Solvent smells in new gear

Had related incident last year.

It's less stinky now.

D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com BC, Canada Posted to usenet sci.electronics.design

I imagine so, although I'm not sure what added/new materials are causing the odor you're noticing.

A significant number of materials previously used in electronics manufacturer have been, or are being phased out as part of the ROHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) movement, and newer materials have been substituted. Lead reduction has gotten the most publicity, but if I recall correctly there are some fire-retardent materials and stabilizers that have been eliminated.

Substitutes for banned materials, new plastics, or just different processes used by manufacturers in different countries (e.g. Chinese OEMs)... could be any of those you're smelling.

The irony is that this gear is a new UPS that I bought in the expectation that I wouldn't be able to repair my old one, and didn't want to go very long without a UPS (too many power glitches here). But it's not being used, and is sitting in another room doing a burn in, for who knows how long :(

Sylvia.

Better packaging? ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Your sinuses cleared up? ;-)

Have not noticed much with electronic gear, but the Chinese seem to use something in their rubber that reeks of charcoal (maybe it's charcoal!). Places with a lot of pneumatic tires and such like from overseas (eg. Habor Fright, Princess Auto) are rather stinky as a result.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I did notice that the cars in US smell weird/bad. I guess regulations must exist that dictate some kind of plastic material that reeks, especially when new or near-new as rentals often are.

Sometimes you buy a leather chair or a big sofa and it reeks for a week or two.

Probably not exactly healthy.

Could it be air pollution from all their coal-burning power plants? I recall an NPR story from a year or two ago that said China was building coal-fired power plants at the rate of one per week. I suspect the rate has dropped since the toxic-mortgage crisis dominoed into the rest of the world's economy, but remember the Olympics (perhaps their biggest ever motivator to clean up their air if even for a few weeks) - they got some bad air there.

Open the case (presuming doing so doesn't void the warranty) and place a window fan so it blows over it while it's "burning in." That may speed up the destink process somewhat.

No.

It's a BIG country.

Maybe not, it's a good make-work stimulus thing.

The air does not have a particularly strong odor in Chinese cities. Shanghai in the spring can smell pretty pleasant. No worse than Los Angeles in the early eighties.

Back when coal passenger trains were common you'd get rather dirty during the long (eg. 45 hour) train trips with the windows open. And when you blew your nose you'd see what was being filtered out. But no particular smells, provided you were not too close to the ce4 suo3.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Some of the imported casters have an even stronger odor. I bought some a year ago, and figured it would go away. They still smell so bad I won't use them in my shop.

You can make ricin from those things..

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Most likely a new formulation of varnish and conformal coating. But they tend to be low VOC these days and so should not really smell much at all. Although there could be a low volatility component that comes off when the thing gets hot the first time. It would help if you could describe the smell.

exist

That is probably the air freshener they use to sanitise them between hires. The plasticisers have a characteristic "new car" smell that is pretty similar the world over.

Leather sofas from China you have to be very careful about. There has been a pretty massive problem with contact dermatitus in the UK involving use of DMF fungicide inside leather sofas from there.

Some people were severely affected by it.

Regards, Martin Brown

charcoal has an odour?

possibly it's unscented talc?

unscented talc has an odour?

Cigarettes can help forestall Black Lung, because they stimulate the cough reflex, assisting the cilia in flushing out the REAL toxins; and the sticky smoke particles capture and retain the bad stuff for safe disposal by hocking up the tarry loogies. ;-P

Cheers! Rich

Maybe the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) have been replaced by Volatile INorganic Compounds? ;-P

Cheers! Rich

I'd rather make carts for the shop out of them, but they still make my eyes water.

:On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:06:24 +1000, Sylvia Else : wrote: : :>D from BC wrote: :>> On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:54:58 +1000, Sylvia Else :>> wrote: :>> :>>> I've never noticed this as a problem in years gone by, but of late I've :>>> bought a number of items which produce a strong solvent smell when :>>> turned on, with varying amounts of time before the smell wears off. :>>>

:>>> One was a PC PSU, which I sent back because the smell was so :>>> overpowering, even after running for a few days, that I couldn't stay in :>>> the same room. :>>>

:>>> Has something significant changed in recent times? :>>>

:>>> Sylvia. :>> :>> Had related incident last year. :>>

:>The irony is that this gear is a new UPS that I bought in the :>expectation that I wouldn't be able to repair my old one, and didn't :>want to go very long without a UPS (too many power glitches here). But :>it's not being used, and is sitting in another room doing a burn in, for :>who knows how long :( : : Open the case (presuming doing so doesn't void the warranty) and :place a window fan so it blows over it while it's "burning in." That :may speed up the destink process somewhat.

Not a very good idea... Most PC type PSU's have their own fan so there is little point using an external fan and I have yet to see a new PSU without a "warranty void if opened" sticker.

It's only the oil on them that's dangerous.