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several things in computers and other electronic devices are soldered
in place. That in itself isn't so bad but if the soldered connection is
between a wire or circuit board and a cable hookup or a battery
contact, the soldered connection may brake, causing the device to
lose power or a USB port
to stop working, or work intermittently-i.e.
you have to jiggle the cord in it's socket to make it work. this is
more likely to happen in portable devices because they are subject to
being bumped around in a backpack, have the charger cords
accidentally tripped over, dropped with headphones still connected,
etc.
Conductive putty to the rescue! Basically this conductive putty will be
the consistency of silly putty or play dough, but will be mixed with
some sort of conductive material, in such a way that even when the
putty dries up, it will still conduct electricity. If connections need to
be made in close proximity to each other, there will be a spacer to
avoid the risk of a short circuit. This type of connection will be used
in areas subject to stress during normal use (such as a battery
contact or cable connector) to extend the life of the device-that
alone is probably the reason that electronics companies don't do this!
:D
The conductive putty will not only reduce the likelyhood of bad
connections, but make them easier to fix if they do occur. This putty
could be sold in electronic supply stores and in home improvement
places, and over the internet-same places you would buy soldering
supplies in the real world.
AREMCO catalog
http://www.aremco.com/a8.html
I think what you describe is actually A-615, which for some reason isn't listed. [jutta, Mar 28 2009]
Dow Corning's catalog entry
http://www.dowcorni...ronics_daa_ecov.asp
[jutta, Mar 28 2009]
(?) Long-Xin Chemicals
http://www.long-xin...ages/product29e.htm
"It’s a kind of necessary material in making up drawback of metal." [jutta, Mar 28 2009]
Goophene: Hypersensitive Graphene Sensors
https://www.instruc...e-Graphene-Sensors/
An interesting application of conductive putty. Also read the unrelated instructable called "Fiber-Optic Jungle Insect Traffic Taster" from the same person [notexactly, Apr 11 2019]
[link]
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This exists, pretty much in the way you describe - I guess the links were harder to find than I expected.
I disagree with some of your materials claims, and would think that soldered connections outlive putty-based ones. |
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So this is for patching bad solder points? Soldering isn't that hard, you know. |
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Once I had a CPU die due to accidental bridging of connections with the thermal compound which was conductive (resulting from the installer {not me} putting far too much compound on and the subsequent slow spreading of the compound). I now use non-conductive compound as a precaution. |
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The same company makes an adhesive version of the compound. |
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//So this is for patching bad solder points? Soldering isn't
that hard, you know.// |
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No- what if electronics manufacturers actually made
connections with this putty instead of solder when they're
building the device to reduce the likelyhood of having to
repair broken connections down the road. |
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Solid soldered (I wonder - do the british pronounce that L?) connections are inflexible and so relatively brittle - movement from a drop or a strike will either break the connection or it will not break. A flexible connection might move a little bit with every impact (eg: footsteps) and so become less and less robust over time. Eventually the hole in the putty will be big and the wire will move about within it. The solution would be to have a putty that slowly flows and so repairs itself. One would then risk putty creep at SpaceCoyote describes, and the object would probablybe less thermally tolerant because heat would speed creep. |
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