Teflon electrical feedthroughs
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high voltage

These are the electrical feedthroughs I made from
scratch for the vacuum system.
The insulator is PTFE (Teflon) which, although it
is rather soft and has a tendency to cold-flow, seems to have low
outgassing characteristics. The PTFE insulator is sealed with an O-ring
on the outside of the chamber and is retained by an M20x1mm aluminium
nut.
The conductor (8mm stainless rod) is sealed with
an 8mm ID O-ring pressed against the PTFE by the flange brazed to
the 8mm rod.
Shield nuts were made from stainless rod and tubing
- this prevents any evaporated metal from shorting out the electrodes.
All in all, a hell of a lot cheaper than buying them
from Lesker for £160 each! The biggest cost was £40 for
1m of 35mm OD PTFE rod from Ebay.
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& high voltage