On the application of components manufactured with stereolithographic 3D printing in high vacuum systems

Abstract

We report on a method for using stereolithographic (SLA) additive manufacturing to rapidly and cheaply prototype components for use in high-vacuum environments. We demonstrate the primary vacuum contaminant from freshly printed SLA plastics is water with no evidence of polymers out-gassing from the material and thus the vacuum performance can be controlled with simple treatments which do not involve surface sealing. An unbaked vacuum system containing SLA printed parts achieved 1.9e-8 mbar base pressure whilst retaining structural integrity and manufacturing accuracy. Preliminary results indicate that our method can be extended to achieve ultrahigh-vacuum compatibility by baking at higher temperatures. We further report on the effect of atmospheric exposure to components and present evidence to suggest that re-wetting occurs exclusively in the component skin layer, by showing that the bulk mass changes of the material is irreversible on the timescale investigated (< 2 weeks).