Re: Energy Discharge Capacitor

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Gomez Addams <gomezaddams@xxxxxxxxx>


On Aug 12, 2006, at 7:45 PM, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Mike" <mike.marcum@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Almost 10kJ, definely enough to shrink a quarter. Seems kinda light
> for that many J tho, kinda wonder how many shots it was designed
> for new and how many are left. I personally wouldn't wanna pay $295
> plus freight if it was gonna self-destruct after 5 shots. No
> warranty as-is too. Guess it depends if you feel lucky.

Multiple people, in multiple physics labs have told me that it is
standard practice to remove pulse caps from duty when they are within
10% of their predicted shot life, so they don't fail catastrophically
and make a mess or cause other capacitors in a bank to fail.  Shot
life can be predicted fairly accurately if you know all of the
parameters of a shot - the formula is fairly simple.

A guy who worked in the Atlas Machine lab told me I should be very
wary of used large pulse capacitors showing up on the surplus market,
especially if I wanted to operate them near their ratings - he said
most of them are "used up".

Caveat Emptor!

 - Bill "Gomez" Lemieux

.