[volt-nuts] Tek gear

J. Forster jfor at quik.com
Sat Nov 20 20:12:18 UTC 2010


I personally suspect the switch was because the ceramic ones could be made
to precise dimensions cold, rather than working with molton glass.

FWIW,

-John

==================


> Again, thanks Chuck for the great info. I was working in Plant 2 Final
> Assembly and then in the Research Division during my time at Tek, so was
> peripheral to some of these stories. I just don't believe that glass jugs
> were inappropriate for the flat CRTs and Storage CRTs, and I met some
> engineers and managers at the time who didn't believe it either.
>
> That Corning was charging a lot for their jugs is likely very true, and
> also every company in America at the time was singing the hymn of
> "vertical integration" as the key to profitability, but IMHO, Corning was
> far better placed to deal with the CRT design issues than the ceramics
> folks at Tek. The learning curve was obviously very steep, and as I
> mentioned before, the fact that Tek did it at all is amazing to me.
>
> I was part of a small group who were informally told by our top boss, a
> VP, that the initial motivation for the ceramic jugs was to utilize the
> existing ceramics plant. The fact that it wasn't ultimately up to the task
> was after the decision.
>
> Best,
> Dick
>
>
> On Nov 20, 2010, at 4:00 AM, volt-nuts-request at febo.com wrote:
>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:53:23 -0500
>> From: Chuck Harris <cfharris at erols.com>
>> Subject: Re: [volt-nuts] Tek gear
>> To: Discussion of precise voltage measurement <volt-nuts at febo.com>
>> Message-ID: <4CE68F63.3060709 at erols.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>>
>> The thing is Dick's recollection, although flippant, and fun, isn't
>> entirely true.  Yes, Tektronix had a ceramics facility that was
>> under utilized, but they weren't above getting rid of it wholesale.
>> (Which ultimately they did.)
>>
>> It required a tremendous amount of retooling to make ceramic CRT's.
>> Nothing from the facility that made barrier strips could fit the bill.
>> The hydraulic presses were too small to handle the large jug molds.
>> The kilns were too small to fire a significant quantity of jugs.
>> The ball mills were too small to grind up enough ceramic, the building
>> was too small to handle the new larger machines... need I say more?
>>
>> The reason ceramic jugs were made is because glass wasn't economically
>> suited to flat screen CRT's, and complicated storage CRT's.  Oh, and
>> there was another reason, Corning was too expensive at the level of
>> quality needed for the flat screen CRT's and complicated storage CRT's.
>>
>> If you want to see more of the history, check out:
>>
>> http://www.classictek.org/
>>
>> The whole ceramic vs glass crt situation is explained in detail...by
>> the guys who did the work, and made the decisions.
>>
>> This is my last word on the subject.  This is a little far afield for
>> volt-nuts.
>>
>> -Chuck Harris
>
>
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