On this page I explain how I tested my housing and lamps. First I needed a tube. A tube, firm enough to hold the pressure of about 100 meters water. A family member 'found' a tube. The diameter is 31 cm, and it is 90 cm long.

On both ends of the tube I milled a groove. And in this groove I put an O-ring

On both sides a cap is placed. It takes a lot of force to get it over the O-ring and often the O-ring does not stay on it's place. But with some patience and some dirty words the cap fits on the tube.

Off course this is the inlet of the air for getting the pressure inside the tube. It's a valve from the tube of my bicycle.

But now the big problem is to hold the two caps on the tube, while the pressure inside the tube is increasing. After a simple calculation I was a little worried. The force at 10 bar on the caps is about 7 tons.

7 Tons.

I have a big car It's weight is 2 Tons. But 7 tons is something else.

So, sitting on it is not enough.....

I enforced the caps with an aluminium plate of 8 mm thick, which is pressed on the cap with 6 bars M12. But with 1 bar pressure, the aluminium plates are bending 2 cm. Thinking of 10 bar pressure instead of 1, I come to the conclusion that an aluminium plate is not enough.

(For the photo I did not tightened the butterfly nuts.)

On the left you see the reinforced aluminium plate. With 3 U-profile bars. So applying again a pressure of 1 bar and see what the bend is. Nothing.

Trying a pressure of 2 bar. Again nothing. Aaaah, that looks good.

Again raising the pressure. Now to 5 bar. Yeah. I see some bending, but it is about 1 mm.

Raising the pressure to 8 bar. The maximum, my compressor can do. The 6 bars M12 are very thigh. No wonder, because each one of them has a tension of 1000 kg. But the tube and the caps are holding tight. And it's not leaking!

Again, for the photo I did not tightened the butterfly nuts.

Oh, by the way, this is how I applied the pressure inside. With this test tube, I can test my camera housing and the lamps.

Volgende pagina