Thursday, January 14, 2016, 11:47

Backing pump was making very loud high pitched noises during last couple processes in the evaporator.

Replaced with a new one this morning.

 Tuesday, May 03, 2016, 14:29

Turned vacuum pump on this morning, sounded awful: loud grinding bad noises.

Called vacuum group, will replace pump tomorrow morning.

Sounds like materials coming out from all the out-gassing during sintering processes has ruined the bearings.

Wednesday, August 03, 2016, 16:16

Tues July 26th had some problems with the transfer chamber

Transfer chamber was not going below -20in pressure, when usually it will drop all the way to -30in

To by pass and put the uranium target into the glove box, the transfer chamber was flushed 10x - when opened, no change in H2O and O2 in glove box; therefore, 'bypass' worked.

Pump removed and tested by vacuum group - showed no reading on gauge when being tested, how was it even pumping?

New pump installed July 27th.

New pump = bigger/ faster/ quieter 

 Dan made a set of new cooling lines for the Source Tray Heat Shield cooling yesterday. No joints on the lines. Use same VCR fitting 3/8 -> 1/4" as for the Heat Shield. The old lines had worn threads on the male VCR nut.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016, 15:05

confirmed ~full tank of Ar for glove box --> ~1600psi 

 Dave Morris did a remote restart of the IOC after the outage. Turbo pump started.

 Thursday, February 09, 2017, 11:47

A new heatshield with flexible water lines has been put into evap2 last Friday Feb3rd

 Monday, May 08, 2017, 10:05

Turbo pump control box died last week.

Replaced with a new one.

 Thursday, May 11, 2017, 11:25

IGP2 has been having problems where sometimes it turns off and requires simply unplugging and plugging back in.

Ion gauge has been replaced.

At first the vacuum box appeared red on epics and when attempting to reset everything nothing would work and the backing pump would try and turn on then timeout.

Apparently this new ion gauge draws slightly more than the old one and this blew a fuse in the PLC.

Old fuse was 2A, so a new 3A fuse has been replaced - seems to be working fine now. 

 Tuesday, July 18, 2017, 15:26

Problems occured with TGHT water supply paddle wheel stopped and therefore tripped off evap2 last week.

All paddle wheels were replaced today for evap2 [other than the chiller].

A build up of dirt was found on all wheels replaced.

Evap2 good to go.

Will test flow meters before heating up to higher setpoints to confirm everything is working.

Monday, July 31, 2017, 15:24

Turned on BV and TP this afternoon.

Started ramping down, ~1min after turned on both tripped off.

Vacuum box turned red.

IGP1 appears yellow but still registering a vacuum.

TP interlocks: requires IEVAP2:IGP1 < 500mTorr but IGP1 = 6mTorr when tripped off.

Should have been satisfied and therefore not tripped but IGP1 not communicating?

Nothing wrong with ion gauge in person, vacuum good on direct read out.

When attempting 'Global Reset', nothing would reset - vacuum box remained red etc.

See screenshot attached of errors.

 Tuesday, August 01, 2017, 15:31

Had kept BP, PV and RV overnight.

This morning vacuum fine, everything had reset except "IEVAP2:TP on" under device notes for IEVAP2:TP remained red.

Turned on BV and TP, once turbo pump registered on, red wording went away.

Currently pumping down - everything looks fine now.

Still unsure of reason for these errors...

 Friday, August 04, 2017, 10:55

Happened again last night at ~5:45 while evaps at ~420A - see elog i.d. 383 for photos and details.

 Monday, July 31, 2017,  

Pellets previously pressed by Marla and Pauline. 

Pellets are placed inside a small graphite container.

Graphite container loaded with 5 pellets was loaded into Ta-boat previously coated with TaC.

Ta-boat is wrapped with 3 Ta heat shields.

Loaded in evaporator 2.

 Tuesday, August 01, 2017,

Chamber pumping down.

 Wednesday, August 02, 2017, 16:03

HS water valves were opened, no leaks were detected.

Current was tapped manually to 40 A.

After the stabilization of the vacuum auto ramping was set up to 0.5 A/min.

Up to a final set up point of 300 A.

Final desired temperature ~1700 C.

 Tuesday, August 08, 2017, 14:57

See elog i.d's #384 and #381

Investigated wiring in PLC.

Some wires in PLC were not creating a good contact - could be problem re: IGP1 tripping off.

Wires replaced by Gelo.

Pumped down and turned on power supplies over weekend.

Everything remained on - IGP1 did not trip system off.

May proceed with regular use.

 Tuesday, September 12, 2017, 12:00:

The coated back window was changed to a shuttered window.

On star-point flange bolt interfered with the shutter, however it was removed, shortened, and re-installed.

The installation is complete. Awaiting roughing pump to leak check.

 Monday, December 11, 2017, 14:21

Dave updated evap2 interlock limits to 500mTorr for TGHT and TBHT on friday

Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 07:05: TGHT & TBHT off

Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 07:15: BV1 & TP1 off

Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 07:17: PV1 & BP1off

Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 07:19: Begin venting

Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 07:22: Full venting.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 07:29: HS waterlines purged.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 07:48: Aurelia's test ta target assembly was removed. The blank target heating heat shield for evap 2 was reinstalled. shields in but empty.

Evap 2 Doors closed.

Saturday, April 28, 2018, 16:09

Container is coated with TaC and wrapped with TaC heatshield. 

Will be used for carbonizing nanoSiC target materials.

Chamber is pumping down...

Sintering temp 1800C, est TGHT ~550A

 Saturday, April 28, 2018, 18:08

Pressure at 5.e-6 Torr. 

Initial auto-ramp at 1.0A/min reaching TGHT 500A.  Monitoring temp.

 Sunday, April 29, 2018, 23:37

Target temp stabilizes at 1800C with TGHT holding at 400A/7.02V for 24 hours.  Pressure at 4.4 e-7 Torr.

Lower TGHT to 338A/5.51V to reach 1600C - This will temp/current will be used for carbonizing the nanoSiC fibers.

Holding TGHT overnight to determine temp stability.

 Monday, April 30, 2018, 18:04

Temp is holding at 1600C, TGHT 338A/5.5V.  Pressure at 3.0 e-7 Torr. 

Initiated cooling down at 2A/min.

Tuesday, May 01, 2018, 18:06

21 fibrous discs of nanoSiC are loaded into a tube container (coated/Sintered with TaC). 

Thermal treatment temperature at 1600C, TGHT is ~338A/5.5V, according to elog #407.

 Wednesday, May 02, 2018, 08:27

20 mins ago... initiate auto ramping at 0.2A to reach TGHT 250A.  Instead of ramping incrementally, TGHT jumped straight to 250A; vacuum shot up to milli torr.

Turn off TGHT immediately to let vacuum stable down to 10-6 Torr. 

System problem??  Archive striptool for more details. 

Re-activate auto-ramping - OK!

Once TGHT reached 250A (18 hours later from now), will continue ramping up to reach 1600C

 Friday, May 04, 2018, 01:09

TGHT just reach 250A, temp at about 1190C.  Pressure remained high at 4.2e-5 Torr. 

Continue autoramping to reach TGHT 300A.

 Friday, May 04, 2018, 11:07

TGHT at 300A for about 1.5 hr.  Temp at 1315C.  Pressure at 5.7e-6 Torr.

Autoramp to 320A.

 Friday, May 04, 2018, 14:39

Tapping up to 330A; temp at 1560C with slope changed to 1.05 (for carbide material). Will keep at this current/temp.

 Sunday, May 06, 2018, 13:25

TGHT at 330A/5.2V; holding temp at 1550C.  No coating on windows.  Pressure at 1.6e-7 Torr.

Cooling down at 2A/min. 

 Monday, May 07, 2018, 10:49

Evap cooled.  Venting chamber. 

Inspection of the discs next...

mass loss = 6.79 - 3.62 = 3.1 g (46%) [in agreement, good]

Tuesday, May 08, 2018, 15:02

22 np-SiC fibrous discs loaded in the tube container (coated and sintered with TaC)

Heat treatment is similar to previous process, see elog #408. 

TGHT should be set at 330A/5.2V to reach temp 1575C (+/- 25).

Omega slope set at 1.05 (for carbide)

Chamber is currently being pumped down

 Tuesday, May 08, 2018, 22:46

Pressure at 2.2e-6 Torr.

Initiated autoramping at 0.2A/min to reach 330A

 Friday, May 11, 2018, 11:11

TGHT reached to 330A/5.1V but temp was measured at 1400A; It was held at that current for about 10 hours.

Increased TGHT to 335A/5.2V - temp is holding at 1420C (Will check the window if there is any coating that might have caused the discrepancy)

 Sunday, May 13, 2018, 00:25

In fact, the window is slightly coated.  The temperature should already be at optimum, 1600C.  Will keep heating for another day.

 Sunday, May 13, 2018, 14:10

Temp holding up well.. Pressure at 1.8e-7 torr. 

cooling down at 2A/min.

 Monday, May 14, 2018, 09:33

Target has been cooled for over 18 hours.  Pressure at 1.1e-7 Torr.

Venting chamber.

mass loss = (8.65 - 4.32)g = 4.33 g (50%) [slightly higher than expected, likely due to increase of 5A on TGHT]

Alarm noted on passing Hot Lab. RPG notified, no radiological hazards. ISAC ops contacted, drop in DI water last night.

Entered w/ PPE. Chiller alarming. Evap 1 running ok

Friday, June 08, 2018, 08:30: Chiller turned on/off. Reset. No alarm.