Long-Length Waveguide Manufacturing Services Worldwide
Waveguides are offered via National K Works, Inc. Visit Waveguides for more information.
Waveguides: a brief introduction
Waveguides are structures that guide waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound, with minimal loss of energy by restricting the transmission of energy to one direction. They can be thought of as an efficient “one direction pipe” for the transference of energy.
A simple example of an acoustic waveguide is the tin can telephone, where acoustic waves transfer on a string.
Electromagnetic waveguides
Electromagnetic waveguides are more complicated than their acoustic counterparts. The most common EM waveguides have rectangular cross-sections and are often used for microwaves in radars, couplers, isolators and attenuators. The inner walls of waveguides are either smooth or corrugated depending on the application.
Millimeter waves, and consequently millimeter waveguides, are used for heating tools across various industries. For example, applications include glass processing, annealing, defense weapons and nuclear fusion experiments. Some of these applications require round waveguides.
Round waveguides
In most nuclear fusion experiments, kilometers worth of round corrugated waveguides are used to transfer the energy from gyrotrons (or klystrons) to a tokomak where plasma is heated to 150 million degrees Celsius. It’s critical that these waveguides are as long and straight as possible, as each coupling can increase energy loss. This is where the manufacturing process gets tricky.
The internal corrugations, or "teeth", are exceptionally thin and tall. The manufacturing process must be able to form the teeth without damaging the other teeth throughout the length of the tube. Due to the long length and small ID, traditional boring bars will not work.
Cobore's process for round waveguides
At the time of writing, Cobore has recently machined 12ft (3.65m) long aluminum corrugated waveguides. The manufacturing process is easily scalable for bulk quantities and longer length parts. The maximum machinable length is yet to be determine but we estimate 20ft or longer.
Learn more about some of our other services here:
To talk to us about your project and to get an estimate, don't hesitate to contact us today about our deep hole drilling and machining services and capabilities.
