Telecommunications corrosive environments

Telecommunications hardware consists of switchboards, electronics, computers, data transmitters, and receivers. Delicate electronic components must be protected from human actions and weather for smooth operation over long periods of time. Most failures of this type of equipment are caused by environmental factors. If left unprotected from moisture, corrosion of delicate small parts results in malfunction. Most of the telecommunications hardware is placed in buildings and hence are not exposed to corrosive environments. Telecommunications equipment with a longer design life such as cables, connectors, and antennas may be placed outside and buried and are exposed to soils, water, air, and moist weather conditions. 

For electrical safety reasons, the telecommunication cable plant has to be grounded and bonded. This means that some bare metallic components of the plant have to be directly exposed to corrosive environments. Some of these alloys are not particularly corrosion resistant, and at some locations they require corrosion-control measures. An example of such a condition is where the galvanized-steel support hardware is part of the ground in a flooded manhole. 

Some of the telecommunication cable plant components are made with met2ils embedded in polymers, and the metals are exposed to the corrosive environment only at very small areas (e.g., edges or sm2dl defect sites on the polymer). Test methods are used to ev duate the penetrability of the metal-to-polymer interface and the ensuing progressive corrosion of the metal. 

The telecommunication plant is made of a number of metal and non-metal components, exposed to various corrosive environments. Man-made effects, such as DC stray currents, can further accelerate corrosion of the plant. 

Telecommunication equipment with a longer design life consists of cables, connectors, and antennas for the transmission and reception of electronic signals. These components may be placed and buried so that they become exposed to environments such as soils and water or they may be exposed to air and moisture conditions. There is no report on the percentage of failures because of corrosion for each category. 

Protectors of telecommunication equipment, often mounted on the sides of homes or in basements, which provide electrical protection to the telecommunication equipment user against lightning and power faults, are exposed to environments similar to those of the aerial plant. Some of these protectors, which include a stressed copper alloy cap and cage, are placed in a phenolic housing. Ammonia or ammonium compounds can cause stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) of some of the stressed copper-base alloys, resulting in failure of the protector. 

Electronic Equipment Enclosures (EEEs) (Controlled Environment Vaults (CEVs), Walk-In Cabinets, Cabinets and Huts) are remote telecommunication centers that fulfill some of the functions of central offices (COs) but are located closer to the subscriber loop. EEEs can be constructed of reinforced concrete, steel, or fiberglass. All these locations have their own power and are required to be grounded. Regardless of the material of construction, the grounding electrodes may be stray-current pick up or discharge points thus, they can corrode or cause corrosion elsewhere. If the material of construction is steel, corrosion problems of this material also have to be taken into account. 

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