Vacuum pumps are used in a number of academic, analytical and industrial applications. In industrial field, 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 is to suck out all the gas  and matter in a particular space in order to create a vacuum. The levels  of vacuum differ, based on the level of gas that can be pumped out of the vacuum chamber. In this article, we will look at the popular fields where vacuum is  used and how it  functions. 

Vacuum has found widespread usage in multiple fields. Some of the popular industries that utilize vacuum technology include:

1. Chemical Process: Vacuum pumps, designed by  Agilent Vacuum Technology are used by chemists and chemical engineers in various industrial processes for evaporation, crystallization, drying, distillation, solvent recovery, coating, material transfer  and chlorine compression. Without such a pump, all these operations would be very difficult to do  on a large scale.

2. Medical equipment: Vacuum pumps are 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.

3. 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. 

4. 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 pump all the gases and substances that can attack and degrade the food  in  the packaging.

The main purpose of vacuum pumps is to create, increase and maintain vacuum in a variety of applications. Although there are several types of pumps, their basic scope  remains the same.  The pump removes gas  molecules out of a space known as a 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 pressure levels.

 

These pumps are divided into the following categories based on their pressure capacity:

Low Vacuum: 1000 to 1 mbar / 760 to 0.75 Torr

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 need in your academic, instrumentation and industrial application, vacuum technology experts will partner with you to define the best vacuum solution.