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.
-- Dickcheney6, Mar 28 2009

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]

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.
-- jutta, Mar 28 2009


So this is for patching bad solder points? Soldering isn't that hard, you know.

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.

The same company makes an adhesive version of the compound.
-- Spacecoyote, Mar 28 2009


//So this is for patching bad solder points? Soldering isn't that hard, you know.//

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.
-- Dickcheney6, Mar 29 2009


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.
-- bungston, Mar 29 2009



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