[labnetwork] Cleaning up/ reconditioning VCR seals?

[McCollum, Mark J]

Some years back I had some difficult VCR’s seal well with Teflon VCR gaskets.
Dr. Mark J. McCollum
Principal Research Engineer
Nick Holonyak, Jr. Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory 2260
Grainger College of Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
208 North Wright Street
Urbana, IL 61801
217-300-5181
email: markjmcc at illinois.edu<mailto:markjmcc at illinois.edu>



From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> On Behalf Of Mac Hathaway
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2021 11:28 AM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: [labnetwork] Cleaning up/ reconditioning VCR seals?

Hello All,

I'm wondering if anyone has ever developed a scheme for polishing or reconditioning VCR sealing surfaces.  Obviously, buying a new one is the best approach, but some of our fittings are rather expensive or hard to come by, and some technique for cleaning up mild wear or whatnot would be handy.  And of course, this would not be applied to toxics.

I leak test these down to 1E-12 torr-liter/sec, so that would be my goal.  I imagine coaxial spinning of the fitting surface would be best (not hand-held), but what final grit would be needed.  Is electropolishing absolutely necessary to get a good seal?  This would be very light polishing, not enough to flatten the bead of the seal.

Any trick to keeping the polished particles out of the bore, or just an ultrasonic clean at the end?

If it's impossible, that's good to know, as well.

Thanks,


Mac

Mac Hathaway
Senior Process and Systems Engineer
Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems
11 Oxford St.
Cambridge, MA  02138
617-495-9012


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