Chris,

Many years ago I worked on an R&D project creating a very fast pressure wave simulating an underground nuclear explosion.  We used exploding bridge wires in a water tank.  

We measured the pressure wave with a very fast piezo  pressure transducer connected via an amplifier to an oscilloscope with a Polaroid camera attached.  

https://www.kistler.com/en/products/components/pressure-sensors/

The capacitor was a huge metal encased oil filled capacitor with two large insulated terminals on the top of it.  

I can't recall how we switched the capacitor to the two rods suspended in the tank with a short fusible wire stretched between them but it may have been a thyratron tube.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyratron

Examples: https://www.ebay.com/p/High-Voltage-Oil-Filled-Capacitor-2uf-25kv/10020500178

Bob


-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Nutting, Phil
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2018 11:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] (OT) High Voltage Pulse Caps

My suggestion is EFC-Wesco in Connecticut.  Bob Fountain is their sales guy.  They have done several custom film capacitors for us to be used in our high voltage power supplies running up to 180 kV.  Granted the cap was not run at the full 180 kV, but 30 kV and 40 kV is not uncommon for us.

My 2 cents.

Phil

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Knudsen
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2018 11:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] (OT) High Voltage Pulse Caps

Greetings TechNet community,

We're having trouble with a custom cap supplier (first-time transaction), which can (not-necessarily) remain nameless.

If I can tap into the collective TN hive-mind:

Has anyone had a good experience with a cap manufacturer that can supply custom high energy caps with these type of specs:
Qty (2) Pulse Capacitors
40 kV
12.5 uF
for
20,000 (20 k) Joules Max (pulse)

Similar application:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_wire_method

Very low duty cycle (1 or so shots per random day).

Because of the above manufacturer issues, we are also interested in close, and not-so-close, temporary substitutes to perform some basic system functionality tests.

I'm happy to receive responses off-line, or on TN if you feel others would benefit.

Regards,

Chris
[log in to unmask]
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