Explosively driven blast shutter for diagnostic protection

Summary form only given. Phillips Laboratory has developed a fast closing shutter designed to protect diagnostics or other devices from damage due to plasma and solid debris subsequent to exposure to high energy transient events such as PL's solid liner working fluid compression geometry. The device uses a cartridge brass (alloy C26000) tube with a 0.8 cm diameter biconic orifice which is crimped shut in 15 /spl mu/s after a 60 /spl mu/s delay. The crimping is accomplished by the simultaneous impact of two opposing 3 g Titanium slugs each propelled by a Reynolds, Inc. RPI Electronic Bridge Wire detonator. The crimp forms a high vacuum seal with a leak rate with an established upper bound of 10/sup -9/ l/s STP air. The assembly is contained by a reusable 14 cm by 14 cm by 5 cm heat treated chrome molybdenum steel casing. The only expendables are the tube, the RP1's, and two 2 g steel disks which buffer the Ti slugs from the RP1's with a total cost of about $400.