I think crimp on terminals are an accident waiting to happen.
They can be, if you use incorrect tooling and techniques, and far too many do. There are millions & millions of crimps on every aircraft in the air today. NASA and the US Military use them almost exclusively as does the automotive industry and just about every industry out there.
There must always be a conductive compound inside before the crimp is made to reduce heat from a poor connection and they need to be checked regularly.
If you have any evidence from crimp terminal manufacturer that supports this claim I would love to see it. If you have any scientific white papers or study's relating to this practice I'd also love to see those. Most crimp terminal manufacturers, including AMP/Tyco, Molex etc. suggest proper tooling, proper wire preparation, clean wire and no solder or added compounds.. In both AMP and Molex training, I've attended both, they specifically advised against any of these compounds inside the crimp band.
Ok to put them on after the crimp is executed, coating the bus bar etc, but no crimp manufacturer I know of specifically advises any terminal or conductive grease inside the crimp terminal. The only science based evidence I have found is that these compounds, in the salt water environment, only create more issues that tend to solve. This is due to adding yet another alloy to the mix which leads to galvanic corrosion issues. With a proper crimp, using the right tooling, the wire is cold formed creating what is know as a "gas tight" crimp or as AMP refers to it as an "near electrically invisible" termination.. Sadly far too many folks are using sub par tooling when they make crimp terminations. If I had a dime for every professional or DIY I have seen who only owns one crimp tool I'd be retired. To do my job
properly requires in excess of $5K in crimp tooling. I choose to use aerospace grade tooling that can make NASA or Mil-Spec level terminations. Heck just a set of "locators" for my Daniels AFM8 tool run close $130.00 for one specific set of M/F miniture or sub-min pins..
I would rather replace everyone with a terminal strip that is properly designed to cinch the wire between two flat, perhaps textured, surfaces.
In my experience, which is marine based, I would say this is not going to as well as a
properly made crimp termination for marine use.. Bare wire pinched between two plates generally holds up only marginally in the marine environment and allows corrosion to wick up the wire.
Your penchant against crimping is possibly because you're used to solid conductor wire or heavy strand wiring which was really never intended for crimped termination. AMP, Molex etc. do make terminals and tooling for heavy stranding and even some for solid but these are not terminals you'll find at your local stores..
With the fine strands we use in the marine space the wire can further compress, after you've torqued it between the plates, and this can lead to high resistance. Proper crimp tooling compresses the stranding and crates cold flow cold formed terminations. Even solder will not flow into the crimp-band of a properly made crimp..
Sub par tooling will not accomplish this so let's not lump all crimp terminations into one basket..
