engineering

SAES Getters

SAES Getters is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SAES Getters rather than just read about it. In short: SAES Getters S.p.A. is an Italian joint stock company, established in 1940. It is the parent company of the SAES industrial group, which focusses its business on the production of components and systems in advanced materials patented by the same company and used in various industrial and medical applications.

Key takeaways

SAES Getters belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SAES Getters to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SAES Getters from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

SAES Getters S.p.A. is an Italian joint stock company, established in 1940. It is the parent company of the SAES industrial group, which focusses its business on the production of components and systems in advanced materials patented by the same company and used in various industrial and medical applications.

History

1940s and 50s

In 1940 the company S.A.E.S. (Società Apparecchi Elettrici e Scientifici) was formed in Florence at the initiative of Ernesto Gabbrielli, an engineer from Montecatini Terme and two other shareholders. The impetus for the foundation of the company was the discovery by Gabbrielli of a new method for the production of getters, with nickel lids to protect barium plastics, to prevent the phenomenon of oxidation. S.A.E.S. initially devoted itself to producing time clocks and a barium-magnesium-aluminium alloy. After a few years, it transferred its headquarters to Milan and began to produce electrical resistance heaters. In 1946, the Della Porta and Canale families entered the shareholding structure, and in 1949, Paolo della Porta joined the company, subsequently taking over management in 1952. A period began that was distinguished by major innovations, supported by the Research and Development Laboratory, notably the invention of ring-shaped getters in barium-aluminium alloy. The company expanded into Europe, appointing its first agents in France, Germany, and England. S.A.E.S. continued to invest in scientific research during a period of major change in the electronics sector, characterised by the extensive spread of transistors, to the detriment of vacuum tubes intended for radio and television reception and transmission. In 1957 S.A.E.S. filed a patent for getters for television cathode tubes, first for black and white and then for colour television, launching production on an industrial scale.

1960s and 70s This period was characterised by company consolidations, innovations and commercial successes, including at international level. S.A.E.S. also commissioned its first mass production plant. At the "3rd Symposium on Residual Gases", held in Rome in 1967, S.A.E.S. presented a new configuration of getter, consisting of a metallic tape coated with St 101 alloy, obtained from the combination of zirconium and aluminium. This technological evolution allowed the company to execute new products with Non-Evaporable Getters (NEG) and getter pumps. The non-evaporable getter pumps (NEG pumps) are devices which have the same purpose as barium getters but do not require an evaporation process; they have extremely high absorptive capacity and are still used today, in more advanced forms, in applications requiring a high or ultra-high vacuum. Exploiting its own technological skills in the field of metallurgy, during these two decades, S.A.E.S. developed new alloys (such as the St 707 alloy in zirconium, vanadium and iron) and was involved in projects on the catalytic module and purifiers of inert gases. It also pursued its internationalisation with the creation of subsidiaries with commercial responsibilities in the United Kingdom (1966), United States (1969), Canada (1969) and Japan (1973). Other commercial representative offices were opened in France (1978) and in Germany (1979). In 1977, SAES Getters USA Inc. was founded in Colorado Springs, the first foreign subsidiary with a manufacturing mission for satisfying the growing demand for porous non-evaporable getters from the US military industry. S.A.E.S. continued to grow by virtue of the progressive launch of new products and the expansion of its production structure, both through the construction of new plants and acquisitions of other companies. In 1978, it had grown to 300 employees, redefined its company structure and changed its name, from S.A.E.S. to SAES Getters.

1980s

In 1982, a plant was commissioned in Nanjing, in China, for the production of barium getters, the installations for which were supplied directly by SAES Getters. The objective during this period was the vertical integration of production (or the internal management of all processes), which over the years would become one of the group's strong points. From this perspective, in 1984, SAES Metallurgia was founded in Avezzano (Province of L’Aquila), for the production of barium and barium-aluminium alloy, SAES Engineering, for the execution of instruments and devices necessary for the metallurgical processing of alloys, and SAES Gemedis dedicated to the production of Gemedis (Getter Mercury Dispenser), i.e. alloys containing mercury. Over the course of the 1990s, the three companies merged into SAES Advanced Technologies S.p.A., adding to their own portfolio numerous other articles and devices used constantly in Hi-Tech applications requiring a vacuum or ultrahigh vacuum. In the mid-1980s, SAES Getters concluded two important acquisitions in the United States in the field of barium getters for cathode tubes and created Getters Corporation of America. In 1986, SAES Getters was listed on the stock exchange, with the financial resources raised allowing it to pursue its acquisitions policy, most notably, towards the end of the decade, the Californian company Cryolab Inc., subsequently renamed SAES Pure Gas Inc., within which it still develops and produces gas purification products, principally for the semiconductor industry. In 1989, Massimo della Porta, Paolo's son, began to work for SAES Metallurgia. Over the years, Massimo took on increasingly important roles until he was appointed Chairman of SAES Getters in 2009.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SAES Getters

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SAES Getters claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SAES Getters before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SAES Getters ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SAES Getters

In research: SAES Getters appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SAES Getters in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SAES Getters is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Electrical engineering companies of Italy, Electronics companies established in 1940, Italian companies established in 1940, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SAES Getters outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SAES Getters in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SAES Getters means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SAES Getters out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SAES Getters in simple terms?

Why does SAES Getters matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SAES Getters?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SAES Getters.