Vee belt drive design

This article discusses one and two-stage “medium vacuum” oil sealed rotary vane vacuum
pumps that can produce a catalog ultimate vacuum of about 1 x 10-2 Torr (0.01 Torr or 10
microns) for a one stage model and about 1 x 10-3 Torr (0.001 Torr or 1 micron) for a two-stage
model.
Oil sealed rotary vane vacuum pumps are used in the vacuum heat treating and vacuum furnace
industry as holding pumps at the exhaust side of the oil diffusion pump. They keep the exhaust
line pressure low enough to prevent stalling of the oil diffusion pump while the larger mechanical
pumps are roughing (evacuating from atmospheric pressure) the main vacuum chamber.
In the early days, pre-second world war, there were also oil sealed rotary cam pumps designs,
such as the “world famous Cenco ‘Hyvac’ two-stage vacuum pump (Fig. 1) and the Nelson Pump
Co. ‘Nevaco’ vacuum pump (a). Although the Hyvac pumps and other Cenco models are still
manufactured today by HyVac Products, PA, the Nelson Pump Company was bought by Ace
Pump, TN, and their vacuum pumps are no
longer made.

There are other oil lubricated rotary vane

vacuum pumps made, usually by different
manufacturers, that are not sealed
(sometimes referred to as “flooded”) with oil.
These vacuum pumps allow limited oil into the
pump for lubrication and generally produce a
best vacuum of around 0.5 Torr. This is not a
low enough pressure for many industrial and
scientific applications, especially those using
an oil diffusion pump, a turbomolecular pump
or a cryogenic pump for high vacuum
pumping..
Early Rotary Vane Oil Sealed Vacuum Fig. 1. Cenco “HyVac” vacuum pump.
Pumps (vee belt drive)
Rotary vane oil sealed vacuum pumps (RVOSVPs) were originally vee belt driven. The pump
was mounted on a baseplate with an electric motor on a slide base installed next to it. The pump
was driven through vee belts on pulleys mounted to the pump and motor. Pulleys of different
sizes allowed the rotating speed of the pump to be set, usually around the 500 to 600 rpm area,
about a third of the electric motor speed. The slide base allowed the vee belt tension to be
adjusted. Later on, as safety standards were introduced, the vee belts and pulleys had to be
covered by a metal cover.
Due to the relatively low rotational speed of the pump rotor, the blades or vanes were generally
made of steel in the hope that centripetal force would throw them outwards to contact the inside
of the stator and make a seal. To make sure this happened, holes were drilled on the inner edge
of the blades and springs were inserted. Often steel pins were added inside the spring to reduce
the flexing and prevent buckling.
At Edwards, they also used molded asbestos/resin blades and this made the springs and pins
more important. The springs because the blades were lighter than the steel ones and require a
positive force to ensure contact with the stator; and the pins because a flexing spring could wear
through the side of a molded blade creating lots of damage.
There were many manufacturers of RVOSVPs in North America and in Europe and up until the
1950s, most manufacturers sold their products generally in their own local markets. There were
few European made vacuum pumps sold in North America and most likely, few North American
made vacuum pumps sold in Europe. One of the reasons for this could have been the different
electrical power supplies, i.e. 60 Hz 115 V in NA and 50 Hz 230 V in EU. That problem wasn’t too
difficult to deal with when most of the vacuum pumps were driven by vee belts as the motor was
a separate item. In fact, Edwards in the UK sold larger US made Kinney rotary piston pumps
before they designed their own large rotary piston pumps. Another reason, in my opinion, was
the time and cost of travel between the two
continents and extended shipping times by
sea.

The most popular design of oil sealed rotary

vane pumps became a modified version of the
Gaede design from 1907 (Fig. 3). Welch
Scientific introduced the Wegner Micro-Deka
in 1934 which was an improvement on the
Gaede design (b). This improvement was the
oil seal between the gas inlet and exhaust
openings in the stator. This area of the stator
was machined at the same diameter as the
rotor, therefore, producing a narrow band
between the rotor and stator that would hold
oil in it when the clearance was around 0.002
inches. Too little clearance would allow metal
to metal contact, and too much clearance
would allow the higher pressure gas on the
exhaust side of the seal blow the oil out of the
sealing area and allow gas leakage across Fig. 2. Welch DuoSeal vacuum pump.
the seal. This seal design is known as an
arcuate seal. Welch trademarked the name “DuoSeal” and continues to use that trade name
today for its vee belt driven oil sealed rotary vane vacuum pumps. (Fig. 2) Most other
manufacturers also used this arcuate seal design as it has proved to be very robust.
With the clearance set at the correct amount the pump blade (or vane), which tends to sweep a
small volume of oil in front of it at the tip area, adds this oil to the arcuate seal on the exhaust
side and a similar amount of oil would be expelled from the seal area on the inlet side. This
means that the oil in this seal area is constantly being changed. The oil being pushed into the
arcuate seal causes a distinctive noise on some models of this pump design. Once the pump has
run for a minute or so, on a small volume, and the “slap-slap” or “clack-clack” can be heard the
pump should be giving a good vacuum (low pressure).
Pros and Cons of Vee Belt Drive vacuum pumps
For some vacuum pump users, especially in quiet laboratory settings, this “slap-slap” or “clack-
clack” noise is objectionable and the sound can be reduced by cracking open the gas ballast
valve a small amount and letting a small amount of air into the pump. Cracking open the gas
ballast valve can cause additional oil mist to be generated from the exhaust of the pump
requiring the use of an oil mist filter.
As I mentioned the gas ballast valve a short comment about it is necessary. On early oil sealed
rotary vane vacuum pumps there was no gas ballast valve. Not until around 1953 on Edwards
UK made vbd pumps (Fig. 4). In those days if the application caused water vapor to be drawn
into the vacuum pump and it was enough to condense in the pump oil and to dilute the oil, its
lubrication and sealing properties were adversely affected. If a water and oil mixture is left in the
pump corrosion will occur and the life of the pump will be compromised.
The cure before there was a gas ballast valve
was to add a vapor trap on the pump inlet.
The trap I am familiar with, supplied by
Edwards, was a multi-tray trap containing
phosphorous pentoxide (P2O5) that looks like
a white powder. When water vapor reacts with
the P2O5 it changes the surface powder to a
wet material, phosphoric acid. The material in
the trays could be stirred once or twice to
bring dry powder to the surface before having
to replace the material altogether. It was
typically rinsed down the closest sink. This
would not be allowed these days of course.
Once the gas ballast valve was invented it
first became an optional accessory and then a
permanent part of any pump of this type. As a
refresher for you, allowing a bleed (ballast) of
air (or inert gas in some applications) into the Fig. 3. Gaede 1907 design.
exhaust valve area of the pump allows water
vapor to be expelled out of the pump as vapor
before it is compressed enough to reach its vapor pressure and condense into a water droplet
that will mix into the pump oil. Oil that appears to be an emulsion of milky white liquid with green
streaks is the obvious sign of major oil contamination by water.
Most early vee belt drive pumps had an oil lubrication circuit that relied on oil from the “filled to
the top” oil box draining through a small hole in the top of the pump by gravity through
passageways to the bearings, rotor, and stators. These small laboratory sized vacuum pumps do
not have ball bearings supporting the rotor. The rotors are relatively light and the vacuum pump
only creates very small radial and axial loads so that a simple metal to metal with an oil film
bearing will support the rotor. The bearings are straight sections at each end of the rotor that
match bored holes in the stator and have close tolerances to hold an oil film between the
surfaces. This is the main reason that this design of vacuum pump needs to have clean oil in it at
all times. Any contamination can affect the bearing surfaces and lead to pump failure.
A drawback of the simple gravity drain oil circuit is a problem called “suck back” of oil.
If the pump stops either deliberately or due to a power failure it leaves the pump inlet open to the
system which is under vacuum. In that event suck back of oil can occur. Atmospheric pressure
acting on the oil surface in the oil box slowly pushes oil down the gravity drain opening, into the
pump mechanism and towards the inlet side of the pump which is at low pressure. If the amount
of oil is large and the system is close to the pump inlet it is possible to have oil “sucked back” into
the system causing contamination. Gravity drain lubrication requires lots of oil above the top of
the pump oil inlet hole to make it work, hence the problem. An ideal pump set up is one where
the vacuum pump is isolated from the vacuum system on shutdown and then the pump interior is
allowed to go to atmospheric pressure. This minimizes the chance of oil draining into the pump
mechanism.
This “suck back” problem requires vacuum pump users to install an automatic shut off valve on
the vacuum pump inlet that to prevent any oil from getting past it. One simple non-return valve,
used by Edwards, was a lightweight ball inside a housing with an angled top, inside. If oil was
drawn towards the system the ball would float until it sealed against the angled inside face. This
was not 100% foolproof but worked quite well. A later option was a magnetic solenoid valve that
would close on power failure to give a secure seal. A downside of any of these accessories was
the space taken up on top of the pump. In many cases, an equipment designer had limited space
inside a framework to fit the vacuum pump. Adding these accessories took up another three or
four inches of space.
Another problem caused by oil draining down into the open volume of the stator occurs when
restarting the vacuum pump. When the vacuum pump is pumping gas the gas is compressed
through the relatively small exhaust valves of the pump. Trying to expel oil through those same
small holes is more difficult because the oil is not compressible. On a vee belt drive pump it can
cause the vee belts to slip on the pulleys and possibly burn out, or it can cause the electric motor
to overload its thermal protection
device or fuses and shut off.

The main positive feature of slow

running vee belt drive rotary vane
vacuum pumps is their ability to dilute
contaminants in the large volume of
oil and keep running despite the
contamination. Their running
temperature is generally lower than
that of faster running direct drive
vacuum pumps and they are a simple
rugged machine. They are still
popular in applications such as wet Fig. 4. Edwards vbd pumps.
chemistry laboratories where the
chance of ingesting a variety of chemical contaminants is high.
Vee belt driven vacuum pumps were labor intensive to assemble, with the baseplate, pump,
motor, pulleys, vee belts and beltguard making it time-consuming in the final assembly area. In
the 50s and 60s, the tremendous growth of industry and scientific research applications caused
the vacuum pump manufacturers to rethink their designs. There was a push for compactness
and a need to reduce manufacturing costs to stay competitive. The age of direct drive vacuum
pumps was near.
US manufacturers of vee belt driven rotary vane oil sealed vacuum pumps.
There were a number of companies making these pumps from the 1920s up into the 1970s and
1980s and most have either been taken over by other companies or are out of business
altogether. Here are some names that you may or may not have heard of:

 Arthur F. Smith, sold to All Starr Scientific (out of business)

 Central Scientific Co. (Cenco), sold to Boekel and again in 1990 to HyVac Products (still
made)
 Marvac Scientific Mfg Co. (closed vacuum pump division in 2003)
 Precision Scientific, sold to GCA Corp and again in 1966 by Jouan (no longer made)
 Red Point Corp. discontinued vacuum pumps in the mid 1970s
 Robinair, now a division of SPX, now make small direct drive pumps for A/C and refrigeration
use
 W M Welch Scientific, merged with EH Sargent, bought by Thomas Industries and then in turn
bought by Gardner Denver. Welch DuoSeal seal pumps are still manufactured and have been
modernized.

In the following section, I will discuss the move to direct drive oil sealed rotary vane vacuum
pumps and the design changes that were part of it.

Direct Drive design

As stated above, this article talks only about one and two-stage “medium vacuum” oil sealed
rotary vane vacuum pumps that can produce a catalog ultimate vacuum of about 1 x 10-2 Torr
(0.01 Torr or 10 microns) for a one stage model and about 1 x 10-3 Torr (0.001 Torr or 1 micron)
for a two-stage model.
Smaller vacuum pumps such as those used in the heating, ventilating and air conditioning
industry (HVAC) are not included as they are often only for intermittent use and do not have the
design features built into the laboratory sized continuous running vacuum pumps used in industry
and science.
Larger rotary vane vacuum pumps,
ones that require ball or roller
bearings to support the weight of the
rotor are not included either. Although
they have many similar features to the
laboratory sized vacuum pumps, they
also have a variety of options to suit
different applications.
Last month we looked at the old
design vee belt drive oil sealed rotary
vane vacuum pumps. These pumps,
although reliable and able to cope
with contamination from industrial and
scientific vacuum applications, were
labor intensive to make and assemble
as they needed a baseplate to mount
the pump, motor and drive
components on.
One point that I missed in this Fig. 1 Direct Drive vacuum pumps.
discussion was that in most laboratory
applications, you see oil sealed vacuum pumps sitting on a tray of some sort. This is to catch oil
leaking from the shaft seal and prevent it from making a mess on and perhaps damaging the
floor. This tends to hold true for the newer direct drive oil sealed vacuum pumps as well, even
though shaft seal technology has improved. Vacuum pumps are often under a bench, behind an
instrument or in a fume hood cupboard and do not receive the regular service that should be
carried out. It probably isn’t much different in industrial vacuum pump applications. The most
important part of a machine or production line is the production itself, little thought is given to the
vacuum pump – if it does its job. It only gets attention if it fails for some reason, often neglect.
I must be fair here; many companies have very good maintenance departments and have routine
maintenance schedules for each piece of equipment that needs it. These days this schedule is
often a computer program and daily/weekly task lists are generated for machines that need to be
checked or worked on. However, in my experience of business cycles, when times get tough the
maintenance schedule is often one of the first things to be reduced. The plant moves from a
regular schedule to a “fix it when it breaks” schedule. This can also be true when high production
requirements overrule the need for a routine shut down. Again the fix it when it breaks rule takes
over.
The growth of the Vacuum Pump market in North America
In the section above I wrote that
European vacuum pump companies
started to open offices in North
America in the fifties. This is when the
old Edwards High Vacuum Ltd first
ventured here, starting in Hamilton,
Ontario around 1953 and then
opening another branch on Grand
Island, NY several years later. Due to
this, I assume that Leybold Vacuum
arrived in the USA at about the same
time, in Export, PA. I searched for
some history on Leybold and other
European vacuum pump
manufacturers arriving in the USA but
couldn’t find much. There was a
reference to Alcatel dating from 1952
and another for Leybold dated 1962.
One source was about twelve copies
of a monthly magazine called “Vac Fig. 2 Cross-section of DD vacuum pump.
Tech” which was part of Research
and Development magazine. They
were published by F D Thompson Publishers, from Chicago, in 1962 and 1963.
Looking at the advertisements and articles in these magazines indicated that the vacuum coating
industry was an important one. There were a number of US companies offering vacuum coaters
as well as some who were strictly offering vacuum pumps. The old Edwards High Vacuum
advertised in nearly every issue but did not show one vacuum pump, just coaters and freeze
dryers. Their focus did change in later years to fewer vacuum systems and more vacuum pumps.
I was looking for any references in these 1960s magazines to direct drive vacuum pumps and
found very little. Welch, Kinney, Stokes, Central Scientific and Lapine Scientific were all showing
VBD vacuum pumps. Lapine Scientific’s pump was a “Vacuum Master” made by Leybold. This
leads me to think that Leybold was relatively new in the USA at that time.
There were three companies mentioning direct drive vacuum pumps:

 A Langdon water cooled single stage small 35 l/m was advertised by Hevi-Duty, a part of
Basic Products Group from Wisconsin.
 CVC offered 9 sizes of two-stage “no vibration” pump, and
 Standard Scientific Supply from NY was offering its “Vacu-Pump which was a vertical design.

I don’t think any of these companies are still in

existence.

By the 1970’s the European manufacturers all

had a presence in the USA, and Leybold
opened a manufacturing facility in Export, PA.
Companies such as Leybold, Alcatel and
Edwards became more successful as they
overcame the reluctance to buy vacuum
pumps from an offshore company. I believe
much of the reluctance was due to a
perceived difficulty in obtaining spare parts
quickly and also a lack of technical support
across the country. Companies such as
Balzers and Pfeiffer also established bases in
the USA during this time. These companies Fig. 3 Direct drive pump rotor and blades.
supplied vacuum pumps for industrial and scientific applications and also had the gauges,
valves, and fittings to widen the range of products. Over the years they also opened branch
offices and repair centers across the USA to serve local markets better.
American manufacturers were slow to react to the European invasion of these small direct drive
vacuum pumps. By the time they had developed their own designs, the European companies
were all well established in North America. (Fig. 1) Companies such as Welch, Precision
Scientific and Kinney did make direct drive pumps successfully, but by then they had lost a great
deal of market share which I don’t think has ever been recovered.
Differences between VBD and Direct Drive Vacuum Pumps
Looking at the two types of pumps the direct drive pump is more compact and weighs less. Most
early models had carrying handles until ISO standards limited the weight of a pump with a lifting
handle to about 25 kg (55 lbs.). Now, for example, the Edwards RV3 and RV5 have a carrying
handle, while the RV8 and RV12 have a lifting eye instead.
The second main difference is that instead of running at a rotational speed of around 500 rpm
like the VBD pump, the direct drive pump has a 1750 rpm motor.
Running faster does allow a higher pumping speed (l/m, m3/h or cfm) to be generated in a
smaller package, but there are also
drawbacks.

One of the early problems in pumps

that I am familiar with was that the UK
engineers didn’t take into account the
difference in motor speed between
the UK and the USA.
Pumps that ran at 1450 rpm in the UK
failed earlier when running at 1750
rpm in the USA. This was considered
for generation 2 of the direct drive
pumps!
The interior design of the pump also
had to be modified. (Fig. 2)
A faster running speed also makes
the surface speed between the rotor,
stator and end faces faster. This Fig. 4 Shaft seal designs.
meant a pressurized lubrication
system was needed to ensure good lubrication to all parts of the pump.
To reduce the surface speed of the rotor it was redesigned to make it a smaller diameter but
longer in length to retain the pumping volume. (Fig. 3)
Earlier designs of the rotor for two stage pumps were either a separate rotor for each stage with
a small drive coupling between them, or for smaller pumps a one-piece rotor for both stages. The
rotor depends on a good oil film at the bearing to make sure it doesn’t actually touch the bore in
the stator. A lighter rotor “floats” on the oil film better.
Another physical change was in the blades (vanes) area. Slower running VBD pumps required
steel blades and springs between the blades to ensure that the blades contacted the surface of
the stator. With faster running direct drive pumps the centripetal forces are higher and the blades
could be made of lighter weight composite materials. Later models made the blades longer to
push each other and the springs were eliminated.
Shaft seals in early VBD pumps were simple designs, and frequently leaked oil, so these had to
be upgraded when direct drive pumps were introduced. The faster speed generates more heat at
the seal surface and better materials and innovative lip designs were used. One shaft seal that I
am familiar with has a wavy line molded into it as the seal lip. This tends to wipe a wider area of
the shaft surface and reduces the likelihood of a groove being worn in it. Another design of seal
has a spiral molded in it at the sealing face which tends to “pump” the oil back into the oil box.
This seal must be selected for the direction of shaft rotation – i.e. it is unidirectional – otherwise it
can “pump” the oil out of the oil box. (Fig. 4) Due to a lack of attention mainly, shaft seals still
leak but generally last a number of years before failing.
One model of Edwards direct drive pumps added a thick felt material pad under the seal outside
the pump to adsorb any oil leakage from the shaft seal. It could be checked to see if any oil was
in it by removing one of the plastic side plates. Laboratory pump users thought that this was a
good idea.

The running temperature of direct

drive pumps is higher than the old
VBD pumps and this is partly
responsible for vacuum pump oil
specifications being improved over
the years. One main change is from
SAE30 viscosity oil to thinner SAE20
viscosity for the direct drive pumps.
A longer-term result of the higher
running speed is that direct drive
vacuum pumps need a minor service
about every two years if they are in
continuous use. A complete change
of valves, seals, o-rings, and gaskets
should be carried out and the internal
parts of the pump examined for wear.
Fig. 5 Hydraulic inlet valve.
Items such as exhaust valves, either
metal or elastomer, tend to lose some flexibility and elastomer o-rings will slowly become harder
and more brittle. If the exhaust valves do not seal the exhaust holes when the pump stops, oil
can leak down into the stator void. This will cause starting problems the next day and may cause
fuses to overload or the motor thermal protection to cut in.
Continuous pressure from a shaft seal can also wear a groove in a rotor shaft. That can
sometimes be polished out but may require a new shaft or shaft sleeve. Another way to extend
the life of those parts is to insert a suitable spacer next to the new shaft seal on installation,
which moves the seal lip onto a clean part of the shaft or shaft sleeve.
Blades do not generally wear out quickly but may become scratched across the sealing face due
to foreign material entering the pump. The vacuum blades and the oil pump blade should be
checked at every minor service and replaced as necessary. In a worn pump, the arcuate seal
area may also have a few marks running across it. It is not recommended to machine this area
as it will affect the clearance for the oil film. If there are rough burrs some careful light work with
an oilstone may remove them.
If new blades are installed in a pump with a marked arcuate seal area, it may take a number of
hours for the new blades to wear in. The vacuum reading may not be as good as expected until
this has occurred.
The last improvement that the direct drive pump has over the VBD pumps is the ability to use the
oil pressure to open and close a valve at the inlet of the pump. In VBD pumps the problem of oil
“suck back” into the vacuum system was always present. Many systems would have a separate
isolation valve mounted above the inlet that would open when the pump started and close once
the pump was shut off. VBD pumps have a larger volume of oil above the exhaust valves
because the oil drains into the pump for lubrication by gravity. If a pump shut off due to a power
failure, for example, it was possible for oil in the pump to be pushed by atmospheric pressure
through the pump mechanism and into the vacuum lines on the inlet side of the pump.
The pressurized oil circuit is now used to open and close a built-in inlet valve that completely
isolates the vacuum system from the pump interior – and the oil – if the pump stops causing the
oil pressure to drop to zero. When the pump starts the oil pressure is used to hydraulically open
the inlet valve and when the pump stops a spring will automatically close the valve. (Fig. 5) Then
the interior of the pump is allowed to reach atmospheric pressure.
The oil pressure can be generated by a small blade in the shaft rotating in an eccentric bore in
the pump body. This design requires a shaft seal on either side of it to seal the pressure. Another
method is to use a gerotor; this is a small gear rotating inside a gear profile.
Conclusion
I hope this allows the reader to understand how the rotary vane, oil sealed mechanical vacuum
pump market and technology have changed over the years. There are still many uses for this
type of vacuum pump. As usual comments and or corrections are always welcome.
References:
a) History of Mechanical Vacuum Pumps in the United States. Written by D. B. Webb of Vacua
Techniques Company, Alamo, CA. This company is now closed. The article was presented at the
2002 Annual Conference of the Society of Vacuum Coaters.
b) History of Vacuum Devices. Written by Pal A. Redhead (NRC, Canada).

Howard Tring / Tel: (610) 792-3505 (610) 792-3505 / E-mail: HowardT (at)
VacuumAndLowPressure.com/ Web: www.vacuumandlowpressure.com
Howard Tring is the owner of Vacuum and Low-Pressure Consulting, a company that supplies
vacuum pump accessories such as reconditioned inlet traps and exhaust filters and new
replacement elements for exhaust filters. Howard also offers on-site vacuum technology and oil
sealed vacuum pump repair training and consulting services, customized to the needs of the
client. Howard is a member of ASM International and the Heat Treat Society, the AVS, the SME,
the SVC and the American Society for Training and Development.
Copyright December 2014, Tring Enterprises LLC – Comments on this article are welcome. I
do not profess to know everything about any specific vacuum related subject. However, I have
worked in the vacuum pump industry for a long time and have seen good, bad and ugly. Please
contact me with any comment or question. All messages related to the content of the article will
be answered.