Cable Flexor
Cable Flexor |
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Shown here is a device for exercising multi-layer high density flexible cables. The cables in our BTeV collider experiment must survive in a very high radiation environment inside a vacuum for 10 years. It is thus necessary to flex them in a manner identicle to that inside the vacuum vessel. To do this one end of the cable is kept at -10C and the other at room temperature. Flexures occur at a rate of about 20 minute. |
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This particular cable was flexed more than 500,000 times with the developement of only a single harmless microfracture. This is easily seen as a drop in the current flowing in the cable in the figure here. Note that the current dropped by only 2 parts in 40,000. The changes in the slope reflect changes in the ambient air temperature in this particular test. Future tests will be done in a vacuum chamber. |