Thursday, March 1, 2012

Computers for Cold Weather Work

By Allyson Westcot


Not that many businesspeople will need to use a notebook computer in severe cold temperatures. Some are employed in extremes, though, like those utilised by the military, or those used by people who travel a great deal during work.

Computers like Panasonic Toughbooks are built to operate in extreme temperatures. They can operate in temps up to 20 degrees below 0, and can handle heat over 140 degrees. They cope with the extreme cold in a variety of different ways.

Laptop computers and other mobile PCs create heat as they run. Many people have discovered this by either having a computer overheat or by working near computers where a room is kept frigidly cold to save the systems. Computers have what's called a heat sink placed above the processor to draw heat away from the processing component. Fans within both desktop and laptops are built to cool them down. So a laptop utilized in cold conditions has some natural protection from the cold simply by being a heat-producing system.

Rugged laptops that are designed to be use in extreme conditions could have other sorts of insulation and heat-producing elements within to keep the system from getting too cold. They may come with small inner heaters or be compatible with one purchased separately. This could keep the cold from freezing up the disk and damaging data. These heaters usually are not required except in the most extraordinary conditions though, thanks to the heat-genearting components of a portable computer.

Two years ago, Panasonic stood up to the deep cold temperatures of Mt. Aconcagua in South America. An expedition by The North Face and The Mayo Clinic measured human performance in intense conditions. Two Toughbooks were employed in -20 Celsius temps, and in windy conditions with up to 40 mph winds. The computers were carried on mule-back, through snow and icy conditions, and withstood those extremes so that the analysts could record their information.




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