While I haven't investigated this type of failure, I can speculate on some causes to consider. The overheating must be caused by an increase in resistance in the vicinity of the connector. Possible causes:
* bent contacts allowing a loose pin and socket fit (bad construction or damaged in handling or use) * contaminated contacts (bad construction or damaged in handling or use) * poor crimping/soldering (bad construction) * broken/cut strands of wire (bad construction or damaged in handling or use) There are those who make their living in forensic analysis. Try having them analyze a failure to find out the true reason. The lower cost solution is to jump on your supplier and force him to provide you with a failure analysis. ---------- From: Bob Brister To: 'Product Safety Technical Forum' Subject: Input power connections with removable cord set. List-Post: [email protected] Date: Thursday, February 06, 1997 8:20AM Hello, I may have inquired of this forum on this subject before, I can't remember. I am interested in what your experience has been with overheating of removable cord sets at the equipment input end. This would include the cord and the appliance connector. I don't know how many folks out there actually get involved with post-sales customer complaints, but perhaps you have some information you can share. My experience has been that such occurrences are rare, when considering the number of products which utilize this type of input power connection. After the damage is done it is very difficult to pin point the exact cause for the failure. With the few examples I am aware of, I have not been able to find a trend which might suggest some commonality.There are any number of reasons this might happen. If you have investigated such failures what have you found or what do you believe the more reasonable cause? Thanks for you time. Bob Brister Digital Equipment Corp. Bob Brister
