An Overview of Vacuum Pump Oils
A vacuum pump is a pump that moves air in or out of closed space to create a partial or full vacuum. It removes either gas from an area or water from one area to another. Vacuum Pumps are typically used in a variety of industrial applications and are meant to produce vacuum tubes and electric lamps, as well as in the processing of semiconductors, along with near limitless other applications.
Vacuum pumps won’t function well without its lifeblood—the vacuum pump oil. The correct vacuum pump oil severely reduces the wear on gearing and other internal parts of a vacuum pump. It should be chemically stable and nonreactive to most gases and materials that have low-vapor pressure.
When it comes to using a pump oil, many people use what’s available in the stock room. However, choosing the oil best suited for your vacuum pump is essential. Below are the characteristics of pump oil and the types of distilled oil that you can choose from:
Characteristics of pump oil
Understanding the characteristics of pump oil helps you know the types of vacuum pump oil. Below are the main attributes of pump oil:
●Vapor pressure: This refers to the pressure exerted by a vapor in thermodynamic balance with its condensed phases at a given temperature in a closed area. The lower the vapor pressure, the deeper the rate of the vacuum oil.
●Viscosity: This refers to the state of being thick, sticky, and semifluid. This can either be medium viscosity used for warmer temperatures or lower viscosity used for cooler temperatures. There are also multiple ways to view viscosity, kinematic or dynamic viscosity, but more on that later.
●Distillation: This refers to the process of removing sulfur from mineral oil to refine the oil and reduce vapor pressure.
Types of oil
It is vital to understand the process of distillation as it defines the application for which the pump oil is designed. Below are five types of distilled oil:
●Single distilled oil: This oil goes through a distillation process one time that reduces the sulfur content of the oil, resulting in light brown oil. This oil is only used for single-stage oil-sealed rotary vane pumps.
●Double distilled oil: This oil goes through the distillation process a second time, further removing the sulfur content of the mineral oil, resulting in a lighter brown hue. Double Distilled oil is used in almost all two stage vacuum pumps.
●Triple distilled oil: Processing oil with a third molecular distillation round removes even more impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen. This oil goes through yet another molecular distillation process devoid of sulfur or other impurities. This oil is chemically inert and is highly resistant to oxidation and reactance to other gases. As a result, this pump oil becomes transparent.
●Hydrotreated oil: Hydrotreating can remove an extremely high amount of unwanted impurities such as sulfur, nitrogen, and metals by reacting with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. Nitrogen and Sulfur leave as H2S and NH3. As metals and coke accumulate on the catalyst, the reactor temperature is increased to compensate for reduced activity until the maximum operating temperature is reached.
●Synthetic oil: This particular oil is very inert and has a consistent molecular viscosity where its non-naturally-occurring molecules are uniform in composition. Synthetic oil is designed specifically for highly corrosive vacuum environments consisting of hydrogen peroxide, chlorine, hydrogen fluoride, among others.
As outlined above, there are many different types of oil used in vacuum pumps. Consider the characteristics mentioned above and be properly guided when choosing the oil for your vacuum pump. To get an application specific product recommendation, contact our Customer Service @ 310/892-7347
We provide products such as Busch’s R 550 Vacuum Pump Oil, which is a fully synthetic (ISO 220) oil recommend for select ME and MM series vacuum pumps.b get in touch or shop today to find the best factory supplies in the USA.
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