In general cognition, aluminum electrolytic capacitors are fragile electronic components with built-in protection mechanisms. They are prone to premature failure under harsh operating conditions, eventually resulting in venting, shutdown and permanent damage.

In certain special applications, however, restricted by dimensional and capacity limitations, capacitors have to operate in short-cycle scenarios with extremely high ripple current. Without targeted optimization design, the components will suffer rapid early failure and fail to meet customers’ practical application requirements.

Therefore, targeted product optimization and upgrading are essential to enable capacitors to operate stably under specific overload working conditions and avoid shortened service life.

Note:Overload operation of aluminum electrolytic capacitors is generally not recommended, as it will lead to unpredictable reliability risks. The following content covers specially exempted application cases only and shall not be regarded as a universal application guideline.

A customer has presented a requirement for application in high-speed, high-power ten-thousand-rpm electric blowers. The operating environment features limited space, poor heat dissipation, elevated temperatures and harsh working conditions.

Existing standard products were previously tested with unsatisfactory results. The actual operating ripple current reached 9.2A PP, far exceeding the rated value of 0.791A @ 120Hz, which caused premature component failure. For this reason, the customer contacted our company for product evaluation and customized optimization solutions.

In the standard test in a closed environment, the capacitor temperature was measured after 10 minutes of operation under 120V 60Hz power supply.

Power: 300W; Ambient Temperature: 25℃. Before the optimization of the standard product, the temperature at the center and top of the capacitor reached 70.5℃ and 71.8℃ respectively after 10 minutes of continuous operation.

From this, the direction for product improvement can be identified as enhancing the capacitor’s ripple current tolerance, reducing internal resistance, and optimizing the product structure to resist failure caused by heat generation under short-term ultra-high ripple current conditions.

The optimized new product adopts the above improvement solutions with significantly upgraded performance parameters. The actual test results are as follows:

In a standard closed-environment test, the capacitor temperature was measured after 10 minutes of continuous operation with a 120V 60Hz power supply.

Under the rated temperature, with a continuous ripple current of 2.5A applied, the product achieved a maximum average temperature rise of only 4.655°C, demonstrating a significant improvement in performance. Based on empirical evaluation, it can basically withstand 4 times the high ripple current without rapid failure.

There is a clear contrast between the old and new parameters. The new product greatly reduces power loss, with the ESR cut by nearly half. It effectively enhances product robustness and pressure resistance, enabling stable operation under short-term extreme and over-limit working conditions.

The customer has received the samples and completed a series of reliability tests. The optimized capacitors passed the endurance test under over-limit operating conditions. The product improvement has been successfully accomplished, meeting the established design targets.

Nantong Sancon Electronics consistently provides customers with the most suitable products through strong R&D capabilities and reliable production capacity.