VACCO Etched Disc Propellant and Pressurant Filters
VACCO Industries
All-titanium or all-stainless-steel etched-disc filters providing 2 to 100 micron absolute filtration for spacecraft propellant and pressurant systems since 1961.
Technical specifications
- Filtration range
- 2 to 100 microns absolute
- Materials
- All-titanium or all-stainless-steel, diffusion-bonded
- Construction
- Stacked, photochemically etched metallic discs, no welding, class-10,000 clean room assembly
- Pressure rating
- Withstands 100% system differential pressure in forward or reverse flow
- Heritage
- In production since 1961; 98% of NASA Space Shuttle filters; Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)
About
As a producer of flight-qualified, high-performance etched-disc propellant and pressurant filters, VACCO has provided absolute filtration for satellites and spacecraft since 1961. Etched-disc filters are constructed from thousands of stacked metallic discs chemically micro-machined with micronic flow channels, enabling precision filtration from 2 to 100 microns absolute. Each flow path is created by high-precision photochemical etching, each disc is individually cleaned before stacking and assembly in a class-10,000 clean room, and no welding is performed on the stack assembly, ensuring a clean, reliable filter. The filter element withstands 100% system differential pressure without collapsing in either forward or reverse flow. Available in all-titanium and all-stainless configurations, diffusion-bonded for high efficiency. VACCO supplied 98% of the filters used on the NASA Space Shuttle Program and provided the high-pressure filter for NASA JPL’s Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity rover) mission.
Documentation
- filters_high_pressure.pdf www.vacco.com ↗
- filters_low_pressure.pdf www.vacco.com ↗
- VACCO_Filtration_Catalog_042121_FINAL_with_bookmarks_web.pdf www.vacco.com ↗
Need the full ICD, test reports or a specific revision? Ask the supplier directly.
