Are any manufacturers investigating alternative termination methods that will not allow this condition?

Thank you for this report. What I got out of it was a vindication for my insistance on using only metal boxes. The usual arguement against is cost. My rebutal is that metal not only provides a ground path, but when it really does melt, catching the rest of the house on fire is not an issue! James

What is the difference between a glowing connection and a glowing heater element, as far as what the breaker sees? Isn't it true that even if you have a glowing connection, and the installation is otherwise code legal, the event will be contained in the box?

Except that AFCIs do not have a ground trip level of 5 mA to protect people - more like 30 to 75 mA.

Actually, I have felt that any kind of copper wiring connection that is 30 Amps or larger, is outdoors, a damp envirionment or running air conditoning or other heavy load needs to be made using the silicon carbide abrasive paper elbow grease electrical grease method that Dr. Jesse Aronstein says will make aluminum wire copastetic. There is a reason why there are antioxidant compounds for use on copper wire and I have seen a lot of copper wiring failures due to copper oxide or other corrosion.