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A vacuum all-metal valve is a specialized valve designed for ultra-high vacuum (UHV) and extreme vacuum (XHV) applications. Unlike conventional valves that use elastomer seals, our all-metal valves rely on hard-on-hard sealing technology, ensuring high durability, resistance to high temperatures and radiation. These valves are typically made of materials like stainless steel and are ideal for vacuum systems that demand minimal outgassing, reliable operation, and long-lasting performance.

Our vacuum all-metal valves are available in several types, each suited for specific high-vacuum applications and environments:

• All-metal gate valves – Our all-metal gate valves are designed for high-vacuum systems. The standard gate lock in closed position offers a secure and reliable isolation even in the event power or pneumatic air supply loss. They are ideal for use in high-temperature and/or radiation environments and feature the lowest leak rates.
• All-metal angle valves – Our angle all-metal valves provide robust isolation and are built to withstand extreme temperatures and radiation conditions. These valves are often used in combination with UHV pumping systems to connect or isolate additional equipment to the vacuum chamber. They have the capability to be opened against differential pressure as required for UHV pumping applications.
• All-metal variable leak valves – Designed to regulate lowest gas flow with precision from XHV up to atmospheric pressure, our valves are the first choice when it comes to UHV or XHV systems. Available in both manual and electrical actuator variant, they offer a solution of each application.
• Fast closing valves – Our fast closing valves are designed to protect vacuum systems from sudden air inrush, making them suitable for sensitive environments such as accelerators (synchrotrons, colliders, FEL, etc.). Typically located at the front end, they can protect a storage ring from an air inrush coming from a beamline.
• Special solutions – For special needs, we can offer our valves with highly customized features such as (non-exhaustive list):
  • Special RF-passage shape
  • RF-Passage with waveguides and / or corrugations
  • Low permeability
  • Very high radiation resistance
  • Magnetic resistance
  • Additional cooling
  • Double confinement
  • Fail-safe mechanisms
  • Compact and / or removable actuators

Our vacuum all-metal valves are engineered to handle extreme UHV and XHV environments, providing reliable sealing and mechanical robustness.

When selecting vacuum all-metal valves, several factors should be considered:

• Sealing technology – There are typically two types of all-metal sealing on the market: Soft-on-Hard and Hard-on-Hard. Our valves use only the Hard-on-Hard technology as this provides the most reliable performance.
• Material – Stainless steel is commonly used for its strength and resistance to corrosion, ensuring durability. Nevertheless, this material can be found in multiple variants with very different properties, which can be selected based on the specific need of the experiment.
• Temperature tolerance – Being able to withstand high-temperature environments, especially in UHV systems where heating if often required to reduce outgassing, is a natural advantage of all-metal sealing technology. The specific temperatures which can be reached are often high and depend on the materials or actuator used for the valve.
• Flow and conductance – It’s important to ensure that the valve provides sufficient conductance for the concrete application.

The key difference between vacuum all-metal valves and conventional vacuum valves lies in the sealing mechanism:

• Vacuum all-metal valves use metal-to-metal seals, making them ideal for extreme UHV conditions where outgassing must be minimized. These valves are in general more resistant to high temperatures, radiations, feature a lower leak rate, and enable higher vacuum levels than conventional valves.
• Conventional valves mostly rely on elastomer-based sealing technologies, which may degrade over time when exposed to high-temperature and / or high radiation environment. While conventional valves are suitable a lot of vacuum applications, they do not offer by design XHV vacuum capabilities.

VAT vacuum all-metal valves stand out for their reliable and robust performance in ultra-high or extreme-high vacuum applications, making them renowned worldwide. Our Hard-on-Hard all-metal sealing technology enables the use of a pneumatic actuator, which is essential for remote control of valves exposed to dangerous environment such as radiations or high temperatures. Most products from our all-metal portfolio are given for multiple thousands of cycles as maintenance free, which make them a perfect solution to maximize the global system up-time, creating at the same time an important positive financial impact for large facilities customers such as synchrotrons or X-FEL.