TV25 Thermal Vacuum Chamber Test Facility
Wyle designed, built, maintains, and operates the TV-25 facility and test system for thermal
vacuum testing of customer flight hardware. Wyle personnel operate and monitor the chamber and clean rooms from a 9-screen computer control room with fully automatic safety interlocks and backup manual control. A data acquisition system records data and sends it directly to the on-site customer control room.
The facility consists of two control rooms (for Wyle and customer), two clean rooms (100K and 10K), a 3-ton crane within the 100K clean room, a gowning area, and two uninterruptible power sources (both connected to an automatically engaged back up generator).
Facility Capabilities and Specimen Loading Infrastructure
- 100 K Clean Room for specimen inspection and pre-assembly
- 10 K Clean Room for chamber loading and unloading
- Overhead crane for specimen buildup with 2-ton cap hook (height 15-ft)
- Air bearing supported 9-ft x 12-ft x 6-in specimen buildup cart will support 4000-lb (working height: 40-in)
Vacuum Chamber
- Working Dimensions : 13-ft diameter X 24-ft depth
- Chamber capable of 10-8 torr; 10-6 torr achieved in 8 hours
- Temperature cycling range of -170°C to 150°C to [-275°F to +300°F]
- Two large-capacity roughing pumps (can be operated individually for backup)
- 4 each 48-in cryopumps (operated individually or together)
- Turbo pump, RGA, and temperature recording
Power and Emergency Power
- 500kVA 3-phase 480/277V Emergency Generator (provides automatic emergency power to entire TV-25 operation)
- 160kVA 3-phase 480/277V UPS (provides uninterruptible power to critical vacuum chamber components)
- 3kVA 120V UPS (provides uninterruptible power to Wyle control room computers)
- Two 3-phase 208/120V 200A Crouse-Hinds receptacle (for customer support
Real Time Vacuum Control and Feedback Systems
- Operation of Expert Mode for Vacuum Control
- Inter-logic Control for Safe Operation
- Display of Pressure and Temperature in Graphical Format
- Display Operation Input and Output Status
- Simulation to modify the state of feedback and adjust readings
- Display Activity Log
Shroud and LN2 Temperature PID Control Systems
- 55 Shroud Temperature PID Control Loop Setup and Display
- 11 LN2 Cold Plate PID Control Loop Setup and Display
Graphical Control Display and Data logging Systems
- 256 channels for temperature and pressure
- Active operator event data logging
- 9 LCD monitors with 17-in screens