Loosened Contacts | Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering

Defect Description

Connector contacts become less intact which can lead to increase in contact resistance or signal distortion.

Defect Formation Process(s)

Common causes for this defect include mishandling during assembling, shipping or in field environment.

List of Tests to Precipitate this Defect	Failure Acceleration	Likelihood to Precipitate this Defect (condition)	Failure Mechanism(s)
Random Vibration (RS/ED)	• Random Vibration can accelerate the separation of the contact surfaces by mechanical fatigue.	✔/✇ (Defect orientation is sensitive to the vibration axes)	Mechanical Fatigue
Combined Environment	• Same as Random Vibration	✔	Mechanical Fatigue
Bend Test	• Bending can separate the loosened contact surfaces.	✇ (Defect at a location with significant strain due to bending)	Mechanical Overstress

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