Laser Section Down 8/10/2022

Laser
#1

As of 3:45pm on 8/10, the entirety of laser is down until further notice. As for what happened:

A fire broke out during the course of normal operation, at which time it was discovered that the air nozzles designed to be used in this situation were all empty. A CO2 extinguisher was used to put the fire instead. I’ll update here as we know more.

Big Thunder will likely be down for longer than the rest of laser, but all of laser is down until we figure out why the air was either empty or off. When I know more, you will know more.

Chris

9 Likes
Let's Talk about the Fusion
#2
#3

The main 5 bottles of argon were empty (0 bar on LP and HP gauges. The spare has been opened up and the suppression hand wands are working again.

Note: Lasers are all still DOWN until such a time as the chair/laser-team determine they are OK to use.

Thanks!

#4

I’d like confirmation that the bottles ran empty because of something other than a leak on laser’s side before I make that decision. Does anyone know why they were empty?

#5

Honeywell makes relatively inexpensive pressure sensors ( $100 range ).

It wouldn’t take much to make a monitor/interlock for the tanks.

#6

Idea: We could monitor the pressure gauges for a time on the tank farm and see if there’s a decrease.

There is a pressure monitor on the system however those alerts go to the supplier and a few DMS personal. I think I heard it may have gone empty on Sunday evening. @TBJK can you confirm?

#7

There was still gas in the line Monday evening when I taught the course, because I always stress that you should quickly test the line before doing work with anything extra flammable. I don’t believe it was just residual air in the line, but I suppose it could have been.

1 Like
#8

This is a good backup to the CO2 system

#9

Do we still have the paintball tank extinguishers stored somewhere?

#10

@TBJK can pull up the actual chart of gas pressures however here’s a reference point as of right now:
image

#11

There’s a valve in metal shop that can disconnect the entire laser system, that would be a quick way to check for leaks.

#12

Pulsa has not been very nice to me running from my iPad. Trying to get the data while on my laptop.

#13

Bummer to hear about the Big Thunder inferno fiasco. Had a rude awakening after entering the Space tonight. Felt a bit like the laser apocalypse.

I have a fast approaching deadline to finish some signs for our Burning Man camp. Is there anything I can do to help get these babies running again soon?

My work schedule is flexible tomorrow so I’m available to come in and diagnose / fix issues with a bit of guidance or just provide moral support and snacks. Is anyone is available tomorrow who knows what they’re doing? I’m pretty handy but relatively clueless when it comes to giant frickin laser beams.

#14

If we can’t get confirmation about what’s up with the gas line tomorrow I’ll see about a workaround but I’m hoping we will know what’s up by then.

#15

Here’s the pressures on the laser argon tank farm as of now. Elapsed time between this and my previous posting is about 30 hours.

image
image568×576 98.6 KB

There may be a leak but it’s clearly not a massive one. I’d say testing everything with soapy water isn’t a bad idea but I’d think you could consider opening up laser again for now as long as tanks are on order and being replaced soon and we’re keeping an eye on this. Totally up to you though @cvrana as chair.

#16

Its lost a close to a couple hundred psi in the past 24 hours.

image
image1920×1440 71.4 KB

image
image1920×1440 69.8 KB

1 Like
#17

I admit I don’t know how to read that but it sounds significant. I think the line to laser is open again. Should we close it?

#18

It’s not showing the decay characteristics of a significant sustained leak yet. If you close it overnight we can verify the leak. Historically the system pressure is prone to periodic plummeting.

#19

Let’s do that and if there’s no indication of a leak we can reopen in the morning. Thanks for letting me know. I know it’s not your job anymore so I really appreciate the effort. I’ll ask someone to go close the valve.

To everyone else I’m sorry about laser being down so long but I want to be super safe with this. Especially after a fire broke out while we didn’t have the proper air line.

2 Likes
#20

Update: I’ve talked it over with others who know Better than I how the pressure thing works. I’ve been told we should be good to open it all back up so I’m going to say we can reopen laser for the time being.

1 Like