What Are Sputter Coating Chillers?

Sputter coating chillers are used to cool an industrial sputter coating machine. This type of specialized equipment helps to refine production processes for manufacturing technology. For example, the use of sputter coating is often used to deliver a diamond “dust” or nanoscale film to a range of cutting instruments.

What Is a Sputter Coating Chiller?

A sputter coating process takes a solid material and uses new nanotechnology processes to turn it into individual microscopic particles. The system then applies these to create a thin film on a given surface.

Because of the specialized work that the sputter coating machine does, it utilizes a high degree of energy, producing quite a bit of heat. The chiller is responsible for keeping the equipment in an adequate and safe temperature range as it applies a sputter coating and directly afterward.

How a Sputter Coating Chiller Is Used

In a way, sputter coating and sputtering is a type of modern-day alchemy. Specifically, the solid material is made into a fine spray of microscopic particles, which to the human eye and senses appears as “gas.”

As mentioned, that energy output, and the generated heat, requires specialized chilling. Sputter coating chillers have to be able to remediate heat to a particular temperature range, not just work statically to cool like a common refrigerator. In addition to evaluating BTUs and kilowatts, observers might also consider durability and longevity for these types of systems. 

Sputter Coating Chillers Different From Other Chillers

One of the main differences in sputter coating chillers is their application to the piece of equipment in question.

Customization can be very beneficial in these types of systems. It’s also helpful for sputter coating chillers to have different types of infrastructure applied. For instance, companies that don’t have their own water-cooling apparatus can use a water-cooled sputter coating chiller to operate more independently from an ambient environment in a room or space.

Best Sputter Coating Chillers

Some of the best sputter coating chillers have gauges and analytical tools like conductivity sensors. This can help with planning for cooling operations and assessing the heat generated during a process, or, alternately, other metrics can show whether a machine needs to be matched with different cooling systems.

There’s also the principle of energy efficiency, where these machines are made to operate with less energy consumption. A heat exchanger may be a vital part of a sputter coating chiller machine’s build. In terms of long-term analysis, engineers may use information on MTBF (mean time before failure) to analyze the potential of a given piece of equipment and how it is likely to stand up to continual use.

Summary

In general, these machines have to be able to demonstrate a certain cooling standard. Engineers may also want to consider the potential for pressure loss in a facility. The sizing and installation of a sputter coating chiller device are also important. With the right support equipment such as a chiller, a sputtering process can enhance many kinds of discretely manufactured products for mission-critical uses.