I don't believe this ****

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Wed Jan 7 04:34:57 1998

> What happened? Water get through a scratch and the aluminum started
> corroding? Never dropped one in a lake, but my Warcraft II cd took a dip
> in the toilet one day. I'm still wondering how it got on top of the toilet
> in the first place...

I think there are plenty of mechanisms, not all well understood.
Example: Thermal cycling (repeated warming and cooling) causes
mechanical stresses. These grow microscopic cracks at imperfections /
scratches / impurities in the plastic until there is a path for
corroding chemicals (like water) to get in at the aluminium.

Some CDs now use a gold layer instead of an aluminium one. I don't know
how much longer these last.

The above mechanism can be combated by keeping the discs in a
temperature-controlled environment (a lake I would have thought would
not be too bad for that but obviously it was...) - but mechanical
stresses still occur when spinning up and down.

Just my 2d worth.

Philip.
Received on Wed Jan 07 1998 - 04:34:57 GMT