University of Waterloo “WATSUB” Revisited
Every year, the International Submarine Races are hosted by the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division. This is one of the largest model ship testing facilities in North America and engineering teams from all over the world compete to see who can design, build and race a human-powered sub in an underwater course for awards in various categories.
CPI has long been an indirect sponsor of this event, donating various switches from our waterproof switch inventory to help the teams get their submarines together on a budget. For the second year in a row, CPI contributed switches to help the team from the University of Waterloo in Ontario Canada get their submarine named “Claire” to compete.
This year the team was able to successfully complete the course and is eagerly awaiting their results.
CPI waterproof limit switches and pendant switches were used for their completely waterproof capability. The Watsub team was particularly interested in our B5114, a normally open pushbutton switch which was set to control critical safety systems in the submarine. This is an IP 68 rated switch that would handle a 12V, 0.25A load used in the sub. Ultimately our off the shelf switch with silver alloy contacts was the right choice. For those with more stringent requirements switches are also available with gold contacts and customizable lead lengths.
Hey, you don’t have to be building a human powered submarine to appreciate our waterproof switches…
Give us a call today to discuss your application.
