Faulty seal would have caused frustrating delays
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 10.04.2010 at 1:15 pm 14 Comments

Tevatron Fermilab

In particle physics, as in so many other parts of life, there are few things more useful than a trusty roll of tape.

Just before Labor Day, physicists working with Fermilab’s Tevatron wrapped up a planned four-week accelerator shutdown and were looking forward to getting back to work. But pressure started building in the Tevatron’s vacuum system, and experiments were halted while engineers isolated the problem. They found a faulty O-ring, which seals the vacuum between two superconducting magnets, according to an account on Fermilab Today.

The Tevatron is about four miles in circumference and involves about a thousand superconducting magnets, which accelerate protons and antiprotons to super-sized energies. The magnets are cooled with liquid helium so that they consume only one-third of the power they would normally require.

Faulty O-ring: A faulty rubber O-ring threatened to take out the Tevatron for more than a week. Electrical tape came to the rescue.  Symmetry Mag
Replacing the O-ring seal would have required shutting down the Tevatron for at least 10 days, so the system could be slowly warmed up from -500 degrees F. Engineers would need several days to take apart the tube, replace the O-ring, check all the systems and cool the whole thing down again.

According to Fermilab Today, accelerator division mechanical support supervisor Scott McCormick wasn’t having any of it.

Luckily, he and a colleague had already conducted an experiment to test the strength of tape. During a scheduled shutdown four years ago, they removed a clamp from a seal and wrapped it in electrical tape. The resulting vacuum held for more than a year, so they knew it would buy them some time until they could make a permanent fix.

So, instead of pausing for a new O-ring, engineers used a roll of 5/8-inch black electrical tape to fix the problem. After a day and a half of calibrations and checks, the Tevatron was up and running again.

Sometimes the most complex problems are best solved with the simplest solutions.

[Fermilab Today]

14 Comments

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VoodooX
10/04/10 at 1:49 pm

welcome to russia during the decline.. is funding really so low we have to patch machines that cost millions of dollars with tape..seriously sad

99.9999999999999% of an atom is empty space

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jojohoser
10/04/10 at 1:53 pm

Okay, so this is a bit nit-picky. But isn't absolute zero only around -459 degrees F?

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gizmowiz
10/04/10 at 2:08 pm

−459.67°F to be more precise. So the author flunked science 101!

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gizmowiz
10/04/10 at 2:08 pm

−459.67°F to be more precise. So the author flunked science 101!

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gizmowiz
10/04/10 at 2:09 pm

−459.67°F to be more precise. So the author flunked science 101!

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gizmowiz
10/04/10 at 2:09 pm

−459.67°F to be more precise. So the author flunked science 101!

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gizmowiz
10/04/10 at 2:10 pm

−459.67°F to be more precise. So the authors flunked Science 101.

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gizmowiz
10/04/10 at 2:10 pm

Why post my comment 5 times Popular Science? Jeeze I only hit the submit once!

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legion050
10/04/10 at 7:34 pm

@VoodooX
it has nothing to do with price, only time.

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xiuli76
10/04/10 at 8:33 pm

http://www.shoptrade.us

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alias007
10/05/10 at 12:52 pm

@gizmowiz, for effect. lol

@fermilab, duct tape wasn't available?

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VoodooX
10/05/10 at 12:55 pm

@legion050

they still ghetto rigged a multi million dollar machine

99.9999999999999% of an atom is empty space

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valterchaves
10/12/10 at 12:58 pm

welcome to russia during the decline.. is funding really so low we have to patch machines that cost millions of dollars with tape..seriously sad
http://www.cirurgia-plastica.com/perder-barriga/

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johnt007871
10/13/10 at 3:36 pm

Where did it say funding was an issue? And why is tape so lowly? Why use these silly stainless steel screws when we can use plated titanium screws for no reason. Why spend days on something that we know can be fixed with a piece of tape? Lower your desk chair a bit you obviously feel like you're sitting pretty high up.

Also, if they're warming it up to +68F from -460F then the difference would be ~ -500F (528F). Still off by a good bit. Sorry Rebecca I tried.



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