Altitude and Vacuum Chambers

Bemco’s acclaimed Altitude and Vacuum Chambers are designed to meet the need for a combination, easy to use altitude testing chamber, and ruggedly built vacuum processing facility.

Today’s modern A series chambers feature another Bemco first, a standard Brooks Automation, Granville-Phillips Series 375 Convectron Gauge Controller. The Granville-Phillips 375 Controller provides accurate vacuum measurements from atmosphere to 1 x 10-4 Torr. This instrument features push button control and digital readout. With 1 Torr resolution at atmosphere (760 Torr) and 0.001 Torr resolution at low pressures, it provides industry leading measurement accuracy.

A close up of the Brooks Automation, Granville Phillips 375 Convectron Gauge Controller with its gauge tube is shown above. An industry standard that all similar gauges are compared to, this instrument includes individual gauge calibration by Granville Phillips, an easy to read 3 digit green LED display that automatically ranges, and optionally, an RS232 or RS485 interface.

An alternate is offered to provide a very accurate absolute pressure transducer combined with a display calibrated in feet of altitude. Click here to review our AI Display and Pressure Transducer Option.

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Features

Standard chambers include:

• A rotary vane, two stage, oil sealed vacuum pump with an oil mist eliminator and an automatic, power off, suction line dive valve to prevent oil back streaming.
• Manual climb and dive valves.
• A 304 Series stainless steel, 2B finish, continuously welded inner liner reinforced in accordance with Section VIII (Unfired Pressure Vessels) of the ASME Code.
• A hinged aluminum plate door with a replaceable “O” ring type gasket (on the chamber side), with the door painted on the outside to match the chamber in Bemco Blue.
• A carbon steel angle reinforced base enclosure and chamber outer case painted with rust preventive primer and a Bemco Blue finish coat.
• Bemco’s exclusive, easy to use, chrome plated, over center, cam type latches, two per door.
• A KF type, 50 mm access port with a clamp and a replaceable blank cover plate.
• Electrical switches for the vacuum pump and the controls.
• Four swivel type castors.

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Performance

The standard A series chamber has the ability to reduce pressure from local atmospheric pressure to 8.2 Torr (equivalent to 100,000 feet attitude) in 10 minutes. Ultimate pressure is in excess of 0.13 Torr (equivalent to 200,000 feet altitude).

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Safety Systems and Electrical Wiring

All electrical wiring meets the United States National Electric Code. UL and CSA approved components are used where possible.

Standard system power is 115 VAC - 1 Phase - 60 Hertz on the A8 and 230 VAC - 1 Phase - 60 Hertz on the A27 and A64.

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A Series Vacuum Ovens

A series chambers are available modified as vacuum ovens. These systems include heaters on all five walls, and in some cases, on the door as well. Vacuum oven chamber walls are insulated with high temperature fiberglass insulation. No asbestos is used in chamber construction.

Standard high temperature on a vacuum oven system is 150 C (302 F).

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Optional Accessories

• Access ports with ASA pattern flanges in 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12, and 24 inch sizes (24 inch is not available of the A8 due to its size).
• Wire type shelves and shelf pilasters.
• Access ports with Conflat or KF flanges in any commercially standard size with matching cover plates.
• A window with an interior light. Standard sizes are 12” x 12” and 18” x 18” clear viewing area.
• Electrical, thermocouple, and mechanical feed throughs.
• Manipulators, drives, transfer systems, and mechanisms.
• Molecular sieve trap with heat regeneration on the roughing pump line.
• Automatic control of vacuum or altitude level.
• A Bemco exclusive, absolute pressure to feet altitude, digital converting transducer using a multipoint look-up table to allow control or recording of pressure directly in feet altitude.
• 12 inch, chart printing, circular recorder.
• Single pen or multi-pen strip chart recorders.
• RS-232 and RS-485 interfaces on the vacuum gauge control.
• Elapsed time meter.
• Programmable logic control sequencing of test processes. Bemco recommends Allen Bradley (ABB) PLC’s and software.
• Touch screen HMI’s (human machine interfaces).
• Clean pumping systems. Scroll pumps are the most common selection. They are completely oil-free. They require no filters, no foreline trap, little routine maintenance, no oil changes, and are easy to disassemble.

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Available Literature Includes:

Bemco AF Series, Altitude, Temperature/Altitude, and Temperature/Humidity/Altitude Chambers. Eleven standard models and a large number of optional systems. Document is 8 pages, 643 KB download.

Bemco Altitude Table. Conversion Table from equivalent feet and kilometers to Torr (mmHg), kiloPascals (kPa), and pounds per square inch absolute. Covers -1,000 feet to +250,000 feet in 5,000 foot increments. The data presented is based on the "US Standard Atmosphere, 1976 jointly developed by NOAA, NASA, and the USAF. It is an idealized, steady state representation of the Earth's atmosphere that assumes an average value for gravity. Document is 1 page, 108 KB download.

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The systems described above are our Standard Models. We make custom equipment to your specifications.  If you have any questions, need assistance in preparing a specification, or have a technical problem you want help with, we are ready.  Our quotations and advice are free.