In article , David WE Roberts scribeth thus
We used to use over size lugs on 40 kW TV 'mitters and they had to be sort of crimped and soldered .. dunno know quite why except that the BBC wanted them that way;!...
Soldering is obviously fine on connectors designed for it. But on cars and in this case a camper, all the loom connectors are crimped. Of course on such a large cable it may not make much difference in the end. Although it's probably easier to make a reasonable solder joint than crimp, if you don't have the correct crimping tool. Assuming you can solder. ;-)
crimping soft solder is bad, because it has low elasticity. It ends up progressively squashing under stress, getting loose and falling out.
Cars are crimped because its cheaper than doing a proper supported solder job. And its very good with automatic equipment. Soldering is a more manual process.
They are crimped because it is more reliable in the environment.
I wonder if they solder the looms on aircraft?
Your computer is soldered by hand?
His keyboard clearly was. One hand, blindfold.
That depends. The way I was taught in the 60's was to solder the loom but absolutely to have a tie to tie the loom to the structure so it couldn't flex with respect to the joint.
Crimps CAN be more reliable, but are prone to corrosion inside the crimp itself.
As any car electrician can tell you.
I would say that solder is far more reliable than a mechanical connection PROVIDED the strain relief is done properly. If it is not, crimps are far more reliable.
Wires mostly are, yes.
That is,flexible cables.
Except of course they are not - we use the IDC which is a sort of crimp, and ribbon cables.
I.e. making soldered wire looms is hard to do on automatic kit.
Only badly made ones. Properly done, they are airtight.
Not on any typical car loom I have seen. Just look at the BT style of crimp for telephone cables. Jelly filled, self amalg tape..and they STILL fail.
In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus
Yes they don't solder those anymore too expensive to do..
Yes had plenty of practice and crimping both are good if done well..
I'd umm .. hardly call them crimps like the IDC connectors .. still theres a hellva lot of them out there anyway...
Well yes but that depends how much solder there is in there;)...
The crimps used on car wiring are nearly always 'uninsulated' crimps which I suspect are much less good at being airtight.
Right, so we are agreed that soldering ( tinning ) then crimping is bad.
But what about the reverse: Crimping then soldering?
Strip the wire a tad longer than you might otherwise, Crimp it normally, but there will be some short excess poking through the crimp tunnel toward the eyelet. Apply solder from that end such that it wicks back down toward the tunnel entrance and around the base of the body. Not too much so that it flows round the entire eyelet, or even makes an uneven surface for the screw/washer that will go through the eyelet.
Considering how many millions of those are in use the failure rate is negligible. I'm not sure why one would ever waste time putting tape over them as they work very reliably as they are. (Again assuming they are assembled with the correct tooling - I've seen electricians using girt big pliers to crush them flat).
There are no critical applications (aerospace, nautical, communications or vehicle) where solder connectors are recommended over crimp connectors. In most such applications solder connections are prohibited.
That supports what I've read and believe to be so.
Apart from the creeping problem, soldering a joint raises the stress on the wire where the solder finishes. That's where it fails under vibration. It changes the failure mode from a (normally) gradual failure inside the crimp connector to a relatively sudden failure a short distance away from the connector.
In my experience, and suchlike......
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