Testing High voltage puck diodes.

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Original poster: "Jim Mora" <jmora@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Hello All,

I am preparing to install 6 sets of six series connected HDB7.5 puck 
and stud diodes in a full wave 3 phase transformer oil tank (given 
there is room once the filament transformer is removed). These diodes 
are rated at 7500 volts reverse each, with a forward current of 1.4 
amps. The recovery time is "standard". I called the engineering 
department and they said they should be fine without any balancing 
components at 60hz.

Keeping in mind that these are take out surplus, I would like to test 
them under somewhat hardened conditions, not just the forward 
junction drop. I was thinking of using half of one of my 15KV neon 
transformers across a diode test setup with say a 30 ma load of some 
sort. I have a 15kv dc probe around here somewhere which I will also 
test thoroughly!

What would be the wisdom of noting the waveforms of each diode and 
discarding the ones that are inconsistent? Naturally I will test the 
diodes with a meter first. Anyone know a better or safer way to do this?

Thanks in Advance,

Jim Mora

There are a lot of bolts holding on the transformer/PS cover! And I 
would not like playing with these pucks once submerged!