Pressure lock system for a chamber

Claim 1

A pressure lock system for the introduction into, and removal of workpieces from a high vacuum work chamber within which work may be performed on the workpieces, comprising an inlet lock channel and an outlet lock channel, each of which is in communication with the interior of said work chamber, a plurality of sealing elements having an outer peripheral shape conforming to the profile of the interior peripheral area of said lock channels and being in sealing relationship therewith around their entire outer peripheries, means for connecting adjacent sealing elements to one another to form a chain, said sealing elements being held in spaced relation, said means for connecting adjacent sealing elements to one another comprising a rigid intermediate element connected to opposed faces of adjacent sealing elements, said rigid intermediate elements being adapted for supporting said workpieces, means for feeding the chain of successive sealing elements and their respective intermediate elements into said inlet lock channel, and through said inlet lock channel, said working chamber and said outlet lock channel, and a plurality of vacuum pumps communicating with said inlet lock channel, said work chamber and said outlet lock channel through passageways connected to said inlet lock channel, said work chamber and said outlet lock channel, respectively, at spaced points, the dimension in axial direction of each said outer peripheries of said sealing elements being such that it is greater than the largest diameter of a passageway of said vacuum pumps communicating with said inlet lock channel and said outlet lock channel, respectively, and the distance in axial direction between two successive passagewayS being greater than the distance in axial direction between the outer peripheries of two ad-jacent sealing elements.