I've used Celestica's underground facility in Winsford a couple of times. One of the things that the staff told me last time I was there was that they see what they consider to be significantly enhanced corrosion on the test and other equipment over that on the company's other site, which is a normal open air facility.
They also have some serious power fluctuation problems which they have to cope with. The power supply for the test facility comes off the main mine supply, most of which is used to wind the salt in 12 ton skips up a 600 ft shaft. The mine operators start the winder motor with the brake on (i.e. stalled) to stop the skip moving in the wrong direction. I can't remember the exact size of the motor but it's of the order of megawatts. The test floor supply is run from a motor-generator with lots of roating mass and so isn't affected, but the lights, which are powered direct, flicker quite a lot. The other problem is that, as part of a working mine, the HSE require them to operate as a mine for electrical and other safety matters. This means that much of the equipment is hard wired and self rescuers are de rigeur! Nick At 14:30 -0500 6/8/99, Ehler, Kyle wrote: >My lab is just 90Km from the world's largest salt mine (Cary Salt, >Hutchinson Kansas, U.S.A.). >The mine is 0.9Km underground. We send our records there for permanent >archival. >-I'll suggest this to my superiors as a possible OATS relocation site. >[yeah, right!!] >Imagine: negligible RF and acoustic ambients (other than your lab >instruments and computers), constant temperature and humidity. >Kyle > --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators).
