Deepvac

Deepvac designs and builds thermal vacuum test systems for aerospace in Garbsen, near Hannover, Germany. It is a spin-off of the Institute of Technical Combustion at Leibniz University Hannover. Its customers are satellite makers, aerospace suppliers and research institutions that build, qualify or upgrade test facilities.

The company offers three types of work. The first is pre-engineered modular thermal vacuum platforms, which are configurable and quick to deliver. The second is fully custom systems, built for a specific shape, interface, test workflow or performance target. The third is vendor-independent upgrades and support for existing chambers, whatever the original maker.

Its standard chambers come in cubic and cylindrical forms. Cubic chambers have a flat base plate and a large usable floor area, which suits fixtures, optical benches and flat-mounted hardware. Cylindrical chambers are naturally stable under pressure and cover the thermal shroud evenly, which suits larger volumes and radiative thermal balance tests. Cooling can be direct liquid nitrogen, gaseous nitrogen circulation or mechanical refrigeration. Pressures down to the 10 to the power of minus 7 millibar range are possible, depending on the pumps. Custom systems can add cryogenic shrouds, infrared heating, extra diagnostics and volumes above or below the standard series.

Deepvac writes its own control software and hardware. This covers PLC and HMI design, data acquisition, OPC UA, Modbus and remote access. It also offers analytics, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance and a thermal vision tool. The same team that designs a system supports it from concept to operation.

The systems are used to test satellite components, payloads and instruments before launch. Typical tests include thermal cycling under high vacuum, durability tests of materials and assemblies, and low-outgassing tests for hardware sensitive to contamination. Chambers can also serve development programmes, prototype validation and early-stage testing.

For older chambers, the company upgrades thermal, vacuum, control and instrument systems and replaces obsolete parts. It adds pumps, sensors, cameras and other subsystems, and offers preventive maintenance, calibration, chamber cleaning, fault analysis, repair and spare parts.

Services

• Modular thermal vacuum chambers
• Custom thermal vacuum systems
• Retrofit and upgrades
• Control and data systems
• AI and predictive maintenance analytics
• Preventive maintenance and calibration
• Chamber cleaning and repair
• Spare parts