A Positioning Device for CF Flange Gaskets

CF flanges are well-established components for building ultra-high-vacuum environments. There are several geometries of the tubes that follow the ISO/TS 3669-2 standard, so that the costumer can combine products from different companies.
Nevertheless, a rather tricky task remains: For sealing the contact points between two different CF flanges, the technician has to mount a thin gasket between the two outer ends of the flanges before tightening the bolts. The gasket is typically made of high purity copper. When tightening the bolts, the extruded metal leads to a leak-tight seal (see Figure 1). Mounting and positioning of the copper seal still remains manual work – the technician has to fix the ring in the right position until the bolts hold the two flanges in place. Even if the technician is well trained, the gasket is likely to move and drop out when handling heavy components (pumps, evaporation devices, sections of the vacuum system, etc.). This is a waste of time and money – the damaged copper gasket can’t be reused.
Our new positioning device eliminates the need for this tedious and rather complicated positioning of the sealing ring by hand.

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Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
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Dr. Rolf Hecker

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