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Bake-out is a term used in several areas of technology, fabrication, and in building construction, referring to the act of using heat and sometimes a vacuum to release volatile compounds from something as a form of cleaning or processing. Bake-out is an artificial acceleration of the process of outgassing.
In various physics and vacuum device engineering, such as particle accelerators, semiconductor fabrication, and vacuum tubes, the term is used to refer to a period of time where a part or device is placed in a vacuum chamber (or its operating vacuum state, for devices which operate in a vacuum) and heated, usually by built in heaters. This drives off gases which can then be removed by a vacuum pump system.
In building construction, the term refers to a process using heat to try to remove volatile organic compounds such as solvents used in paint, carpets, and other building materials from the building after construction. The building is heated to a much higher temperature than normal and left at that temperature for extended periods of time, to encourage such compounds to vaporize into the air, which can then be vented.