Method and apparatus for prevention of atmospheric corrosion of electronic equipment

In combination, an enclosed hard disk drive unit and a chemical filter attached thereto to permit equalization of air pressure therein and to filter pollutant molecules from air introduced into said unit, said chemical filter comprising:

• (a) a chamber defined by a housing, said housing provided with an inlet means at a first end for admitting polluted air and an outlet means at a second end for introducing filtered air into said hard disk drive unit, said outlet means connected to an air pressurization inlet in said drive unit;
• and
• (b) in sequence, the following layers of materials, beginning at said first end;
• (1) charcoal,
• (2) high surface area copper mesh,
• (3) high surface area nickel mesh, and
• (4) particle filter.

A method of preventing pollutant molecules in the atmosphere from reacting with electronic equipment comprising:

• (a) providing a chemical filter between said electronic equipment and said atmosphere, said chemical filter comprising
• (1) a housing having a gas inlet means at a first end for admitting polluted air thereinto and a gas outlet means at a second end for introducing filtered air to said electronic equipment , and
• (2) at least one layer of a high surface area metal mesh within said housing, said at least one layer of metal mesh capable of chemically reacting with said pollutant molecules to form corrosion products which remain in said filter;
• (b) introducing said polluted air into said filter;
• (c) reacting said pollutant molecules with said at least one layer of metal mesh;
• and
• (d) introducing said filtered air to said electronic equipment.