I'm dealing with an equipment which has a lot of internal wiring. The system is powered in 12V but the wires carry a good amount of current (in excess of 10A). I need to connect different units with screws terminals (power supply, relays, potentiometers etc..) and for this purpose I am using insulating ring terminals which are crimped to the wire and then secured (for reliability issues) with an extra heat shrinking tube. The ring itself of the terminal is not insulated and a single fault condition could cause the terminal to touch any of other electronics inside the panel. In order to increase the reliability level which kind of insulation can I put on top of the screws of the ring terminals? Is hot melt adhesive a good option? Or is there a specific solution? I usually dont rely much on insulation that melts at low temperatures since high currents can cause quite an increase of temperature which can in its turn melt down the insulation and start a negative cycle which in the end destroys the lead.
example
Best Answer
If you do the mechanical part of your job right, then there's no way that anything can be flopping around inside your box, just inviting disaster.
Here are a couple of examples of equipment laid out properly:
Notice how everything is laid out neatly, as if it were planned, and harnessed and secured properly in order to completely eliminate the possibility of an inadvertent mis-connection/short in the box.
Also, in the topmost photo, notice the use of crimp terminals and a Jones-type barrier strip secured to the chassis in order to make connections to a cable leading to the outside world, and a terminal board used to secure - and provide connections to - the resistor array.
This method of construction can be used universally where wiring by hand is required, will yield very reliable equipment, and eliminates the need for hot glue. ;)