VFD life

[Cmdr_Suds]

Agree with all on fans, water & dirt.

Also, there was a major fracas with bad caps a decade back. Employee A snitched SekRet Formula for electrolytic caps, moved to company Q with same. Only after large production runs did Q and A figure he'd NOT gotten the whole formula; the part missing kept them working for more than N months...OOPS!

Millions of computer motherboards and much other gear failed. I know of no reason to think VFD's would be any different. Of course, MilSpec devices were unaffected {What's that you say, Lassie? Timmy's being held captive at the mill by an angry repair foreman...we better rescue him...} because no bad parts there, RIGHT?

Also consider the dichotomy: Laptops have a product cycle of 5-18 months, with a lifetime of ~3 years. Desktops are a little longer. But we expect 20-30 year old industrial controls to be supported and still sold...

Interesting article. Several years back I had a batch of Dell computer mother boards fail and when you looked at them the caps were deformed and leaking. I called Dell and found out they would replace the motherboards for two more years beyound the original warrenty period. Probably the same caps

 

[Open Neutral]

Probably the same caps

Yep... There were LOTS of shockwaves over that debacle. If they'd been going FUBAR a week or a month after purchase, it would have been a manageable issue; but showing up 18-36 months later, a lot of companies were stung.