Background information

Rutherford Laboratories had manufactured a large vacuum chamber, which would have lasers travelling down the centre. Iron from the chamber walls would affect the tests and the lasers would burn through paint, so the chamber needed to be plated with a thin layer of electroless nickel plating. The chamber came in many large sections, most of which had tanks manufactured to fit each part, some of which weighed in excess of 20 tonnes. The main body of the chamber weighed 150 tonnes and was built like a small room, containing many windows, portals and doors.

What we did

Blanking plates were manufactured for each of the  chamber components, the chamber was then sheeted over and manually shot blasted internally. The chamber was going to be used as the plating tank and was to be filled with electroless nickel plating solution. The portals and windows however, contained recesses which were identified as gas traps. To overcome this and to ensure complete coverage of the electroless nickel plating, all of the blanking plates were fitted with small air pipes. These fed up the outside of the chamber and back into the top, removing gas and solution and ensuring complete coverage.

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