We've been rebuilding our 650 kV Febetron Marx bank in our "spare time" so we can bring our flash x-ray capability online. And not a moment too soon! We have a customer coming to the site in September to test a novel shaped charge design, and having flash x-ray images of the device in mid-operation will provide valueable data for comparison against the hydrodynamic models of the charges being calculated by our subcontractor, Jay B. Chase.

We acquired this machine from a surplus equipment vendor. It had been sitting outside for quite a while because the vendor didn't know what it was. As you can see from the photo above, it looked a bit rough, but it was intact.

Opening it up, we found that inside, it was in pretty fair shape.

As of now, the Marx tank is reassembled and we're building an adaptor to connect high voltage cable between the output of the Marx and an x-ray diode head, which we are also building. (The original machine had a glass x-ray tube attached directly to the Marx tank.) Then comes a lot of testing to make sure everything plays well together and the timing and control are spot-on. So far, it looks like we're on schedule to take our first flash x-ray images in early September, just in time for the shaped charge testing. We can't wait to post some x-ray images!