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failures and mistakes

A project log for Helium Recovery Recycling System

I manage a helium recovery system. Labs use liquid helium for their experiments and I recover that helium as gas and liquidfy it.

meowMeow 06/12/2022 at 06:080 Comments
Loose connection for our 3 phase plugs. Over time the plug socket loosened and created some hot joints in the wire. Respliced and replaced the wall outlet and plug end. 
We were troubleshooting and pumping down the vacuum jacket in the cryomech automatic purifier with a turbo pump. A lab had installed new equipment and it was leaking air into the system which I think made the purifier act funny and die... =( 
There was a time where we had air go into the liquefier and froze our system with liquid air. Our purifier had failed and we didn't catch the issue till it was to late. We had to warm up to room temperature and then connect a vacuum pump on the liquid space of the Dewar to remove any contaminates. Photo below was a connection from the dewar space into a recovery bag. The gas was pretty cold and started cooling everything around it. 
respilcing new plugs. 

Purity manifold. Top is moisture count in helium. Measured in Parts per million. Below is percent oxygen in the helium space. That reading should usually read 0.00. We had a really bad leak in the system.

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