Isolation/Poppet Valve – Low-Cost Protection Against System Failure

A vacuum isolation or poppet valve is a type of valve designed to isolate a section of a vacuum system from the rest of the system. Under normal operation they are kept in an option position. With loss of power or signal the valve will immediately close protecting the vacuum system from expensive repairs and decontamination.

What can happen?

When there is some sort of vacuum system failure, the phenomena known as backstreaming.  Depending on the actual system configuration, if a pump fails or is underperforming, instead of pumping out the system the flow reverses pulling back everything from the vacuum line into the chamber. 

This could result in the flow oil and other contaminants back through the line resulting in:

  • Loss of product in the chamber.
  • Prevents the system from reaching the desired vacuum level.
  • Contaminating the entire vacuum chamber and the foreline (the area between the pump and chamber) require time-consuming cleaning before the next production run can be initiated.
  • Could require replacement or recalibration of pressure sensors and mass flow controllers.
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HVA 4000 Series


The 4000 Series angle valves have been designed to offer maximum conductance with minimum size. These valves are ideally suited for systems where reliability and vacuum integrity are a major concern. The DN16-50 sizes have completed over 1.5 million cycles in reliability testing and have replaced the 14000 angle valve series from HVA. 


HVA 4000 Materials

  • Valve body and poppet: 304L stainless steel
  • Welded bellows seal: AM-350
  • Poppet / Bonnet Seals: Viton®


HVA 4000 Temperature

  • Bake: 120°C
  • Operating: 90°C


HVA 4000 Cycles Until Service

  • DN16-40: 1,500,000 cycles
  • DN50-250: 1,000,000 cycles
  • DN320-630: 100,000 cycles


HVA 4000 Vacuum

  • Pressure Range: 1×10-9 mbar
  • Helium leak rate: <1×10-9 mbar l/s
  • Differential pressure closed: 1 bar


HVA 4000 Mechanism

  • Manual: hand crank
  • Pneumatic air service: 60-95 psi
  • DN16-50 are air-to-open / spring-to-close
  • DN63-630 are air-to-open / air-to-close


Want to learn more or request a quote? Contact IES for to discuss your application.