Letter 34095

Electropolished aluminum for vacuum service?  

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Is electropolishing a good technique to prepare 1100 and 6000-series aluminum for high-vacuum or ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) service? Does the electropolishing result in a bulk alloy condition with a dense native surface oxide? Do any contaminants (processing chemicals) or hydrogen get entrapped in the near-surface?

Are there industry-standard specifications for electropolishing of aluminum (e.g ASTM or MIL)?

Grant Kiehne
manufacturing - Bloomfield, CT, USA

You might want to contact CERN about the use of aluminum in vacuum systems. I visited them many, many years ago -- back in the 70's. We were given a tour of their colliding storage ring -- the first proton-anti-proton unit. Needless to say, they had to keep an ultra-ultra high vacuum in the rings. I was shocked to learn that the rings were mostly made of aluminum. Apparantly, if you bake out the aluminum properly it works better than stainless steel.

Jim Treglio
- San Diego, California

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