The fire alarm test was completed at 13:30 yesterday.

I updated the 40M Emergency Calling List by replacing Rob by Yoichy. The calling order: Vass,  Aso and Taylor.

Rana and Yoichy were added to the "Registered PSL Operator List"  and posted it in the lab. (not in the document, that should be up dated)

We are getting ready for the annual safety audit. It will be held next week  at 14:00 Friday, Feb 13, 2009

Please participate in the preparation by correcting it or just  tell me.

Rod Luna is organizing the pick up of the following old equipment:

HP laser jet  5000n, 3 of 19" 10 base-T network ports and  4 small hubs,

2 Sun monitors, 1 Viewsonic monitor, 7 keypads and

Hitachi scopes 2 of V-355, 2 of V-422, 1 of V-202 and 1 of V-6165

Osamu and Kiwamu received 40m safety training on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009

The 40m lab specific safety training is done. The participants were

Stephanie Erickson, Clara Bennett, Chris Zimmerman, Zach Commings, Michelle Stephen surfs and Drew Cappel  postock.

They have already went through the Caltech Safety Office laser and general safety training.

They still have to read, understand and sign the the SOP for the laser & lab

Kevin Vigue, our high school summer student went through the 40m specific safety traning yesterday.

Jenne, Koji

Tonight we found that the wireless for Martian network was down.
We inspected the router and found the power was down. The power of the weather station was also down.

By touching the power outlet which they are connected, the power changes on and off.
This problematic power outlet has a label "L#17" just below the photograph of the mk I (1989).
The plug was connected to the left one.

As it was scary, we moved the power plug to the next one (L#19).
The wireless router and the weather station were powered now,
though the weather station is showing a wrong time in its clock.

Steve, Kiwamu, and Koji

We went through the PSL table to make sure any strong beam did not hit the wall.

We found that the reflection of Stephanie's OSA returned its path down to the beamsplitter.
This BS reflect that beam to the wall. That was fixed.

The surprising was that the relatively strong beam (~1mW?) went through the steering mirror
just before the PMC. We put thorlabs razor blades. I am still thinking what this indicates...
because the beam had been blocked if it was such from long time before.

During the work we found some stray optics such as a cube BS, a flipper mirror, and so on.
We can see them in the photo as those enclosed with yellow circles.
One of the beams was obtained from the reflection of the ND filter (...almost illeagal), and 
was even hittting a metal fixture for the BS cube.

If someone uses these components for useful purposes,
please let me(Koji) know. Otherwise, they are removed next week.

The other thing we found was the bright scatter from the EOM for the PMC.
As this scatter is so blight, I am going to align it.

 These components are from when Rana and I used the StochMon PD to do the RFAM tuning, documented in elog 1926.  This was a very handy measurement, but I'm not sure if whether or not we need it often enough to keep the optics there.

OK! I saw the optics are redundant and some of the components are not in a right place.
I will talk with you when you are back such that we can keep the usefulness of the setup.

Kiwamu, Alex and Zach are practicing mandatory IR-safety scan at the 40m-PSL

40m specific safety indoctrination were completed.

David Nolting, chief LIGO Safety Officer and his lieutenants from LLO and LHO paid homage to the 40m lab this morning.

They give us a few recommendation: update safety documents, move optical table from the front of ETMX-rack and label-identify absorbent plastics on enclosure windows-doors.

We'll correct these short comings ASAP

We lost our key to the Lightwave 125/6-OPN-PS   The key shop just made one look a like that works.

The 40m safety audit will be at Wednesday afternoon, March 3

Please participate getting our lab to inspection grade safety level.

Safety glasses 1064 nm transmission measured at ~200 mW level. They are all good.

The 40m's new undergrad Kevin Kuns was introduced to 40m safety hazards. He is new and needs guidance as specially with 2W laser work.

Peter King will train him on Friday to LIGO-laser standard.

As we learned yesterday, the PSL laser power out put mechanical shutter is not working in the remote mode. It only works in local manual mode.

Do not rely on the MEDM screen monitor readout! The position is only changing on the monitor. The main beam must be blocked before the output periscope.

Ben found the Sorenson 5V ps off. It was turned off since our last scheduled power outage. I wonder what else is running on 5V in the PSL? This power supply should be on the

"alarm handler"  list to avoid future repeat of this condition. However a real safety switch would have confirming position sensors of the shutter open or closed. Is there such thing at the sites?

Please don't go down the Yarm (Old Xarm) for right now, or if you do, please be very careful.  Kiwamu and I are set up to take beam scan measurements down the walkway, and so there are some cables / carts / other stuff down there.  We are going to get dinner really quickly before beginning the measurements. 

Right now, the PSL shutter is Closed, so there is no beam hazard outside of the chambers, just crowded space hazard.

All clear.

Nancy and Sharmila received introductory early bird surf safety training for the 40m lab.

The 40m corner station crane is out of order, and it's stuck in a way that prohibits entry to the 40m LVEA / IFO room for safety.  The crane has been locked out / tagged out. 

Until further notice, absolutely no one may enter the 40m LVEA.  Work is permitted in the desk / control room areas.

Signs have been posted on all doors into the LVEA.  Please consider those doors locked out / tagged out.

[Steve, Kiwamu, Jenne]

The 40m is now back in Laser Hazard mode.  Safety glasses are required for entry into the LVEA / IFO room.

The insects and the laser trouble... Strange coincidences with LHO surprised me, but now I have been relieved.

40m SURFs Razib Obaid, Nancy Aggarwal, Unknown Bearded SMURF, Megan Daily, Gopal Nataraj, Katharine Larson and Sharmila Dhevi received 40m specific safety training on June 23, 2010.

The 1 Ton yellow crane support beam jammed up at Friday morning, June 25.

The 40m vertex crane has a folding I-beam support to reach targeted areas. The rotating I-beam is 8 ft long. The folding extension arm gives you another 4 ft.

The 12 ft full reach can be achieved by a straightening of the 4 ft piece. There is a spring loaded latch on the top of the I-beam that locks down when the two I-beams align.

This lock joins the two beams into one rigid support beam for the jib trolley to travel.  The position of this latch is visible when standing below, albeit not very well.

To be safe it is essential that this latch is locked down fully before a load is put on the crane.

We were preparing to pump down the 40m vacuum system on Friday morning. The straight alignment of the 8 and 4 ft piece made us believe that

the support beams were locked. In reality, the latch was not locked down. The jib trolley was driven to the end of the 12 ft I-beam. The 200 lbs ITM-east door was lifted

when the 4 ft section folded 50 degrees around the pivot point. This load of door + jib-trolley + 4 ft I-beam made the support beam sag about 6 inches

The door was removed from the jib hoist with the blue Genie-lift. The sagging was reduced to ~3".

The Genie-lift platform was raised to support the sagging crane jib-trolley. The lab was closed off to ensure safety and experts were called in for consultation. It was decided to bring in professional riggers.

Halbert Brothers, Inc. rigging contractor came to the lab Tuesday morning to fix the crane. The job was to unload the I-beam with safety support below. They did a very good job.

The static deformation of I-beams sprung back to normal position. There are some deformation of the I-beam ~2 mm where the beams were jammed under load.

It is not clear if this is a new deformation or if the crane sections have always been mis-aligned by a couple of mm.

The crane was tested with 450 lbs load at 12 ft horizontal travel position. The folding of I-beams were repeatedly tested for safe operation. Its a 1 ton crane, but we tested it with 450 lbs because that's what we had on hand.

We're working on the safety upgrade of this lift to prevent similar accident from happening.

Pictures below:

Atm 1)   load testing 2007

Atm 2)   jammed-sagging under ~400 lbs, horizontal          

Atm.3)   jammed-folded 50 degrees, vertical     

Atm.4)   static deformation of I-beams

Atm.5)   unloading in progress with the help of two A-frames          

Atm.6)   it is unloaded

Atm.7-8) load testing        

Atm.9)   latch locked down for safe operation            

Atm.9)   zoom in of the crane sections misalignment    

All 3 cranes will be load tested at 1 ton tomorrow morning between 9am and 2pm

Do not come to the 40m lab during this period. We may disturb your experiment.

Please prepare your touchy set ups to take this test.

Head count at the evacuation drill today. I checked  alarms and flashers  at room 104,102,101, 103, 105 and 107. They were really loud and bright. 

I hooked up interlock to the Innolight 2W 1064 nm in the enclosure. The manual shutter  is closed on this unit.

SAFETY GLASSES REQUIRED !

Innolight 2W 1064nm main laser was turned off for more enclosure related work.

The electrician re rooting the power- conduit to the interlock under the floor and bring it through the new concrete tunnel.

Emergency laser power shut off switch was tested at entry door 104M.  It worked fine.

No laser glasses required. Laser will be turned back on around 11 am today.

Atm1,   AC power line to enclosure and interlock  was extended.

Atm2,   24V line to interlock rerouted

Atm3,   job is completed

SAFETY GLASSES REQUIRED !  SAFETY GLASSES REQUIRED!

 The laser is turned on. Injection current set to 0.871A.

Actually some one turned the  laser  off last night and did  not enter it into the elog ! Burned toast award is granted !

Please  come forward voluntarily.

I turned off the laser last night to protect against the electricians. but failed to elog it. I accept the burnt toast completely.

The control room's north west corner smelled like propane gas  yesterday around 16:30

We all agreed that the smell was real and I called the safety office. I was told that they received 6 other calls from different parts of the campus.

The smell disappeared in about a half an hour.

Our visiting graduate student Yuta Michimura received 40m specific basic safety training today.

Our new undergrad Joonho Lee received 40m specific basic safety training yesterday.

Yuta and Joonho are scheduled to participate in the LIGO-laser safety tutelage with Peter K on Oct 12