Dust can produce a plethora of problems in warehouses and manufacturing spaces. The demands we place on electrical equipment in these dust-laden industrial environments greatly outweigh the demands placed on office computers and printers. Even after using industry best practices for facility dust management, the dust, fibers, and particulates can harm printers, PCs, and other important equipment. By learning how to protect your equipment from dust, you can increase your facility’s safety, organization, and productivity.
When Dust Meets Electrical Equipment
The word dust is a generic term for minute solid particles that are typically less than 500 microns in diameter. Larger particles fall to the ground, but lighter bits of dust can hover in the air until they’re forcibly removed. Not only can dust wreak havoc on our respiratory systems, but they can also cause major issues within a factory, facility, or other sort of workplace.
On its own, without any preventive maintenance, dust can cause significant problems. For example, if your dust filters or ventilation system become overly full, you can reduce air flow in the environment, which can cause overheating, malfunctioning, breakdowns, repairs, or the need for replacement equipment. When combined with moisture, especially in non-obvious places, dust can cause further issues. The moisture can adhere dust to surfaces and corrode important components of equipment.
The Importance of Preventive Maintenance
Issues involving dust are often ignored until they cause a major problem. However, this does not make sense when it comes to a business’s finances, productivity, or owners’ stress levels. By taking care of your equipment before a crisis strikes, you can keep those assets functioning properly for as long as possible and avoid sudden, expensive repairs.
So if you have electrical equipment in a dusty environment, we encourage you to safeguard the equipment with protective enclosures before a high-stress situation arises due to an equipment malfunction caused by dust.
Protect Your Equipment from Dust
The environment in which electrical equipment resides can greatly affect its efficiency, its lifespan, and its ability to operate properly. Dust can harm PC fans and printheads (the most delicate and important part of a printer). It also threatens the condition of heatsinks, which are especially vulnerable to clogging up; the dust’s insulating effect can rapidly lower the heatsink’s ability to disperse heat. In addition, the fans designed to keep electrical equipment cool can suck in dust and dirt, which cling to inner components, prevent airflow, and allow heat to build up.
If ignored in a vulnerable environment, dust can cause electronic failure and downtime due to a number of headache-inducing issues like the following:
- Abrasion of important equipment
- Induction of a CPU fire
- Component heat damage
- Scratched screens or laser lenses
- Cracked or dissolved insulation
To protect your electrical equipment from dust and exposure to contamination, consider purchasing an enclosure designed to act as a shield. Enclosures come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and materials. Manufacturers design enclosures to work in specific environments, so you can select a product that matches your unique needs. For example, will your equipment reside indoors or outdoors? Are you concerned about extreme temperatures? In addition to dust, are you worried about moisture, ice, or corrosion?
If you don’t find an enclosure that meets your requirements, remember that you can always design a custom enclosure. Speaking of which . . .
Protective Enclosures
DustShield offers an extensive line of computer enclosures that are industrial tough, factory-floor ready, and designed to protect LCD monitors, tower and desktop CPUs, and printers. Our enclosures are delivered completely assembled and suit a variety of applications. We offer customer-driven designs and customizations, and we can enhance any of our standard enclosures with little increase in cost. We would be happy to work with you to create a design that accommodates your wants and needs.
So if you would like to protect your equipment from dust and ensure that you can carry on with business as usual, check out DustShield’s computer enclosures today. To learn more, please give one of our enclosure specialists a call toll-free at 800-587-9557 or contact us online.
