+1
It’s in the first post 
Any updates Fastrr?
I understand you have the pressure vessel. But what about the locking ring and hinges how are you going to make these? Get some THICK azz metal and have it cut out on a water jet/laser/plasma? I would think this would create ALLOT of waste, with the center of the ring (the donut hole section). How would a autoclave manufacture make these, have them cast to shape then trim with cnc?
-1 for me. At least I come out even 
I can’t find the video but I saw a large lid for a similar sort of vessel being made a while back by forging. Also I meant 8 times the amount of volume. 4 classes a day is killing my brain!
The welder will know more about what type of steel we need to make the flanges and lock ring. I’m guessing the lock ring would be close to 2" thick and water jet cut. The ring or flanges can be welded from multiple pieces if needed. I was reading on a massive autoclave build a company did overseas… 25ft diameter clave. They made the door out of two sections of steel and the lock rings also. They welded them all together on site. Even the clave pressure vessell was all welded together onsite. But yeah metal type and thickness i will leave up to the experts to determine and build.
They test their pressure vessels at 2.5X the rating to be sure it will not explode. Then that same vessel after the full inspection gets certified.
The vessell for now is just sitting in a shop in Wyoming. Need funds to get it moving foward.
Anymore updates fastrr?
I have a friend who built a medium size powder coat oven. He welded it all up with 1/8 thick steel, he warped it. I would recomend just stitch welding with 1/2 inch length beads. The pressure vesell we were going to use was like 3/4 inch wall. And I wasn’t going to weld it nor myy friend . Its just a big expense and engineering involved. Stitch welds won’t work on a pressure vessel but for just an oven it would work.
Just a quickie…Insurance and calculations required for facilities insurance; have you looked at these yet? Our autoclave is currently in the build phase from a very reputable company and even then, insurance companies are very wary of signing off on them!
Do not discouraged, an autoclave is not much more than a strong empty recipient, there are plenty of items ( air tanks in compressors for example) that are simply that as well, and they do not explode regularly, the strength of steel is umbelievably and is just a matter of choosing the right thicknesses of materials ( steel) .
Mechanical engineers do on a daily basis calculations to build items with this degree of responsability ( and more) and people does not get hurt every day.
The companies that specialize in building them sure have some experience and this off course is convenient but surely they charge you twice the cost of the project and very probably is not worth paying,
IMHO: go for it with care but go for it.
Read up on ASME boiler codes, it has a whole bunch of useful information for heated pressure vessels, you can pick up information from there. Also if you end up sticking to the code you can use it as a measure of safety. In negotiations with insurance companies it could come in handy to tell them you meet a standard safety spec.
pressure vessels such as air compressur tanks do not open. An autoclave does, this is a very important factor in the design. Making an autoclave is dangerous and you must be certified otherwise it is illegal.
Im also building my own autoclave. I used new pressure vessel (air compressor tank, 0.5m diameter, about 1.2m long). Its rated for 11bar working pressure (tested at 16.5bar). Im FEA engineer (my normal work). Pressure vessel was cutted to two pieces (big body and rest is ,door,). I calculated and designed welded slip on flanges. Certified welder welded them. Flanges are bolted together with lot of high strength bolts. I made hydrostatic test for that autoclave. I will use max 7bar working pressure so according to codes hydrostatic test was done at 1.5 x 7bar. Thats 10.5 bar. I wanted to be 100% sure so I tested it at 11.5bar. Stayed 2 hours at this pressure without any vissible deformations, leaks or cracks, no plastic deformations. Im now finishing all interior with thermal insulation and heating element. All pressure/heating/measuring equipment is ready.
I didnt wrote any real number (bolts number, diameter, flange thicknesses etc…) because I dont want anyone to go this route without knowing what is he doing and how dangerous this stuff is.
Lot of care must be taken to have enough safety features to avoid any overpressure in case of accident.
Its all made from high yield strength steel, top quality welds and its heavy like hell.
Such changes to pressure vessels are not allowed. Not even talking about bussiness. I want to use it only for myself, for my first parts, to learn how to make prepreg parts, to see if Im able to produce high quality components. Then I would like to design new, bigger one. That one will be completly recalculated and produced by certified company.
Mike