Gloveboxes are frequently used in a variety of research, production and quality control applications. The requirement of this equipment is to maintain a completely separate environment from the ambient conditions. Glovebox construction consists of a sealed compartment with ports fitted with gloves. A load lock ensures that the materials or inert atmosphere are contained within the compartment. Typically an impermeable, but flexible rubber or plastic glove forms part of the construction so that manipulation tasks are possible. A key aspect is for the inert atmosphere inside the glovebox to remain isolated from the ambient atmosphere. A quadrupole mass spectrometer is a convenient and powerful method of measuring and monitoring both the compartment integrity and also the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Any leaks, changes in gas from sample introduction or evolved gases from user experiments can all be tracked.
