Adapter plates avoid bearing stress for standard bulkhead connectors. It assures that stress from the connector towards the glass around the edges of the drill hole is deducted over a wider area.
Furthermore, potential manufacturing tolerances along the socket and/or a missing undercut there can be compensated by means of adaptor plates even without the awareness of such potential stress points.
The figure on the left shows stress points along the edge of the sealing surface of a bulkhead connector. Such damage was most likely caused by transportation due to improper packing. An adaptorplate will absorb such defects.
In the same figure, it can also be seen that there is no undercut between the shaft and the sealing surface. Depending on the chamfer size in relation to the corner radius this could lead to chipping at the edge around the corresponding drill hole. Again, an adaptor plate would compensate for it.
Nautilus Marine Service strongly recommends using adaptor plates for all commercially available bulkhead connectors and has adaptor plates in Titanium, stainless steel and brass for various diameters available. To prevent corrosion, the adaptor plate’s material should match with the material of the corresponding bulkhead connectors.
The production of our adaptor plates is a complex process and we like to underline that warranty does not cover damage resulting from use of unsuitable accessories and consumables from other manufacturers.
It should also be noticed that the usage of adaptor plates will often require connectors with a longer shaft length. Nautilus Marine Service and 3rd party connector manufacturers can supply these connectors usually with a moderate surcharge. Though, a longer lead time supposed to be anticipated as these connectors will only be manufactured on request.
An alternative way to avoid adaptor plates and even with additional benefits is the usage of bulkhead adaptors made by Nautilus Marine Service.