Scott Adair from Riada sales came to site to complete diagnostics on the ONICON flow meter. He could not determine the problem and believes that there was a short in the head. He has taken the flow meter for what should be warranty repair. The flow meter is for diagnostics only, the conditioning station can still operate without it.

 A special thanks to Kazuya, Jane and Ray who jumped on this issue right away! The limit of the BIAS PS was set as 20000uA when in reality it is 4000uA. The issue has now been corrected. Please remember to divide the current by 5 for any elogs older than this one.

 The HV test completed on Monday was repeated today over a much longer time period. By taking longer there was slightly less sparking but once again a maximum voltage of ~44kV was achieved. The  resistivity of the water was much higher during this run so the leakage current was less but still in the >100 uA range. The spark that occurred during the ramp up to the maximum voltage caused the "water resistivity" limit to trip. This was a feed back through the control not the actual water changing as it recovered instantaneously. 

 To confirm that the sparking was coming from the module rather than the conditioning station TM3 was grounded and the conditioning station biased. Attached are the results. Highlights include that there was no sparking and the station was able to achieve 60kV (limited by controls from going higher). The current from the raw file has been corrected by the required factor of 5.

 After discussion with Friedhelm it was decided to continue trying to condition the module today before moving it tomorrow. The voltage was quickly raised until 40 kV where it was left for ~30 minutes. Sparking was minimal. It was then slowly raised to 44.3 kV it held this voltage for ~8 minutes when the current started to climb (remained below 200uA as set as a limit in previous tesing). There was also sparking at this point. This continued for ~2.5 minutes until once again the water resistivity sensor tripped again. It appears that there is a~ 44kV limit on TM3. Attached is the data. I will present all of the data to the group tomorrow showing the results of multiple testing.

On May 16th 2013 the module was HV conditioned all day. As a result the maximum stable voltage has been increased to about 47kV (~4kV more than last test). A maximum voltage of 49kV was achieved but the module was very unstable. Attached is the data from the testing. Note that occasionally the sparking caused the PS to reset, it was turned back on and the voltage increased back to what it was (or lower) quickly.

 ESC came today and "repaired" the chiller. There was something wrong with the VFD controller. The were able to get it to start and run correctly again but were not able to recreate the problem. At this point it appears that it has magically disappeared. 

 The turbo pumps have been turned on and are running

 Rob Walker has drained the primary side of the conditioning station. It will be flushed, filled  and chemically treated. It was desired to chemically treat the primary side before before but it took so long that sediment was found (things started to grow).

The pumps have been turned on at ~9:30 this morning. Current values are 6.61 Mohm TCS:DIC1 @19.4 C. HV testing will start momentarily.

Rob walker has flushed and refilled the primary side of the system (note the water still looks nasty). This morning the primary side of system needed to be bled as there were air pockets. Also TK2 had reached its low point and needed to be topped up.

 Once again the 7.5 compressors are tripping due to faults. I believe it is due to over pressure as a result of the chiller fans not coming on. I have contacted ESC.

 During HV conditioning of TM4 with Ta#40 there was a spark at ~43 kV that caused the Bias card to "fry". Dave Morris has been contacted and has said he will replace it tomorrow.

 The HV conditioning reached a maximum of 44kV today before a spark took out the canbus card. I will attach the data once I have had a chance to format it. 

 Argon venting has started. It will be left to vent over night. 

ESC was called out again to inspect the chiller as it was showing the same problem as before. This time when started one fan came on (this is not what happened last time) but the fan controlled by the VFD did not. It was eventually traced to a relay that has been replaced. The system was tested as best it could without a load and appears to be working. It will be difficult to tell until a heat load is in place if the fix has solved everything. 

 The roughing pumps have been started on the conditioning station. As it is late in the day for David he will make the turbo pump connections tomorrow.

TM3 has been moved from the south hot cell to the conditioning station. David and I completed the move. All went well.

   I have fallen behind on the HV testing that has been completed on TM3. Data can be found on docushare in the TM3 Rev 3 folder files are too large to attach. From the last elog entry the following tests have been completed

July 8 2013 - Long HV conditioning 50kV achieved before sparking caused PS to trip. Was unable to recover to the same voltage

July 9 2013 - Attempted to repeat previous test lost PS at 45kV. Voltage continued to degrade during the day.

July 10 2013 - Max voltage achieve 42.5kV discussed with Friedhelm and decided to run the EINZEL lens at 50% of the BIAS in case this is the source of the sparking

July 10 2013 - Max voltage 40.5kV with EINZEL lens. Communicated with Friedhelm and Lia. It was decided 40kV was good enough. Started developing standard test (see below for testing procedure) for Module so a with and without source tray 

July 12 2013 - Only one spark on route to 40kV. PS tripped after ~10 minutes at 40kV. Near the end of the day there wasn't enough time to repeat test.

July 15 2013 - Test repeated, could not hold 40kV. 39kV held for 1 hour with EINZEL lens off. Sparking was making it difficult to keep on.

July 15 2013 - TM3 was electrically disconnected from the conditioning station. The station ran at 60kV for 1 hour with zero sparks.

July 16 2013 - Test repeated with goal of 39kV intense sparking after 20 minutes caused the PS to trip. Once again the EINZEL lens PS was tripping and eliminated from use to make the test easier. With the failure of this test once again Friedhelm was once again consulted. He advised to stop testing as it appears to be causing damage. There is concern that the module is degrading. Lia has stated this does not affect the source tray and that a source tray will be inserted into TM3 and she accepts responsibility if the module does not hold voltage. 

Standard testing procedure for the bias was as follows. Please note that the EINZEL lens was supposed to follow the BIAS steps at 50%. This procedure was approved by Friedhelm prior to operating. This test was never successfully completed and we will not be able to complete a "apples to apples" test once the source tray is installed.

> Step to 5000 kV If no sparking after 1 minute

> Step to 10000 kV If no sparking after 1 minute

> Step to 15000 kV If no sparking after 1 minute

> Step to 17500 kV If no sparking after 1 minute

> Step to 20000 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 22500 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 25000 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 27500 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 30000 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 31000 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 32000 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 33000 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 34000 kV If no sparking for at least 1 minute after 5 minutes

> Step to 35000 kV If no sparking for at least 2 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 35500 kV If no sparking for at least 2 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 36000 kV If no sparking for at least 2 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 36500 kV If no sparking for at least 2 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 37000 kV If no sparking for at least 2 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 37500 kV If no sparking for at least 5 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 38000 kV If no sparking for at least 5 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 38500 kV If no sparking for at least 5 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 39000 kV If no sparking for at least 5 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 39500 kV If no sparking for at least 5 minute after 10 minutes

> Step to 40000 kV Maximum 3 sparks per hour maximum test time 3 hours.

chad fisher wrote:

The heat shield circuit was pressurized with air (15-20 psi) and snoop applied to the water block joint and brazes. Bubbles formed at the joint between the two water blocks indicating that the leak is a c seal problem. Pictures attached but also on docushare Collection-11285.

 Last night prior to this leak check the Heat Shield was pumped on and helium sprayed on the circuit. The pressure was 0.0 x 10^-4 Torr. The leak was traced to water block. response time was 2 seconds and went from 5.5 x 10^-8 to 1.6 x 10^-6 atm*cc/sec. There was also a response without spraying helium (drift from the nozzle). The results of this testing prompted the testing completed in Chads elog.