9 ms·

High tech electronics can be quite sensitive to small contaminants in manufacturing equipment. A plant making HDDs accidentally lubricated some of the machinery

by gene-h 5y ago

High tech electronics can be quite sensitive to small contaminants in manufacturing equipment. A plant making HDDs accidentally lubricated some of the machinery with silicone which turned out to be very bad. This silicone got into the disks and as the head passed over the disk it got hot enough to decompose the silicone oil into silica. So effectively, the hard drive disk got covered in sand and caused the hard drives to fail much faster. The worst part is that silicone oil will diffuse over surfaces so the whole plant got contaminated and needed to be scrapped. I've also heard that some electronics plant had an issue where some metal tiles in the lobby of the plant were growing tiny whiskers of zinc, which got tracked in by workers and started shorting out the electronics.

blockwriter 5y ago
Scrapped or scraped? Did they really need to abandon the plant or the equipment, or just clean it?
- totalZero 5y ago
  Silicone oil is one of the most stubborn contaminants I have ever encountered. I use trisodium phosphate to clean it up, and even then it sometimes persists. Try pouring epoxy over wood that has been polished with Pledge, and you'll see what I mean. I can believe "scrapped."
  - sitkack 5y ago
    Isn’t a silicone based oil used in oil diffusion vacuum pumps? Seems like one should look for a different solution
bell-cot 5y ago
Reminds me of old stories about Intel - how, when they were taking a (chip fabrication) process which worked at plant X to (new or re-tooled) plant Y, they would duplicate EVERYTHING from X at Y. Right down to the exact brand / line / formulation of the paint on (say) the walls of the lobby, the type of toilet paper in the bathrooms, etc.
- Jabbles 5y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Exactly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Exactly!
- capableweb 5y ago
  That process even has a name: "Copy Exactly!" > The Copy Exactly! methodology focuses on matching the manufacturing site to the development site. Matching occurs at all levels for physical inputs and statistically-matched responses (outputs). This process enables continuous matching over time by using coordinated changes, audits, process control systems, and joint Fab management structures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Exactly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Exactly!
  - avs733 5y ago
    sometimes called copy stupid in extreme circumstances
    - Kye 5y ago
      See: Target's botched move into Canada. They basically copied everything they did in the US. This was compounded by an optimistic purchase of another company's locations to expand into. They bombed the project's runway on that and couldn't afford to keep it going while they sorted out all the problems resulting from Canada revealing all the flaws in their US systems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Canada
      - monocasa 5y ago
        That wiki article makes it sound like they did change something compared to the US stores; prices went up. Canadian customers knew that from previously crossing the border to US Target stores and subsequently stopped going pretty much immediately after launch.
      - mikepurvis 5y ago
        As a Canadian whose partner was initially very excited about the Target launch, what killed it for her/us was primarily the logistics issues— you'd go into the store and like 20% of the shelves would be empty including everything that was supposed to be on markdown, and even some of the stuff that was there wouldn't scan properly at the till. But apart from that, I think we got the impression that there were some market positioning issues too. Like, in the US, Wal-Mart has a reputation for being the absolute cheapest, so Target being the "step up" option is a pretty reasonable place to be. Whereas in Canada, Wal-Mart was already occupying that step-up space (relative to discount department stores like Giant Tiger and the old Zellers locations that Target Canada bought up), and those overseeing the Target push hadn't really committed on whether they wanted to fight Wal-Mart directly for that space, or try to go a level further up and take on the "nice" department stores like the Bay and Sears. Neither option was great, given that Wal-Mart was well-entrenched and the nice department stores having been dying for decades anyway. But not choosing a path at all is often worse than either of two bad options might have been if they'd at least been fully committed-to.
droopyEyelids 5y ago
Siloxanes are serious contaminates in several industrial processes. Another big one is powder coating "paint". It can be bad even if only comes from a personal care product used by an employee at home. And you called out their near-infinite ability to be spread around. Very useful and interesting class of chemicals.
- nate_meurer 5y ago
  What is powder coating paint? Curious so as I can avoid it :)
  - m4x 5y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_coating https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_coating It's a common process used to coat all sorts of objects. But you don't buy "powder coating paint" and use it yourself, it is done in purpose built facilities.
    - nate_meurer 5y ago
      I think the parent is referring to something else, given the part about personal care products.
0_____0 5y ago
I was watching a video about the gold coating on the JWST primary mirror segments and noticed a conspicuously placed sign warning employees not to bring anything containing silicone into the facility.[1] I had no idea it was such a problem contaminant! I wonder if they have issues with personnel using silicone based personal products at home. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgn7bKs042Q&t=211s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgn7bKs042Q&t=211s
emsy 5y ago
What, you mean it’s not spelled “silicone valley”?
rrauenza 5y ago
Not a clean room, but reminds me when I was working in a partner's small datacenter and found an electrician in there using a chop saw on metal conduit.
quanto 5y ago
Are there sources for both of your stories? I would be very curious to learn the details.

by gene-h 5y ago

blockwriter 5y ago

Scrapped or scraped? Did they really need to abandon the plant or the equipment, or just clean it?

totalZero 5y ago
Silicone oil is one of the most stubborn contaminants I have ever encountered. I use trisodium phosphate to clean it up, and even then it sometimes persists. Try pouring epoxy over wood that has been polished with Pledge, and you'll see what I mean. I can believe "scrapped."
- sitkack 5y ago
  Isn’t a silicone based oil used in oil diffusion vacuum pumps? Seems like one should look for a different solution

bell-cot 5y ago

Reminds me of old stories about Intel - how, when they were taking a (chip fabrication) process which worked at plant X to (new or re-tooled) plant Y, they would duplicate EVERYTHING from X at Y. Right down to the exact brand / line / formulation of the paint on (say) the walls of the lobby, the type of toilet paper in the bathrooms, etc.

Jabbles 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Exactly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Exactly!
capableweb 5y ago
That process even has a name: "Copy Exactly!" > The Copy Exactly! methodology focuses on matching the manufacturing site to the development site. Matching occurs at all levels for physical inputs and statistically-matched responses (outputs). This process enables continuous matching over time by using coordinated changes, audits, process control systems, and joint Fab management structures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Exactly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Exactly!
- avs733 5y ago
  sometimes called copy stupid in extreme circumstances
  - Kye 5y ago
    See: Target's botched move into Canada. They basically copied everything they did in the US. This was compounded by an optimistic purchase of another company's locations to expand into. They bombed the project's runway on that and couldn't afford to keep it going while they sorted out all the problems resulting from Canada revealing all the flaws in their US systems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Canada
    - monocasa 5y ago
      That wiki article makes it sound like they did change something compared to the US stores; prices went up. Canadian customers knew that from previously crossing the border to US Target stores and subsequently stopped going pretty much immediately after launch.
    - mikepurvis 5y ago
      As a Canadian whose partner was initially very excited about the Target launch, what killed it for her/us was primarily the logistics issues— you'd go into the store and like 20% of the shelves would be empty including everything that was supposed to be on markdown, and even some of the stuff that was there wouldn't scan properly at the till. But apart from that, I think we got the impression that there were some market positioning issues too. Like, in the US, Wal-Mart has a reputation for being the absolute cheapest, so Target being the "step up" option is a pretty reasonable place to be. Whereas in Canada, Wal-Mart was already occupying that step-up space (relative to discount department stores like Giant Tiger and the old Zellers locations that Target Canada bought up), and those overseeing the Target push hadn't really committed on whether they wanted to fight Wal-Mart directly for that space, or try to go a level further up and take on the "nice" department stores like the Bay and Sears. Neither option was great, given that Wal-Mart was well-entrenched and the nice department stores having been dying for decades anyway. But not choosing a path at all is often worse than either of two bad options might have been if they'd at least been fully committed-to.

droopyEyelids 5y ago

Siloxanes are serious contaminates in several industrial processes. Another big one is powder coating "paint". It can be bad even if only comes from a personal care product used by an employee at home. And you called out their near-infinite ability to be spread around. Very useful and interesting class of chemicals.

nate_meurer 5y ago
What is powder coating paint? Curious so as I can avoid it :)
- m4x 5y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_coating https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_coating It's a common process used to coat all sorts of objects. But you don't buy "powder coating paint" and use it yourself, it is done in purpose built facilities.
  - nate_meurer 5y ago
    I think the parent is referring to something else, given the part about personal care products.

0_____0 5y ago

I was watching a video about the gold coating on the JWST primary mirror segments and noticed a conspicuously placed sign warning employees not to bring anything containing silicone into the facility.[1] I had no idea it was such a problem contaminant! I wonder if they have issues with personnel using silicone based personal products at home. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgn7bKs042Q&t=211s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgn7bKs042Q&t=211s

emsy 5y ago

What, you mean it’s not spelled “silicone valley”?

rrauenza 5y ago

Not a clean room, but reminds me when I was working in a partner's small datacenter and found an electrician in there using a chop saw on metal conduit.

quanto 5y ago

Are there sources for both of your stories? I would be very curious to learn the details.