Reports until 15:52, Sunday 11 February 2018
LHO VE
kyle.ryan@LIGO.ORG - posted 15:52, Sunday 11 February 2018 (40486)
Aborting low temp bake-out of CP4 Turbo+RGA
Having started 4 days later than originally planned combined with a (Kyle-typical) too conservative rate-of-rise (40C after 24 hrs.), I've decided to abort the low temperature bake exercise.  I had hopped to soak at 65C - 80C for a few days to see how the current iteration of heated zones (flexible heat wrap) behaved and also to dry out the wet fittings a little.  Though the individual components had been Class-Ad initially and redundantly vacuum baked after assembly, an unforeseen reconfiguration was needed that required venting the turbo+RGA assembly with "room air".  Additionally, the 10" gate valve (O-ring sealed) at CP4 was also exposed to wet air to facilitate the installation.  So, getting a useful "before" scan of CP4 would require some form of bake.  No worries.  A "before" scan would be interesting (but optional).  What will really matter is getting a sensitive "after" CP4 bake scan prior to combining it to the rest of the site.  This won't be a problem as we will have lots of time and the setup is now done.  

Notes:  
As found today, the turbo inlet pressure was 2.0 x 10-7 mbar while at 40C.  Also, the scroll pump seemed way too warm for not having a gas load.  Hmmm.....foreline leak? I didn't have a gauge on the foreline initially so I installed one today.  It showed 8.5 x 10-3 torr on the Tee at the scroll inlet which is ~7 ft. away from the turbo exhaust and 10 minutes after pumping the foreline back down.  Still, it isn't typical to run so warm without pumping gas.  For now, I setup a fan to cool the scroll.