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Old 9th November 2009, 04:06 PM   #7
JohnRoberts
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Hickory, MS
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In case it isn't apparent, large radial caps put a lot of stress on the solder connections due to mass and moment arm and such... After shaker table testing you can often find parts like this rolling around inside the chassis.. It is not uncommon to use hot melt or some other mechanical attachment for extra strength in high vibration environments.

Axial capacitors were much preferred for mechanical attachment strength but they fell out of favor for multiple cost reasons (parts more expensive and use more PCB area). At one point after they were in decline, my old employer was about the largest customer for axial caps in the US, but they were not immune to the cost pressure, and went radial too.

JR
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