On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 18:53:15 +1000, Richard Windsor wrote: > I'm sorry but I have to have a quiet chuckle here. The ignition > temperature of cardboard at 420 C to 430 C is a significantly higher > that the melting point of solders commonly used in the electronics > industry that run from 364 C to 418 C. Your poor little processor > will > be in a hot bath up to its neck long before there is any smoke. > By the way, my cardboard shrouded processor has been running, > virtually non-stop for over 3 years at about 60 C
Spontaneous ignition from heat isn't going to ignite the cardboard. However, a spark is well above the ignition temperature, and sparks are a real possibility on short circuit or component failure in electronic equipment. A small number of sparks are not likely to ignite most plastics, but they may ignite paper products. The difference being that the plastic adjacent to a spark will usually melt, spreading the energy around and keeping the peak temperature below the ignition point. Cardboard/paper have no such mechanism, and so a cellulose fiber in contact with a spark can easily rise above its ignition point. David Mathog [email protected] Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
