What's a snubber capacitor, and what's it used for?

[V8meathead]

Used to stop switching transients right?  Can anyone explain this in more detail?  Thanks.

[prateeksikka]

hi friend!
snubber capacitors are used to protect expensive devices like thyristors against surge voltages which may appear across them in form of sudden spikes.
capacitor acts as short fo high frquency and current does not flow through the device initially but increases slowly as the cap is charged....
thats it

[audioguru]

A snubber capacitor is used so that a fast-rising voltage doesn't cause the thyristor to turn-on. A thyristor has a dv/dt rate-of-voltage-rise rating that it can withstand without turning on. A snubber capacitor slows-down the voltage rate-of-voltage-rise.

[prateeksikka]

Actually we generally use a series combination of a resistor and a capacitor which is known collectively as a snubber circuit.
It protects the thyristor.I guess cap alone will not even work!

[V8meathead]

thanks for the help, this cleared it up.

[prateeksikka]

Thank god!
all s well that ends well