Research, Development, and Testing of Weather Balloons inside a Clear Vacuum Chamber

A wonderful company (more like one of the best companies in the world) which is currently involved with the research, development, and testing of high-altitude weather balloons, had a need for a vacuum chamber capable of achieving about 100 micro Torr (Micron) of ultimate Pressure for their testing environment. Fortunately, acrylic vacuum chambers are the perfect choice when it comes to Low, Rough, and Medium Vacuum.

This horizontally placed, cylindrical, clear acrylic vacuum chamber is about 12 inches in diameter by about 50 inches long. It can be placed horizontally on a table top. The interior of this chamber is accessed by opening the door on the left side. The right wall is also removable.

The chamber is used for testing of weather balloons. Notice that the door on the left side is not latched or clamped. The reason for this is due to the risk of over pressurization. In the unlikely event of the weather balloon bursting during the test procedure, the contents of the balloon would expel into the vacuum chamber and rapidly increase pressure and over pressurize the vacuum chamber. A latched or clamped door would keep or contain the pressure and risk damaging the vacuum chamber.

This design allows for the chamber door to simply open if the pressure inside the chamber changed from negative to positive and quickly relieve any overpressure without the risk of damaging the vacuum chamber.

On the opposite side of the door, we provided a total of 4 x 1/2 NPT Ports (which are plugged of course), a dial vacuum gauge, and two 1/4-inch NPT Valves (one is the vacuum valve, the other is the venting valve). Additionally, the whole left wall can be removed by removing the 8 fasteners present.

One advantage of having a removable right wall is that our client can customize right wall and add any other vacuum components such as thermocouples, feedthroughs, power feedthroughs, even multipin or Sub-D connectors if they choose to do so. Another advantage is that this allows for multiple wall configuration plates that can be made specific to each of their experiment. Not to mention the ability to able to clean or remove anything stuck on the opposite wall of the door. Can you imagine the hassle having to clean it without the ability of wall removal? One would have to have a really long broom stick to reach that deep in there…

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Our clients prefer to work with us because we are Experts in Vacuum Science and Technology. There is a tremendous amount of valuable resources and information regarding vacuum systems and vacuum technology; check them out by clicking on the links below.

Altitude Simulation Systems
Altitude simulation systems are devices that simulate a certain altitude equivalent by controlling the vacuum inside a vacuum chamber. Altitude is a function of absolute pressure, therefore if a certain pressure is accomplished inside a vacuum chamber, a specific altitude can be simulated from the set pressure. Altitude simulation systems can be configured to not only hold a certain pressure, a complete pressure vs time profile can be programmed to be run. Furthermore, pressure vs time recipes can be loaded and run based on test requirements.
Piston Vacuum Pumps
Piston Vacuum Pumps are devices that generate a vacuum through the workings of an internal piston. Several advantages of a piston pump include, low maintenance, no oil mist emission since it’s an oil free vacuum pump – the shortcoming are not as high of vacuum levels and volumetric flow.
Our Work: Vacuum Storage of Pharmaceutical Products and Medical Supplies
A pharmaceutical manufacturer contacted us to build them a large vacuum storage system for their pharmaceutical products. They were looking for as much footprint as possible which is why they got a two-chamber system from us. They needed a total of 6 shelves per chamber including trays. Finally, they were looking to have both chambers to be placed on a table frame assembly with lockable swivel casters. What you are seeing is a two chamber system, each chamber is our 20 inch cube acrylic vacuum chamber, front load hinged door. Each chamber can be accesses independently while the other is under vacuum. The trays can be easily loaded and unloaded. This whole system can also be moved to anywhere in their facility.
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