RE: [TCML] Capacitor dielectric examples and Tesla coil equations

["Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>]

That might be a useful argument to have!

>From a dielectric loss perspective, if I can believe the dissipation factor table that I posted about earlier, PS is about the lowest-loss factor dielectric one could choose.  But for some reason, one just never sees pulse caps made with a PS dielectric.  

It's likely that PS caps would fail for reasons other than dielectric losses in a high current pulse application.  Maybe high-current plate termination techniques used in PP caps can't be applied in PS caps?  Don't know.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA



> -----Original Message-----
> From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Paul Brodie
> Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 3:58 PM
> To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [TCML] Capacitor dielectric examples and Tesla coil equations
> 
> A recent comment on this list said that the polystyrene caps made in China that are
> sold on eBay almost all of the time should be avoided for MMC use because they
> are lossy and will heat up and fail. IIRC, this comment was made by someone who
> I believe is a very highly regarded TC builder and long time contributor to the
> TCML.
> 
> I'm not trying to start an argument but I would like to know which is correct. Is
> polystyrene lossy or not?
> Paul
> Think Positive
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: futuret@xxxxxxx
>   To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
>   Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 20:02
>   Subject: Re: [TCML] Capacitor dielectric examples and Tesla coil equations
> 
> 
> 
>    Those who may not be familiar with capacitor dielectric materials should be
>   aware that many of the materials listed are lossy, and not well suited for
>   Tesla coil use.  The best common dielectrics for low loss in TC use are:
> 
>      Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Polystyrene, Ruby Mica, some ceramics,
>      and perhaps a few other materials.
> 
>   Cheers,
>   John
>   -------------------

<Snip>
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