Tweed recommends beryllium copper and tellurium copper for Seal-Connect® contacts. Beryllium copper, a manufacturing standard, offers high strength and good conductivity. Tellurium copper provides higher conductivity and an improved current-carrying capacity. Custom options for pin materials are available when conditions dictate.
Seal-Connect® can be used in conjunction with other Greene, Tweed products, such as Chemraz® FFKM and Fusion™ FKM sealing solutions to match certain environmental conditions, such as temperature, pressure, and chemical compatibility. Geometries include o-rings, MSE® (metal spring energized) seals, G-T® rings, and more.
TYPES
Single-pin and coaxial Seal-Connect® designs provide secure, reliable power and signal transmission in rugged environments. They are most commonly offered in Arlon® 2000 or 3000 XT materials, with copper alloy contacts, unless otherwise specified. Our Greene, Tweed connectors can operate in environments to 35,000 psi and 260°C (500°F). We offer hundreds of single-pin designs with a variety of termination options, which can be engineered to match customer specifications or purchased from existing designs.
Seal-Connect® multi-pin connectors are injection-molded and designed to maximize electrical reliability and withstand continuous conditions up to 35,000 psi and 232°C (450°F). Multi-pin connectors are available in a variety of body types and pin counts, and our engineers can custom-design a solution to meet specific needs. Filled grades of Arlon® are also available.
Greene, Tweed pioneered the use of PEEK-based rotatable connectors for downhole drilling applications. Today, we continue to offer standard and custom designs backed by decades of materials and application knowledge and validated by extensive field use.Rotatable connectors are used at the threaded joint on downhole tool strings and work as a swivel connection as they mate. Greene, Tweed’s rotatables offer superior corrosion resistance when exposed to wellbore fluids, including drilling mud, and can be integrated with bulkhead connectors to protect the electronics behind them.Both male and female rotatable connectors are available with tempera-ture capabilities to 232°C (450°F) and pressure ratings to 35,000 psi. We offer rotatable connectors in standard designs with up to 10 contact bands. Specialized designs of 11 to 13 contact bands can be engineered upon request.
Hermaphrodite connectors have mating surfaces with both male and female contacts that are mated into identical opposite fittings for a keyed (fail-proof) installation. Our hermaphrodite connectors are rated to 204°C (399°F) and 20,000 psi. Multiple pin counts are available on request.
Seal-Connect® electrical connectors often require an elastomeric connector boot to seal against pressure and conductive fluids. Connector boots are available in various styles to allow interchangeability with existing connector systems or the exclusive use of a Seal-Connect®system. We offer single-pin and multi-pin boots and can create assemblies to suit specific needs.Boot designs leverage Greene, Tweed’s non-conductive grades of Chemraz® FFKM and Fusion™ FKM elastomers, some of which are qualified under ISO 23936-2 and NORSOK M-710 standards for RGD resistance.
Contact blocks are often required as part of the Seal-Connect® connection system, and can be custom-designed to match existing connector configurations. Contact blocks are available in male and female versions and single-pin, coaxial, and multi-pin configurations. They are also available with pin number identification, removable contacts, moisture barrier seals, or booted arrangements.
