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spark gap electrodes
Posted by william on 4/5/2004, 1:06 pm
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Surge arresters (spark gaps), thyratrons
Posted by Sergey Rodin on 4/7/2005, 10:40 am, in reply to "spark gap electrodes"
Link: http://eng.plasma.com.ru
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Re: spark gap electrodes
Posted by Bert Hickman on 4/5/2004, 7:34 pm, in reply to "spark gap electrodes" Hi William, Actually either metal will work fine as long as you have sufficient air flow to keep them cool. However, copper pipe electrodes combine excellent thermal conductivity with large surface area, copper pipe is much easier to find and work with than tungsten rod, and copper is considerably less expensive. Copper does tend to for a blackish colored oxide in the sparking area, so it requires periodic cleaning with sandpaper every now and then. The secret to good quenching is to use a number of smaller gaps (0.25" - 0.030") in series using electrodes that are comparatively large (for added surface area and thermal mass) and a source of cooling air flow. It is also possible to get reasonably good quenching with a properly designed single gap and LOTS of air (such as Gary Lau's Sucker Gap or Vortex Gap) See https://www.laushaus.com/tesla for how these are made. With a 15/30 there's really very little performance difference between the two gap styles as long as you provide adequate airflow. However, a single gap requires a virtual hurricane to get good quenching, and it's VERY noisy. It's simply easier to use a series of gaps with moderate air flow. At higher power levels it becomes more difficult to adequately quench with either style gap, and eventually it becomes time to build a rotary gap. Good luck and best regards, -- Bert --
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Re: spark gap electrodes
Posted by William on 4/5/2004, 11:46 pm, in reply to "Re: spark gap electrodes" --Previous Message--
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Re: spark gap electrodes
Posted by Bert Hickman on 4/6/2004, 12:05 am, in reply to "Re: spark gap electrodes" Hi William, Gary made two types of single-gap spark gaps. The ealier "Sucker Gap" used lower pressure (suction from the vacuum cleaner motor), while the newer "Vortex Gap" (further down on his web page) uses positive pressure from the output of the vacuum cleaner blower. Both performed better than the older RQ type gap. It turns out that Gary had an NST that could deliver an abnormally high amount of current because of the number of shunts that had been removed. This may have contributed to his observation of higher current. In any event, I'd recommend using higher pressure (per the Vortex Gap), since it does have better quenching ability and lower overall gap losses than the Sucker Gap. Good luck, -- Bert --
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Re: spark gap electrodes
Posted by lily Chi on 11/24/2004, 9:33 am, in reply to "Re: spark gap electrodes" My factory manufacturering switch spark gap, the type is like the ceramic arrester, it is used on ignition. If you are interested in it, please feel free to contact me via mail or MSN: lily_chiliu@hotmail.com. I am in Shenzhen city, China. Lily
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