PRESSURE-REDUCING DEVICE, APPARATUS FOR MASS SPECTROMETRIC ANALYSIS OF A GAS AND CLEANING METHOD

摘要

The invention relates to a pressure-reducing device (3), comprising: a vacuum housing (4), which has an inlet opening (5) for the inlet of a gas (2) to be tested at an ambient pressure (PU) and an analysis chamber (7) for the mass spectrometric testing of the gas (2) to be tested at a working pressure (PA), wherein the inlet opening (5) and an inlet opening (10) of the analysis chamber (7) are arranged along a common line of sight (11). The vacuum housing (4) comprises a plurality of vacuum components (21, 26) which can be connected to each other in modular manner and arranged one after another along the line of sight (11), and at least one pressure-reducing chamber (12) separated from the analysis chamber (7) in a gas-tight manner extends through at least one of the vacuum components (23, 27) through which the analysis chamber (7) extends. The invention also relates to an apparatus for testing by mass spectrometry of a gas (2), which has such a pressure-reducing device (3), and a method for cleaning such a pressure-reducing device (7).