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Networking in Extreme Conditions?
222 asks: "Mission: Create an intermediate distribution frame. Difficulty: A few feet away, industrial equipment will be generating roughly 2000 degree heat. Bonus: Keep the network switches inside the IDF from melting. Does anyone have experience in making IT work in such extreme conditions? Is there an enclosure in existence that can handle this type of abuse? This is essentially what I've been asked to accomplish, and now I'm asking my fellow readers for help: Can it be done?"
as a starting point. These beasts are supposed to be fireproof / fire resistant, so they should protect the stuff inside, however, then there is the problem of internal heat build-up.
There are peltier based coolers available designed to cool sealed boxes, but how they would cope with what sounds like a severe radiant heat source near by, who knows?
You are also going to have serious problems keeping the cat-6 from melting which implies metal ducting insulated from the heat source as well.
There are bound to be suppliers of extreme environment enclosures, try them for something suitable rather than re-inventing wheels.
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Having worked on and in a networked environment for a 24-hour steel mill, I can predict that you'll have just as much trouble with interference as you will with heat. Assuming you overcome the heat issue, whatever's generating it will also be generating so much interference you'll be lucky to get 10mbits from a gigabit line.
Our solution was to use fiber for pretty much everything, to the point that we were using so much that it was simpler to use fiber for every tasks than mix in cat5.
Regarding the heat issue, if you're based as an IT specialist in an industrial environment, then you have to liase with the site engineers for this kind of task. It's outside of your experience/training/knowledge, so don't succumb to vanity and assume that you have the intelligence to pull through it unaided. Such a place will already have other heat and interference-sensitive equipment which has been installed by engineers on-site, and they'll be able to do the same for your equipment.
Expect a hefty price tag for installing a suitable thermal casing and ventilation system. Or after due consideration and consultation, if it can't feasibly be done then that's the end of the discussion.
There was recently a similar Ask Slashdot asking us readers how we would handle severe cold environments. Most people said to keep the equipment as far away as possible.
I suggest the same, since I've never heard of solder that can stay solid at those temperatures, much less sillicon (or whatever crazy elements are being used nowadays) not turning into the Magical Blue Smoke that makes machines run.
You're asking for a great deal of problems (or intense job security) if you put anything electronic near that heat. At the least, run the sensor cables as long as is feasable AWAY from the heat, preferably THROUGH a firewall and into a nice human-friendly environment.
If that's not possible, the above idea of using a fire-proof safe with a great deal of COLD airflow (100's of CFM) might work, but I'd hate to clean up the aftermath of a cooling system failure.
Oh yeah, make plenty of backups. You'll need them sooner rather than later.
OK I'll bite.
I work with industrial networks...
WTF do you want networking kit so close to such a heat soure?
The motors/sensors etc on the machinery (ie, your heat source) should fead back into PLC controalers which are *bombproof*.
Only then well away from the machinery do you fead the signals from your PLC, into a computer to network and process data. (Or better than this, a robust NI fieldpoint network module to network the data, and process the data well away from the factory floor.)
Putting network switches in such a harsh environment in taking the piss. I'm not saying it can't be done, but you need to look at how everybody else reliably does it, and think why you are trying to do it another way.
Oh and BTW, 2000 F = 1093 C Most of us use SI units :-)
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Don't believe what you read is the truth.
I agree with the FooHentai about fiber, you want that, don't even bother with cat 5. You also want to work with your plant electrician and draw on their experience dealing with heat.
You are also going to want some kind of shield to run in front of the enclosure, even if it's just a piece of metal that maintenance installs. That shield will get fairly got, so keep it a good foot or so from your equipment. This will also stop some of the interference that whatever equipment your working will put out.
Get a proper industrial enclosure to put your equipment in, and expect to pay heavily for it. You can also get ruggedized switches like the Cisco Catalyst 2955S-12 that are designed for extreme heat conditions to begin with. Do as much shielding as you can, it can make a big difference on how effective your equipment works.
What we've done at my place is to shield the boxes with fiberfrax board on the heat-facing side. Typically on a warm summer day, 10-15 feet from the furnaces it can reach 300 - 400 degrees. Keeping lateral air circulation is key (i.e. a cooler air flow along the side of the furnace that hits the side of the box) helps. Even with all that we end up replacing components at least once a year. Water cooled can help, but here in colorado the winters have frozen numerous water jackets even a few feet from the furnace (2800 degree). In most cases, cooled air brought in to the box via lines from an ac or fan works well enough without worrying about freezing or leaks.
Really the best solution is to keep all components with the exception of the cable itself in a control room or mcc room where there is some form of climate control.
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My experience with plant engineers is that they've always got people coming around and messing with their setup. So, they'll appreciate it when you come to them and say right to their face "I'm out of my element here and I'm like your expertise".
Building interpersonal bridges has never hurt anybody's career (we'll except for those people who attented Duke Cunningham's luncheons, but that's a different story!)
Also like other posters said, more than likely they'll have a host of questions and potential problems (such as the whole places power systems are all DC) that you hadn't even thought about.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
As others have said, you really need to talk to an engineer about this. Having said that, remember the three ways that heat can be transmitted: radiation, conduction, and convection. Insulating the box takes care of conductive transfer. To prevent radiative transfer, the box should be wrapped in several layers of reflective material, with air gaps between the layers. Then, to prevent convective transfer, blow cool air through the spaces between the layers of reflective material.