[Sneap] cleaning/flushing magnet coils

[Chris Westerfeldt]

> 
> From: "Miller, Thomas Edward" <millerte at purdue.edu>
> Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 19:10:42 -0500
> To: <sneap at tunl.duke.edu>
> Conversation: cleaning/flushing magnet coils
> Subject: cleaning/flushing magnet coils
> 
> Fellow SNEAPERs:
>  
> I just got some old quads from the IU cyclotron and when I ran water thru the
> coils I got a lot of crud out. I was wondering what other labs do to purge
> their magnet coils? I¹d like to clean/flush them out somehow before hooking
> them up to our water system. Any ideas?
>  
> Thank you. Cheers!!!!
>  
>    Tom Miller

Tom,
    We use a small pump that we bought from WW Grainger ­ it¹s a replacement
carpet cleaner pump
similar to this one  - 2P796.  We set it up with a bucket of industrial coil
cleaner which we get from our
local HVAC supply store.  We circulate the cleaner through the magnet coil,
power supply, diffusion pump cooling lines,
- whatever and back into the bucket.  As long as the lines are not totally
stopped up, this will remove the material attached to the
copper.  If you want details of either of these, I can go find them and pass
along the specifics.
    I recommend this procedure for any used equipment brought in to any of
your labs.  The reason is that about twenty years ago, we
installed some water cooled equipment that came from elsewhere.  Inside of a
month, we started to lose equipment left and right due to
their cooling lines stopping up with a black muck.  Our filters were
plugging almost daily.  Our water systems contractor tested the system (a
nominal 75 degree system)
and found a bacterial infection.  We had to dump the system, refill and
treat with chemicals to kill this anaerobic bacteria.  While I cannot
with a certainty blame the equipment brought in from elsewhere, I could not
come up with another explanation as to how this bacteria got into our closed
system.

Regards,
- Chris

-- 

Chris R. Westerfeldt
Research Scientist / T.U.N.L. Radiation Safety Manager
Duke University Physics Department &
Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory
Science Drive, Box 90308
Durham, NC  27708-0308
Tel: (919) 660-2600
Fax: (919) 660-2634
Email: Cwest at Tunl.Duke.Edu

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