Seriously, what sadist saw a flat PCB surface, flat pick and place machine heads, and said “lets create a round component”?
Joking aside I am genuinely curious what advantage the MELF design actually offers. I know they’re a pain to get a machine to place properly, they have more solder flow issues than components with flat leads, and they seem like they would be harder to manufacture too. So why a round component? Anyone here have any insight on why they even exist?
I may be a simpleton, but I’ve always thought that MELF was just old school SMD, where the shape hadn’t evolved yet from the though hole package.
My thought was based on all the old junk I’ve repaired, where the older it was the more likely MELF seemed to be.
I haven’t designed with MELF before, but wouldn’t it make sense for assembly operations to add a MELF fee?
From what I’ve seen I am now inclined to believe the reason people use them is because they’re more durrable and stable environmentally speaking. I imagine the reason you see them less in newer electronics is just because chip resistors and such have gotten better to the point where MELFs usually aren’t required.
As far as the additional fee, I’m not on the pricing side of things but I sure hope we charge extra because the damn things are the bane of my existence.