WHAT IS AN INTERPHASE REACTOR?

[KL7OF]

I have this collins interphase reactor .....I'm wondering.... What is an interphase reactor and what  was it originally designed to do..... I'm thinking about using it as a mod reactor.....It weighs about 50 lbs and the  posts measure 43 ohms between center and either end  and 86 ohms across the two ends.......Think it will work??? Any comments would be appreciated....  TNX  Steve

[WA1GFZ]

Sounds like a cool idea to avoid core saturation

[WBear2GCR]

Obviously, you guyz no nothing about lecktronix atoll!!

Without a good INTERPHASE REACTOR
a FLUX CAPACITOR is useless!!!

c'mon!

         

             _-_-WBear2GCR

[WD8BIL]

Try this

Looks like you're pretty well on the mark, Mack !

[k4kyv]

Is there a gap in the core, or are the laminations interleaved like a power transformer?

[W1RKW]

Sounds like something from Star Trek where  interphases of parallel universes converge or are controlled.

[W3RSW]

Jeeze, you guys; it obviously keeps the phases separated on 1/2 phase sub-light particle accelerators.
I mean, without it your likely to try to obtain warpspeed using wikipedia's outdated descriptors.
And you know what that means....

Kaboom.

End of Joe Ham and Rick's plan
- for world domination.

Maybe it's like an Adaphase (tm.) for two phase systems instead of one to (Two) three.. 

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

I don't know... but I remember there is something about such a thing in my 1943 Terman Radio Engineer's Handbook.  I'll check it when I get home.

[KL7OF]

Is there a gap in the core, or are the laminations interleaved like a power transformer?

DON.....  No gap......fully interleaved....I don't think it would be of much use as a mod reactor because it has a low inductance and no gap.......I did however,experience a temporal displacement when voltage was applied with the flux capacitor in series....

[W2PFY]

What is the value of the inductance?

[KL7OF]

I was digging around in the parts pile and came across this interpa
hase reactor again.....I still haven't done anything with it but I am thinking about another homebrew plate modulated project and I believe I will experiment with this guy when I get there...SO>>> IS THERE ANYBODY THAT HAS AN IDEA OF WHAT THIS INTERPHASE REACTOR WAS USED FOR??  Perhaps even what equipment it came from???   Collins tagged.... I believe it has to do with 3 phase power balance but I am only guessing..It is a pretty stout piece of inductance after all....   Comments requested....please
Steve

[kd1nw]

Hi,

Interphase reactor search doesnt show much but Interphase Transformer does? It looks like Xfmr was used with parrallel rectifiers/ power converters? Lots of industrial uses it looks like... Sorry, it doesnt really help much

73 Kevin

[w8khk]

From a quick web search:

(http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/interphase+reactor)

"A type of current-equalizing reactor that is connected between two parallel silicon controlled rectifier converters and provides balanced system operation when both converters are conducting by acting as an inductive voltage divider."

Probably has too low an inductance to be used for audio as a modulation reactor.  Likely intended for higher current, lower voltage.  You mentioned only measuring the DC resistance, but it would be interesting to measure the inductance to determine whether it has any application to your proposed transmitter.

Addition:

A l;ink to an interesting article that describes the use and application of the interphase reactor....

https://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/p95/ARTICLES/RPP/RPP11.PDF

[W7TFO]

Stu hit it right on.  A balancing act in a multigang 3-phase rectifier setup.

I used to know what a Ferroelectric capacitor was, but as soon as I remembered it, I forgot...

[Opcom]

OK, aside from it si voltage and position in the power flow, it is like the balancing coil used when two variacs ae put in parallel. It is a sort of transformer that forces the current to be equal in both legs.

[KL7OF]

The inductance of this iron is very small...I'm not sure I believe my inductance meter...How can anything this large have less than 10 uHy???    Stu.....I read the paper on pulse rectifiers and can see how this thing can be used to increase the pulse rate  while cancelling the lower order harmonics for a cleaner THD on the power supply...  I have no power supply  projects going right now that require harmonic current reduction and It won't work as a mod reactor...so It goes back to being a doorstop for a while..

[Tom WA3KLR]

I see only three leads and not three more off the back.

My guesses are this:  

The transformer goes across the high voltage secondary of the plate supply before the mercurium rectumfiers they were probably using.

1.  If the power supply is a single phase unit, the center-tap of the interphase reactor provides a center tap the high voltage secondary did not have, so that a full wave center tapped rectifier configuration can be employed.  

On the order of this:

http://www.w2xc.com/Clipperton_L_Hum_Mod.htm

OR

2.  The high voltage transformer secondary is a 3-phase output and the 3-lead reactor may help balance the voltage out of each phase.  Imbalance between the 3 phases will cause more ripple in the output of the B+ filter and will cause one leg of the 3-phase full-wave rectifiers to have a higher peak current than the other rectifiers.


IF the transformer has 6 leads, then I think that the reactor is basically an rf choke ahead of 3-phase full-wave rectifiers.

[KL7OF]

I see only three leads and not three more off the back.

My guesses are this: 

The transformer goes across the high voltage secondary of the plate supply before the mercurium rectumfiers they were probably using.

1.  If the power supply is a single phase unit, the center-tap of the interphase reactor provides a center tap the high voltage secondary did not have, so that a full wave center tapped rectifier configuration can be employed. 

On the order of this:

http://www.w2xc.com/Clipperton_L_Hum_Mod.htm

OR

2.  The high voltage transformer secondary is a 3-phase delta output and the 3-lead reactor may help balance the voltage out of each phase.  Imbalance between the 3 phases will cause more ripple in the output of the B+ filter and will cause one leg of the 3-phase full-wave rectifiers to have a higher peak current than the other rectifiers.


IF the transformer has 6 leads, then I think that the reactor is basically an rf choke ahead of 3-phase full-wave rectifiers.

Only 3 leads Tom....It looks like it fits well into the schematic on the site that W8KHK Rick posted...

[Tom WA3KLR]

Unfortunately I didn't read Rick's links earlier.  The name Collins made me think of tubes and HV supplies.  But you did state 10 uHys which does suggest high currents (and low voltage).  I know one of the authors in the paper.

So I do agree that the reactor probably is part of a 3-phase high current supply.  

For DC to tube filaments then? Or did Collins ever get into high power solid state transmitters?

[WD8BIL]

interphase reactor

 





   

McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary:
interphase reactor
Top   

Home Library Science Sci-Tech Dictionary
(′in·tər′fāz rē′ak·tər)
(electricity) A type of current-equalizing reactor that is connected between two parallel silicon controlled rectifier converters and provides balanced system operation when both converters are conducting by acting as an inductive voltage divider.


Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/interphase-reactor#ixzz3MSkZWymK

[KA2DZT]

I think Steve said it's about 50Lbs.  Probably about 40Lbs of steel, 3Lbs of insulation, 8-10Lbs of copper.  Best thing are the three feed thru insulators.

I would just scrap it.

You'll notice the very high insulation rating,  was made for some sort of high voltage supply that is run directly off three phase incoming power. I think I've seen this in the past but really can't remember.

Just guessing but probably two windings that cancel each others inductance somehow to effect the balancing.  May answer why it measures very low inductance across the whole choke. 

Measure each half and see what the inductance is.

Fred

[Opcom]

According to the dictionary quotes, then maybe like this.
For three phase just add another.
To satisfy the definition, consider the rectifiers to be the grid controlled MV types.
We do not much see them any more, but those were used when it was to be a regulated HV supply just lie SCRs would later be.
It is only an opinion on my part.

don't scrap it!

more:
book: Front Cover
Johannes Max Schaefer
Wiley, 1965 - Technology & Engineering - 347 pages
http://books.google.com/books/about/Rectifier_circuits.html?id=XPJSAAAAMAAJ

from: http://www.qte.com/pages/transformers/interphase-transformers.html
"The Interphase Transformer is used “to absorb the difference between the direct voltages of the individual systems and must be designed for the times integral of this voltage” (Schaefer, 1965).

Interphase transformers are used in systems that have two rectifier systems being used in parallel. The need for the Interphase Transformer is present because when connecting rectifiers in parallel, their direct voltages fluctuate. Furthermore, rectifier systems can only be connected in parallel if their fluctuating voltages are equal at any instant. Essentially, their average values must equal and the ripple voltages must coincide. “Under this condition rectifier installations for very high current ratings are sometimes built of several simultaneously commutating and directly paralleled groups” (Schaefer, 1965). In practice, this setup is rarely found.

It is most commonly desired, instead, to displace the ripple voltages so that the combination results in a system with a higher pulse number. “The parallel connection must then be made in such a manner that it does not affect the operation of the individual groups. This is accomplished with an Interphase Transformer” (Schaefer, 1965)."

a patent with schematic:
https://www.google.com/patents/US1979699