Vacuum pumps are used in great numbers in the industrial fields. They are used in processes such as packaging, bottling, drying, degassing, picking and placing, among many other applications. The versatility of vacuum technology has earned it an important place in industrial fields where these pumps are widely used. Because of their ubiquity and ease of use, it is going to be beneficial to have a more in depth knowledge of the technology. The main usage of vacuum pumps following is to suck out all the air and matter in a particular space in order to create a vacuum. The amount of vacuums differs based on the minimum level of materials that they can suck out of the vacuum chamber. In this article we will look at the popular field where they are used and how they function.
Vacuum pump Applications:
Vacuums have found widespread usage in multiple fields. Some of the popular industries that utilize vacuum technology include:
Chemical Process: Vacuum pumps, designed following the Agilent Vacuum Technology are used by chemists and chemical engineers in various industrial processes for evaporation, crystallization, making drying, distillation, solvent recovery, vinyl chloride monomer, coating, material transfer and chlorine compression. Without such a pump to help us, all operations would be very difficult to do on a large scale.
Medical equipment: This pump is widely used in the medical field especially with its drying ability, which can be used to disinfect medical equipment. The sterilization of such equipment is very important and is done quickly and reliably with a vacuum pump that removes all biological waste and debris. The pumps used in the medical sector are usually smaller in size and pressure strength.
Refining: Vapour management is one of the important processes in the oil and gas industry to which this vapor recovery system is applied. As well as oil filtration, these pumps are used to compress vent and overpressure gasses. These gasses are usually extremely volatile and flammable, which is why the reliability and accuracy of an industrial vacuum pump is always desirable.
Textile Plastics: Industries have found this technology useful for managing extruder degassing in terms of extraction of gas and vapor components. It is also used to dry the moisture and drain the working water between the mold and the work material. Clothing factories use small to medium scale vacuums during their production, as these are not heavy industries.
Food processing: Food processing industries use vacuum pumps in their packaging to keep food fresh and intact. They ensure that food is not spoiled by the presence of air and moisture or by germs inside the packaging. Therefore, a small sized vacuum pump is used to suck up all the foreign bodies and leave only the food product inside the packaging.
What is a vacuum pump?
The main purpose of vacuum pumps is to create, increase and maintain vacuum for various industrial applications. Although there are several types of industrial pumps, their basic operation remains the same. This pump sucks air molecules and other objects out of a space known as a vacuum chamber. Industrial vacuum cleaners are capable of operating in a very wide pressure range, so they can suck all dust particles out of the vacuum chamber. The best way to do this is to use multiple vacuum pumps with different pressure ranges in. As the pressure continues to drop, you switch to the most suitable pump. Further, different applications also require different pressures in vacuum. If you use a high vacuum in an inappropriate setting, it will be ineffective in sucking enough air out of the vacuum chamber.
These pumps are divided into the following categories based on their pressure capacity:
Rough/Low Vacuum: 1000 to 1 mbar / 760 to 0.75 Torr
Fine/ Medium Vacuum: 1 to 10-3 mbar / 0.75 to 7.5-3 Torr
High Vacuum: 10-3 to 10-7 mbar / 7.5-3 to 7.5-7 Torr
Ultra-High Vacuum: 10-7 to 10-11 mbar / 7.5-7 to 7.5-11 Torr
Extreme High Vacuum: < 10-11 mbar / < 7.5-11 Torr
For any industrial application, experts will sit with consultants and decide what the best combinations of vacuum pressure should be used to perfectly suit the demand.