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Registered Member #75
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711
I am still looking for a quiet and reasonably efficient way to switch a ~1kJ high voltage capacitor bank. I now discovered two thyratrons on eBay, a Hy11 and a Hy3202, with peak ratings of 1.6kA and 20kA respectively (oh yeah, please don't buy them!). The big one would be great, but also very expensive, so I was wondering about how much the small one could be pushed. I am only looking for a lifetime of a 100 shots or so, and I don't care much if trigger performance degrades quickly, so I guess that I am looking for the explosion energy (or explosion peak current) for the device. The ceramic housing looks like it could take quite a beating, so I would think that I could blast at least 10kA through it without fracturing it. But I might be missing other factors, like cathode surface area, amount of plasma available? I don't know a great deal about thyratrons, so I am just inferring from my knowledge of flash tubes (which I know can take a beating), but then they are not really that similar.
Registered Member #15
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068
I think as with everything, if you exceed the manufacturer's ratings of the device, there is additional risk that you will damage and/or destroy the device. If you have a datasheet, there might be additional information available onto the maximum current ratings etc... vs. reliability curves, etc...
Registered Member #212
Joined: Sun Feb 19 2006, 05:42PM
Location: Texas
Posts: 20
I wouldn't try to exceed the ratings. I worked with a smaller thyratron that had ratings of a few amps (for signal switching, not power), and when I exceed the current rating it did work on the first few fires but then its efficiency dropped and either didn't fire at all or there were losses.
I think that beyond a point, the gas in a thyratron becomes too "abused" and nonconductive, which renders the tube useless, just like running a neon bulb for years continuously then it doesn't light up as well then.
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Is it OK to abuse Thyratrons?
