OT for Romex jockies..but on topic for industrial electricians

. . In corrosive environments, stranded wire will corrode into the crimmped terminal and around the wire, insulating the wire from the terminal slightly causing it to burn, then fail.. thats common.

Accordingly battery cable manufacturers most often solder their wire into the crimped terminal ends.

This practice is seen pervasively in marine environments on both low amperage control circuits, and on power circuits.

Use of solder on power circuit terminals however has many problems, namely the solder melting out of the joint if the wire warms too much...and extrusion of the solder under compressive stress if screw connectors are used.. the military specs some are referring to cover that aspect... but not the other aspects.

Use of solder in an already crimped terminal serves to increase the electrical contact area, thats good, and to preclude corrosive gases, vapors and oils from the joint (by wicking up the bare wire).... that is seen commonly be the cause of failure in those situations.

For the last 100 years... and currently.... most if not all controls systems and component manufacturers dip wire ends in solder that are to be fit under screw head connectors... the practice is at least 90% common.... thats with *control circuits.

The practice is not common with power circuits for the reasons mentioned but is still seen in some situations (primarily corrosive environments... anyone can purchase NEC approved soldered connectors of course for those purposes... those are also pervasively common, especially in the electronics industry.)

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220,000 hits... lots of good articles on the first page.

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There is a time and a place to solder crimped or non crimped terminals and bare wire ends to be fit under a screw head.... and a time when that is not a good idea (hot running situations, although Ive seen pure silver or brassed connections in those locations)

Phil Scott Mechanical/ Electrical engineer and industrial controls contractor since 1852 (I'm very old)

Reply to
Phil Scott
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In corrosive environments most engineers specify for provide the neccessary preventative maintenance needed to prevent such.

Reply to
volts500

On 14 Feb 2006 12:11:47 -0800, "volts500" Gave us:

Such as gas and liquid tight couplings and terminations, and anto-corrosion treatments.

His example of car battery cables are an example where the industry compromised the norm since it was merely a consumer product.

Note that modern battery cables are molded, sealed (gas and liquid tight) connector, and car makers use mating surface anti-corrosion preparations... like you knew it would be.

Note his comments where he blatantly insults residential electricians.

You have to watch out for this guy. He thinks electrons travel on the surface of a wire, and that the wire's ampacity is related to its surface area, as opposed to cross sectional surface area, ie circular mils. He spreads FUD, and insults entire groups of folks worst than Ross Perot could on his worst day.

Reply to
Roy L. Fuchs

oh please... you can do better than that bit of spin. The major part of prevention is good design and pre-emptive measures.

later

Phil Scott

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Reply to
Phil Scott

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