[RASMB] Elevated temperature operation with a turbomoledcular pump.

[Walter Stafford]

Hi Andrew:
	We are consulting the folks at Alcatel about these very 
matters and will report back when we have heard. There two issues we 
are worried about. one is foreign material getting into  the inner 
working of the pump. They provide several filters for that purpose. 
The second issue is the mean number of start-stop cycles that can be 
tolerated before major maintenance would be required. Apparently the 
ATP80 is a "new and improved" pump but I don't know what that entails 
or whether it addresses these potential problems.

More when I hear from them.

Walter

At 19:06 +0000 3/11/05, Leech, AP wrote:
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>The older archived RASMB emails can be found at:
>http://rasmb-email.bbri.org/rasmb_archives
>and current archives at
>http://rasmb-email.bbri.org/pipermail/rasmb/
>Search All the Archives at:
>http://rasmb-email.bbri.org/rasmb_search.html
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Walter Stafford wrote:
>>Dear RASMB-ers
>>
>>     I have been testing a turbomolecular pump as a replacement for 
>>the standard diffusion pump on the XL-I. I am writing to report the 
>>results of that experiment.
>
>Hello Walter and RASMBers,
>
>I have asked our service engineers a couple of times why Beckman had not
>investigated this option, without any really cogent reply, so I thought
>up a few potential objections myself:
>
>1. Modifications to power supply/control are more complex than one
>might think (eg power failure cases);
>
>2. Turbo pumps are notoriously sensitive to "bits" of solid material,
>as the clearances of the blades are very small for good performance.
>Dust etc entering from the chamber could be a problem for long term
>reliability;
>
>3. Turbo pumps have been known to fail catastrophically, shedding bits
>of metal into the vacuum space.
>
>I would be interested to know if the ATP80 is a specially robust model
>of turbo, whether you included any screens or filters etc. Otherwise I
>think it is a long overdue development, and I'd be happy to get one
>(subject as ever to budget constraints!)
>
>Best regards to all,
>
>Andrew
>
>--
>Dr Andrew Leech                   *  Laboratory Manager
>Technology Facility               *  Molecular Interactions Laboratory
>Department of Biology (Area 15)   *  Tel   : +44 (0)1904 328723
>University of York                *  Fax   : +44 (0)1904 328804
>PO Box 373,  York  YO10 5YW       *  Email : apl3 at york.ac.uk
>_______________________________________________
>RASMB mailing list
>RASMB at rasmb-email.bbri.org
>http://rasmb-email.bbri.org/mailman/listinfo/rasmb


-- 
----------------------------------------------------------
Walter Stafford
mailto:stafford at bbri.org
direct dial:    617-658-7808
receptionist: 617-658-7700
----------------------------------------------------------