A Study in Strain Relief Redesign

Cable strain relief is intended to provide a transition from flexible cable to a rigid connection or connection point. When properly designed, the strain relief will create a greater radius of curvature at the bend, preventing localized high stress, fatigue, and failure. A poorly designed strain relief can lead to harmful exposure of people and equipment to electrical current. This presentation will walk through the failure analysis of an "old" strain relief design and testing of the "new" strain relief design, showing how the new design improved the fatigue life, but transferred failure points to other components within the connector.