About This Book

Vacuum systems are critical to many industries and technicians with the knowledge and skills to maintain, troubleshoot, and repair vacuum systems are essential in manufacturing and research settings. This Laboratory Manual contains a sequence of hands-on, experiential-learning activities that will help you develop the knowledge and skills needed to be a vacuum equipment technician. These activities can be performed using a simple Rough Vacuum Equipment Training (RVET) System.

The sequence of learning activities is designed and organized to be used with the e-book entitled Introduction to Vacuum Technology-E-book by David Hata, Elena Brewer, and Nancy Louwagie. The first set of learning activities focuses on fundamental gas laws. These activities are followed by learning activities that focus on using the RVET system to practice system operation, system characterization, and system diagnosis and troubleshooting. This lab manual is the result of years of teaching vacuum technology at the community college level and have been classroom-tested at Normandale Community College and Erie Community College. Many thanks go to our former students for challenging the authors to learn more about vacuum science, the variety of system designs, and how these systems work and don’t work, at times. We hope that you will experience the same joy of discovery as you develop your knowledge and skills needed by vacuum technicians.