Recommendation For Capacitor Mounting Compound

[Ed Hall]

Many of the Power Supply capacitors have a mounting compound, sometimes rubbery and sometimes rather hard. Is this for vibration damping or some other purpose?

What is the recommendation for a substance to use when replacing those cpacitors originally secured by a compound? Do you need to use something specific for electronics, or is an automotive high temp, sensor safe silicon OK?

What's the best and what's OK?

Thanks...

(Sorry if this info was already available. I did search, but found nothing.)

[goontron]

Re: Recommendation For Capacitor Mounting Compound

if say i'm replacing a PFC cap on a display or a grain silo on a receiver i will use RTV silicone.

[Ed Hall]

Re: Recommendation For Capacitor Mounting Compound

Thanks, goontron...

[c_hegge]

Re: Recommendation For Capacitor Mounting Compound

If it's for the smaller secondary caps, though, it's not needed.

[Jooo]

Re: Recommendation For Capacitor Mounting Compound

Sometimes I use regular hot glue, but usually it is not needed.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Recommendation For Capacitor Mounting Compound

The purpose is durability under vibration and mechanical shock. So if your system may experience vibration or shock, pretty much all tall components should be RTVed.

I've seen large 35mm x 50mm two-lead snap-in capacitors break off boards with sheared-off leads by vibration testing (fairly extreme triaxial random).