[ARC5] Silicone Tape

[Robert Eleazer]

First, I looked on ebay and found that Friction Tape seems to still be made and a number of sellers were offering it.

Back in the early 80's I was investigating a problem with a water heater and found that the electrical connections were bound first with Friction Tape and then with plastic electrical tape over that.  I then realized what the Friction part was about - to give purchase to the electrical tape overwrapping it.

But today I tried out the Radio Shack silicone tape that I had sitting around for some years and it seemed to work.  I'll check on the connection tomorrow and if it looks like it has set up well, I'll do the other large diameter high current connection the same way.  For the smaller connections to the switch I'll use the heat shrink tubing I already have.

"Funny" story about that silicone tape.  It is common practice with space launch vehicles to wrap the wire bundles with silicone tape, for insulation as much as anything.  But in 1999 they launched a Titan IV with an IUS upper stage and the mission failed because the IUS did not stage properly.  They looked at the close out photos of the IUS and found that after assembling the wiring harness connectors that were to separate at staging they had then gone back in and wrapped silicone tape over the entire harness INCLUDING the separation connectors.  Further investigation showed that on earlier flights, while they had successful separation, the separations were still a bit anomalous and looking at the close out photos from those flights showed the SAME mistake had been made.              

Thanks for the help, guys!

Wayne