The University of Arizona purchased an approximately 25-foot long, 14-foot high thermal vacuum chamber (TVC) to be installed in their new Applied Research Building (ARB) facility. To operate, the chamber requires the design of support systems, including a variety of vacuum pumps, liquid and gaseous nitrogen, compressed air, process cooling water, electrical power, and process controls and integration. The TVC will be used to simulate environmental conditions in space.
KFI provided mechanical, electrical, and structural engineering, process controls design and integration, and commissioning services for the TVC at the ARB.
The Thermal Vacuum Chamber is capable of testing objects as large as a pick-up truck. It can also maintain an impressive vacuum pressure at 5 torr for balloon-borne missions and 1×10-5 torr for space-based missions (1 atm = 760 torr). Remarkably, temperatures within the inner shroud of the chamber are capable of reaching -315⁰F.
