NI PCI-6220 I/O Card Frequent Failures

[ShibuNasco]

HI there

We are using NI PCI-6220 DAQ Card in the Regulation computer for our Steel Melting Process with Windows XP supplied from Siemens

(ARCOS PC 877). we found the Card which was installed indside the computer is getting Carbonized and we are Error in the PC "Emergency Off".

After this Incident, we tried to open and check the PC, and found the card was completely carbonized. The card getting damage for the Third Time.

It looks like the Circuits and Dots are getting Black. However, the other cards (Profibus card, motherboard) are found ok.

We have send back the cards to our System Supplier for investigation.

I too attached the picturtes for your detail investigation.

Please look into the problem and get back to me ASAP.

Regards

Mohammed Shibu

[Jeff-P]

Hi,

It looks like there might be an issue with the way you have the card wired up in your system. Can you give me some more details about which inputs you are using and how you have the card configured? Also how much current are you trying to sink in the card?

Regards

[ShibuNasco]

Dear Jeff,

  As requested kindly refer attached document having hardware configuration of our ArCOS Regulation Computer. Normally we are connecting Voltage & Current Feedback through this card. Current Sink information is not available with us. If require configuration details, you may contact to M/s Siemens VAI (Formarly known as VATRON GmbH, Mr. Christoph Sedivy E-Mail: christoph.sedivy@siemens.com ) who is OEM of ArCOS Regulation System.  

   I hope attachment information will helpful to you.

Thanks

Pramod / Shibu

[John_P1]

Hello ShibuNasco,

I must admit that I'm not too familiar with the steel melting process.  Does the process by chance lead to increased levels of sulfur in the environment (for example, from separating contaminants such as sulfur from the unprocessed iron ore)?

The reason that I ask is that the PCI-6220 uses Immersion Silver for its PCB finish which is susceptible to accelerated corrosion in the presence of sulfur (see Accelerated Corrosion of Printed Circuit Boards due to High Levels of Reduced Sulfur Gasses in Indus...).  The corrosion around the vias that you are seeing looks consistent with failures that have been observed in these circumstances.

Immersion Silver will corrode the fastest in the presence of sulfur, but other PCB finishes are not immune from corrosion either so you could start to see additional failures in the future if the corrosive agents are not removed.  Lead-based PCB finishes would be the most resilient, and as more and more products are becoming RoHS compliant you might start seeing accelerated failures on other products as well.  Therefore, as a first step I would very much recommend attempting to isolate your electronics from potentially corrosive substances that might be present due to the steel melting process (keeping in mind that the finish used on the PCI-6220 makes it especially sensitive to sulfur).

You should also contact your supplier (as I understand, you are the end-user of an OEM system) who can work with their NI Field Engineer to determine if there are any alternative options to help mitigate this problem.  Again, the optimal solution would be to remove corrosive agents from your environment, but it would be worth looking into whether or not it would be possible to make the product more robust in the presence of sulfur as well.

Best Regards,