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Registered Member #1134
Joined: Tue Nov 20 2007, 04:39PM
Location: Bonnie Scotland
Posts: 351
Nice! I came across blumleins once before, they are not trivial things to design or build. I'm pretty sure the Golden Engineering inspector 200, and its modern counterparts, do in fact use Marx generators, to supply the HV pulse. I had done a patent search on Flash x-ray machines, and although some were very compact, they all Marx gens
Registered Member #193
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022
I don't know how to define a blumlein circuit, but I have taken one of those X ray generators apart and what feeds the Xray tube is a pair of long copper foil strips in some sort of xformer/ capacitor combination. It's certainly not a marx. Here's Golden's patet ,M1
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
Marko, there's not really anything bizarre about it. A transmission line has inductance per unit length, capacitance per unit length, and behaves more or less like a ladder of series inductors and shunt capacitors. The capacitance is what stores the energy while you're charging the thing up.
This is how the Blumlein works, but I've also seen Marx generators built using reels of coaxial cable in place of the capacitors, that generate very short and powerful square pulses.
You also see "artificial line" pulse forming networks that are actually made of a ladder of inductors and capacitors, which is basically a lumped model of a transmission line. Because they're not a real line, you get slower rise and fall times, and ripples on the top of the pulse. But they store far more energy for their size than a spool of coax could.
Registered Member #76
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 10:04AM
Location: Hemer, Germany
Posts: 458
mh, other question. would it be possible to rectify the output of a high kV flyback with this sort of rectifier to power a marx gen??? i had problems with my marx cause most of the flybacks had been destroyed by em or hv kickbacks. they all still work, but with ac, cause the internal diodes are the weak part in this circuit. is this sort of rectifier worth a try?? cause my marx gen has a 60meg ohm charging resistor and it still reaches full charge within half a second or so, so the current involved is pretty "lol" compared to all the other things i do. maybe this "rectifier" would look pretty cool if you build it all nice and out of copper etc. some corona effects are nice too
Registered Member #1025
Joined: Sun Sept 23 2007, 07:53PM
Location: Czech Rep.
Posts: 566
Reaching wrote ...
mh, other question. would it be possible to rectify the output of a high kV flyback with this sort of rectifier to power a marx gen??? i had problems with my marx cause most of the flybacks had been destroyed by em or hv kickbacks. they all still work, but with ac, cause the internal diodes are the weak part in this circuit. is this sort of rectifier worth a try?? cause my marx gen has a 60meg ohm charging resistor and it still reaches full charge within half a second or so, so the current involved is pretty "lol" compared to all the other things i do. maybe this "rectifier" would look pretty cool if you build it all nice and out of copper etc. some corona effects are nice too
I had never problem with destroying the diode of the fly-back while operating my Marx and I'm not using any charging resistor (and the Marx is a 500KV 100J monster). I think the destruction has more to do with too much of energy you are using for your fly-back and not with a kick-back. But you can still solve it by using a HV relay which disconnects the fly-back and triggers the Marx in one shot– I made one from DC motor and some plastic rubbish which worked for 60KV – I'm sending a picture which is very hard to read but maybe it gives you an idea. (I designed these relays becasue of my dying fets and not to protect the fly-back diode. However, later I solved the problem once forever with TVS so I'm not using relay triggering anymore - it is useless)
To use the can rectifier for this purpose is in my eyes very naive and I think you can seriously damage your caps…
BTW: is it your Marx connected to the ground? My one never!
this was an old 30KV version
this relay could trigger 60KV and latest modification could disconnected both wires (+ -) from the charging circuit (not on the picture)
Registered Member #1025
Joined: Sun Sept 23 2007, 07:53PM
Location: Czech Rep.
Posts: 566
Steve Ward wrote ...
I would really like to see that... got any pics? 100J is a pretty serious amount of energy at that voltage.
Actaully I was not right about the energy . It is only approx 85J in my latest Marx III.
Here is my short Marx parade
My first Marx - 19 stages, each 9-10uF / 25-30 KV (approx. 80J)
This was my MarxII, 10 stages each 4,5-5nF /50KV. It had a serious design flaw in the caps (side flashes)
And here is my latest Marx III, unfortunately I have only pictures when I was testing first 5 stages. Full version with description will be in the project section soon (I hope I will have time after the New Year). The caps were re-designed in a simillar way like is shown here and should stand voltages over 70KV! I tested 60KV (that's absolute maximum I can get from the Fly-back without risking its destruction). 10 stages version data: each stage has 4.5-5nf /60KV (approx 85J)
BTW: Sorry Sparky, I know it is not blumlein topic anymore...
Registered Member #1159
Joined: Fri Dec 07 2007, 02:10AM
Location: Hudson Valley of NY State
Posts: 84
Merry Christmas & happy New Year,
Just thought you might like to see some pictures of this thing. First one is all three circuit boards. Next is the Blumlein HV generator. Based on size alone, definately not a Marx generator. Next is the 9KV 100ma charging transformer. Followed by the charging transformer mounted on the HV generator.
I also have the complete unit, ready to take x-rays, but I'm not sure I'm going to mess with that at this time.
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Blumlein Generator & EMP
. It is only approx 85J in my latest Marx III. 
