Is there a minimum level of relative humidity, below which computer equipment is damaged?
I bought some antique handheld computers. I want to keep them in pristine condition for a very long time, fifty years or more. I want to know the ideal environmental conditions to store these computers. I am probably going to store these in a bank vault. I can greatly reduce the relative humidity using a commercial desiccant such as drierite.
Thanks for your help.
Is the bank vault hermetically sealed? Or your packaging? If not, long term, they will return to ambient conditions.
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Old Latin teachers never die...they just decline
My vacuum packaging is hermetically sealed.
"Peter Olcott" wrote in news:rYb1g.3545$8q.45@dukeread08:
If you have vaccuum packaging, isn't humidity irrelevant? And, what about dry nitrogen? For those time scales, you'll want to remove oxygen, not just water vapour. Vacuum isn't a good idea, as you'll lose plasticisers and other chemicals that prolong the life of capacitors, and maybe have hazards that can cause bother in other people's space, but if you have a hermetic seal with the volume filled with dry nitrogen at atmospheric pressure, you can't go far wrong, as far as I know.
It is nothing like a prefect vacuum, I am only using a foodsaver meat packaging machine. The idea is to make the package fit tightly, removing all the excess air
What about reducing the relative humidity to zero?
I can't go to this extreme, what is the next cheaper option?
If you cant go to a gas refill station and get some nitrogen, next best thing would maybe be get the small co2 cylinders like used for paintball, and purge the containers with co2 gas. It will drive out all the oxygen, which is what causes rust with water vapor. Also use the desecant to absorb any remaining moisture.
Still nitrogen is best! Jtt
about
hermetic
absorb
No. Argon is best. Non-nutritive to all known forms of life, can't say the same about nitrogen. not all that more expensive either. BTW ultra low humidity has ESD issues; you must tradeoff between ESD and H2O amplified corrosion.
-- JosephKK Gegen dummheit kampfen die Gotter Selbst, vergebens. --Schiller
I have the units in a thick plastic container with desiccant. Is there any way that ESD can get into the container from outside it? Would it be better if I placed the units in anti-static bags first?
It would certainly do no harm. If it were me, I'd wrap them in aluminum foil.
See, the ESD doesn't "get into" the box - the friction between the equipment and the box itself can generate static.
Or, we could just keep discussing it for the next 50 years, and the problem will have gone away. ;-)
Cheers! Rich
The units have a hard plastic case, and have rubber feet. Can these cause static electricity if rubbed together in the box? Will aluminum foil protect them from static electricity?
static
from
If the antistatic bag or aluminum foil is the inside layer static is pretty well not a problem. Layers outside of them will not have much effect on the devices so stored.
-- JosephKK Gegen dummheit kampfen die Gotter Selbst, vergebens. --Schiller
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