Reports until 16:17, Thursday 29 September 2011
LHO VE
hugh.radkins@LIGO.ORG - posted 16:17, Thursday 29 September 2011 (1481)
Load Test on BNC Connector Vacuum Feed-Thru--They will break!
Maybe the logbook should allow multiple tasks?  Many things could span various "tasks" or subsystems.

OK, we've experienced many failures of the Triax style connectors used for the BSC-ISI CPS (Capacitive Position Sensor) electrical feed-thrus.  These are new to LIGO with aLIGO.  None have been installed on chambers yet.  We thought the eLIGO used BNC connection (HAM6 CPS) was much stronger but not so much it turns out.
We've had many breaks of these Triax connectors before, during, and after Clean & Bake.  The manufacturer measured 6 ft-lbs of torque breaking the triax.  They modified their design and got that up to about 12ft-lbs.  We will install these onto BSC8 & BSC6.  They have further changed their design but have not fabricated this yet so we don't know the strength.

Here are some photos of the breaking I did with the eLIGO BNC feed-thru.  This is the eLIGO triple style--aLIGOs will be duals from a different manufacturer.

*** Bottom line--the three all broke at ~9 ft-lbs. ***

First--Clamped Feed-thru in vice.  A 12" machined rod slides over the connector--12" exactly to the failure point.  I also clamped a round stock above the feed-thru so I could measure deflection while loading-see third image.
I then hung a bucket from 12" groove (first time I used a spring scale too)(image four) and then carefully added door flange bolts to the bucket while measuring deflection of the connector the best I could.  It broke after the addition of the fifth bolt(image 5 & 6.)  It didn't break right away but before I could measure the deflection.  I measured a little increase in deflection after the fourth bolt but not much more than measurement error.

So I repeated with the second connector on the conflat this time eliminating the Spring Scale to make sure the bounce of the scale wasn't impacting the outcome.  This time it broke again after the fifth bolt was added to the bucket but I was able to measure deflection--about .005" compared to near zero for all the previous weight additions.  OK somewhat repeatable.

For the third feed-thru on the conflat (at Vern's suggestion) I turned it around increasing the moment arm to 13-3/4"--again it broke after the fifth bolt-see photo7.  I measured the deflection about six times as far away from the break point as before and so a lot of movement of the metal before it broke was observed--I didn't get an image of the measurement point--as close to the conflat as I could opposite the ceramic side.

I then weighed the bucket and five bolts--8.5lbs +-.25lbs.  The 12" rod measured 1-1/4 lbs.
Images attached to this report