Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

"S. Stein" <[email protected]> · Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:58:23 -0500 (CDT)

Hello Eduardo,

  As I'm sure you already know or have discovered, it is very hard to find components which are certified rad-hardened for the doses we see in the scientific community. I'll ask the obvious question about shielding and distance, but assume you have maximized both for this application.

  My suggestion would be to keep it simple - as you indicate the use of potentiometers, it looks like you are going that route. The less electronics on the sensor itself the better. However, be prepared to change the sensors often as the damage becomes too severe for operation. If possible, have your mechanical design team assure that rapid swapping of the sensors is part of the construction - and consider redundancy to allow continued operation after one failure. 

That being said, we have had good luck using the Novotechnik linear transducers (http://www.novotechnik.com/products/linear/linear_potentiometric.html). We specified them for use on the LCLS Undulator and haven't had any failures yet to my knowledge. However they do not see neutrons.

In a nutshell, I think it will be hard to find a part certified for your radiation environment. Best to engineer a way to rapidly exchange the piece after a failure.

Hope that helps,
--Josh

----- Original Message -----
From: "Molina Marinas, Eduardo" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 2:44:25 AM
Subject: Radhard potentiometers?

Hello, 
our group is working on a scraper for the IFMIF-EVEDA project. We are looking for an adequate position sensor able to withstand high doses of neutrons, in a linear configuration (no shaft coupled). After searching in the list, it seems that potentiometers could do the job (accuracy and repeatibility should be in the 0.01 mm range) Could anyone suggest a particular manufacturer or product? 
Thank you, 

Eduardo Molina 

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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System