What to Do About Zinc Whiskers

Zinc whiskers may be a hidden and lurking contaminant in your Datacenter, and the source of many unexplained problems in your operation.

Are your servers slower than they should be — without any explanation?
Are you having data corruption issues for which you can't find a source?
Are you experiencing disk-drive and power-supply failures without apparent cause?

These common issues, among others, may be caused by harmful contaminents known as "Zinc Whiskers" — and must be handled effectively and efficiently to ensure smooth operation of your Datacenter.

What are Zinc Whiskers?

Zinc whiskers are small fiber-like growths that can be found on zinc-plated products. Zinc is often used as a coating on steel products to prevent rust or oxidation. In a Datacenter, steel floor tiles are often coated with zinc. Over time, the zinc plating on the steel will "grow whiskers," and when these whiskers dislodge from the tiles, they can wreck havoc on your Datacenter.

The main reason for this is that zinc is a conductive material. The zinc whiskers are basically a low-capacity fuse with a DC resistance of 10-40 ohms, depending on the size of the whisker. Whiskers can reach lengths of up to 1cm (.4 inches) with diameters up to 2 microns.
A whisker over .5mm (1/64 of an inch) that dislodges from the floor tile and moves around the Datacenter, can be a problem for your electronic equipment. A zinc whisker that lands on your Datacenter equipment can cause short circuits, voltage variances and other signal disturbances. Contamination will even cause equipment failures.

The problem is often that once the zinc whisker causes a short circuit, that same short circuit will vaporize the zinc whisker or dislodge it so that it floats off to some other location. This makes it almost impossible to analyze or track. Some speculate that many NTF (No trouble found) problems could be the result of these troublesome contaminants.

What can you do about Zinc Whiskers?

DataSpan can help you identify, contain and clean up these contaminants. Specially trained staff, with years of experience working in the sensitive and critical Datacenter environment, will provide you with the knowledge and resources to resolve this issue with minimal disruption to your daily operations.

To discuss your facility, and the possibility of these contaminants in your Datacenter, call DataSpan and get the facts about what you can do to resolve this troublesome problem.

For more information, please call DataSpan at 1.800.688.2414 today