Vacuum pump

Abstract

A vacuum pump includes a housing, a rotor located in the housing and having a shaft and pump-active elements supported on the shaft, a stator having pump-active elements and located in a separate housing part of the housing, for driving the pump, bearings for rotatably supporting the rotor shaft, and at least one vacuum chamber located in the housing.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings show:

FIG. 1 a cross-sectional view of a first embodiment of a vacuum pump according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of a vacuum pump according to the present invention; and

FIG. 3 a cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of a vacuum pump according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A vacuum pump 1 according to the present invention, a first embodiment of which is shown in FIG. 1, has a housing 2 and a lower housing part 3. A shaft 4 is supported at one of its ends by bearing means 8 and at its another opposite end by a permanent magnetic bearing 17. The permanent magnetic bearing 17 is located at a high-vacuum side of the pump system and is secured thereat by a support structure 16. The pump system includes pump-active rotor elements 5 supported on the shaft 4, and stationary pump-active stator elements 6. In the embodiment shown in the drawings, rotor and stator elements are formed as blade-carrying discs, whereby a vacuum pump in accordance with a known constructional principle of turbomolecular pumps is formed. However, the present invention is not limited to this type of a vacuum pump, rather it is applicable to a combination of different types in accordance with a pressure region that should be obtained. E.g., the invention is applicable to Holweck stages and the like. The stator has, in addition to pump-active elements 6, spacers 7 which determine the axial distance of the stator elements from each other. The stator components are first inserted through the housing 2 of the vacuum pump 1, mounted in their respective positions and are held there. Without the housing 2, this mounting is not given, the remaining pump part is not itself operational.

In the housing part 3, in addition to bearing means 8, there is provided drive means 9, e.g., electrical coils which cooperate with permanent magnets arranged on the shaft 4, setting the shaft in rapid rotation. The bearing means 8 can be formed as a ball bearing, magnetic bearing, or gas bearing. The lower housing part 3 also includes a gas outlet channel 30 leading to a gas outlet union. When the vacuum pump itself is not compressed to the atmospheric pressure, a forevacuum pump is connected with this gas outlet union.

Also are arranged in the housing 2, a first vacuum chamber 20 and a second vacuum chamber 21, with a lower pressure being produced in the first vacuum chamber 20 than in the second vacuum chamber 21.

The first vacuum chamber 20 is directly connected with the first pumping stage 22 of the pump system. The second vacuum chamber 21 is connected by a suction channel 10 with an intermediate inlet 18. Through the intermediate inlet 18, gas can be fed to the second pumping stage 23. Thus, gas from the first vacuum chamber 20 is fed into both the first pumping stage 22 and the second pumping stage 23 and is compressed there, whereas gas from the second vacuum chamber 21 is compressed only in the second pumping stage 23. This principle can be expanded further by providing further vacuum chambers in the housing 2. The further vacuum chambers can be connected with further intermediate inlets of the pump system. Likewise, one of the chambers can be connected with the gas outlet channel 30 by a channel formed in the housing. The first and second vacuum chambers 20 and 21 are connected with each other by a connection passage 25. The passage 25 can be formed as a bore in the housing 2 or as a throttle. The second vacuum chamber 21 has an opening 26 through which, e.g., a to-be-analyzed gas or a particle stream can flow in.

The housing 2 has an opening that can be closed by a cover 11 and which is connected with the first vacuum chamber. The cover 11 permits to monitor components which are located in the first vacuum chamber 20. Around this opening, two seals are provided, with a first seal 12 surrounding the opening and the second seal 13 surrounding the first seal 12. An annular channel 14 is provided between the seals 12 and 13 and in which vacuum is produced. For producing the vacuum, there is provided a connection conduit 15 that opens either in one of the pumping stages of the vacuum pump or in the gas outlet channel 30. When the connection conduit opens not in front of the first pumping stage but at the other location of the pump system, the vacuum, which is produced between the two seals 12 and 13, is between the pressure in the first vacuum chamber 20 and the pressure of the vacuum pump environment. Thereby, the load, which act on separate seals, is noticeably reduced as the pressure drop across a respective seal is smaller. Measurement of drive power of the pump or the pumping stage necessary for producing the vacuum permits to make a conclusion about leakage and whether the seals are defective.

The vacuum pump according to the first embodiment has a further advantage achieved with the present invention, namely, when all of vacuum conduits between the chambers, chambers and pumping stages, and to the annular channel in the housing are integrated, only one forevacuum flange is necessary. Additional expensive conduits, which should be attached later, are eliminated.

In the vacuum pump according to a second embodiment, which is shown in FIG. 2, the invention is applied to a three-chamber system. There are provided in the housing 2 of the vacuum pump a first chamber 31 in which a high vacuum is produced, a second chamber 32 in which a medium vacuum is produced, and a third chamber 33. The third vacuum chamber 33 is retained at a forevacuum level. The third vacuum chamber 33 is connected via a forevacuum inlet 37 with the gas outlet channel 30 of the vacuum pump. A middle inlet 36 connects the second vacuum chamber 32 with the pumping system of the vacuum pump. A high vacuum inlet 35 connects the first vacuum chamber 31 with the pump system. Gas, which reaches the pump system through the high vacuum inlet 35 should flow over all of the parts of the pump system. The stationary components, stator discs 6 and spacers 7 should only be mounted in the housing 2 and retained in their positions. Without the housing 2, this mounting of stationary components is not possible, and remaining pump components themselves are not operational. As a rule, it is necessary to optimize conductance between the chambers and the respective parts of the pump system. A parameter which permits to achieve optimization, is angle α between the rotor axis 40 and the chamber axis 41. This parameter can vary between 0°, i.e., with parallel arrangement, and 90°, i.e., with a mutually perpendicular arrangement.

A third embodiment of a vacuum pump according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 3. The third embodiment differs from the second embodiment by the vacuum chambers. At least one of the vacuum chambers, here, two vacuum chambers 32 and 33 are arranged in an insertable module 44. This module 44 is inserted through a bore formed in the housing 2 of the vacuum pump 1 and is secured in the housing 2. To provide for servicing or exchange of the module, the module 44 can be releasably secured, e.g., with screws. Seals 45 seal the module 44 against the housing 2. The vacuum chambers 32, 33 are connected with each other as the chambers 32 and 31 that is formed in the housing 2. All or, as shown in FIG. 3, only some of the chambers can be provided in the insertable module. Suction channels 42, 43 connect the vacuum chambers 32, 33 with different parts of the pump system of the vacuum pump, so that different pressure can be produced in the vacuum chambers.

Though the present invention was shown and described with references to the preferred embodiments, such are merely illustrative of the present invention and are not to be construed as a limitation thereof and various modifications of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore not intended that the present invention be limited to the disclosed embodiments or details thereof, and the present invention includes all variations and/or alternative embodiments within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A vacuum pump, comprising a housing; a rotor located in the housing and having a shaft and pump-active elements supported on the shaft; a stator located in the housing and having pump-active elements, the housing having a housing part for holding the pump-active elements of the stator; drive means for driving the pump; bearing means for rotatably supporting the rotor shaft; and at least one vacuum chamber located in the housing part.

2. A vacuum pump, according to claim 1, wherein the housing part contains at least one part of the bearing means and drive means and connectable with the housing.

3. A vacuum pump according to claim 1, comprising at least two pumping stages, and at least one further vacuum chamber located in the housing, and wherein the at least one and the further vacuum chambers are connected with each other and with a respective pumping stage.

4. A vacuum pump according to claim 3, wherein the gas pressure in the at least one and further vacuum chambers is not the same.

5. A vacuum pump according to claim 1, wherein the bearing means comprises a permanent magnet bearing for supporting an end of the rotor shaft.

6. A vacuum pump according to claim 3, wherein the pump-active rotor elements and the pump-active stator elements includes blades forming at least one pumping stage.

7. A vacuum pump according to claim 1, wherein the at least one vacuum chamber has an opening, the vacuum pump further comprising a releasable cover for closing the opening, and at least two seals for sealing the opening.

8. A vacuum pump according to claim 7, comprising an annular channel arranged between the two seals and in which vacuum is produced.

9. A vacuum pump according to claim 8, comprising a connection conduit integrated in the housing between the annular channel and one of pumping stage and gas outlet channel.

10. A vacuum pump according to claim 1, further comprising at least one further vacuum chamber, at least one of the at least one and further vacuum chambers being located in an insertable module.