An Improved Sulphur Hexafluoride Gas Handling System for a Potential Drop Partical Accelerator

An improved sulphur hexafloride (SF6) gas handling system has been designed and built for the Lewis Research Center 3.0 Mev Dynamitron Accelerator1 utilizing the original components provided with the accelerator. The purpose of the system is to remove the gas from the accelerator when opening is necessary, purify and store it, and return it to the vessel. The advantages are; reduction in cycle time from 7 hours to about 3 hours, reduction in unretrieved gas from 7% to as little as 0.02%, compactness and improved purification resulting from liquefaction and additional filtering, and safe, reliable semiautomatic operation. Design considerations, fabrication techniques, and performance evaluation of the system are given.