I have several small surface mount components and am having difficulty determining whether they are inductors or resistors. Several of them have very low resistance when measured with a multi-meter (< 5 ohms), so I figured these were inductors, but I only see a coil on one of them under the xray. I should be able to see coils or metal layers under the xray if they are inductors, correct?

 

resisstors have a print and look different.

in case of doubt get an inductivity meter.

why do you just "have" SMD components? Best to keep them in their bags and on tape.

 

Most of us don't have x-ray machines. Consider yourself very lucky!
AFIK all SMT resistors have their resistance value printed on them.

"very low resistance" means nothing. One of the most popular values in SMT is zero ohms, used to "jump" over a circuit board trace.

 

None of the components have markings on them and I have a mixture of resistors, inductors, and capacitors. I have an LCR meter, but I am getting mixed results. The meter I am using has a fixed test frequency of 1 kHz, but I wouldn't think that would matter. If it's an inductor, I should see a positive phase shift, and if it's a capacitor I should see negative, resistor zero. I'll keep trying--it's a little difficult to probe such tiny components.

 

Ah, the blessings of progress.

 

Tiny inductors will most likely have tiny inductance, just a few uH. Thus they will show very little phase shift at 1khz, if they even are inductors. Maybe posting a photo would get you better results. Or buing/building a proper LCR meter for that matter.

 

I have several small surface mount components and am having difficulty determining whether they are inductors or resistors. Several of them have very low resistance when measured with a multi-meter (< 5 ohms), so I figured these were inductors, but I only see a coil on one of them under the xray. I should be able to see coils or metal layers under the xray if they are inductors, correct?

Anatekcorp.com has some good meters that are made in England.

 

I have a Philips PM 6303 and an Agilent (don't have model number handy). Both were several thousand each. I was able to measure a known inductor, which was 1 µH, but when I measure the unknown inductor, the meter is all over the place. Maybe it's just too small of a value. Understandable--it's less than 1 mm long.