Lasers, Optics & Photonics Manufacturing worked example

Coating Chamber Capacity at 63% chamber uptime: a worked example

Here is what the math looks like when conditions slip. We hold every other input steady and drop chamber uptime to 63%, then walk the calculation through step by step. Calculate the effective output capacity of a vacuum coating chamber by combining dome load capacity, available coating runs per period, chamber uptime, and coating first-pass yield.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Surfaces per dome load: 80 surfaces / run (held at the documented default)
  • Available coating runs per period: 10 runs (held at the documented default)
  • Chamber uptime: 63 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 88)
  • Coating first-pass yield: 95 % (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Gross coating capacity = surfaces per dome load x available runs.
  • Good coated surfaces (effective output) works out to 479 surfaces at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Gross coating capacity (theoretical) works out to 800 surfaces at these inputs.
  • Surfaces lost to chamber downtime works out to 296 surfaces at these inputs.
  • Surfaces lost to coating rejects works out to 25.2 surfaces at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where chamber uptime sits at 88% and the headline result is 669 surfaces, this scenario comes in 28.41% below the baseline at 479 surfaces.
  • The practical read: the gap between this scenario and the baseline is entirely attributable to chamber uptime, so recovering it is worth quantifying in dollars before considering equipment or staffing changes. It assumes a single representative recipe and load pattern — mixed jobs with different cycle times and dome configurations will not collapse to one clean number.

Results at a glance

  • Good coated surfaces (effective output): 479 surfaces (headline result)
  • Gross coating capacity (theoretical): 800 surfaces
  • Surfaces lost to chamber downtime: 296 surfaces
  • Surfaces lost to coating rejects: 25.2 surfaces

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Coating Chamber Capacity calculator, set chamber uptime to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.