Vacuum engineering

Vacuum engineering is the field of engineering that deals with the practical use of vacuum in industrial and scientific applications. Vacuum may improve the productivity and performance of processes otherwise carried out at normal air pressure, or may make possible processes that could not be done in the presence of air. Vacuum engineering techniques are widely applied in materials processing such as drying or filtering, chemical processing, application of metal coatings to objects, manufacture of electron devices and incandescent lamps, and in scientific research.

Vacuum techniques vary depending on the desired vacuum pressure to be achieved. For a "rough" vacuum, over 100 Pascals pressure, conventional methods of analysis, materials, pumps and measuring instruments can be used, whereas ultrahigh vacuum systems use specialized equipment to achieve pressures below one-millionth of one Pascal. At such low pressures, even metals may emit enough gas to cause serious contamination.