Commercially viable Homopolar pulsed power system

Homopolar generator pulsed power systems have been workhorse facilities in the pulsed power community. In the 1960s the Tellahoma Pulsed Generators powered large wind tunnel facilities at Arnold Air Force Base, in the 1970s the Canberra Homopolar performed some of the modern day railgun experiments and in the 1980s and 1990s the homopolars at the University of Texas performed railgun experiments and a myriad of industrial application research efforts.[1] There are both commercial and Federal Government applications for the technology. In applications where stick welding is altering the chemistry of the Heat Affected Zone due to long time at temperature the HPG process due to its short welding time alleviates the problem. There are plans to install high speed rail in the Northeast corridor. This rail will have to be welded and the HPG process readily transitions to the field and in-situ welding of the track is feasible. With the large interest in hydraulic fracturing pipelines are being installed to transport shale oil and gas recovered from these fields. Homopolar welding should have a large role to play in this process. The Homopolar has also been used to sinter metal powders. Xray targets in CT scanners are made from sintered molybdenum and tungsten. The ability to sinter these metals has already been demonstrated with pulsed compaction. An inexpensive generator would have a large role to play in this medical field. In transporting nuclear waste spent fuel rods have to be welded inside very robust containment. The Homopolar generator could be part of a welding robot that accomplishes this task without exposing personnel to the radiation. These are just a few of the applications envisioned for Homopolar welding and compaction.