General > General Technical Chat
Graphite dust on electronic circuits
biank88:
Hi everyone!
Recently I've been dealing with electronic circuitry that unfortunately has to"breathe" air rich in graphite powder.
The graphite powder comes out of the exhaust port of big dry-run vacuum pumps (rotary graphite vane pumps).
Most of the electronics boards present only some circuit traces covered by the graphite dust.
It appears that the graphite particles are somehow "attracted" only to some traces or components.
(See attachments)
Do you have any experience on this matter?
Thanks a lot.
Kleinstein:
Electric flields can act as a electrostatic dust filter. Such a picture was common with old CRT circuits and other high voltage circuits. The usual household dust is at least non conducting. With humidity it may still cause trouble, like arcing and creapage.
With graphite I would consider a conformal coating or hermetic seal to the circuit.
Bud:
The dust may cause leakage and disrupt the normal operation of the circuit. You seem to have optocouplers and high kiloOhm resistors on the board, those may be vulnerable if covered by dust, let alone carbon dust. You better take care of the issue.
Stray Electron:
Air laden with graphite dust sounds like a big safety no-no anyway. Your site is a dust-air explosion waiting to happen.
ajb:
What Kleinstein said, but also seems like the best place to solve this problem is at the source, by filtering the exhaust of these vacuum pumps. Aside from the effect on electronics like this there could be health risks depending on the concentration, and also it's just plain messy.
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