SVC Education Program
Detailed SVC Course Syllabus
Course Description
This course is designed to teach the basic fundamentals of vacuum technology to technicians, equipment operators, line process operators, and maintenance personnel. This course addresses how to use and maintain an existing vacuum system effectively, not how to design a system. The introduction consists of a basic explanation of what a vacuum is and how it is attained and proceeds to an explanation of the three gas flow regimes, i.e. viscous, transition, and molecular flow. The many variations of units of pressure and flow are discussed.
This is followed by a description of the types of pumps used in the viscous flow region, e.g., mechanical displacement pumps, venturi/suction pumps, and sorption pumps. Types of high vacuum pumps are next discussed; these include diffusion pumps, turbopumps, and cryopumps.
The next section deals with the care and maintenance of pumps and vacuum systems including both compressible ‘rubber’ gasket and metal gasket systems. Included in this section is a review of vacuum pump fluids and greases, their uses and how to make effective choices for pump fluids for the many various applications. Continuous filtering and treatment of pump fluids is presented along with techniques to determine when pump fluid should be changed.
Cleaning and conditioning of vacuum components and system is discussed with emphasis on metal and insulator materials. The unique role that water plays in both pumpdown from atmosphere and in outgassing is addressed and techniques to ameliorate its harmful effects are presented. The effects of other unique gases, i.e. bad actors, are discussed.
In addition system pumpdown from air is discussed and techniques to evaluate system performance, i.e. pumpdown rate and leak-up rate, are presented. Techniques for detection of system leaks and their correction is discussed as well as outgassing and permeation.
Finally operation of vacuum systems is discussed with emphasis on determining crossover pressure, interlocks, safety, and documentation.
Many useful charts and tables are presented and their use explained.
Participants are requested to present any problems or difficulty that they may be experiencing with their vacuum systems to the course instructor and fellow students for discussion. This makes for very interesting examples and who knows, the problem might actually get solved.
This course will conclude with short descriptions of the other pertinent vacuum related courses presented by SVC.
Course Content
Instructor: Robert A. Langley, Oak Ridge Scientific Consultants