Back

Marx Generator Info

Date : Sat, 10 Jul 2004 11:19:07 -0600.  Subject : Marx Generator Article, Spark Length

Original poster: Greg Leyh
Interesting article, the home-brew triggered gap is especially neat.  Marx Generators have traditionally faired poorly against Tesla Coils in terms of raw spark length, since their slow firing rates squelch the wonderful shot-to-shot buildup that Tesla Coils enjoy.  Replacing the sparkgaps and charging resistors with solid-state switches however might allow the Marx Bank to be a serious contender in the 'arc-length vs power' arena.  Solid-state switching would allow the Marx to run well up into the 100's of  Hz, allowing exploitation of the shot-to-shot buildup effect.  Below is a link to some recent prototype development work towards this end:

http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/esd/PESC04_Paper.pdf

A 550kV[peak] coil [the 120L50K at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard] can generate about a 25' arc at 360 BPS.  I'm keen to find out what a 500kV Marx Bank can do at the same rep rate into a suitably elevated electrode.  GL.

 

Date : Sat, 10 Jul 2004 11:19:07 -0600.  Subject : Marx Generator Article, Spark Length

Original poster: Greg Leyh <lod@pacbell.net>

Interesting article, the home-brew triggered gap is especially neat. Marx Generators have traditionally faired poorly against Tesla Coils in terms of raw spark length, since their slow firing rates squelch the wonderful shot-to-shot buildup that Tesla Coils enjoy.  Replacing the sparkgaps and charging resistors with solid-state switches however might allow the Marx Bank to be a serious contender in the 'arc-length vs power' arena.  Solid-state switching would allow the Marx to run well up into the 100's of  Hz, allowing exploitation of the shot-to-shot buildup effect.  Below is a link to some recent prototype development work towards this end:

http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/esd/PESC04_Paper.pdf

A 550kV[peak] coil [the 120L50K at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard] can generate about a 25' arc at 360 BPS.  I'm keen to find out what a 500kV Marx Bank can do at the same rep rate into a suitably elevated electrode.  -GL

 

Date : Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:09:20 -0600.  Subject : Marx Generator article

Hey y'all:  In the current issue (July 2004) of Conformity magazine 'The engineer's guide to worldwide regulatory compliance' there is a feature article titled 'Build Your Own Marx Generator' by Mike Harrison of the
UK. It features three projects aptly named Marx1, Marx2 and (you get the idea).

If you don't subscribe to this fine magazine, fear not, just use this handy link http://www.conformity.com
to find yet another link as the article's title to view the PDF or go directly to the article by the following link.
http://www.conformity.com/0407build.pdf.  Enjoy, Bob W.