FAQs

Stainless steel vacuum components undergo a series of meticulous cleaning processes to ensure optimal performance:​

• Passivation: Treatment in a light acid solution to remove weld scale and oxide buildup.
• Detergent Wash: Use of biodegradable detergents to eliminate machine lubricants, followed by thorough washing and rinsing with deionized water
• ​Customized Cleaning: Tailored cleaning procedures designed to meet specific project requirements.

For critical production parts, chemical cleaning is employed, involving immersion in controlled chemical baths, rinsing with deionized water, and drying with filtered hot air. These parts are then sealed in cleanroom bags to maintain cleanliness.

The company offers several surface treatment solutions to enhance the durability and performance of vacuum components:​

• Tumbling: Utilizes ceramic media to effectively deburr components, ensuring a uniform finish.​
• Bead Blasting: Employs glass shot bead blasting to clean, hone, polish, and peen surfaces, removing any remaining scale.​
• Electropolishing: An electrochemical process that removes surface imperfections and burrs, passivates the material, and relieves stress, resulting in a smoother surface with reduced friction and surface area.​

With in-house manufacturing capabilities, our team can assemble complete one-off systems to your specifications, including chambers, frames, pumps, gauges, valves, and manipulators.

We utilize only the finest-grade materials for vacuum component manufacturing, considering factors such as vapor pressure, permeability, and corrosion resistance. Our materials include select grade 304 stainless steel tubing, spheres, or roll-ups, with options for 304L, 316L, or 316LN if required. Flanges and baseplates are meticulously crafted from specially treated 304 stainless steel to meet ASTM A-240 standards.

Our state-of-the-art CNC machining equipment ensures consistent, high-quality parts production. We employ advanced techniques such as die-formed ports using the pulled-port method and orbital welding for precise weld penetration. Welding procedures adhere to ASME Section IX standards, with Weld Procedure Specifications on file for reference.

• Reduce the tolerances on the drawing. Tighter tolerances = more production time and higher cost. Simply changing the default tolerance values in your CAD program can reduce costs immediately.
• Use standard components instead of custom-drawn parts. Standard off-the-shelf parts cost less. Working with standard fittings, tubing, elbows, and diameters will reduce the amount of custom work required on a chamber.

• Reduce the tolerances on the drawing. Tighter tolerances = more production time and higher cost. Simply changing the default tolerance values in your CAD program can reduce costs immediately.
• Use standard components instead of custom-drawn parts. Standard off-the-shelf parts cost less. Working with standard fittings, tubing, elbows, and diameters will reduce the amount of custom work required on a chamber.

• NO stands for “Normally Open.” When power is removed, the valve will go open. Open is a NO’s “normal” state. It achieves an open state through the use of springs. NO valves are also called “Air to Close, Spring to Open”
• NC stands for “Normally Closed.” When power is removed, the valve will go closed. Closed is a NC’s “normal” state. It achieves a closed state through the use of springs, and is sometimes called “Air to Open, Spring to Close”

• Do you require a specific flange size, or are you limited by space?
• Do you require manual control, or do you need a pneumatic or motor-driven valve?
• Is your process heated or corrosive to certain types of metal?
• What are the flow rates, conductance, and pressures your process needs to achieve?
• Must the valve seal to atmosphere (“Isolation”), control vacuum pressure (“Throttle”), or both?

• What are the flow rates, conductance, and pressures, your process needs to achieve?
• Does your process need to meet a specific cycle time?
• ​Do you require a specific flange size or o-ring compound, or are you limited by space?
• ​Is your application heated or corrosive to certain metals or materials?
• ​Do you require manually-activated touch control, or do you run from a host computer?