Scroll pump tip sealing
AssigneeEdwards Limited
InventorsPeter Charles Lamb, Peter David Jones
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A scroll pump tip seal to be fitted to a tip face of a scroll wall of a first scroll of a scroll pump to seal between the tip face and a base plate of a second scroll of the scroll pump has a first end, a second end and a plurality of flexure formations. The flexure formations are at least partial discontinuities in the tip seal disposed at spaced apart intervals between the first and second ends of the tip to facilitate lateral flexure of the tip seal.
Claims46
A scroll pump comprising:
- an orbiting scroll;
- a fixed scroll;
- and
- a driver configured to impart an orbiting motion to the orbiting scroll relative to the fixed scroll;
- wherein said orbiting scroll comprises an orbiting scroll base plate and an orbiting scroll wall extending from said orbiting scroll base plate towards said fixed scroll and said fixed scroll comprises a fixed scroll base plate and a fixed scroll wall extending from said fixed scroll base plate towards said orbiting scroll,
- said orbiting scroll wall has a tip face that faces said fixed scroll base plate and said fixed scroll wall has a tip face that faces said orbiting scroll base plate,
- said tip face of the orbiting scroll wall is provided with a first tip seal arrangement for sealing between the orbiting scroll wall and the fixed scroll base plate and said tip face of the fixed scroll wall is provided with a second tip seal arrangement for sealing between the fixed scroll wall and the orbiting scroll plate,
- at least one of said first and second tip seal arrangements comprises a tip seal disposed on the respective tip face, and
- said tip seal has a first end and a second end and comprises a plurality of flexure formations, said flexure formations comprising at least partial discontinuities in at least one external wall of said tip seal disposed at spaced apart intervals between said first and second ends to facilitate lateral flexure of the tip seal.
A scroll pump tip seal to be fitted to a tip face of a scroll wall of a first scroll of a scroll pump to seal between said tip face and a base plate of a second scroll of said scroll pump, said tip seal having a first end and a second end and comprising a plurality of flexure formations comprising at least partial discontinuities in at least one external wall of said tip seal disposed at spaced apart intervals between said first and second ends to facilitate lateral flexure of said tip seal.
A method of providing a tip seal to seal between a tip face of a scroll wall of a first scroll of a scroll pump and a base plate of a second scroll of said scroll pump, said method comprising providing said tip seal with a plurality of flexure formations, said formations comprising a plurality of at least partial discontinuities in at least one external wall of said tip seal disposed at spaced apart intervals along said tip seal to facilitate lateral flexure of said tip seal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.