Manufacture and Properties of a Glass Fabric/Epoxy Composite Bellows

摘要

This bellows is a small but critical part of a large bubble chamber at present being constructed. It forms a gas tight seal between the reciprocating piston and the stationary chamber walls separating the chamber liquid from the piston backing gas. It is tubular (800 mm diameter) containing only one convolution and operates at a temperature of 26K in a 3 tesla magnetic field. For this latter reason, a polymeric material is preferred since this avoids eddy current heating effects. During normal operation of the bubble chamber the bellows is required to accommodate the total stroke of the piston (+-3.5 mm) and to withstand a pressure swing of +-3 bar at a frequency of 30 Hz. Detailed consideration of these operating parameters confirms the need for high quality glass reinforced plastics material. This paper describes the moulding technique, first developed for a 300 mm diameter bellows successfully used in a similar application. It produces a composite of the complex shape required, to close dimensional tolerances and with a glass fabric content in excess of 60% by weight. (Atomindex citation 09:418367)