Air Filtration
Over the past several years, atmospheric corrosive gasses have become a serious problem for electronic equipment and computer manufacturers. These acidic gasses are especially prevalent in developing countries and industrialized areas where oil refinement, waste treatment, or high concentrations of auto emissions produce high levels of hydrogen sulfide, NOx or SOx gases. These gasses once introduced into a data center or server room lead to deterioration of copper surfaces and silver solder used on computer circuit boards thus leading to intermittent and hard failures. Recently the leading computer manufactures have adopted the ISA S71.04 standard and are requiring their customers meet this published guideline for limitations of corrosive gas levels in their data centers. Hydrogen sulfide (H²S) is by far the worst of the corrosive gasses. H²S combined with high levels of humidity creates sulfuric acid that quickly causes catastrophic deterioration of copper circuit board surfaces in as little as 3 to 4 months. Elimination of these corrosive gasses is essential in maintaining the reliability of computer equipment and servers in the data center.
SET3 and PureAir Filtration have developed an air filtration system specifically designed for the data center environment. This standalone, self contained air scrubbing system effectively removes these corrosive gasses without adding additional humidity to the room. The DC 1000 and DC 2000 systems incorporate low energy, slow-start, low-noise blowers that continuously draw in air from the room, pass it through special gas-adsorbent media and GeoPleat® filters to remove all of the gasses from the air. Adsorbent media capture gasses internally and are called chemisorbants as they chemically react with the corrosive gasses after adsorbing them. The reaction prevents the gasses from escaping from the media. The adsorbent media is made from high porosity activated alumina which is impregnated with eight percent potassium permanganate. The media is purple in color and as it is consumed it turns white.
SET3 also provides air quality testing in compliance with ISA standards to verify the levels of H²S in the air. Testing can be performed by using copper/silver coupons or with air samples. Laboratory analysis then verifies the level of contamination as per the ISA guidelines.
PureAir Filtration specializes in the removal of harmful gasses from critical environments. PureAir systems have been proven to dramatically reduce electronics failure where high levels of air pollutants exist. PureAir products are used to protect critical systems and precision works for clients such as NASA and the US National Archives.
The PureAir CORROSION COUPON SERVICE is offered by PureAir Filtration to help our customers determine the degree of contamination and corrosiveness of an indoor environment. In conjunction with PureAir media testing system monitoring programs, this information is invaluable for identification and specification of corrosive conditions which may exist in sensitive electrical equipment environments.
TESTING AND APPARATUS DESCRIPTION:
The objective of the test is to expose silver and copper strips to the contaminated air in an environment of interest. After a given period, normally 30, 60 or 90 days, remove the coupons and analyze to determine the thickness of the corrosion films that have formed on the coupon surfaces. The thickness of the film is subsequently correlated with various contaminant concentrations as classified by the Instrument Society of America (ISA).
The silver and copper coupons are typically mounted on a test panel which in turn is protected by a flexiglass frame. The entire assembly is shipped in an airtight plastic bag.