Watertight Enclosure (WTE) Locking Series Assembly
By Kevin
Introduction
Blue Robotics offers a series of watertight enclosures for use on ROVs, AUVs, and other marine vehicles. A modular design consisting of a tube, sealing flanges, and various end caps allows lots of flexibility and modification. The enclosures are made of high-quality, precision machined parts and are simple to assemble.Important Notes
Always inspect the O-rings before operation in water and especially when replacing the end-caps, aluminum flanges, or penetrators. Any dust, hair, or other particles can cause a leak.
Use plastic tools, NOT steel or other hard tools, to remove the O-rings from the aluminum sealing flange. Hard tools can create scrapes that will compromise sealing ability.
Most threadlockers are not chemically compatible with with polycarbonate, and will damage the dome flange if used excessively on the screws. Refer to the documentation and chemical compatibility notes of your threadlocker of choice for more information.
Only clean the dome and acrylic tubes with acrylic specific cleaner or plain water. Solvents, alcohol and other cleaners will craze and damage the material.
Parts and Tools
You Will Need
- 1 x Bottle of Threadlocker (optional, not included)
Liquid threadlocker may be used on WTEs with aluminum endcaps, however, most threadlockers are not chemically compatible with with acrylic or polycarbonate, and will damage domes or acrylic endcaps if used on any of the screws. Refer to the documentation and chemical compatibility notes of your threadlocker of choice for more information.
Assembly
1. Inspect and, if necessary, clean the O-rings, O-ring grooves and machined inner ends of the tube with a cloth. 2. Lubricate the three O-rings and machined inner ends of the tube with a thin layer of silicone grease.

For the 2″ locking series, the radial O-rings for the flange and face seal O-ring for the end cap will be the same size.
Endcaps
1. If using an end cap, the thinner O-ring is placed in the groove in the face of the flange.

Penetrators
1. Install the vent and any necessary cable penetrators into the end-cap.
Note: The four-hole end cap is threaded; thus, the penetrator nuts do not need to be installed.

Threaded

Unthreaded
Final Assembly
1. Install the flanges onto the tube.






Opening Enclosure
1. Remove the vent plug.


Making Custom End Caps
One of the cool things about the watertight enclosure design is that it’s compatible with all sort of end cap sizes and shapes. We’ve got a few different ones available but we encourage you to design your own to perfectly suit your application. The CAD files above as well as the DXF drawing file attached below will give you a good starting point for your design. You’ll need access to either 3D modeling software like SolidWorks or AutoCAD or 2D drawing software like Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, and others. WTE2-P-END-CAP-R1.DXF WTE3-P-END-CAP-R1.DXF WTE4-P-END-CAP-R1.DXF Here are a few things to remember:- We recommend the following thicknesses of cast acrylic to handle the pressure:
-
- 2″ Series: 6mm / 0.25″
- 3″ Series: 9mm / 0.375″
- 4″ Series: 12mm / 0.50″
- Note the inner diameter of the aluminum sealing flange and ensure that any holes are within that diameter.
- Feel free to extend beyond the original shape to add mounting holes, etc.
Authors
Kevin
Kevin is the Applications Engineer at Blue Robotics. He has a love for marine robotics and explorations and was one of Blue Robotics' first Kickstarter backers in 2014! Since then he's joined our team and helps fellow explorers around the world use Blue Robotics products to accomplish their missions.