Study of the Suitability of 3D Printing for Ultra-High Vacuum Applications

In the recent year additive manufacturing (3D printing) has revolutionized mechanical engineering by allowing the quick production of mechanical components with complex shapes. So far most of these components are made in plastic and therefore can not be used in accelerator beam pipes. We have investigated samples printed using a metal 3D printer to study their behavior under vacuum. We report on our first tests showing that such samples are vacuum compatible and comparing pumping time.