Where's The Gold? - Part 2 - Capacitors

[darksky1x]

I named this series “Where’s The Gold”, by gold I mean “money”. Even though it’s true there is quite a bit of gold used in the construction of small electronic components, it’s also true that there are a lot of other precious and/or rare metals used in these components other than gold and many of them are almost as valuable as gold.

Capacitors are a good example of this. Not a lot of gold used for capacitors but there are many other precious metals used in their construction and that makes them a component that’s definitely worth saving and recycling. Metals like silver, tantalum, titanium, palladium, iridium and others will be found in capacitors all you need to know is which ones to look for

Because of the large variety of capacitors and materials used in their construction I am going to give you a basic run down in this article. However I have included the chapter on capacitors from my new release, "E-Scrap Parts Manual" as a .pdf attachment for your download and use. That chapter on capacitors goes into greater detail and has a wealth of information I think you will find useful including pictures.

OK, let’s get started:

**Leaded Disc Ceramic Capacitors – Silver, Titanium (very common capacitor, widely used in electronic circuit for coupling, decoupling and in filters)

**Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor (MLCC) – Palladium, Silver (very common and can be found on PCB’s everywhere)

**Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors (Wet & Dry) – Aluminum (filtering devices in various power supplies, switching power supplies, filters in audio amplifiers, computer motherboards and PCB’s throughout the industry)

**Tantalum Electrolytic Capacitors (Wet & Dry) – Tantalum. Possibly Niobium, Iridium and Silver (mobile phones, pagers, laptop PCB’s, also in specialty industries such as space, aerospace, military, petroleum and railways, automotive, consumer electronics, medical and many other applications)

**Tantalum Foil Capacitors – Tantalum (Tantalum Foil Capacitors are generally designed for operation over the temperature range of 55C to +125C and are found in industrial and military electronics equipment)

**Silver Mica Capacitor – Silver (Coupling circuits. high-power, high-current RF broadcast transmitters, defense electronics, power conversion circuits for low-capacitance snubbed applications, cable TV amplifiers, radio/TV transmitters, high-voltage inverter circuits)

**Supercapacitors – Titanium, Iridium (solid state disk drives, mass storage backup systems,high current portable electronic devices, data loggers, medical equipment, and industrial applications such as security devices and alarm system)

Well, that’s the basic run down on capacitors. Make sure you download the attached .pdf on capacitors. which also includes pictures of all the different capacitors mentioned here and many more not mentioned. If you would like to have a copy of "E-Scrap Parts Manual" in its entirety just send me a message and I provide you with the free download link



View attachment 1.02-Capacitors-(From_E-scrap_Parts_Manual).pdf

 

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[pepperj]

Thanks for the read on the subject.

 

[billjustbill]

Which one goes on average electric motors?

Thanks

 

[darksky1x]

Which one goes on average electric motors?

Thanks

Bill, the caps in my book are just a few of the many different type of caps available today. I tried to selectively list the ones that I believed someone e-scrapping would most likely encounter. Fact is there are so many different caps I could write a book on the subject and have no problem filling up the pages.

To answer your question, I did not include any information on the caps used for electric motors. When I was actively in the work force I specialized in troubleshooting and start up of mechanical equipment used on large commercial projects. Some of the units I started up were so large you had to open a door and walk into the unit to work on it. Here's what i can tell you about AC Motor caps;

Basically there are three different type of caps used on AC Motors: 1- Start Capacitor 2- Run Capacitor and 3- Start/Run Capacitor. All three are polymer caps.
Polymer capacitors are capacitors which use conductive polymers as the electrolyte. They use solid polymer electrolytes instead of liquid or gel electrolytes that are found in ordinary electrolytic capacitors. By using a dry electrolyte they eliminate the problem of electrolyte drying that's often associated with the typical "wet" caps.


Single phase induction motors need a start capacitor to provide an electrical push to get the motor rotation started. Without a start capacitor when the voltage is applied, these motors would just hum. Once a motor reaches sufficient speed (approximately 75% capacity) the start cap is taken out of the circuit by a centrifugal switch

Some single phase induction motors need a Run caps to operate smoothly. In an AC unit run caps will sometimes be dual run caps. One capacitor provides power to the fan motor, the other sends power to the compressor and improves the performance of the motors.

A Start/Run cap improves the overall performance of single-phase induction motors. The "Start" function of the Start/Run cap remains the same as outlined above and, once the motor reaches sufficient speed, it's taken out of the circuit by a centrifugal switch. Run caps are designed for continuous and remain powered whenever the motor is powered (that's why wet electrolytic caps are not used).


Hope that information helps. If you have any additional questions please let me know and I will do what I can to answer them

 

[A2coins]

Good to know