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US 2026/0210358 A1Published application
Predicting tip seal wear in scroll pump
AssigneeAgilent Technologies, Inc.
InventorRonald J. Forni
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A scroll pump or pumping system is configured to determine or predict whether a first scroll tip seal and/or a second scroll tip seal is a worn tip seal that should be replaced with a new tip seal. The determination or prediction is based on durations of run times during which the scroll pump operates in different, respective pressure ranges of pump inlet pressure, and durations of expected service lives of the scroll tip seals when operating in the respective pressure ranges.
Claims16
A method for predicting tip seal wear in a scroll pump, the method comprising:
- providing a scroll pump comprising a pump inlet, a pump outlet, and a pumping stage, wherein the pumping stage comprises a first scroll and a second scroll nested together, at least one of the first scroll or the second scroll is configured to orbit about a drive axis relative to the other of the first scroll and the second scroll to pump fluid from the pump inlet to the pump outlet, the first scroll comprises a first scroll tip seal, and the second scroll comprises a second scroll tip seal;
- operating the scroll pump for a plurality of run times in a plurality of respective pressure ranges of pump inlet pressure, wherein each pressure range is different from the other pressure ranges;
- measuring a duration of each run time;
- determining the pump inlet pressure during the operating of the scroll pump for each of the run times;
- and
- determining that at least one of the first scroll tip seal or the second scroll tip seal is a worn tip seal, wherein the determining is based on:
- the duration of each run time measured;
- and
- respective durations of a plurality of expected service lives of the first scroll tip seal and the second scroll tip seal, wherein each expected service life corresponds to a respective one of the pressure ranges.
6 more elements
A scroll pump, comprising:
- a pump inlet;
- a pump outlet;
- a pumping stage comprising a first scroll and a second scroll nested together, at least one of the first scroll or the second scroll is configured to orbit about a drive axis relative to the other of the first scroll and the second scroll to pump fluid from the pump inlet to the pump outlet;
- a first scroll tip seal mounted to the first scroll;
- a second scroll tip seal mounted to the second scroll;
- a sensor configured to measure pump inlet pressure or to measure an operating parameter from which the pump inlet pressure can be calculated;
- a runtime meter configured to measure a plurality of run times during which the scroll pump operates in a plurality of respective pressure ranges of pump inlet pressure, wherein each pressure range is different from the other pressure ranges;
- and
- a controller configured to determine that at least one of the first scroll tip seal or the second scroll tip seal is a worn tip seal, wherein the determining is based on:
- the duration of each run time measured;
- and
- respective durations of a plurality of expected service lives of the first scroll tip seal and the second scroll tip seal, wherein each expected service life corresponds to a respective one of the pressure ranges.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.