1960s-1982 smelly caps - polychlorinated biphenyls?
There were a lot of smelly caps in the 1960s to 1982.
These have, respective have developed a very annoying fruity smell over the years.
My personal guess is that the bungs get stiff over time, allowing the PCB contents to gas out.
Notorious are the Sprague Atom, Mallory and some Japanese brands.
These were used mainly for linear power supplies.
I have either removed quite a lot of these from old HP, Tektronix and Japanese products like VTRs and amplifiers manufactured from the 1960s to about 1982, or outright threw away that equipment because I find that smell very ugly and nasty, as it is very sticky (= secondary contamination).
To my knowledge the usage of PCBs in caps has been forbidden internationally 1982.
This coincides with my observation that in post-1982 stuff this kind of smelly caps is not present.
There is little to no information in the web about this topic.
I suspect this is because of the PCBs, a very dangerous substance group.
Characteristic for these is their smell, which can be described as sort of artificially-fruity.
Only very few of these caps were marked with a warning of being PCB containing.
Do you know for signs on caps that can indicate PCB content (or its absence) with certainty?
And, finally my warning:
Remove these caps only at open air - not in a room!
The leads are usually very thick. So when desoldering they get hot and evaporate a lot of that sh!t inside, which then gasses out into your face through the hard and no-longer-tight bungs.
In some cases the caps cans are soldered also, which makes removal with a hot air gun mandatory, leading to extreme emissions. If you do this in a room, you will smell the sh!t for weeks and months. So do not do this!
These have, respective have developed a very annoying fruity smell over the years.
My personal guess is that the bungs get stiff over time, allowing the PCB contents to gas out.
Notorious are the Sprague Atom, Mallory and some Japanese brands.
These were used mainly for linear power supplies.
I have either removed quite a lot of these from old HP, Tektronix and Japanese products like VTRs and amplifiers manufactured from the 1960s to about 1982, or outright threw away that equipment because I find that smell very ugly and nasty, as it is very sticky (= secondary contamination).
To my knowledge the usage of PCBs in caps has been forbidden internationally 1982.
This coincides with my observation that in post-1982 stuff this kind of smelly caps is not present.
There is little to no information in the web about this topic.
I suspect this is because of the PCBs, a very dangerous substance group.
Characteristic for these is their smell, which can be described as sort of artificially-fruity.
Only very few of these caps were marked with a warning of being PCB containing.
Do you know for signs on caps that can indicate PCB content (or its absence) with certainty?
And, finally my warning:
Remove these caps only at open air - not in a room!
The leads are usually very thick. So when desoldering they get hot and evaporate a lot of that sh!t inside, which then gasses out into your face through the hard and no-longer-tight bungs.
In some cases the caps cans are soldered also, which makes removal with a hot air gun mandatory, leading to extreme emissions. If you do this in a room, you will smell the sh!t for weeks and months. So do not do this!
But this is a different smell.
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