[Work in progress]

The translators can be opened from either end, each quite difficult to open. Opening from each end has its advantages in certain situations.

Removing the inconel adapter:

• The adapter can be removed using a 15/16" wrench and a 14 mm hex attachment to the square drive on the torque wrench. The four large hex drive bolts that hold the adapter to the translator provide the force necessary to engage the cone-shaped seal (hence the name "cone-and-thread seal"). These four bolts are each torqued to 60 N-m, so it will take quite some force to undo them (and to retighten them). It is recommended to remove the translator from the frame BEFORE attempting to loosen or tighten these bolts, to avoid bending or damaging structural parts of the equipment.
• Once the adapter bolts are loose, one should take great care to protect the "cone" surface on both the tip of the translator and the inverted "cone" surface on the inconel adapter. It is recommended to carefully guide the adapter off of the translator to avoid any scratching / rubbing on this surface.
• Because the adapter is rarely opened, it is recommended to do as much cleaning as possible at this point.

Opening the translator from the adapter side:

• There is a brass nut which hold the brass bearing holder inside the pressure tube. After corrosion in the furnace, this part typically looks green. This can be removed using a small wrench and shouldn't be too hard to remove (and thus shouldn't be tightened too hard upon reinstallation.) Finger tight is good enough.
• We currently do not have any good advice on how to remove the bearing holder from the pressure tube. ScIDre has recommended yanking on the shaft to "hammer" it out from behind using the magnet pack assembly at the base of the shaft inside the pressure tube, but this is particularly risky for breaking the magnet pack off of the shaft.

Opening the translator from the motor side:

• There are four bolts, similar to the adapter side (see above) which can be removed in a similar fashion. Instead of mating to the inconel adapter, in this case they are mated to an inconel block called the "flange". This flange has a similar cone and thread seal, except the inverted cone leads to a dead end. Similar to when removing the adapter, one should take care to not scratch the sealing surface when removing the flange.
• Once the flange is removed, the shaft can be easily slid out the open end of the pressure tube. The first thing that will come out is the magnet pack at the shaft's base, and then the shaft itself. The shaft is attracted to the exterior magnet pack (e.g., the shaft will be strongly pulled towards the walls of the tube) if it has slipped below the narrow-diameter bearing holder which keeps it centered, so be cautious as you remove it to protect it from snapping off the interior magnet pack at its base.

• Maybe the bearing holder can be hammered down and be drawn out the motor side... As of the writing of this article, this has not been attempted.
• To reinsert the shaft, there will be difficult in getting the shaft to slide directly into the center of the bearing holder at the opposite end of the pressure tube. This is because the exterior magnet pack always draws it to the wall of the pressure tube, making it difficult to guide it through the center. To solve this, we once tried taking a long, thin alumina rod and inserted it into the opposite end of the pressure tube (the adapter side). This long rod could then be pressed against the top end of the shaft and could guide the top end of the shaft away from the walls of the pressure tube. During this process, it is important to note the position of the exterior magnet pack. If it is in an inconvenient position, it will strongly pull the shaft toward the wall. It may also help to turn on rotation while attempting this.

Resealing the cone and thread seals:

The following steps are written assuming that you chose to open the adapter side rather than the motor side. If you chose the motor side, just follow the instructions for tightening the bolts and don't worry too much about the alignment. The bolts should still be evenly tightened, but in this case we do not have to worry about obtaining a perfect flange-translator alignment (in contrast to the adapter-translator alignment, which is important to get precise).

• To re-seal the adapter, first ensure that all parts are re-installed and that the sealing surfaces have been cleaned using a clean Kimwipe and alcohol.
• Place the translator on the floor with the adapter side facing upward. It may be necessary to rest the flange on a block of wood or metal, in order to keep the weight off of the motor housings. A convenient object to use as a base for this purpose would be an old-generation adapter, which should have the exact same dimensions.
• Carefully place the adapter onto the cone sealing surface, being careful not to cause any rubbing motions that could result in scratches. Try to place it such that the shaft is in the exact center of the adapter. The flat sides of the adapter also need to be perfectly parallel to the corresponding face on the translator. This can be aided by using a flat metal piece that can be affixed to the threaded holes on the side of the adapter using a bolt.
• Insert all four bolts and tighten them by hand evenly such that the shaft remains in the center of the adapter.
• Set the torque wrench to 60 N-m.
• Using a torque wrench with the 14 mm hex drive attachment and a 15/16" wrench, tighten the bolts in a star pattern by giving each bolt a small turn, say 1/8 of a rotation. A 30-degree turn seemed to work well. This helps ensure that the shaft remains in the center. Stop once all bolts have reached 60 N-m.
• If this is the upper translator, place the translator on top of the chamber (assuming the chamber is mounted on the frame) and carefully center the adapter such that the adapter and chamber interface is perfectly flush and centered.
• Next, examine the position of the translator. Particularly, examine the relative positions of the upper crossbar holes relative to the corresponding holes on the translator. These should be perfectly aligned. If they are not, there are two "modes" of offsets that could be happening:
• The holes on the translator are too far to the left or right. In this case the adapter is tilted slightly to either the left or right sides.
• The crossbar is "pushing" on the translator or there is a gap between the crossbar and the translator. In this case, the adapter is tilted slightly to the front or the back.
• In either case, the tilt needs to be fixed. To do this, first loosen two bolts by 1/8 of a turn on the side where the angle between the adapter and translator is < 180 degrees. Then, tighten the opposite two bolts to the full 60 N-m. Then return to the first two bolts and re-tighten them to 60 N-m as well.
• Re-check the alignment of the translator (it should have improved!), and repeat until the corrections have reached an optimum position for the translator.