The Mercury Rankine Program utilizes a hermetically sealed Combined Rotating Unit as the basic turboalternator machinery. The liquid mercury used in this unit is incompatible with the alternator stator in two respects: first, it will dissolve the silver stator windings during even brief exposure, and secondly, it will cause electrical continuity (shorting) between windings and to ground. Basically, the resolution to this problem is to exclude mercury from the stator by using a hermetically sealed stator bore containment.nThe optimum bore sealing materials were the electrically and chemically inert glasses and ceramics. In late 1962, a program was started to investigate the use of coated windings rather than a coated bore.
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