Rohde & Scharz NGPV housing design: an afterthought?

[Apfelmus]

Hi all,

I got this power supply from a universtiy lab. 40 Volts with 5 Amps, remote controllable. When switching on, smoke came out after a minute and the fan didn't run.

The repair is done... basically a tantalum cap, as usual. I share some pics of the unit.

On the last pic you can (no more) see the replaced cap (the orange one). Replacing the cap was difficult - the board is inaccessible from the rear without dismantling the whole unit! I had to loosen the srews holding the board to bring it (and hold it!) in a position where I could hardly reach the cap with the iron. That is why there is another small tantalum left....

Getting the fan unstuck was even harder. Its so well buried under the power electronics that there is no way of putting some oil on the axis. The pics show how much dismantling was required to get this damn fan back to work.

I wonder why these high-level brands do have such ill-designed housings. It looks more like an afterthought. Last time I had a Zentro on my desk, same catastrophe, service-friendliness-wise. I havn't had an HP on the bench so far.

What's your experience? Is this all across brands, or are there some brands with (much) better design than others?

cheers
Martin