Reports until 17:53, Friday 20 March 2026
LHO VE (VE)
gerardo.moreno@LIGO.ORG - posted 17:53, Friday 20 March 2026 (89585)
TwoLarge Gate Valves and Filter Cavity Isolation Valves are Closed

(Jordan V., Gerardo M.)

We hard closed GV5 with no issues, the gate valve hard closed at 30 psi.  Something to note is the loud clank the gate valve made, and when the valve hard closed it shook the cameras housing, probably the alignment is not what it used to be.

We tried to hard close GV7 but no luck, it soft closed only.  We slowly increased the pressure up to 35 psi, and the gate valve remained unchanged.  For the activities planed for Monday soft close is good, we will visit the GV7 on Monday.

Then, we moved to close the filter cavity tube isolation valves, we closed FCV-1, FCV-2, FCV-3, FCV-4 and FCV-5.  We also isolated the relay tube by closing RV-1 and RV-2, the filter cavity volume will likely go up in pressure.