Applications
Airlocks are used in
- aviation, certain airplanes are equipped with airlocks for skydiving, and/or emergency exits.
- spacecraft and space stations, to maintain the habitable environment when persons are exiting or entering the craft.
- hyperbaric chambers, to allow entry and exit while maintaining the pressure difference with the surroundings.
- submarines, diving chambers, and underwater habitats to permit divers to exit and enter.
- torpedo tubes and escape trunks in submarines are airlocks.
- cleanrooms, protected environments in which dust, dirt particles, and other contaminants are excluded partially by maintaining the room at a higher pressure than the surroundings.
- hazardous environments, such as nuclear reactors and some biochemical laboratories, in which dust and particles are prevented from leaking out by maintaining the room at a lower pressure than the surroundings.
- pressurized domes such as the USF Sun Dome and BC Place Stadium, where pressure loss would cause collapse of the structure.
- electron microscopes, where the interior is near vacuum so air does not affect the electron path.
- parachute airlocks, where airfoil collapse due to depressurization can result in dangerous loss of altitude.
- On oil rigs/platforms in rooms with overpressure to avoid pressure alarm from going off.
- A brewer's airlock allows fermentation gases to escape while keeping air out of the fermentation vessel. (See homebrewing.)
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