RE: The Geek Group High Voltage Capacitors, making a HV switch, (fwd)

["High Voltage list" <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2006 05:53:24 -0800
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>, hvlist <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: The Geek Group High Voltage Capacitors, making a HV   switch,
      (fwd)

At 04:46 AM 11/8/2006, High Voltage list wrote:
>Original poster: Steven Roys <sroys@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 00:44:45 -0800
>From: Jim Mora <jmora@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: 'High Voltage list' <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: RE: The Geek Group High Voltage Capacitors, making a HV  switch,
>       (fwd)
>
>Hi Jim, Bert and et al,
>
>So what is a safe distance BTW components or more directly Buses with
>rounded edges or Hard copper pipe to go out and make a return path for a
>wire blow?. I seem to remember 40KV/in. I have the break down chart
>somewhere but that deals in needle points and spheres.

40 kV/inch is pretty bold.  Breakdown in a uniform field is 70 
kV/inch, and anything with curved components is hardly uniform.  Your 
40 kV/inch has a safety factor of less than 2.

One rule of thumb might be an inch per 10 kV.  Watch the radius of 
curvature for corona losses.  At 20 kV, the *radius* needs to be on 
the order of 1/4"..  1/2" diameter

Air insulated HV stuff tends to be quite bulky.