[Beowulf] materials for air shroud?

[Glen Beane]

On Aug 31, 2011, at 5:05 PM, "Bill Broadley" <bill at cse.ucdavis.edu> wrote:

> On 08/31/2011 12:15 PM, David Mathog wrote:
>> That never crossed my mind.
>> 
>> You sure about the flammability?  I believe it for the ignition due to
>> temperature (Fahrenheit 451 and all that).  However, I have a gut
>> feeling (but no data) that sparks are fairly likely to ignite cardboard,
>> and less likely to ignite a solid plastic sheet (polyethylene or
>> polypropylene, for instance).  Not that I'm expecting sparks, but that
>> is a real possibility when a power supply fails.  Maybe even a brief
>> flame.  Of course paper won't hold up well compared to plastic if it
>> gets wet.  Moisture resistance is not important here though - if the
>> insides of the computer are dripping, air shroud failure is the least of
>> my worries.  
> 
> I'm aware of a machine room fire that was attributed to cardboard dust
> and the storage of flammable material (paper and cardboard).
> 


I've seen servers shipped with paperboard shrouds directing air over the processors...

I won't mention the vendor by name