Original poster: Skip Greiner <skipg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Gerry
The cap was made by High Energy Corp in 1984. I do not know what the
cap was made of except that it was oil filled. I talked to High
Energy about 20 years ago and they told me then that I could run it
in Tesla circuits without a problem. We did discuss the charge
discharge cycles, current levels and the frequency range of about
100khz to 350khz. It apparently was a foil wound cap and was used in
extremely high powered lasers where multiple pulses were generated.
The cap had 6 sections. Each section was independent, rated .0275mfd
@ 42kv. I had wired it for approximately .035mfd. I have been using
the cap for at least 20 years without mishap. I have used it on
coils operating above 5kw.
When it failed, it blew up the case and sprayed oil all over the
place. It obviously was HOT. I do not yet know the failure
mode...will be doing autopsy in the next few days. As I said, I was
only up to about 65 volts input to the NST and I was adjusting the
gap phasing. Also was trying to get a good handle as to what
frequency it was operating at. I had gotten rid of the racing sparks
and the discharges were pretty well confined to the aluminum foil
ring. The safety gap was firing intermittently. Discharges were 36"
to over 40" and then BLAMO!
Skip