[Amps] big capacitor in HV PS

[RICHARD SOLOMON]

Back in my days at MIT (in the 60's) I built a Laser Discharge Power Supply 
that had about 240 mfd @ 8 KV. They were discharged through a Pulse 
Forming Inductor made of a coil of #12 wire. The output ran through some 
coax to the Laser. I kept telling these students not to run over the cable.

Well, you guessed it. One day the cable shorted and the full charge went 
through the Inductor. Fortunately, I had shielded the box in sheet metal. 
The inductor exploded and bits of wire were sticking through the sheet 
metal. Several students had to go home for a change of linen that day !!

That was years before OSHA.

73, Dick, W1KSZ

> Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:53:41 -0700
> From: wc6w_amps at yahoo.com
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [Amps] big capacitor in HV PS
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > John Lyles wrote:
> > > The stored energy in that capacitance at 3.6 KVDC is
> > 8.1 kilojoules. 
> > > This is a tremendous amount to deal with for a power
> > supply. Roughly 
> > > equivalent to the mechanical force of a part of a
> > stick of dynamite when 
> > > it lets loose. 
> 
>  For "real world" reference :
> 
>   A 22LR bullet starts off with about 100 joules.
> 
>   A 5.56 rifle bullet around 1500.
> 
>   A 50 cal machine gun bullet around 15000.
> 
>   The .45x big game bullets would rate around 8000.
> 
> 73 & Good morning,
>   Marv WC6W
> 
> http://wc6w.50webs.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *
> 
> 
> 
> 
>       
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