[QuadList] Ampex Quad VTR Airflow Requirements

[Don Norwood]

Roger,

Some excellent info from Park in the Ampex FEB's.  However, a very important caveat.....those papers do NOT reflect the load of a machine with a venturi vacuum system.  They are for the standard machines with a vacuum pump.  Ampex didn't use the venturi vacuum on any of the VR-xxxx models although many were updated with the Merlin mod kit.

So, be aware that a venturi equipped machine requires about twice the volume of air, almost 1 cfm as I stated in my earlier reply.  Actually, it's typically a bit over 0.9 cfm, so rounding gets you to 1 cfm.  There are a number of compressor options that will deliver what you need, and there is a used market because of their applications in industrial, medical and instrumentation, so you can often find a compressor for much less than new cost if you are willing to wait for the right unit to come along.  

There are also some variances in the prescribed head operating pressures.  I'd be interested to know what the folks that are rebuilding heads specify today.  I've always gone by the settings that I listed earlier from the Ampex manual, but perhaps slightly higher is OK.  Certainly better than too low I would think!

Don Norwood
Digitrak Communications, Inc.
www.digitrakcom.com
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