Toggle Switch Boots

Anatomy of Toggle Switch Boots

Toggle boots are covers designed to protect the toggle switch, otherwise known as the toggle bat. The purpose of a toggle switch boot is to protect the metal bat from damaging elements like salt, wind, and water. 

A toggle boot looks simple on the surface, but beneath its simple exterior is a surprisingly complex piece of engineering. The toggle boot provides an impermeable outer seal that runs the length of the toggle bat. The boot is comprised of our single-piece Nautilus Design, which eliminates seams that might impact the boot’s structural integrity. Our boots are designed with a molded-in mounting nut and panel-sealing rib that eliminates the need for an O-ring, ensuring that the boot is firmly secured to the toggle switch assembly. 

Our Designs

All APM Hexseal toggle boots are molded from silicone and are resistant to: 

• Splash
• Salt spray
• Sunlight
• Ozone
• Fungi
• Weather
• Dust
• Most acids and lubricating oils

Our unique toggle boot designs include a threaded nickel or brass mounting nut beneath the silicone seal. Our toggle boots come in half-open or fully-enclosed configurations to suit a broader range of application needs. With the fully-enclosed design, the silicone covering extends up the toggle bat, enclosing the switch in its entirety. The half-open configuration leaves the toggle bat and actuator exposed, but seals the precision components beneath. These toggle boots are also available in our Glow-in-the-Dark material.

All APM Hexseal toggle switch boots have a superior shelf life of 25 years and come with our signature sealing rib, ensuring a tight, secure seal around the mounting panel to protect the switch’s critical components.    

Install Quickly With Our Patented IQ Series

APM Hexseal toggle boots feature our patented integral IQ mounting nut, facilitating a quick and seamless installation process. Our IQ technology is designed to fit quickly and securely over the switch’s existing front panel mounting nut. Our quick installation products offer:

• Quick and efficient retrofitting of booted or non-booted switches
• Seamless installation on original equipment assemblies
• Aesthetic options for smooth, rounded, or colored switch exteriors
• Superior protection against corrosion and environmental hazards 

Our toggle boots come standard in black or gray, with a full line of custom colors available. 

Materials

Our toggle boot products are primarily made from silicone molded over a mounting nut. However, we are capable of manufacturing toggle boots from other elastomeric materials to match environmental conditions on an as-needed basis. Our UL-recognized toggle boots are precision-engineered to maintain uniform consistency and performance across a wide variety of environments. A secondary inner seal also ensures the boot’s integrity should a tear or puncture occur. 

Our high-performance silicone products have a number of unique qualities that make them suited for a wide variety of industries, including military and naval applications. Those properties include:

• Extreme elongation
• High actuation life of up to 100,000 cycles and beyond
• Wide temperature operating range of -94°F to 400°F

Sealing boots from APM Hexseal are the product of our proprietary manufacturing process. Our boots are molded, then oven-aged to reduce silicone outgassing to the highest possible degree. Silicone outgassing may cause the silicone to migrate to adjacent surfaces at the molecular level, creating a potential for malfunction. The sealing rib included in our boots prevents any remaining seepage from harming critical electrical components.  

Applications

Our lever-lock toggle boot is ideally suited for a wide range of challenging heavy-use applications including:

• Military
• Aerospace
• Marine
• Heavy industries

Due to their design, APM Hexseal toggle switch boots are well-suited to any industrial application in which the switch assembly is exposed to harmful elements or extreme conditions. By design, our boots ensure the critical components activated by the switch operate reliably. 

About APM Hexseal

At APM Hexseal, we manufacture sealing solutions for switches and circuit breakers in virtually any operation, no matter how harsh the service conditions may be. Our products are designed to significantly extend the serviceable life of switches in some of the world’s most challenging operational environments.

Our products come in a wide range of styles and sizes. If you would like to see how our sealing solutions can protect your sensitive equipment, please contact us  today. Our team is waiting to help you find a sealing solution that fits the unique needs of your operation.