Vacuum is defined as a diluted gas, or the corresponding state at which its pressure is less than that of the ambient atmosphere.

Atmospheric pressure changes locally over the Earth's surface and reduces as altitude above sea level increases.
Vacuum is one of essential utility in process Industry like in distillation processes, drying processes, metal processing applications among others and its requirement level changes from process to process.

Vacuum is utilized as productivity enhancement tool to complete a given task at lowest temperature & with lowest energy possible. For example water boiling point at atmospheric pressure (760mmHg) is 100 Deg C but under vacuum @ 2 Torr it is -12 Deg C. Same water will boil at (minus)- 21 Deg C @ 1 torr which shows that a small Improvement in vacuum levels will contribute for process improvements to a great extent .

In case of metal processing like welding, heat treatment among other has to be done under vacuum in order to remove oxygen from process chamber and stop oxidation completely.

Despite having distinct advantages vacuum creation has a perennial issue of process contamination .When vacuum pumps run to generate vacuum in any process chamber contamination also enters vacuum pumping system and this leads to heavy maintenance and effluent generation.

Generally Vacuum is generated by various types of pumps say Oil Base (Oil ring / Oil lubricated ) vacuum pumps. These pumps generate good vacuum levels up to 0.001Torr but these pumps are contamination sensitive. Even small contamination from process will affect vacuum levels and requires heavy maintenance.

This process contamination has been addressed by different types of vacuum pumps like Water Ring pumps which can handle contamination but they generates less vacuum even with high energy consumption. Sometimes vacuum generated by these vacuum pumps is not sufficient for process conditions. These pumps are therefore connected in series with Boosters or Steam Jet vacuum pumps to attain required vacuum level leading to higher energy consumption.

Problem of Water Ring pumps are solved to some extend by Steam Jet vacuum pumps as these pumps are rugged and can handle any amount of process contamination effectively. High vacuum levels can be achieved in these pumps by connecting pumps in series. Main draw backs with these pumps are that they are very energy sensitive having very low thermal efficiency say, 1-5%. High quality steam when mixes with process contamination same water can't be fed to Boiler and this condensate coming out from pumps will have to be treated for safe disposal.

Dry Pumps are energy efficient will not contain any sealing fluid to generate vacuum will have High speed SCREW or CLAW mechanism to pull air from process chamber. These pumps can handle reasonably good amount of process contamination but if contamination is in solid state, these solid particles may get choked in between clearance of two rotating screws and damage pumps very badly.

Mechanical filters to stop process contamination are in use since decades. These filters are good but with some typical disadvantage like loss in pumping capacities which leads to pressure drops and conductance losses. These filters are very effective till 5-10 Micron particles size but with lesser size micron these filters have some limitations. These mechanical filters can't trap gaseous & liquid impurities effectively under vacuum conditions because of low boiling point of liquids under vacuum conditions

By reducing process contamination & installing proper condenser cooling system we can increase vacuum levels to achieve highest utility of Vacuum for any given process. Therefore reduction of the contamination is the key to achieve the desired vacuum level and in turn trouble free manufacturing with higher productivity. That is where VACULIFE has an important role to play.