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Persistent URL http://purl.org/net/epubs/work/53982652
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Record Id 53982652
Title AN EFFECTIVE LOW COST CRYO-HYBRID CLEANING PROCESS FOR THERMAL VACUUM CHAMBERS
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Abstract One of the chambers in RAL Space premises (i.e. Space Test Chamber 2) was heavily contaminated with hydrocarbon molecules after a black paint failure of thermal shrouds which makes it unsuitable for a vacuum test. In order to clean the chamber, a new cryo-hybrid method was developed in this study. The method was shown to be effective on a small bake-out chamber which had gross levels of hydrocarbon contamination. This method not only involves the CO2 spraying (in the form of compressed air driven dry ice) followed by hand cleaning using acetone and IPA lint free wipes but also purging chamber walls with Ar/N2 under vacuum for creating Knudsen flow to knock low binding energy hydrocarbon chains free and send them down the roughing pump line.
Organisation STFC , RALSP , RAL Space - ETD
Keywords Knudsen flow , vacuum chamber cleaning , molecular contamination , CO2 cleaning , dry ice blasting
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Language English (EN)
Type Details URI(s) Local file(s) Year
Conference Proceedings 16th European Conference on Spacecraft Structures, Materials and Environmental Testing (ECSSMET 2021), On line, 23-25 Mar 2021. DLR, 2021 presentation_13_8…abcc42bcde1d8(1).pdf 2021