Learn and Remember...A Vacuum Wizard’s Guide to Understanding Vacuum and Vacuum Coating

Sunday Afternoon, April 23 1:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.

Your Vacuum Wizard is Don McClure, 3M Company

This half-day event is based on an extensive set of engaging tabletop demonstrations. Many of the demonstrations use a transparent vacuum chamber, so attendees can “see” the principles of vacuum coating in action. The goals of this event are to make selected concepts related to vacuum and vacuum coating seen and remembered. This in turn provides a path to deeper understanding. Attendees will be offered highly accessible and thought provoking demonstrations and/or descriptions of the essential elements and principles of vacuum, vacuum processing and vacuum coating. The presentation is suitable for both non-technical and technical attendees. The only prerequisite is curiosity about our amazing world.

This presentation provides the attendee with memorable experiences related to:

• pressure and vacuum
  
• vacuum pumps (the many ways a vacuum wizard produces “good” vacuum levels)
  
• vacuum measurement methods (how vacuum wizards know the vacuum level in a container)
• very high temperatures (and the magic of making coatings by evaporation)
  
• very low temperatures (and the magic of cryopumping)
  
• how materials change from solid to liquid to gas and back (more vacuum coating magic)
  
• what the “mean free path” is (and why vacuum wizards care)
  
• why low pressures are needed to make pure coatings (and why the “low” pressures needed can be so different in different applications)

There is no charge to attend this Special Event! Everyone is welcome – conference registrants, exhibitors, short course attendees, students, and teachers. However, the number of attendees is limited so that everyone can see the demonstrations. Register using the SVC On-line TechCon registration form. Then it is first come—first seated.

Preliminary Program Index