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Early in 2016, OSHA (the Occupational Health and Safety Administration) announced its “final rule” regarding respirable crystalline silica. This rule has been under consideration since 2013. The final ruling reduces the permissible exposure limit (or PEL) for workers in businesses…
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Many important research and industrial processes require vacuum in what is referred to as the "fine vacuum" range, which is between 0.1 and 0.001 Torr. In a prior post, we talked about the fact that the Pirani style gauge is…
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We've previously talked about some of the tools we've made available to help select the right vacuum pump for your work. Our pump selection guide is a great choice if you have a strong sense of your operating parameters. And for drying…
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Our most recent post addressed the benefits of proportional-only vacuum process control. Though this approach is well suited to many processes, in some cases more accurate (or precise) control of the pressure level is necessary. Under such circumstances, employing PI…
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We are officially settled into our new headquarters building located at 2009 Renaissance Boulevard, King of Prussia, PA. We briefly touched on the move in our end of year blog posted Dec. 30th and are excited to report…
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In our prior post, we talked about using variants of the classic PID algorithm in order to control vacuum processes. In the simplest form, the PID control loop can be reduced to a P-only, or 2-point, algorithm. For example, by…
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Establishing good control over vacuum processes has numerous benefits, such as helping to improve process yields, achieve more repeatable results, and reduce process times. And there are several options for controlling vacuum processes to achieve these various benefits. This post…
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DETECTION One of the simplest leak detectors for thermal fluid is the smoke that shows up when the hot fluid is exposed to air. The amount of smoke depends on the size of the leak, the temperature of the fluid and…
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In part 1 of this white paper, we reviewed the general advantages of using dry, chemical-resistant diaphragm pumps for process scale-up applications. In part 2, we will delve into the process of configuring the mini-plant in order to realize the…
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Introduction Historically, mini-plants have utilized oil-sealed rotary vane vacuum pumps as a vacuum source because they provide relatively high flow rates and because they can reach relatively deep vacuum levels, such as 10-3 mbar. The same can be said of…