Failure Analysis on Damage of Pin of Electrical Connector

After electrical test, one pin of the separate plug of an automatically-separating electrical connector was found to have been damaged at the end. In order to find out the failure cause, macro and micro observation, microstructure examination, chemical composition analysis and discharge simulation test were carried out. The results show that the failure mode of the pin is electrical damage. Arc discharge led to molting and sputtering of the pin tip metal. Arc damage also occurred at the inner wall of shell, causing accumulative burl. As a result, the clearance between the pin and the shell decreased and the media between the pin and the shell resulted in breakdown discharge.