The 40m vacuum envelope is at atm    It took 4.5 hours at ~3 Torr/min speed. Atm1

What I did:

Turned PZT voltages off: 84.1V at OMC-rack location

                                           -  99V at 1Y3 location as PZT_pitch,

                                             56.6V KEPCO at 1Y3 location as PZT_yaw                                           

Took screen shuts of SUS_SUMMARY, yesterday,  Atm3

Turned off OPLEV _SERVOs, today , Atm2

Closed PSL_SHUTTER and green shutters at the ends

Set vacuum valves for vent position and opened VM2 for the RGA

 Koji, Manasa, Jenne, Jamie, Bob and Steve

Access connector removed this morning and work has began in the IOO chamber.  BE WARE OF ANTS !

The COVAC_MONITOR.adl was changed. Ion pump labeled as disconnected means: ion pump controller power turned off and ion pump gate valve control connection disconnected.

RP2 roughing pump labeled disconnected means:  hardware  disconnected.

The actual operational, valve control screen has not been changed yet.

Reminder: I will be on vacation next week. We would have to put the access connector in tonight if I'm pumping down Friday, tomorrow.

 RGA background with VM2 open to Maglev at day 37

Note: The PAN gauge of the  annulos is at atm.  Please do not vent this 200 ft long annulos line when you venting the annulos of a chamber. The chamber annulos should be closed off to this long 2"  OD. pipe before you vent the annulos of a chamber.

CP Stat 100  sheet-covers were replaced by clean ones on open chambers BS, ITMX, ITMY and ETMY this morning.

Try to fold the sheets such way that the clean side is facing each other, so they do not accumulate dust.

[Steve, Yuta, Koji]

The ETMX heavy door was removed.

[Steve, Manasa, Jenne, Sendhil, Evan, Yuta]

We put heavy doors on ITMX/ITMY/BS chamber and started pumping down from annulus.

What we did:
  1. Replaced POP55 with AS55 back, because it was not broken.
  2. Centered on AS55, REFL55, REFL11, POPDC PD.
  3. Tried to lock PRMI, but I couldn't lock even MI stably for more than 1 min. I believe this is because it was noisy this morning. But I checked again that REFL/POP/AS beams are coming out without clipping and we have some error signals.
  4. Noticed AS beam has less range in left (on AS camera), so we tweaked OM4 a little to make more room.
  6. Took pictures inside ITMX and BS chambers
  7. Put heavy doors on ITMX/ITMY/BS chambers.
  8. Started pumping down annulus.
  9. Recentered IPANG/IPPOS and oplevs on their QPDs.

POP, REFL, AS:

 We are pumping down with RP1 & RP3 oily roughing pumps at 3 Torr/min speed. The butterfly valve was just removed.

The PSL shutter is open to vacuum at ~100  mW 1064 nm. The inter lock should close it at ~5 mTorr.

Rana will shut down pumping tonight.

He will close V3 from screen, close RV1 valve with torque wheel, turn off roughing pumps and disconnect hose between RV1 and roughing pumps.

I will restart pumping early morning tomorrow.

[Rana, Yuta, Koji]

21:05 at the pressure of 10torr
V3 closed. RV1 manually closed. RPs were turned off. And the bellows between RV1 and the rughing pumps are disconnected.

 Pump down is restarted after 10.5 hrs stop overnight.

 IFO   P1 pressure is 1 mTorr.  It is ready for high power light.

The Maglev took over the pumping at 500 mTorr

 All normal, IFO pressure 1.5e-5 Torr

RGA is pumped by TP-3 in back ground mode.

 Atm1, RGA background scan with TP3 pumping at day 7

Atm2,  IFO  CC1 = 1.1e-5 Torr at day 8

 Vacuum valve VM3 closed and VM2 opened, it switched the RGA to IFO scanning mode. CC4 = 3.5e-6 Torr

TP3 is pumping on the annuloses, their pressures are 1-3 mTorr

Vacuum condition reached the state of  Vacuum Normal. The MEDM screen "Current State" channel does not work because we disconnected some valves after the VME swap CAOS

Note: TP1 Maglev performance on Atm2  CC4 = 4e-9 Torr when VM2 valve was open

TP3 turbo pump's dry-foreline pump was replaced.

How to do it:

The pump should be replaced when it's performance  <1.0 - 1.3 Torr

Set up valve configuration as shown at Atm1: close in this order VAEE, VASV, VABS, VASV, VASE, VA6 and V5,

Turn TP3 off at it's controller in the rack. Wait till is stops, so you can read 760 Torr at TP3 foreline gauge

Disconnect intake, exhaust vacuum seals and replace pump. Reconnect vacuum fitting and start it up.

Confirm operational details on the front of the controller: 50 K_RPM, 0.2A and <100 mTorr

Reset valves in reverse order

PS: the average life of the tip seal on the Varian SSH-110 dry-pump is about 1 year

      This pump " ser LP1007L556 " seal  made new record of 668 days: thanks to Bob Taylor who is replacing these seals

 Pumpdown 75 - Maglev - day 12

Precondition: 66 days at atm, installed TIP-TILTs with coils that  replaced PZT-Jena input steering

Optical quality 6.5" OD window specs and quotes for vacuum view ports and optical table enclosure are on the 40m wiki_ Aux Optics page.

We have just received a very good quote #2  from Cascade  Optical.

 Vacuum normal condition at pumdown day 100

 Pumpdown 75, vacuum normal condition at day 144

Thanks for the good preparation.  IFO pressure P1=20 Torr

 The 40m IFO has reached  atmospher in 5 hours. It is ready to open chamber condition. The RGA is pumped with the maglev.

P1 pirani gauge is contact dependent as you see it on the linear plot It will be replaced during this vent.

The venting speed was 2-4 Torr / min

Atm2 shows how the BS is sensing the venting air cylinder changes. 

The 4th cylinder of instrument  grade air  bump is overlapping with our janitor working at the BS chamber.

We will open the BS and ITMY doors first thing tomorrow morning. I plan to try to be in around 9 am. The first order of business will be to flip the folding mirrors that are not currently flipped (SR2, SR3, PR3).

 Jenne, Annalisa & Steve

 Manasa, Eric, Evan, Koji and Steve,

Access connector removed in order to complete alignment. Light aluminum with acetate windows AC installed.

Prior to the access connector removal, Manasa and I aligned the IFO mirrors.
The arms were locked and aligned by ASS.

We have been using Air Liquide Instrument Grade Air for venting the 40m vacuum envelope. It is no longer available.

The replacement is Alphagas 1, total hydrocarbon <0.1% ppm

LINK TO Alphagaz

Air Liquide > ALPHAGAZ™ Specifications

ALPHAGAZ™ Specifications

Because each analytical application is sensitive to critical impurities that can affect your results, tests in our research center and analyzer manufacturers' studies confirm that the main impurities are moisture, oxygen and hydrocarbons.

Based on these critical impurities, Air Liquide has developed ALPHAGAZ™ brand with a Maximum Impurity Level (H₂O, O₂, C_nH_m).

• The Maximum Impurity Level is the same across the whole product range. This constitutes a guarantee of quality with regard to major critical impurities and contamination tracers. ALPHAGAZ™ 2 offers an even greater guarantee in terms of purity (CO, CO₂, H₂).
• The Minimum Total Purity is a prerequisite for product quality, but we do not stop there: Air Liquide selects and controls its gas sources by defining specifications regarding impurities that are critical for your analysis or application.

 RGA background at day 12 of this vent . The maglev is pumping on the rga through VM2

 The pumpdown has started at 8:38am

Manasa was here to confirm good alignment of the IFO

Inner jam nuts of AC bellow were torqued to 45 ft/lbs and   door nuts were check on opened chambers.

Annulos were roughed down to 500 mTorr

Oplev servos turned off, PSL and green shutters closed before pumpdown started

 IFO  P1=1mT PSL shutter is opened

 Cold cathode gauge CC1 -h (horizontal) just coming on 9.2e-5 Torr

P2 is the fore line pressure of the maglev. One can see the 4 Torr load during switching over to turbo pumping.

CC4  5e-9 Torr is the performance of the maglev pumping on the RGA only.

The annuloses are not pumped  now.  They are closed off to see how much outgassing plus leak they have.

Configuration: vacuum normal, annuloses not  pumped

Condition: normal

Precondition: 14 days at atm, IOO chamber north door was taken off as a new entrance, the ETMX chamber was not opened.

What is new in the vacuum system: new P1 pirani gauge, gold plated clean allen wrench and ..........what else was dropped?

Note: the wireless laptop did not fail once all day yesterday. I want to give credit to the person who is responsible for this.

 TP2's fore line - dry pump replaced at performance level 600 mTorr after 10,377 hrs of continuous operation.

Where are the foreline pressure gauges? These values are not on the vac.medm screen.

The new tip seal dry pump lowered the small turbo foreline pressure 10x

TP2fl after 2 day of pumping 65mTorr

 1, Vacuum envelope grounds must be connected all times!  After door removal reconnect both cables immediately.

 2, The crane folding had a new issue of getting cut as picture shows.

 3, Too much oplev light is scattered. This picture was taken just before we put on the heavy door.

 4, We were unprepared to hold the smaller side chamber door 29" od of the IOC

 5, Silicon bronze 1/2-13 nuts for chamber doors will be replaced. They are not smooth turning.

 Based on the facts above I reconnected VC1 and VC2 valves.  State recognition is working.  Ion pumps are turned off and their gate valves are disabled. 

We learned that even with closed off gate valves while at atmosphere  ion pumps outgass hydrocarbons at 1e-6 Torr level.  We have not used them for this reason in the passed 9 rears.

I need help with implementing V1 interlock triggered by Maglev failure signal  and-or P2 pressure.

MEDM screen agrees with vacuum rack signs.

 Fred Goldbar of KoneCranes will come 7:30am Wednesday, September 4 to look at this issue.

It is changed to Thursday morning.

 Valve configuration: Vacuum Normal

pd76-m-d23

 [Fred Goldbar, Mike Gerfen, Dennis Coyne and Steve]

We inspected the hinge, 1.25" cross pin and I-beams. It is hard to explain what is  causing the folding I-beam corner to jam against the main I-beam.

To limit the motion of the folding I-beam  cross pin bushing will be added. This will take a week to complete.

 KoneCrane contact John McDaniel (562) 903 - 1371,

Wednesday, September 18,  folding I-beam will be removed.  KoneCrane will start working at 7:30am and they should be out by 12:30pm

 Friday,  September 20, reinstalling machined hinge on the I-beam. Same timing schedule as Wednesday.

 TP3 foreline's dry pump is getting noisier and noisier.  Turbo TP3 is pumping on the annulos. The foreline pressure is 7.2 mTorr and it is not degrading. It was swapped in March 5, 2013

The seal is very good, but the bearing is dying.

 The drypump is replaced at 95,781 hrs on TP3 controller time. The foreline pressure is 30 mTorr and dropping.

 It is 13 mTorr after 17 hours of pumping.

 Finally we reached 1.0e-5 Torr, cc1 (h) at day 41. There must be a leak or cold cathode gauge is not reading correctly. The gauge is new. It should not take this long.

All chamber annulos pressures are normal.

 The folding beam removed as shown. Two man supporting it while I hammering it out. Pin was dry and it gulled into supporting hinges.

The rotating hinge will be machined and bushing will be added with Zerk fitting or similar. This will allow lubrication in the future.

 see elog #9111

Atm1,  The folding arm is back on with 0.1" misalignment at no load in the trolly's way. The other side of the I beam is 0.02" higher than the main beam.. New bushing and pin were greased up  with Krytox before installation.

The axial Zerk 1/8" pipe in the pin upper end can not take any fitting. There is no room. It is taped off.

This gap comes down to ~ 1/16" at fully extended arm with 225 lbs load at the end of it.

The present plan is to grind down the  the misalignment of 0.1"  for a slow-loaded trolly.

Steve Baker of Konacranes will be back to grind down this ridge and load test at 500 lbs on Tuesday,  OCT  1, 2013

 Konecranes rescheduled the completion of the Vertex crane to Wednesday, Oct. 2

The smoke alarms were turned off and surrounding areas were covered with plastic.

The folding I-beam was ground down to be in level with the main beam.

Load bearing cable moved into correct position. New folding spring installed.

Crane calibration was done at 500 lbs at the end of the fully extended jib.

Than we realized that the rotating wheel limit switch stopped working.

This means that the crane is still out of order.

 Valve configuration: Vacuum Normal