The Good, the Bad and the Toasty in New Facilities

摘要

This paper will explore some of the lessons' learned while upgrading some of the facilities at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Over the past two years, several capital upgrades were implemented at our Space Simulation Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. We upgraded a 24-inch diameter by 27-inch high stainless steel bell jar from a vacuum chamber to a thermal vacuum test facility. We procured a new 4-foot diameter by 4-foot deep internal working volume thermal vacuum chamber. We installed and operated a high temperature (2800℃) vacuum furnace bought by another group. Some of the design principles that worked out as well as some of those that did not will be presented along with performance data from those designs.