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Vacuum Chambers

Leaders in Vacuum Technology:

Atlas Technologies is a vacuum industry innovator, pioneering the use of many vacuum materials and manufacturing methods.  Our experience can improve the performance of your vacuum system while saving you money. 

We listen to you; and our competent design and engineering staff can assist you in determining the best chamber material and our manufacturing engineering staff makes sure it is cost effective to build. 

Our full manufacturing facility can efficiently manufacture small and large vacuum chambers. We manufacture production chambers as well as one-off and prototype vacuum chambers.

Aluminum Vacuum Chambers:

Superior Vacuum Performance while Minimizing Cost

Aluminum has less hydrogen and carbon than stainless steel, and consequently has less H2, H2O, & hydrocarbon vapor at high vacuum (HV) & ultra high vacuum (UHV) levels (references). Atlas Technologies manufactures UHV aluminum vacuum chambers with a thin dense aluminum oxide. This serves as a resistive barrier reducing diffusion & desorption of high vacuum & ultra high vacuum contaminates.  Stainless chambers on the other hand are more permeable to hydrogen and have a comparably large quantity of carbon.  .......

Once baked Atlas' aluminum vacuum chambers generally cycle to high vacuum and ultra high vacuum levels faster than stainless chambers and require less pumping.  In addition they bake-out faster, and more uniformly even at lower temperatures (150 C) this is due to aluminum's high thermal conductivity (10 x that of stainless steel). For a more detailed comparison between aluminum vacuum chambers and stainless vacuum chambers take a look at our page on the Ultra High Vacuum Properties of Aluminum and Aluminum Vacuum Chambers Lower the Cost of Ownership page.

For robust flange connections to aluminum vacuum chambers; Atlas has developed the Atlas Flange and Atlas ATCR.  These components have a rugged de-mountable stainless steel knife-edge or sealing face on an aluminum body for weld-up to an aluminum vacuum vessel.   They are fully compatible standard size ConFlat* and VCR** type components that are capable of crushing either copper or aluminum gaskets.  Browse our Atlas CF Flange tm, Atlas Quick Disconnect Flange or our Atlas ATCR tm pages to learn more about these aluminum vacuum chamber sealing options.

In addition to aluminum's excellent vacuum properties it is also a more versatile material from a manufacturing standpoint.  Chambers can be machined 5x+ as fast as stainless steel and is less expensive. It can ordered in several foot thicknesses, it can be extruded, and can superplastic flow.  Aluminium chambers can be also anodized to add additional chemical resistance. Take a look below at some of the vacuum chamber geometries we provide!

Stainless Steel Vacuum Chambers:

Historically stainless steel has been the de facto vacuum chamber material, and for many applications is still preferable.  Some of its advantages include its welding ease, its ruggedness, and for small tubular vessels where the flange price represents a large portion of the over all cost, it is less expensive.  Other advantages are that its strength can permit for thinner vacuum chamber walls than Al. This can be an issue in tight clearance applications. (However aluminum generally has a higher strength to weight ratio).  And for some chemical environments stainless is more corrosion resistant. 

In addition to our aluminum vacuum chamber manufacturing Atlas also manufactures stainless steel vacuum chambers.  Our considerable design, engineering and manufacturing experience in vacuum chamber fabrication can simplify and add unexpected benefits to your vacuum vessel.  Contact us about any of your vacuum chamber fabrication and vessel fabrication needs.

Titanium Vacuum Chambers:

Atlas Titanium vacuum chambers offer extreme vacuum performance with very low hydrogen permeation rates  and secondary gasses.   Titanium vacuum chambers, due to Titanium's gettering properties, are in many ways the ultimate vacuum material.   For extreme high vacuum Titanium is probably the best choice.  Unfortunately due to its cost and slow machining it is typically used when only extreme high vacuum is required.

Demountable CF flange sealing to Titanium vacuum chambers is not a problem, Atlas manufactures Titanium Atlas Flanges which have a stainless steel sealing face on an Titanium body.  The stainless face matches the coefficient of thermal expansion of other stainless flanges while the Titanium body is welded to the Titanium chamber.

Copper Vacuum Chambers:

Copper vacuum chambers and copper alloy vacuum chambers can offer excellent performance for nonmagnetic, radio frequency (RF), and high thermal conductivity applications.  

Many of the advantages for Al chambers also apply to copper vacuum chambers.  Copper vacuum vessels can be extruded, have very little photo-desorption, have good thermal stability, are self shielding for some radiation and have low thermal expansion.

Our considerable design, engineering and manufacturing experience in vacuum chamber fabrication can simplify and surprise you with unexpected benefits.  Contact us about any of your vacuum chamber fabrication and vessel fabrication needs.

Custom Vacuum Chambers & Specialty Metal UHV Vessels:

Atlas' also has design, engineering and manufacturing experience for exotic and specialty metal chamber fabrication.  Contact us to discuss what you would like to accomplish and your vacuum performance desires and we will work with you to make it a reality, we are unafraid challenges.

**Conflat is a trade mark of the Varian Corporation;    **VCR is a registered trademark of the Swagelok Corporation