Evaluation of 3D-printed plastics for Ultra-High Vacuum applications: Outgassing, and residual gas analysis

The demand for costand time-effective and customizable components for High Vacuum (HV) and Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) systems has prompted exploration into the application of 3D-printing technology. This study investigates the viability of utilizing 3D-printed plastics in UHV environments by evaluating their outgassing properties. An extensive evaluation of 3D-printing materials was carried out, highlighting the best polymer candidates using two of the most common 3D-printing techniques, Fused Deposition Modelling (Crump, 1992; Upcraft and Fletcher, 2003) [1,2] and Stereolithography (Hull, 1986; Upcraft and Fletcher, 2003) [2,3]. Further experimental investigations were conducted to assess the performance of select 3D-printed plastics under UHV conditions, focusing on their low outgassing and resistance to baking temperatures. Furthermore, residual gas analysis was used to evaluate the materials compatibility with Non-Evaporable Getter coated systems and possible presence of other contaminants. The findings suggest that certain 3D-printed plastics exhibit promising characteristics for use in HV and UHV systems, with notable examples including cyclic olefin copolymer and polyetheretherketone along with Rigid 10K and TullomerTM. A comparison between machined and 3D-printed parts demonstrated that challenges such as porosity and surface roughness showed not to be a cause of great concern.