Summary

Following Wednesday's cleanroom cleaning [333], we proceeded to vent the vacuum chamber, remove the heater elements and their mount structure, and install the FROSTI reflectors. The reflectors are the final components to undergo RGA testing before the FROSTI prototype can be assembled. After installing the reflectors, we pumped the chamber back down and initiated a 48-hour 125 C bake.

Vacuum Vent

At ~1:00 pm, we shut off power to all eight of the FROSTI heater elements. Prior to shutoff, all were operating in vacuum at roughly 300 C. We then waited approximately 30 minutes for the elements' temperatures to fall below 50 C.

At this point, we isolated the RGA volume from the main volume by closing both gate valves, leaving the RGA volume to continue to be pumped through the bypass line. We then backfilled the main volume via the needle valve connected to one of the 2.75" ports. Once the pressures had equalized, we removed the chamber lid via our usual procedure (requiring only a small amount of flathead-screwdriver prying) and extracted the heater element assembly.

Reflector Assembly

We then removed the FROSTI reflectors from their protective packaging (for the very first time) on the cleanroom tabletop. We tested the fit of the Macor and stainless steel hardware in the reflectors' tapped holes. The Macor standoffs and bolts appear to fit perfectly. However, the 1/4-20 tapped holes for joining the two reflector halves are too shallow by ~1/4". As a temporary fix, we used some on-hand stainless steel washers (which had already been cleaned and baked) to securely fasten the two halves together. In the final assembly we will replace these with slightly shorter 1/4-20 vented bolts.

Pumpdown and Bake

The two fastened reflector halves were placed inside the chamber, sitting on top of the two mounting legs (see attached photos). We then reinstalled the lid. In order to rough the main volume, we isolated the RGA volume from the pumpline (by closing the bypass line valve), shut down the pumps, and then backfilled the pumpline via the manual vent valve on the turbo pump.

Once the pressures had equalized, we opened the 6" gate valve separating the pumpline from the main volume and powered on the roughing pump. Once the main volume pressure fell below 0.5 Torr, we powered on the turbo pump as well. The main volume pressure reached 5e-6 Torr within ~30 minutes, consistent with previous experience, and was continuing to slowly fall.

Lastly, we initiated a 125 C bake-out of the entire system following our usual procedure. We plan to run this bake for 48 hours (i.e., through the end of the day Friday).