Horizontal dry vacuum pumps save space on the plant floor
By John Skeates, Edwards as seen in Pump & Systems magazine

Space on the plant floor is valuable and engineers are under increased pressure to make the most efficient use of the area available.  Pumps used in a variety of chemical applications can often be bulky, but Edwards has developed a compact dry pump package, with space saving of typically halving the footprint over alternative designs.

Dry pumping is well established as a vacuum pump technology in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and its benefits of reducing environmental waste, improved processing and reduced maintenance are well understood by the industry.

A dry vacuum pump eliminates oil from the swept volume, resulting in a number of significant advantages. Primarily, it reduces the effluent – oil or water, that traditional vacuum pumps can produce, and this minimises disposal or treatment costs. Using dry vacuum pumps minimises potential contamination of the process that can occur which can affect the quality of the final product. Dry pumps are not affected by vapor, or dust particles in the same way as oil-sealed pumps so they last longer and require less maintenance

Used in applications such as biofuel production and distillation processes, a key requirement for dry vacuum pumps has been their ability to handle liquid carryover from the process – a common result of process upset, for example, a blocked inlet condenser.  For this reason the more robust designs were vertically orientated so that they were self draining in the event of liquid entering the pump.

However, many process industry applications require either a higher pumping speed, or a lower operating pressure than can be achieved with a single dry pump. To achieve this the dry pump is typically combined with a mechanical booster to give capacities in excess of 5,000 m3/hr, or to reach pressures below 0.01mbar. With a vertically oriented pump this usually means that the booster is mounted on a separate frame alongside the pump. While this combination gives a high capacity pumping system, it will significantly increase the floor space occupied by the pumping system.

GV Drystar Series for Crystal Pulling
The GV Drystar Series has been industry proven on a variety of solar cell manufacturing processes. The GV160 is well-established on crystal pulling applications and capable of handling high argon flows in all pressure regions as well as high particulate dust load generated in this demanding application. This series can be combined with our comprehensive range of EH Mechanical Boosters for increased pumping capacity or lower vacuum levels. The EH Series hydrokinetic drive reduces pumpdown time, which results in faster growth cycles and reduced overall costs. Due to our rapidly-growing install base and multiple qualifications around the globe, Edwards has acquired solid learning in the technology of PV Si wafer manufacturing.

Irving Langmuir

Perhaps the Nobel Prize winner most intimately associated with vacuum studies was Irving Langmuir. Born in 1891 in New York, Langmuir benefited greatly from his close family’s encouragement to observe, analyze and develop questions of all he observed: a sound platform for any scientist.