According to an ASHRAE white paper on Data Center Airborne Contamination presented by members of TC 9.9 committee, the gaseous contamination is one of the major causes for the high rate of hardware failures in data centers. The study was supported by all major computing equipment manufacturers like IBM, Intel, HP, CISCO, Dell, etc. The report suggested that gaseous contamination should be modified within ANSI / ISA – 71.04 – 1985 severity level G1.
Many data centers may have harmful environment arising from infiltration of outdoor particulate or gaseous contaminants: Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Bromine and Oxides of Nitrogen, Chlorine etc. Specially, data centers located in the industrial townships like Noida (Delhi NCR), Okhla industrial area (Delhi), Malad (Mumbai), etc. are more prone to gaseous contaminants. The ASHRAE white paper also highlighted that in addition to temperature and humidity control, dust and gaseous contamination should also be monitored and controlled. These additional environmental measures are especially important for data centers located near industrial and other sources which pollute the environment.
Data Centers are more prone to airborne contamination if they are situated nearby:
- Sewers / drains
- Landfill sites
- High density traffic
- Process Industry (discharging industrial effluents)
How corrosion affects electronic equipment and components?
Electronic components are a complex assembly of metallic and non-metallic materials which are highly susceptible to corrosion. Electronic corrosion, if left untreated, can affect electronic components as follows:
Film Disk – Stored information could get lost at the reaction site. Additionally, as reaction products accumulate, mechanical failure can occur on data tracks, previously not corroded.
Edge Connectors – These connectors are situated on the circuit boards, made solely of copper, or are gold-plated over a nickel-plated copper substrate. Corrosion can easily lead to disruption in the connector points and affect data transfer.
Disk Drives – The formation of disk drives are such that, it makes them highly susceptible to electronic corrosion even in indoor environment.
Electronic corrosion can result in:
- Electronic malfunction or failure
- Increase in downtime and maintenance cost
- Reduced productivity
If corrosive gases and contaminants are overlooked, it creates an unhealthy environment for employees too.
Gas Phase Filtration-The Most effective way of removing airborne molecular contaminants
Protecting the datacom equipment and servers from any potential contamination threat is a vital step in ensuring the good health and continued viability of your datacom equipment and servers. The ultimate solution to corrosion lies in Gas Phase Filtration, which involves passing the contaminant laden air stream through a bed of dry media placed in a properly designed housing.
Complete Protection against unwanted Airborne Molecular Contaminants
Bry-Air DataCenter Air Purifier (DAP) is an ideal way for protection of data centers from abrupt failures threat due to corrosion in the electronic cards and electrical components. It removes contaminants and eliminates downtime by removing corrosive gases through the process of adsorption and chemisorption. DAP is designed to maintain the ISA standard 71.04-2013 for corrosion and gases, IEC standard and environmental standards followed by electronics manufacturers. DAP houses the revolutionary Honeycomb Chemical Filter as its core heart. This next generation revolutionary new media is a building block of our new custom designed solution for data centers.
Bry-Air: A step ahead, always
Bry-Air is the only Gas Phase Filtration Company in India having its own R&D and Testing Lab for granular media and chemical filters. Backed by world class technology and systems, the laboratory is capable of testing the performance of impregnated/non-impregnated loose granular media and impregnated/non-impregnated air cleaning devices such as chemical filters, under one roof. The tests are conducted as per ISO/ASHRAE Standard 145.1 and BSR/ASHRAE Standard 145.2/ISO Standard 11155-2 guidelines. The core objectives of the tests are to assess the performance and efficiency of loose granular sorptive media and chemical filters in any particular application.
