REPORT ON TURBOCOR TOUR of FRI 7/13/07

Chris Loftis took the tour, and he sent me the following report --

For the first half of the tour, we were herded into a classroom and basically given the sales spiel about these compressors. They started out stating the lofty goals they had when starting to design it, and what they actually managed to reach. Despite them not having not made a compressor that can put out 150 tons, is as large as a matchbox and weighs less than a pound, the result is still quite impressive. Of course, the main innovation of the compressor are the magnetic bearings. This gives it the advantage of not needing lubrication because the shaft is the only moving part and it doesn't come into contact with anything. Comparing it to comparable compressors, it's also smaller, quieter and more efficient at partial loads than the other ones out there. Pretty much the only disadvantage seemed to be that they couldn't make them fast enough.

We went out to the manufacturing floor for the second part of the tour. Most all of the parts are machined elsewhere so there wasn't much actual manufacturing being done. It seemed like the only parts done there were the high precision ones needed because of the incredibly small clearance between the levitated shaft and the walls. The vast majority of the plant was devoted to the testing and running of the machines. They certainly have a great track record so far, only having had three units fail in operation so far.

After coming back to the classroom, they were showing off all the units they had on display. The most impressive of them was the working unit with a cross section taken out of it so you could touch the shaft. With the levitation on the shaft impossible to move in any direction but angularly, showing how the control systems can keep the shaft centered despite having someone pushing on it.

All in all, it was nice to have a more hands on look at this new technology.

NOTES on ENGINEERING CLUB MEETING of FRI 7/13/07

• The meeting was called to order shortly after 12:00 Noon by Chairman Komlan Amesse.
• Introductions of attendees were made.
• New Officers were recognized:
  • Vice-Chair (and SGA rep.) -- Miguel Marquina;
  • Secretary -- Ann Wolfgang.
    
• Today's pizza was courtesy of Domino's, and Doug Jones read into the record a letter that he transmitted to Mr. Drew Walker, the manager of the local Domino's, thanking him for the sponsorship of our club.
• We agreed to take part in the Cancer Walk in Oct., but we want to get a club banner before that time, and we'll display the banner in the Walk.
• Also we discussed club t-shirts.
• Regarding an ENGINEERING CLUB study room -- Dean Frank Brown will discuss this with Vice President Barbara Sloan in the near future. Dr. Brown is well aware of our desire to secure such room.
• Lina Williams is coordinating "First Day of Classes" activities for the Club:
  • She needs to get volunteers to take "shifts" outside the SM building on the opening day of classes.
  • We want to get Engineering Club pencils to hand out the first day of classes.
• Mrs. Williams is also coordinating a sequence of fund-raising workshops of (Engineering Club) students -- on -- students. The workshops will concentrate on problem areas in math, mainly algebra.
• The next meeting will be Friday, August 31, at 2:30 pm in SM 260.

Lecture on 19 July about X-ray Observatory

I recently got an e-mail announcing a lecture at the Challenger Learning Center in downtown Tallahassee (on Kleman Plaza) about "X-ray Astrophysics and the Chandra X-ray Observatory". The one hour lecture is at 1:00 pm on Thursday, July 19. There is convenient parking in the Kleman Plaza ramp, and sometimes at the meters along Park Avenue a few blocks north.

Click on the image at right to read the full announcement and details about the lecture. These NASA touring lectures are usually well prepared and understandable to the general public, so I would not expect an overly technical talk until the questions at the end.

This "observatory" is a spacecraft (launched from the Space Shuttle) carrying a very sophisticated X-ray telescope. It has been used to study black holes (including the one at the center of our galaxy), supernovae, and to provide evidence of the existence of dark matter. Because x rays would rather go through something than reflect off of it, designing an x-ray mirror and the associated "optics" was a major accomplishment that will probably be discussed in the talk.

You can read more about this device on the NASA web site and the one for the Harvard-based facility that operates it, among others.