- Chamber Material:304SS, 304LSS, 316SS, 316LSS, aluminum, etc.
Nor-Cal Products uses the most up-to-date equipment and procedures for the inspection of vacuum chambers. Every weld is leak checked with a helium mass spectrometer to insure leak rates of 1x10-9 mbar lsec. or less. Mechanical inspection is accomplished with a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). We can provide our customers with CMM inspection reports of their chambers on request. Our chamber qualification and test equipment is available to customers for an additional fee who request residual gas analysis (RGA) scans and leak checks of their chamber after vacuum baking. The test equipment includes vacuum pumps, gauges, RGA, quartz heaters, nitrogen back fill and a leak detector. Chamber bake out is achieved with high intensity infrared radiant lamps that are strategically placed throughout the chamber. Baking under vacuum removes high and low molecular weight volatile compounds. Non-water cooled UHV chambers are typically baked for at least 24 hours at 150˚C. (The maximum temperature of system components such as seals, chamber materials, valves, etc. may limit maximum baking temperatures.) Uniform bakeout temperature is achieved by wrapping the associated system components in high temperature fiberglass materials. After cool down our RGA will provide partial pressure data, determining the level of residual volatile compounds. Typical scans produce atomic mass levels below 1x10-9 mbar for atomic masses greater than or equal to 44. Total system pressures are between 5x10-9 and 7x10-10 mbar. Chamber design, seals and pumps used, and the maximum bake temperature over time effect the residual gas composition and ultimate pressures reached. Following chamber scanning, chambers are leak tested using a NIST traceable helium mass spectrometer leak detector with a final allowable leak rate of 1x10-10 mbar lsec. or less.
