I'm not speaking for Elecraft, but I've had a little experience with contact lubricants. Like most other things in engineering, there are tradeoffs involved. The manufacturer will tell you that they are a must, but for properly designed contact interfaces, as in Elecraft equipment, they shouldn't be required. They can help in situations such as tin to tin contacts with insufficient normal force applied by the contact. 100 Grams is considered minimum for most tin/tin interfaces. Tin/Gold interfaces may also be an appropriate application for lube. They are also used to increase the number of insertion/ withdrawal cycles on a connector. This was our application. On the flip side. Lubricants may actually accelerate corrosion, since they can give mobility to ions. If there vibration present, a contact may move microsopically causing it to "hydroplane" and cause brief loss of contact. (Mostly related to card edge, I believe..)
Before I considered using it, I would want to do some serious testing. John KB1NO K2 #157 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
