NASA

Zinc Whiskers on Raised Floor Tile Structures Photo Gallery  
Click on the Thumbnails Below to see a Larger Version of the Picture

Raised Floor Tiles with ZINC Whiskers

The whiskers below are ZINC WHISKERS.  They were found growing on the zinc-coated steel underside of raised floor tiles.  In these examples the floor tiles were part of a computer room in which zinc whisker debris was shed from the floor tiles especially during maintenance activities within the data center .  The conductive whisker debris was distributed around the room via the air cooling system.  Ultimately, some whisker debris was drawn inside of the electronic systems (e.g., servers, routers, disk arrays) operating in the data center resulting in catastrophic and/or intermittent short circuit failures.
See the presentation:  "Zinc Whisker Awareness:  Could Zinc Whiskers Be Impacting Your Electronics?" for More about Zinc Whiskers

computer-room01.jpg (86790 bytes) computer-room03.jpg (89770 bytes) floor-support01.jpg (66161 bytes) floor-support02.jpg (66761 bytes)
floor-tile-topside.jpg (73831 bytes) floor-tile-underside.jpg (71594 bytes)
zinc-whisker-floor-tile08.jpg (97440 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile08a.jpg (70698 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile09.jpg (706119 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile05.jpg (689265 bytes)
zinc-whisker-floor-tile06.jpg (712661 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile07.jpg (81716 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile03.jpg (659646 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile02.jpg (656983 bytes)
zinc-whisker-floor-tile10.jpg (31017 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile11.jpg (733807 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile12.jpg (64236 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile13.jpg (91687 bytes)
zinc-whisker-floor-tile14.jpg (118782 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-tile17.jpg (72219 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor.jpg (51141 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor01.jpg (29566 bytes)
zinc-whisker-floor02.jpg (42191 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor03.jpg (55047 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor05.jpg (17448 bytes) zinc-whisker-floor-sem-close.jpg (37472 bytes)


Images Below are Courtesy of Peter Bush (SUNY Buffalo)

2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-01.jpg (138421 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-01a.jpg (199113 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-02.jpg (339223 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-03.jpg (204197 bytes)
2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-04.jpg (342694 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-05.jpg (247867 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-06.jpg (189397 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-07.jpg (172570 bytes)
2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-08.jpg (176031 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-09.jpg (335448 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-10.jpg (254647 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-11.jpg (199583 bytes)
2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-12.jpg (195605 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-13.jpg (176677 bytes) 2003-Bush-Zn-whiskers-floor-tile-14.jpg (716788 bytes)

Photos Courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

 
Responsible NASA Officials:

   Michael Sampson/NASA GSFC Code 306
   Dr. Henning Leidecker/NASA GSFC Code 562
Additional Researchers: 

   Jong Kadesch/Orbital Sciences Corp.
   Jay Brusse/Perot Systems

Last Updated:

February 22, 2007

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