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Anyone here ever have to locate vacuum leaks?

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Anyone here ever have to locate vacuum leaks? Jake 10-10-2007
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Posted by Jake on October 10, 2007, 6:30 pm
I have a customer who has a piece of equipment that uses two
decent-sized vacuum pumps. I got involved because of a motor failure on
a 10 HP unit... it pulls well now, but cannot maintain. An oil mist is
evident at the pump output from time-to-time.

So... does the oil mist indicate a system leak or a bad pump? What seems
to happen is the thing will pull very close to the setpoint... in micron
fractions... and lose it.

How do you find a vacuum leak if that is what's suspected?

Thanks,

Jake

Posted by on October 10, 2007, 7:31 pm

> I have a customer who has a piece of equipment that uses two
> decent-sized vacuum pumps. I got involved because of a motor failure on
> a 10 HP unit... it pulls well now, but cannot maintain. An oil mist is
> evident at the pump output from time-to-time.
>
> So... does the oil mist indicate a system leak or a bad pump? What seems
> to happen is the thing will pull very close to the setpoint... in micron
> fractions... and lose it.
>
> How do you find a vacuum leak if that is what's suspected?


Can the system be pressurized?
If not, you can find a vacuum leak with an ultrasonic leak detector.



Posted by Mr.Tony to you on October 10, 2007, 8:34 pm
Number one is on what are you pulling vacuum on
Number two if your pump pulls down as you say
once you get where you want to be shut pump off
and see if you loose vacuum on system you are vacuuming,
naturally you must have valve in the line between the
vacuum and the system you are pulling vacuum on to isolate.
and yes if system leaks the vacuum pumps will smoke and
discharge perhaps some oil and water depend on the type
of vacuum pump. Finding vacuum leak depend on what you are
pulling vacuum on Refrigeration systems that is easy,
but Vacuum chambers patting machines containers ETC regardless
of type small big it is not! you can spend hours or days
looking for leak and specially if you are not familiar with
equipment also size makes difference, ultra sound can help
depend on size of leak and if you are not in noisy area
Tony
www.cas-environ.com



>I have a customer who has a piece of equipment that uses two decent-sized
>vacuum pumps. I got involved because of a motor failure on a 10 HP unit...
>it pulls well now, but cannot maintain. An oil mist is evident at the pump
>output from time-to-time.
>
> So... does the oil mist indicate a system leak or a bad pump? What seems
> to happen is the thing will pull very close to the setpoint... in micron
> fractions... and lose it.
>
> How do you find a vacuum leak if that is what's suspected?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jake



Posted by Barry on October 10, 2007, 8:51 pm

>I have a customer who has a piece of equipment that uses two
>decent-sized vacuum pumps. I got involved because of a motor failure on
>a 10 HP unit... it pulls well now, but cannot maintain. An oil mist is
>evident at the pump output from time-to-time.
>
>So... does the oil mist indicate a system leak or a bad pump? What seems
>to happen is the thing will pull very close to the setpoint... in micron
>fractions... and lose it.
>
>How do you find a vacuum leak if that is what's suspected?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jake



Jake this what we do. First of all, what kind of chamber is
this???? What level of vacuum are you trying to achieve. Some
chambers are rated at feet in altitude, or Torr, or some other vacuum
measure. Testing by pressure is by no means satisfactory if this is a
very high vacuum system. The link below, is the first thing that came
up when I googled "high vacuum leak detection". But, you will get the
idea.


http://www.sciquip.com/Browses/browse_key_word.asp?keywords=leak&title=Helium%20and%20other%20High-Vacuum%20Leak%20Detection%20Systems


There are also, companies who specialty is just this. The leak
detection equipment is way expensive for a one time problem.

This is some of the equipment we build and work on.

http://www.thermalproductsolutions.com/Tenney/thermal-vacuum.asp



Let me know what the exact application is so I can be of more
assistance.


Barry


Posted by Jake on October 10, 2007, 10:51 pm
Barry wrote:
>
>> I have a customer who has a piece of equipment that uses two
>> decent-sized vacuum pumps. I got involved because of a motor failure on
>> a 10 HP unit... it pulls well now, but cannot maintain. An oil mist is
>> evident at the pump output from time-to-time.
>>
>> So... does the oil mist indicate a system leak or a bad pump? What seems
>> to happen is the thing will pull very close to the setpoint... in micron
>> fractions... and lose it.
>>
>> How do you find a vacuum leak if that is what's suspected?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Jake
>
>
>
> Jake this what we do. First of all, what kind of chamber is
> this???? What level of vacuum are you trying to achieve. Some
> chambers are rated at feet in altitude, or Torr, or some other vacuum
> measure. Testing by pressure is by no means satisfactory if this is a
> very high vacuum system. The link below, is the first thing that came
> up when I googled "high vacuum leak detection". But, you will get the
> idea.
>
>
>
http://www.sciquip.com/Browses/browse_key_word.asp?keywords=leak&title=Helium%20and%20other%20High-Vacuum%20Leak%20Detection%20Systems
>
>
> There are also, companies who specialty is just this. The leak
> detection equipment is way expensive for a one time problem.
>
> This is some of the equipment we build and work on.
>
> http://www.thermalproductsolutions.com/Tenney/thermal-vacuum.asp
>
>
>
> Let me know what the exact application is so I can be of more
> assistance.
>
>
> Barry
>
Thanks, Barry. I'll talk to the folks and let you know... but I can
tell you this is a several mass-spectrometer application used in the
plasma business (with metallurgy, I guess) and that the acceptable range
I saw was less than .01 torr *I think*. I need better info there.

I have a good ultrasonic but I've had no luck with this one.

Jake

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