Re: Freon / High Voltage Supplies Cooling

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>

Actually Sue, (especially when you say you worked for Lambda), you were most
likely seeing fluoronert (sp), not freon.  Lambda uses this type of colling
in lots of their
highest power high voltage supplies.  That rolling / boiling effect is an
extremely effective way to aid in the cooling of these supplies.  This type
of internal cooling system is then coupled
to a liquid cooled exchanger which provides superior cooling over almost all
other methods.  This is the reason Lambda can build these 60kW high voltage
supplies which are smaller than
anyone else in the world makes for the power.

The Captain



 > Brian,
 >
 > Very interesting observations and great photos!
 > I finally got to your page after playing with the hyperlink a bit.
 >
 > I noticed something similar when I worked for a high voltage power supply
 > manufacturer. We used to test the power supplies before they were potted
by
 > submersing them in lexan containers filled with liquid freon (now banned).
 > The freon was used because it is a good insulator, and leaves no residue
on
 > the boards. It is also very light and volitile, as it turned to gas rather
 > quickly. The surface tension is much less than water, so the effects were
 > much more pronounced. When we powered up anything in the freon, it would
 > cause the freon to roll. It actually gave the illusion that it was
boiling.
 > The rolling effect was caused by the freon getting charged the high
voltage
 > point, and then the charged liquid would migrate toward the parts of the
 > supply that were at the opposite potential (ground). If you didn't fill
the
 > container up enough, and there was say, only a quarter inch or so of freon
 > covering the sharp high voltage points, there would be a freon stream
 > shooting up several inches into the air! Of course the higher the voltage,
 > the worse it was. This really freaked out the new people!
 >
 > Do not try that one at home! I am pretty sure that this stuff is one of
 > those banned chemicals that is impossible to get now, but in case anyone
has
 > any of this stuff lying around, I thought I would mention that it has
caused
 > a lot of people to quit that job because of the dammage it caused to their
 > lungs. It messed me up too, but I slowly got better after I left that
place.
 > Stick with water folks!
 >
 > Sue
 >
 > ----- Original Message -----
 > From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2003 6:52 PM
 > Subject: RE: Z-Machine Sparkage- Try this at home!!
 >