BD fluid tester

[infinity954]

Found this in a draw of old stuff, not sure where i picked it up, anyone know the manufacturer?
i know it's a 'bd fluid' tester for checking the concentration of the saline solution used to short fuzes but thats the limit of my knowledge on the subject of chemical fuze neutralizing.

Anyone know more?

 

[Bockscar]

Hi there,
Interesting post as I have one of these myself, picked up from a local flea market some years back. Up to this point I had no idea what it was for at all! More info on this item would now be great!
Sorry I cannot help anymore myself except to say that you do know it comes apart to take a 9 volt battery?

Bockscar.

 

[infinity954]

hi, thanks. everything in my house comes apart to see whats inside, tv's, engines, pets......

the battery connector is missing from mine, but the yellow button should be the battery test.

have you tried yours to see if it works? dip the brass 'probe' end into varying concentrations of salty water and the display should light up.

i'll see if i've got the details of the correct fluid strength.

 

[Bockscar]

I think that is the way I was brought up - take it apart to see how it works!! I didn't even laugh when you mentioned pets!
The leads on my example are still in place and when a battery is connected and the button pressed then the LED's do indeed light up. I can understand that differing degrees of salinity would make more or less LED's illuminate.
On holiday at the moment but back in a week, so will put up pictures of mine when I get home.
How would this unit " connect" to the rest of the system? any ideas?

Bockscar.

 

[infinity954]

The idea i believe was to drill a small hole in to the fuse, attach a pipe which leads to a hand operated vacuum pump via a three port valve, pump the pump to pull down a vacuum in the fuse, change over the valve which is in turn connected to a reservoir of saline solution, the vacuum you've created in the fuse pulls the saline solution into the fuse.

The saline solution had to been the correct strength, to higher salt content and the discharge rate would be to high,a low salt content mean't no discharge at all.

The tester determined that the saline solution was correct.

This method i believe could also be done with a styrene based solution for gumming up mechanisms.

 

[spotter]

the following is edited from some notes i have ref equipment used in BD work ,the notes are from the very early 1990s ,but i believe its referring to the same if not a similar version of the item that has been posted.
BD liquid is used in the immunization of electric capacitor resistance fuzes...
Saline or salt solution as mentioned in the earlier posts in this thread is used to flood the moving parts of mechanical clockwork fuzes as part of their immunization.
Bomb disposal liquid test electronic with battery is listed as part of the stores carried.
use..To test the "conductivity" of BD liquid immerse the electrode of the BD liquid tester in the agent (BD liquid)
a,High conductivity may cause the fuze to function
b,Low conductivity may have little or no effect
c,or safe, conductivity within acceptable limits
when too high or low components of the BD liquid mixture are added to adjust the conductivity until it is correct
The basic components listed for the BD liquid were a a mixture of benzine,methylated spirit,salt and red dye

 

[Bockscar]

My BD fluid tester.

Back from my holidays now so just updating this thread with some pictures of myBD tester as promised.
It just goes to sghow how the memory can play tricks over time with details as I would have said my tester was the same as that already posted by Infinity 954, but as you can see there are differences there certainly in the indicating face. As this is described as a MK1 model, perhaps the other example is perhaps of later manufacture? One image here shows one LED illuminated.

Bockscar.

 

[weberoed]

I see this tester has a NATO designation, so is there a NATO book/manual on the tool?