Mylar and First Shot update

As noted on twitter (follow us on twitter!) the first shots are not taking place today for a number of reasons, including a decision to order different mylar sheets.

After working with the mylar insulation sheets, The LPP team developed a better way of installing it that required a different span of sheet.  Awaiting the larger sheets (as well as general construction progress) has resulted in a re-estimation for the date of the first shots. 

Expectations for the first shots now place it closer to October 2. 

Mylar

The purpose of mylar insulation sheets is to electrically insulate the ground buss from the upper hot buss plate.  The buss plate forms the transmission line that delivers the power from the capacitors to the central dense plasma focus load. 

Ten layers of mylar sheets will thus go on top of the ground buss plates, over the capacitors. 

The sheets come in different sizes.  As insulating material, the danger of using several sheets side by side is that the current can find a way through the seams where the sheets join together.  Sheets have to be layered on each other in a staggered fashion to effectively render the seams non-conductive. 

A solution to the “seam” problem is to get a single, continuous sheet with no seams to cover the entire structure.  Such a sheet would be too big, and difficult to cut down to size.  The sheets LPP has are smaller and required a lot of layering, which was manageable.  But after some discussion, the team decided a better way to work with the mylar would be to get large 6’ sheets to cover the “cross” in the center of the structure, and use the rest of the sheets to cover each of the four extensions.