Baking NOTCam

The baking is usually done in the electronics laboratory in the Service Building after the instrument has been opened.

To improve the NOTCam vacuum the instrument is baked at a temperature of no more than 40C, while pumping. The procedure to do this is to take air from the compressor in the mechanical workshop, pass it through some silica gel to dry it, heat it using a low wattage light bulb and blow the air into the nitrogen tank of NOTCam. The amount of heating is not automatically controlled but relies mainly on the rate of flow of air and the heating capacity of the tungstan lamp.

If you are confident to do so it is possible to regulate the temperature by adjusting the aluminium foil wrapped around the heater. Loosing the foil reduces the heating.

It is imperative that the temperature of the detector does not exceed the recommended 40C. TMS alerts have been programmed so if the detector temperature reaches 39C or the cold table 40C, hourly email warning will occur. If a warning is received, either adjust the foil to reduce the heating or otherwise disconnect or remove the light bulb heater and close the valve. Note the valve is normally only open about 5 degrees, perpendicular to the hose is closed.

The preliminary procedure was to first heat using a 150W bulb and after the temperature was close to the desired 40C the bulb was reduced to a 40W one. The aluminium foil around the heating tube was adjusted to regulate the amount of heat.

Baking schematic setup

Baking equipment setup