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Salt Fog Mil Spec Laptop

February 19, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

DOD Mil-Std-810 509.4 Salt Fog

Cheesy Salt Fog Graphic for Getac Laptop

Salt Fog Test Getac

(Sorry about the salt fog GIF, but it’s soooo cheesy I had to use it.)

The Getac B300 the ideal choice for marine environments such as the Coast Guard, or on the deck of a ship, where salt air can affect equipment performance drastically.  Salt is one of the most corrosive chemicals commonly found, and can cause damage to the metal housings and electrical connection on all laptops – even ruggedized or Mil-Spec ones.

Salt Fog Test Procedure

Salt fog testing for military products generally follows procedures described in MIL-STD-810G 509.4 Salt Fog, with a vapor spray salt solution of 5% salt water introduced in a test chamber to create a salt fog environment. Testing usually includes 48 hours of exposure followed by another 48 hours of drying time. However, two successive cycles of 24-hour exposure / 24-hour drying is an even more challenging scenario for this particular test. Getac used the 24/24/24/24 test for the Getac B300.

To pass this test, the laptop needs to have excellent mechanical design, but also a high quality surface treatment for the magnesium alloy case parts.  Magnesium surface treatments include chemical conversion and painting. Getac’s magnesium factory created a chemical conversion treatment system that includes a special pre-treatment to clean and prep die-cast magnesium surfaces before the chemical conversion process is applied. Their chemical conversion treatment is not limited to plain phosphate, it also contains calcium phosphate, vanadate and other salts.

Salt Fog surface treatment process diagram

Surface treatment process

Mil-Std Paint Applied

After the Mg alloy is chemically converted, it is capable of passing the salt fog test unpainted.  For increased durability, and to make the unit look nice, a special mil-std paint is applied.

Mg Alloy Rugged portable laptop chassis before painting the mil-std paint

Mg chassis before painting

Painted Mil-Std Mg Alloy paint
Painted Mg Alloy Chassis 

Mechanical Design

The standard Getac B300 passes IP65 waterproofing tests. This is a pretty severe test – but is not enough to pass salt fog tests.  Any salt water entering the unit is likely to cause corrosion; especially to the electrical circuitry.  Keyboard drainage, cable in/out structures and microstructures throughout the entire machine are required to prevent salt deposits caused by standing salt water. This effectively prevents structural damage from clogging or binding within the mechanical structure, and also helps avoid electrical malfunction due to corrosion.

Of course, if you have to use the laptop and connect it to power, or any other electrical connection – eg drone data port, 1553 bus, physical network connection, – you will need corrosion resistant connectors.  Pro Custom Group is Getac’s customization partner, and has produced multiple systems with mil-spec connectors.

Mil-Spec Connector on Getac B300

Mil-Spec Connector on B300

Another view of the Mil-Spec modification to the Getac Rugged Laptop

Another view of the Mil-Spec modification

 

 

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Previous posts:

  • Contact
  • First Garfield comic strip
  • History of portable computers with a rugged bias
    • AGS MilPAC-III C4ISR Portable with 3 x 17.3″ displays
    • AGS-MRPC-4 – Lunchbox Computer – 2011
    • Compaq Portable III lunchbox computer
    • Dolch FlexPAC
    • Fieldworks FW7500 – 1994
    • Getac A320 Rugged Notebook
    • Getac B300
    • Getac Z710 – Rugged Android Tablet
    • GRiD Compass – 1982
    • IBM Convertible PC
    • IBM Portable 5155 – questionably rugged, questionably portable
    • IBM Portable PC 5110
    • IBM ThinkPad 700
    • iTronix GoBook XR-1 (General Dynamics)
    • Kontron IN-Lite
    • Kontron IP-Lite
    • Kookaburra PC / Dulmont Magnum 1983
    • Osborne 1 – The first portable PC
    • Osborne Vixen rugged luggable
    • Panasonic CF19
    • Panasonic Toughbook CF-25
    • PSION Series 5
    • Sharp PC-1211
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