Navigating the requirements of drying, curing and baking temperature-sensitive components can be challenging for the process engineer. When raising the temperature is not an option, lowering the pressure can be an effective process tool. Utilizing a low-pressure condition in a vacuum oven can offset the confines of heat restrictions by causing trapped moisture and gases to evacuate at lower temperatures. For optimal offgassing and drying, a combination of heat and vacuum is required.

Vacuum drying and offgassing are common in the pharmaceutical, electronics, medical device and aerospace industries where fragile organic compounds, plastic components, resins and polymer devices must be dried and cured without the damaging effects of high-heat processing. While vacuum oven processing is effective, it is also fraught with obstacles. Vacuum is such a poor conductor of heat that it is the most effective insulator on the planet. In other words, the vacuum that is assisting the drying process is also impeding the transfer of heat to your product.