Dear Ricardo Schneider ,

what make you confident that there is no tube issue?

X-ray tubes often behave like sensitve princesses in fairy tales.

The listed error is an electrical discharge issue which propably is due to bad vacuum condition inside the tube. Their numbers gradually increase over time (one aspect of tube ageing).

You should run your x-ray tube for longer time intervalls in order to let the getter inside the tube do its 'pumping' job.

The propabilty of discharge (or arcing) is voltage dependent.

So please check whether the pop up of that error message is voltage dependent (starting with low voltage presets and low mA). If yes; there is a real discharge issue with that tube...

Good luck and

best regards

G.M.

Dear Ricardo, this "Tube flash" ist a typical indication that the (probably sealed) x-ray tube is at the end of its life. Can you check the history of the Tube? I.e. how many hours was it used and how old is the tube? In addition, I would NOT recommend to fully shut down the system, but to leave it in a stand-by mode with reduced current and voltage. By interrupting operation, the vacuum inside the tube increases as there is no gettering effect, and tube flashes will become more likely and will appears (with respect to the age of the tube) earlier! Good luck and best wishes, Dirk

@ Gerhard Martens, Happy New Year 2024, and sorry, I only ready the preview of your Post in my Mobile Phone, so I added the comments in vacuum and tube aging before reading your post in Detail...

Dirk Luetzenkirchen-Hecht ,

that doesn't matter; two is better...

Also from me, happy, healthy and a prosperous new year 2024 to you, your family and colleagues, as well as to the whole RG community.

Best regards

G.M.

Dear Gerhard Martens

Dear Dirk Luetzenkirchen-Hecht

The X-ray tube does not start due to this issue.

About the points:

- what makes you confident that there is no tube issue? I suggested this because I have associated the issue with a broken filament (or something else), but I was only thinking. Reading your appointments, the problem is probably the X-ray tube.

- how many hours was it used and how old is the tube? The setup was installed in February/2021, and the system shows (I believe) 644 hours of operating time ( please see the attached figure).

- start the equipment with low voltage presets and low mA:

I can run the X-ray tube with 20 kV and 2 mA. I tried these conditions, but the X-ray tube did not start, and the same error happened.

Thanks for attention.

I will contact the technical service.

Regards

Ricardo Schneider

Well 640 hours in three years ist not that much, this is less then 45 minutes each day... For a proper vacuum inside the tube, at least some hours of operation are needed, so a fading of the vacuum inside the tube and related overshoots are likely. I remember that we once bought a brand new tube that could not be installed since the HV generator was broken, and after the generator was operational again, the tube flashes during the very first use ... Maybe the Service Team hast some spare tubes for testing, so you may check the status of the rest of your system. Good luck, Dirk

Daer Ricardo Schneider ,

thanks for feedback;

I admit, that the tube life time up to now isn't that large. But like a simple light bulb, which can break after some short time perod, an x-ray tube may also not reach its expected 'mean' life time.

However in addition to the comments of Dirk Luetzenkirchen-Hecht I would like to comment the following:

"I can run the X-ray tube with 20 kV and 2 mA. I tried these conditions, but the X-ray tube did not start, and the same error happened"

So, you are able to run the tube at 20kV and 20mA; ok.

But, what do you mean by "I tried these conditions, but the X-ray tube did not start, and the same error happened".

Which tube parameters you have used after the low condition test (20kV,2mA) and how long did you operate at 20kV, 2mA?

"Conditioning" a tube for preparing sufficient vacuum takes a while...

(vaccum is a very lazy colleague)

So for example one may start with 20kV and 2mA for 10min,

after that go for 22keV, 2mA, for 10 min;

after that go for 24keV, 2mA, for 10 min;

... and so forth...

after reaching reaching your goal of kV preset gradually increase the current...( 2 or 3mA steps)

I admit, that one cannot 'condition' the tube very day... but here we will firstly decide whether there is a bug with the vacuum*)...

As mentioned above by Dirk, replacing the tube by another one, to exclude an error on the HV gereration side, is another approach...

*) In my first answer I mentioned, that the vacuum issue is 'one of the ageing aspects'. But there is another one; each time when the tube is operated, the filament of the electron gun is heated to relase the electrons for the electron beam. During this time a lot of Tungstem atoms evaporate from the filament and are spread out throughout the vacuum system onto the compoments and inner walls of the tube and the isolation, decreasing the isolation capability...; arcing is the consequence...

Good luck and

best regards

G.M.

Sure, the COVID-19 pandemic and, in my case, the building suffered from structural problems that restricted access for more than 6 months (during this time, I am guaranteed access only one day per week).

I understand that it requires more. Anyway, several problems restricted the access and/or the properly use of the equipment and now there is a problem ($$$).

Thanks for help and suggestions.

Regards

Ricardo

Just try to perform a proper conditioning of the tube (half a working day by a student trainee)...; that could not be a serious $$$ problem.

Dear Gerhard Martens,

When I said, "I can run the X-ray tube with 20 kV and 2 mA", I was trying to say that SmartLab SE Software enables only these parameters, i.e., these are the lowest values for voltage/current that I have access to.

Even so, I cannot start the x-ray tube, so the conditioning.

I recorded a video https://youtube.com/shorts/nXoQ4ns-cPs?si=MYi2Nr941iUJOkJp

At the of the video (~45 seconds), the error appears.

Regards

Ricardo