Burned Toughbook still works ?

Is this video real or fake ? I found it on ruggedpc.nl / youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-EnlNiFSdY

I did not know that toughbooks are also fire-restistant to a certain degree.

 

I am at work so can't see the video but there was one with a police car that burned and the CF-19 or 30 still worked.

Justed watched it on my phone...cool. So another reason to own a Toughbook...

 

BUT the cases are magnesium. If it gets too hot you will have a metal fire and it will be very difficult to put out. If you spray water on magnesium that is on fire it will BLOW UP. We learned this long ago in helicopter crash rescue.

Magnesium Fires

 

This is a real video. My boss Ray met the guy who filmed this...

 

Flame temperatures of magnesium and magnesium alloys can reach 3,100 °C (3,370 K; 5,610 °F)

Magnesium is a highly flammable metal, but while it is easy to ignite when powdered or shaved into thin strips, it is difficult to ignite in mass or bulk.

Ignition temperature 473 °C (746 K; 883 °F)

 

I've seen a cf-29 come out of a car fire, pop the HD in a good unit and Bobs your uncle...

 

The magnesium of the Toughbook chassis is a lot closer to inert than the ultralight alloys used in aircraft; I have a magnesium firestarter which is composed of a magnesium alloy block with a flint rod epoxied to it and a bit of hacksaw blade on a ballchain.

In a side-by-side comparison with a bit of internal bulkhead broken from my Mk1 during a mod, I tried to ignite them both as intended.

First, the ToughBook magnesium was harder to shave; the flakes from the firstarter shaved easily and softly, I had to hack at the ToughBook metal to get material. After about 2 minutes, I got a pile of shavings the size of a pencil eraser; my firestarter created this volume easily in about 20 seconds.

Next, on to flammability:

The firestarter magnesium ignited on the second spark, burning smoothly for maybe 10-15 seconds on the pavingstone. I'm certain it would have lit on the first strike if I had you know... actually HIT the pile with sparks.

After a couple minutes and easily 20-30 strikes, my flint was very visibly worn but no flameses from the Toughbook magnesium. Not even any kind of funny smell. Applying a Bernz torch to it DID cause flames; it would catch and sputter and flash very brightly and go out after a second or three once heat was removed. It behaved much more like poorly concocted Thermite than anything.

So yes, ToughBooks CAN burn. But I'm pretty certain that if you put the Dell from my sig surrounded by ToughBooks in that same car fire, it would catch fire and melt away by the time the Toughbooks reached the state seen in that video.

mnem
Smokin'.

 

Another thing is that the Bubbled up portion is only a thin sheet of plastic. (But an Alloy under That)

I haven't pulled one of my 30's apart (no need to) but the palm area wasn't too hard to get up on my 29, it is just about the same thickness as good quality wood laminate is. (With a coat of shellac on the Hickory Laminate it looks nice!)

Kind of funny that nobody on Youtube believes the guy, but most of us here just go 'Yep, they are Tough!'

 

I still remember almost burning my shop down... After years of modifying Toughbooks... Grinding here, shaving there. I found a pocket of shavings one day when I was sharpening my lawnmower blade. The sparks found the hidden pocket of shavings and lit up for about 10 seconds. It scared the bejesus out of me.... Since then I am careful to vacuum shavings directly into the vacuum cleaner every time.