From small-scale experiments to large industrial production lines, vacuum pump failure can force your project into downtime — leading to missed deadlines and revenue loss. For many organisations, sourcing an onsite or offsite backup pump is crucial to safeguarding projects.
When working with high vacuum (HV) and ultra-high vacuum (UHV), there are specific aspects to consider to ensure an efficient and safe system.
Fore vacuum pumps are defined as those which exhaust to atmospheric pressure. They are also required to support secondary pumps or to attain the initial conditions for their operation. There are two types of fore vacuum pumps:
High Vacuum (HV) and Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) levels can only be effectively and efficiently obtained by using a main pump that has the functional capabilities. Choosing which pump to use depends on a number of factors, such as noise/vibration, cost (initial and on-going), tolerance to contamination, footprint, maintenance schedules, and resilience to shock.
Vacuum Coating — also called ‘Thin Film Technology’; or Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) — represents an impressive share among the various applications of vacuum technology. In this blog post, we share an overview of the historical development, the various basic principles underpinning the generating of thin films, and the general layout of coating devices.
As applications using vacuum technologies evolve and become ever more precise, the vacuum systems and pumps used have even less margin for error than ever before. In every operation that uses vacuum – particularly where incredibly precise instruments are involved (R&D, mass spectrometry) – the preservation of the vacuum is of the utmost importance.
The reality is that unforeseen problems in a vacuum can be catastrophic for the process, the environment and the operator, and one which can prove tricky is a vacuum leak.
Given the situation with COVID-19, many questions are being asked about how vacuum technology (specifically mass spectrometers) can help with health diagnostics and research.
With this in mind, in this short blog we’ll explore how mass spectrometers can be used in the medical field to tackle pandemics like COVID-19.
Oil diffusion pumps have been the workhorse in high-vacuum pumping for many decades and remain the standard for industrial applications like brazing/soldering, E-Beam welding and large-area coating. Their investment costs are relatively low, and they can provide pumping speeds of up to 50.000 l/s. In this blog, we will explain the working principles of oil diffusion pumps, including how to apply and control them in vacuum systems, the typical dos and don'ts, and provide several application examples.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCSUSA) about 2,200 active satellites orbit our planet and an additional 100 are launched every year. Most of these satellites are used for telecommunication and, with GPS projects like the European GALILEO and the SPACE-X Starlink (which intends to bring internet connection to every spot on earth) on the horizon, their number will continue to grow.
Secondary pumps require a primary pump to initially ‘prime’ them for operation and/or to support their continuous operation. There are several factors which need to be considered for the correct combination or ‘matching’ of primary and secondary pumps to ensure safe and optimized performance.
