I acquired a Rittal control panel which came from decommissioned machinery last year and it had some servo drives, contactors, breakers, power supplies, and relays inside. Before I loaded it up I wrapped it in several layers of heavy duty shrink wrap. On the trip home it got rained on.
Upon arrival I removed The shrink wrap and found that some moisture droplets (I assumed from the rain) had made their way inside but the panel was in great shape and the drives appeared in great shape too. I did not power up or test anything. I just gutted the panel and put the drives on a shelf, wiped out the moisture from the panel, let it air dry for a couple days, and then closed it up and moved it to the back of my shop where it became a horizontal surface for junk to collect.
Fast forward to now, I found a use for the panel, I open it up, and the inside of just one door... Not the other door, not the back subpanel, not the ceiling, nor the sides, nothing except the inside of that one door, is covered in moisture droplets. All the galvanized door latch mechanisms for that door are heavily corroded, while the rest of the panel is still in great shape. It's a NEMA12 panel, so at birth it was airtight, but they had installed vents and the floor of the panel was missing, so there was means for the panel to exchange air to the outside.
I don't think I missed wiping away any moisture before storing it, and even if I had, I don't see how it would have remained for a year without evaporating. I left the panel open in my shop for two days and the moisture did not evaporate. It remained collected in lines, outlining where I had wiped with a rag 1 year ago. Since it did not evaporate, I wiped it again, removed the latching hardware and wire brushed the corrosion off, sprayed with clear coat. The problem seems to be mitigated now but I can't help remaining curious what that moisture was.
It was not oily. It felt like water to the touch. Had no odor. Did not burn the skin. I think any reasonable person would conclude it was water, but it refused to evaporate, and only collected on that one surface. Any ideas? Might this be electrolytic capacitor blood? Maybe one of those drives had a bad day before I picked it up?
Upon arrival I removed The shrink wrap and found that some moisture droplets (I assumed from the rain) had made their way inside but the panel was in great shape and the drives appeared in great shape too. I did not power up or test anything. I just gutted the panel and put the drives on a shelf, wiped out the moisture from the panel, let it air dry for a couple days, and then closed it up and moved it to the back of my shop where it became a horizontal surface for junk to collect.
Fast forward to now, I found a use for the panel, I open it up, and the inside of just one door... Not the other door, not the back subpanel, not the ceiling, nor the sides, nothing except the inside of that one door, is covered in moisture droplets. All the galvanized door latch mechanisms for that door are heavily corroded, while the rest of the panel is still in great shape. It's a NEMA12 panel, so at birth it was airtight, but they had installed vents and the floor of the panel was missing, so there was means for the panel to exchange air to the outside.
I don't think I missed wiping away any moisture before storing it, and even if I had, I don't see how it would have remained for a year without evaporating. I left the panel open in my shop for two days and the moisture did not evaporate. It remained collected in lines, outlining where I had wiped with a rag 1 year ago. Since it did not evaporate, I wiped it again, removed the latching hardware and wire brushed the corrosion off, sprayed with clear coat. The problem seems to be mitigated now but I can't help remaining curious what that moisture was.
It was not oily. It felt like water to the touch. Had no odor. Did not burn the skin. I think any reasonable person would conclude it was water, but it refused to evaporate, and only collected on that one surface. Any ideas? Might this be electrolytic capacitor blood? Maybe one of those drives had a bad day before I picked it up?
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