This section provides overview, applications, and principles of vacuum pumps. Also, please take a look at the list of 77 vacuum pump manufacturers and their company rankings.
Table of Contents
A vacuum pump is a device used to evacuate air or gas from a device or container to create a vacuum.
A vacuum pump consists of a pump, an exhaust port, and an intake port. Many mechanisms have been developed for pumps to create a vacuum.
The Vacuum types can be divided into low, medium, and high. The appropriate vacuum pump to be used should be selected based on the required vacuum, the time required to reach vacuum, and the temperature environment in which it will be used. Vacuum pump can be classified into dry pumps and wet pumps, depending on whether or not oil is used.
Vacuum pumps are used in the manufacturing process of medical equipment and devices, food factories, electrical equipment, and semiconductors. They are also used as auxiliaries in medical and scientific equipment requiring vacuum. More than 10 different types of vacuum pumps principles have been developed, each of which requires an understanding of its characteristics for proper selection.
The main applications of vacuum pumps are as follows
Vacuum pumps are classified according to their operating principles, and the most common operating principles are described below.
The oil rotary vacuum pumps are a general term for a wet pump that uses oil to make it airtight. It is also called a rotary vacuum pumps.
Detailed types include rotary blade oil vacuum pumps, cam-type oil rotary vacuum pumps, and oscillating piston-type oil rotary vacuum pumps. The shapes of the rotating blades, cam, oscillating part coupled to the piston, and the part in contact with air differ, but in all types, vacuum is created by expelling air as the rotor rotates.
As long as oil is used, the oil vapor pressure is the limit of the vacuum, but the oil works to provide stable performance, and a medium vacuum can be easily obtained with a small device.
The oil diffusion vacuum pumps consists of boiler, a jet nozzle, and a condenser. Oil heated to vapor in the boiler is injected at supersonic speed by the jet nozzle, pushing air molecules inside the pump to the exhaust port. The vaporized oil becomes liquid oil in the condenser and is reused.
Rotary-blade dry vacuum pumps are oil-free vacuum pumps in which the rotating rotor and vanes exhaust the air drawn in through the inlet port as if to scrape it out. Since backflow of air cannot be prevented, low vacuum conditions are the limit, but large pumping speeds can be obtained.
The oscillating piston dry vacuum pumps are vacuum pumps that exhausts air by pushing it out with a piston linked to an eccentric rotating shaft. Due to its structure, it cannot prevent air from flowing backward, so it is limited to low vacuum conditions, but maintenance is easy.
A diaphragm pump (membrane pump) is a pump that conveys fluid by combining the reciprocating motion of a diaphragm made of rubber, resin, or metal with a check valve. When used as vacuum pumps, the check valve eliminates the need to use oil for airtightness and allows the pump to be used as a dry pump. With reciprocating motion, air is repeatedly sucked in from the side to be evacuated and discharged to the atmosphere to create a vacuum.
The scroll type dry vacuum pumps are dry vacuum pumps that exhausts air through a combination of volute stator and rotor motion. The volute motion draws air to the center and exhausts it from the center.
The turbomolecular pump is a dry vacuum pumps in the form of a turbine. The turbine blades are rotated at a high speed, close to the thermal motion of molecules, to create a bias in molecular motion in accordance with the inclination of the turbine blades, thereby exhausting the air. To enable high-speed rotation of the turbine blades, the pump must be used in a certain degree of vacuum and is used in combination with other vacuum pumps.
In selecting vacuum pumps, the type of pump is determined based on the degree of vacuum attained, pumping time, and pumping capacity. There are three types of vacuum levels: low vacuum, medium vacuum, and high vacuum, and there are vacuum pumps for each.
For low vacuum, there are diaphragm dry pumps, oscillating piston dry pumps, and rotary blade dry pumps. Diaphragm dry pumps do not have sliding parts like rotary-blade dry pumps, so they do not generate particulate matter due to agitation and can produce a clean vacuum. The oscillating piston type has a simple structure and is easy to maintain. Rotating-blade type pumps can achieve high pumping speeds.
Scroll type and oil rotary type vacuum pumps are available for medium vacuum applications. Many scroll type pumps use two-stage compression to ensure efficiency, and are low-vibration and low-noise. As the name suggests, oil-rotating pumps are lubricated and sealed with oil, resulting in high efficiency and good vacuum stability.
Vacuum pumps for high vacuum include the Roots type (mechanical booster). It's vacuum pumps that rotates two rotors to suction and compress, the multi-stage Roots type vacuum pumps that integrates multiple Roots type pumps, and the oil diffusion type vacuum pumps that has a simple structure and high pumping speed. Furthermore, there are turbomolecular pumps and cryopumps for ultra-high vacuum applications.
Since there are so many different types of vacuum pumps, it is important to understand their features and characteristics and select the right one for your application.
For equipment that uses a vacuum, vacuum pumps are selected based on the degree of vacuum attained and the pumping time. However, because the pumping speed generally slows down as the vacuum level increases, and because some pumps for high vacuum cannot be used under atmospheric pressure conditions, vacuum pumps are sometimes used in combination rather than alone.
For example, by switching between a "low vacuum pumps with a high pumping speed" and a "high vacuum pumps" or using them together simultaneously, a certain amount of pumping speed can be obtained even with a high vacuum.
A concrete example is to use an oil-rotating pump to evacuate to a low vacuum range (coarse evacuation), and then switch to a mechanical booster pump to evacuate to a high vacuum (main evacuation).
In addition, two types of vacuum pumps may be connected and a pump for high vacuum may be used even at atmospheric pressure by intervening with a pump for medium and low vacuum.
*Including some distributors, etc.
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Ranking as of January 2023 in United States
Derivation MethodRank | Company | Click Share |
---|---|---|
1 | AMETEK CTS | 28.6% |
2 | Macomber Cryogenics, Inc. | 14.3% |
3 | AutoVac Industrial Vacuum & Air Systems | 14.3% |
4 | Trombetta, Inc. | 14.3% |
5 | Edwards | 14.3% |
6 | UNOZAWA-GUMI IRON WORKS,LTD. | 14.3% |
Ranking as of January 2023 Globally
Derivation MethodRank | Company | Click Share |
---|---|---|
1 | AMETEK CTS | 28.6% |
2 | Macomber Cryogenics, Inc. | 14.3% |
3 | AutoVac Industrial Vacuum & Air Systems | 14.3% |
4 | Trombetta, Inc. | 14.3% |
5 | Edwards | 14.3% |
6 | UNOZAWA-GUMI IRON WORKS,LTD. | 14.3% |
Derivation Method
The ranking is calculated based on the click share within the vacuum pump page as of January 2023. Click share is defined as the total number of clicks for all companies during the period divided by the number of clicks for each company.Number of Employees
Newly Established Company
Company with a History
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