Electromagnetic Pistol:
CS-P01A
accelerator Construction
This is one of
the main subsystems so before any framework metal is cut I am going to ensure
this component works flawlessly.
Fig 1 shows the
main mechanical components for the 3-stage accelerator. In this design I decided to
use separate holes in the accelerator for the optical gate beam. The reason being that
to machine the slot up to this point (thereby allowing beam feedthrough) would
only leave a small web between each slot which could result in unacceptable accelerator
deformation.
Fig
1. Main components for 3-stage accelerator.
Fig 2 illustrates
a trial assembly of the components. It's essential to make sure that everything
can be correctly aligned before the parts are permanently fixed.
Fig
2. Components are trial fitted.
The completed accelerator
subsystem is shown in fig 3.
Fig
3. Completed accelerator.
The
coils consist of 8 layers of 1.5mm diameter wire impregnated with acrylic lacquer.
The wire ends are terminated on brass posts and soldered in place.
After
looking at the dynamic coil current behaviour, relating it to current density
and then comparing magnetic projectile forces in FEMM, I decided that the second
and third stages were too thick. They were therefore reduced to 6 and 4 layers
respectively. Fig 4 shows the modification.
Fig
4. Modified accelerator with reduced layers.
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