Comments, with reply, on "Metallurgic and contact resistance studies of sleeve connectors in aluminum cable splices" by C. Dang and M. Braunovic

The commenter discusses the difficult conditions imposed by IEEE-404 testing, which make connection performance very difficult to evaluate and asks for more detail from the authors of the above-titled paper (ibid., vol.13, no.1, p.74-80, March 1990) on the sample construction and preparation. The commenter maintains that it is difficult to substantiate the authors' conclusions from the information presented. The commenter notes that three reference works cited by the authors to substantiate their belief in the correlation between microstructure phenomena and contact resistance changes relate primarily to 60-40 Sn-Pb alloys and asks whether the authors have considered the applicability of the published information to the 5-93.5-1.5 Sn-Pb-Ag alloy actually used in their soldered connection. The authors provide additional detail and discussion, including the applicability of the three references.<>