Crimping vs Soldering

[nka]

The most you can, Solder + Heat Shrink. Look clean, solid and it's protected.

[Mjolinor]

Why on earth would you use Litz wire?

I use it a lot but it is far too expensive to use where you don't need it. I can't think of anything on a rally car that would need it nor anything on a 3d printer.

[nka]

What? You're 3D Printer dosent go 200 km/h in a trail ?

[ciutateivissa]

Why on earth would you use Litz wire?

I use it a lot but it is far too expensive to use where you don't need it. I can't think of anything on a rally car that would need it nor anything on a 3d printer.

Are you sure that we´re talking about the same thing? Unfortunately my English is not perfect and not sure if I´ve really written what I have in mind...

Hope the picture helps to understand... and please tell me how you would call it!

wires.jpg

[Mjolinor]

Are you sure that we´re talking about the same thing? Unfortunately my English is not perfect and not sure if I´ve really written what I have in mind...

Hope the picture helps to understand... and please tell me how you would call it!

wires.jpg

That is stranded wire not Litz wire. Litz wire is a very specifically wound type of wire with insulated strands that is used in radio frequency builds to reduce losses through skin effect when using AC.

[ciutateivissa]

Thanks for clarification, it is never to late to learn something new ;-)

[crowbar]

http://workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp...uirements.html

Here is what NASA has to say about crimping.

[printbus]

My two cents worth - jstck pretty much has the best post - that both approaches can provide good results, or both can provide bad. Both crimping and soldering are skills, and require the right tools.

Crimping especially requires the right tool for the contact and the wire being used. The color coded barrel contacts in the NASA reference are great to work with, but the crimp tools for them are quite expensive and any serious manufacturing house subjects them to a calibration regime that ensures the right amount of pressure is applied to the crimp. The contacts are color coded so that the technician can ensure he's got the right crimp head for the contact. Done improperly or with the wrong tool, crimped contacts can be unreliable and easy to pull from the wire, or can damage the wire by cutting into the strands.

When I splice, I always solder since I don't have an assortment of crimp ferrule sizes or the right crimp tools. Soldered splices get covered in heatshrink.

On connector contacts, some I solder and some I crimp. Contacts intended to be soldered always get soldered. Crimp contacts will be crimped IF I have the right crimper, which I seldom do. If I don't have the crimper the contact is carefully soldered, with any tabs meant to grab the insulated part of the wire bent manually with small needlenose. Part of the skill here is to be careful in how much heat and solder is being applied and in manually bending the wire holding tabs. It's easy to solder a crimp contact and then find the contact won't fit into the connector since there's too much solder or the tabs weren't bent right.

An additional comment - solder slowly creeps when it is under pressure. This is why you should NEVER apply solder to a stranded wire that will be crimped or that will be tightened under a screw head (like on a power supply terminal block). Doing so will guarantee a poor connection eventually. What I have often done in at least personal work is add solder to the stranded wire, crimp the contact onto it, and then reflow the contact with a dab of additional solder.

[CaptainObvious]

I crimp and solder, but you have to be careful not to use too much solder or it can wick up the wire past the terminal, making it relatively brittle.