Tumble Polishing of Faster-Coated Glow Discharge Polymer Capsules

CH capsules fabricated by glow discharge plasma polymerization have been used as the capsule point design for the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The coating time ranges from 6 to 8 weeks. We have reduced the fabrication time by improving the coating rate. The faster coating rate results in an increased surface roughness in high-spatial-frequency modes >100. We employed the tumble finishing process developed for NIF capsules to improve the high mode roughness. Material properties such as surface finish, density, and relative oxygen uptake rate were examined for the faster-coated plastic. The reduction of glow discharge polymer (GDP) capsule production time without significant deviation from benchmarked capsule properties is discussed.