welders and cell phones

science_geek

so, my dad had his second cell phone die in less than a year from getting his cell phone. He says hes not clumsy with it, but the problems are usually electric. The first failure was due to parts not working internally, and this last one was the phone not reading the battery. Is there any possibillity that it was caused from him welding all day close to his pockets or him just being really unlucky. Us other 3 have had absolutelly no problems. Any Ideas??

mikediv

Hmmm stick welding I would say no, Tig maybe since the arc is high frequency to get started my miller tig is around 20K volts but I don't know that's a long shot as well ,,, what kind of cell phone does he have , does he leave it in his front pocket ,, does he wear gloves??
Does he put the phone down on the welding table or the welder??? We would need so much more information

CounterRotatingProps

Mike, sticks have a pretty big EMF field don't they?

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science_geek

not sure on the kind of welder, yes he keeps it in his front pocket, he usually welds for 3 to 4 hours almost non stop, he wears welding gloves but thats it, he is also cutting and grinding metal...but i·dont think·that·would cause it.·the phone he is useing is a samsung hue (http://news.softpedia.com/news/Samsung-Hue-Arrives-at-Alltel-60085.shtml). Is there some sort of circuit i could make with the prop to measure the emf and frequency that is produced.

Joe Greene

Just from personal experience, my dad was a welder for 20+ years. He went through about 10 electronic wristwatches in a three year or so span. Once he switched to one with a mechanical movement, he never had another problem. We just assumed the EMF from welding was frying the electronics.

LoopyByteloose

One might consider three factors - all hostile to electrons. First, there is the EMF; then there is the conductive dust from grinding, etc; and finally, there is the possibility of acidic atmosphere. I suspect that the EMF is the main cause and least easy to remedy.

I did reconstructive bookkeeping for a plumber for a while until I learned the previous bookkeeper quit due to the welding in the shop wiping out all the accounting data and backups on the computer. There was no way to sustain a computerized bookkeeping system unless he did some major protection. Things may be different now as that was years ago. But the cell phone is likely trying to interpret the EMF as intelligent traffic and getting zapped in the process.

So I guess he should just work around the realities.

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Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?

aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan

$WMc%

S.G.

I use to weld all the time with my cell phone in my shirt pocket. I never had one fail from doing this. The problem I had was metal shavings getting into the speaker and causing sever distorting. I never could get all the shavings out because of the strong little magnets used to make the small speaker.

I have wiped out some ATM cards though. Looking through wallet can't find card, oh here it is in my shirt pocket. Swipe it "Card read ERROR". I degaussed the magnetic strip on the card from welding.

____________$WMc%_________

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The Truth is out there············································ BoogerWoods, FL. USA

John Bond

I’ve just had a chat to our workshop guys, eleven of them. They weld about 8 hours a day, six days a week. It’s almost all stick welding. They have had cell phone problems, but not significantly more than you or me.
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The welding machines are old oil filled transformer models and they weld mostly 50 mm (2 inch) and 75 mm square and rectangular tubing with a 1.8mm wall thickness (a bit thicker than 1/16 inch).

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