Summer Training Report

On

BASIC PRINCIPLE OF DEWAR, VACUUM PUMPS & HELIUM LEAK

DETECTION

At

Solid State Physics Laboratory

Defence Research and Development Organization
Timarpur, Lucknow Road, Delhi-110008
in partial fulfilment of the degree

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING

In

Mechanical Engineering

NETAJI SUBHAS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, DWARKA, ND-

110078

Submitted By

RITESH SAINI

2018UME4061

Under the Guidance of

ABHISHEK DIXIT (SCIENTIST D)

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NETAJI SUBHAS UNIVERSITY OF
TECHNOLOGY
Dwarka Sector-3, Dwarka, Delhi-110078

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind
support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere
thanks to all of them.

I am highly indebted to Mr. Abhishek Dixit (SCIENTIST D)

for his guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information
regarding the project & also for his support in completing the project.

I would like to express my gratitude towards to the library staff of DRDO for allowing me to
access all the books and research papers I needed for my project.

I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to my professors for giving me such
attention and time.

RITESH SAINI

ROLL NO: 2018UME4061

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 DECLARATION

This is to certify that Summer Training Report entitled “Basic principle of Dewar, Vacuum
Pumps & Helium Leak Detection” which is submitted by me in partial fulfilment of the
requirement for the award of degree B.E. in Mechanical Engineering to Netaji Subhas
University of Technology, Dwarka, ND-110078 comprises only my original work and due
acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used.

SIGNATURE

ABHISHEK DIXIT (SCIENTIST D)

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ABOUT
Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO)
works under Department of Defence Research and Development of Ministry of Defence.
DRDO dedicatedly working towards enhancing self-reliance in Defence Systems and
undertakes design & development leading to production of world class weapon systems and
equipment in accordance with the expressed needs and the qualitative requirements laid down
by the three services.

DRDO is working in various areas of military technology which include aeronautics,

armaments, combat vehicles, electronics, instrumentation engineering systems, missiles,
materials, naval systems, advanced computing, simulation and life sciences. DRDO while
striving to meet the Cutting-edge weapons technology requirements provides ample spinoff
benefits to the society at large thereby contributing to the nation building.

Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL):

Solid State Physics Laboratory (SSPL), one of the establishments under the Defence R&D
Organization (DRDO), Ministry of Defence, was established in 1962 with the broad objective
of developing an R&D base in the field of Solid-State Materials, Devices and Sub-systems.
The Laboratory has a vision to be the centre of excellence in the development of Solid-State
Materials, Devices and has a Mission to develop and characterize high purity materials and
solid-state devices and to enhance infrastructure, technology for meeting the futuristic
challenges.
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Areas of work
The major activities at SSPL include development of semi-conductor materials, solid state
devices, electronic components/sub-systems and investigation of solid-state materials/devices.
Over the years, the Laboratory has developed core competence in the following areas:

Facilities available:
• Gas Crystal Growth Facility

• Molecular Beam Epitaxy System

• Ion – Implantation system

• Electron Beam Micro Lithography system

• MOCVD system

• Leak Detection Facility

• Mask Fabrication Facility

• Fourier Transform IR Spectrophotometer (2.5 – 25 m range)

• RF probing station

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Table of Content
NETAJI SUBHAS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY ....................................................................... 2
DECLARATION .................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction to Dewar ............................................................................................................................. 8
History:............................................................................................................................................... 9
JT Cryo- Cooler: ................................................................................................................................ 9
Rapid Cool-down Dewar: .................................................................................................................. 9
Classification of DEWAR ..................................................................................................................... 10
Heat transfer in Dewar: .................................................................................................................... 11
Operating temperature range: ........................................................................................................... 11
Material of Dewar ................................................................................................................................. 12
Cross-sectional View of Dewar............................................................................................................. 13
Leak Detection of Dewar ...................................................................................................................... 15
Introduction to Leak Detection ........................................................................................................ 15
Tracer Gases:.................................................................................................................................... 15
Leak Detection with Tracer Gases: .................................................................................................. 16
Mass spectrometers: ......................................................................................................................... 16
Leak Detection with Mass Spectrometer............................................................................................... 17
Test methods: ................................................................................................................................... 18
Leak Detection with Helium ............................................................................................................ 19
Industrial leak testing: ...................................................................................................................... 20
Applications: ......................................................................................................................................... 20
Leak testing & sealing of the Dewar: ............................................................................................... 20
Vacuum Pumps ..................................................................................................................................... 22
Classification of Vacuum Pumps: .................................................................................................... 22
Reciprocating Vacuum Pumps: ........................................................................................................ 24
Diaphragm vacuum pumps .............................................................................................................. 25
Screw Vacuum Pumps ..................................................................................................................... 26
Turbomolecular Pump ...................................................................................................................... 27
Cryogenic Vacuum Pump ................................................................................................................ 28
Sputter-ion Pumps ............................................................................................................................ 29
Operating Ranges of Various Vacuum Pumps ................................................................................. 30
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................. 31
References………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 32

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Introduction to Dewar
The Dewar is typically a vacuum insulated container with an inner containment for the cryo-
cooler and refrigerant exhaust flow, plus a “cold end” mounting for the device to be cooled,
as shown in figure.

Figure- A General Configuration of Dewar with JT Cooler (DDCA)

*DDCA- Detector Dewar Cooler Assembly

Dewar’s are most often designed as high vacuum enclosures (< 1 x 10-6 torr). A vacuum
creates the most efficient thermal barrier to the warm surroundings and maintains a clean
environment for the contamination sensitive components inside.

A miniature Detector Dewar Cooler Assembly (DDCA) is ideally suited for cooling
applications that require long storage periods (10-15years), fast cool down times (30 to 60secs)
and short operating missions (< 3 min). Most of the application’s cool seeker sensors on
missiles, projectiles, or “smart” bombs where environmental conditions of temperature,
acceleration, shock and vibration are harsh, where volume and weight must be minimized, and
where low cost is required for large quantities.

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Adequate Dewar volume and length are required to maximize the cryo-cooler efficiency.
Sufficient system volume is required for the refrigerant supply. The post cool-down
temperature stability is affected by the Dewar cold end geometry and transient thermal
response. The cool-down response will also be affected by the environmental loads or
conditions to which the system is exposed. Understanding the many variables involved is
important to concurrently designing a successful cryogenic IR system.

History:
The vacuum flask was designed and invented by Scottish scientist
Sir James Dewar in 1892 as a result of his research in the field of
cryogenics and is sometimes called a Dewar flask in his honour.

JT Cryo- Cooler:
JT cryo-coolers remain an important part of the field of cryogenics IR systems because they are
utilized for a very wide range of refrigeration capacities and temperatures. The JT cryo-cooler
is fundamentally a counter flow heat exchanger and nozzle which produce refrigeration based
on the joule Thomson principle of isenthalpic expansion of a refrigerant from a high pressure
and temperature to a lower pressure and temperature.

Rapid Cool-down Dewar:

The rapid cool-down requirements dictate that all the cooled components should have low
mass, low heat capacity, high thermal conductivity, adequate heat transfer surface area, and
short thermal path lengths, in essence, a high thermal diffusivity. The thermal paths to ambient
temperature components must also be sufficiently sized or insulated to minimize heat loading
of the cooled components from the ambient environment. Thus, ignoring these critical
parameters will require excess refrigeration and refrigerant supply, and cool-down times will
be protracted.
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Classification of DEWAR
A) Based on Type of Material Used
1. All glass Dewar
2. All metal Dewar
3. Glass Metal Combination

B) Based on Application
1. Cryo-Storage Container
2. Laboratory Test Dewar
3. Tactical Dewar

C) Based on Cooling Method Employed

1. Liquid Nitrogen Cooled (TD)
2. JT Cooler Cooled (FPA-Dewar)
3. Stirling Cooler Cooled (LAO)

D) Based on Mode of Heat Transfer

1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation

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Heat transfer in Dewar:

Conduction -: Conduction is minimised by using the low thermal conductivity material such
as Kovar, Glass, etc.

The thermal conductivity of Kovar is about 1/23 times less than that of Copper. It can easily be
attached to glass by metal ceiling.

The advantages of glass are good insulation property, low vapour pressure, chemical inertness,
work ability to various shapes, impermeability to gases, etc.

Convection -: Convection is minimized by creating high vacuum inside. Besides, high vacuum
insulation, sometimes, a low thermal conductivity material such as poly-urethane foam is also
used to reduce heat transfer.

Radiation -: Radiation is minimized by using highly polished surface to minimize the

emissivity of the surface. These can be accomplished by coating the surfaces by silver or gold.

Operating temperature range:

A Dewar is normally supposed to be operated between -40 0C and +70 o C temperature.

The increased temperature may be due to the vehicle temperature in addition to the outside
atmospheric temperature.

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Material of Dewar
All metal Dewar are normally made of stainless steel however for glass-metal combinations,
“Kovar” alloy and “Kovar matching glass” is used as their coefficient of expansion or
contraction matches to the nearest. Kovar is an alloy of iron having following composition:

Ni=29%; Co=17%; Mn=0.5%; Si=0.2%; C=0.06% and balance iron.

The average linear coefficient of thermal expansion of Kovar, in the range of 30 to 300oC, is
equal to 4.86 x 10-6 cm/cmoC. The Kovar matching glass which is basically a borosilicate glass
(Corning 7052 or Schott 8250) has an average linear coefficient of thermal expansion, in
temperature range of 0 to 300oC, is

= 4.6 x 10-6 cm/cmoC

This nearest matching of thermal coefficients, makes Kovar and Kovar matching glass as an
ideal combination for glass to metal seals for the fabrication of Dewar. Besides the excellent
property of sealing to metals, the glass has many advantages, such as:
a) Good insulating properties
b) Low vapour pressure
c) Chemical inertness
d) Impermeability to gases (except H2 & He)
e) Workability to various shapes

However, it has some disadvantages as well, such as:

a) Fragility to impact
b) Poor mechanical strength in presence of strains
c) Poor thermal shock resistance

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Cross-sectional View of Dewar:

1. Main Sub-assemblies of Dewar

a. Inner Dewar Assembly

b. Header Assembly
c. Outer Dewar Assembly

2. Details of Conductor Leads

The type of connections used between the device inside to the external feedthrough has a direct
bearing on the heat load of the Dewar. Therefore, either very fine wires (enamelled copper
wires of about 0.054mm diameter or 0.04mm are used or gold tracks of about 2 x 10-6m
thickness are used, running parallel
to, or on the inner Dewar surface itself. By using such fine geometries the heat load can be
greatly reduced.

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3. Outer Diameter of Dewar
The outer diameter of the Dewar is chosen on the basis of two Criteria’s; one being the
consideration of the space where it is to be mounted and secondly it is determined in order to
provide sufficient vacuum insulation with respect to the inner Dewar surface.

4. Bore & Length of Inner Dewar

The method of cooling determines some of the dimensions of Dewar. If JT cooling is to be
employed, there are very rigid tolerances requirement on the bore of inner Dewar, for example,
the length of the tube should not exceed by 3mm of the finned length of the cooler. However,
in case of Stirling cooler the tolerances
on the bore are not so stringent.

5. Type of Window, Cold Filter & Cold Shield

A window is used as a radiation filter so that it should allow only those radiations which are in
the range of the required wavelength. For example, for I.R. devices normally the wavelength
region of 8-14μm is required. Thus, this filter which is normally made up of germanium filters
only wavelengths which are between 8 to 14μm.

An Anti-Reflection coating is used to improve its efficiency so that the

transmission can be increased to as high as 95%. The dimensions of window are selected based
on the size of the Dewar. The window should be strong enough to hold vacuum pressure.

A cold filter made of germanium, is also used over a cold shield to reduce the background
further. A suitable (conical shaped) cold-shield is required, which sits around the device as a
radiation shield and gets cooled along with the device. The filter sitting over the cold shield
also gets cooled (hence called cold-filter) which does better filtering due to its low temperature.
The conical shaped cold shield also helps in providing a suitable “field of view” for the
detector.

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Leak Detection of Dewar
Introduction to Leak Detection

In non-destructive testing, a leak is defined as a hole, a porous area, a permeable area for gases
or a different structure in the wall of a test specimen through which a gas can escape from one
side of the wall to the other due to a difference in pressure or concentration. Expressed in
simpler terms, leaks are small holes through which gases or liquids flow from the side of higher
pressure to the side of lower pressure. The geometry of the hole is not known. A leak can be a
harmless leak such as a dripping water faucet. Leaks involving the escape of aggressive media
or toxic substances can have more serious consequences. Any number of technical products
will not function, or will not function for an adequate period of time, if they have leaks. In
many cases, the leak-tightness of machines and systems in the production process is an
indispensable prerequisite for the quality of the manufactured products. It is impossible to
completely prevent substances from flowing through a wall. The term tight therefore refers to
the requirements of the respective machine, plant or vessel, and must be quantified accordingly.

Tracer Gases:
Tracer gases are the test gases that are used for leak detection. These gases should satisfy the
following conditions:

 They should be non-toxic for humans, animals and the environment.

 They should not displace air, as hazardous situations, such as suffocation, could
otherwise occur.
 They should be inert, i.e., slow to react, and should neither react chemically nor be
flammable.
 If possible, they should not be present in air. Only with a gas that is present in the
smallest possible concentration in the ambient air is it possible to detect even the
smallest leaks.
 They should be quantifiable through test leaks.

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The tracer gas helium satisfies all of these requirements. As a noble gas, it is not capable of
chemically reacting. Only 5 ppm of it is present in atmospheric air, thus enabling even the
smallest leakage to be detected. Since it is lighter than air, it does not pose a health hazard.

Specific detection is possible using mass spectrometry, a highly sensitive and very selective
analytical process. There are many commercially available test leaks thar are designed either
as a diffusion leak or a flow leak.

Leak Detection with Tracer Gases:

Pfeiffer Vacuum uses leak detectors based upon mass spectrometers and quartz window sensors
to detect the presence of tracer gases. Mass spectrometers ionize a gas mixture and isolate the
desired tracer gas on the basis of their mass-to-charge ratio. Quartz window sensors are based
on the selective permeation of light gases through a quartz membrane.

Mass spectrometers:

Mass spectrometers are used to analyse gases. Solid or liquid substances can also be analysed
if they are vaporized in an upstream inlet system. The gas is diluted by pumping it down to a
low pressure (molecular flow range) in a vacuum chamber and ionizing it through electron
bombardment. The ions thus generated are separated in a mass filter according to their charge-
to- mass ratio.

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Leak Detection with Mass Spectrometer

The spectrometer cell of a leak detector shown in Figure above also only works at pressures
under 10-4 hPa. In leak detectors, this pressure is generated and maintained by the pumping
system of the leak detector. This does not require any operator intervention.

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Leak detectors with mass spectrometric analysers are designed as shown in the diagram in
Figure 7.3

Test methods:
The test procedure used to detect leaks depends upon the type of test specimen and the required
test results. The following criteria are formulated:

 Will the test specimen be tested at overpressure or in a vacuum? In selecting the test
method, if possible, a method should be chosen that takes into account the pressure
gradient encountered when the test specimen is actually used.

 Is only a partial area or the whole area of the test specimen to be tested?

 Should local leak detection, which is used to find leaks, be carried out or should integral
leak detection, where the leakage rate of test specimens is typically determined for
quality assurance purposes, be performed?

Leak detectors are equipped for two operating methods:

 The vacuum method, in which the test specimen is evacuated and helium exerts its
effect from the outside.
 The sniffer method, in which the work piece is filled with test gas over pressure Ap >
100 h-Pa and the escaping test gas is sucked into the leak detector via a sniffer valve
and detected.
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Leak Detection with Helium
The leak detector must be calibrated prior to conducting a localizing leak detection or integral
leakage test. A helium test leak integrated in the Pfeiffer Vacuum leak detector is used for this
purpose. The calibration routine is started either when the leak detector starts up, at the touch
of a button or automatically and runs according to a fixed software protocol. Following
calibration, the leak detector is ready for use.

The user is kept constantly informed about the status of the unit and the leak rate measured
through visual displays and acoustic signals. With the audible signal, the frequency of the
signal tone rises as the leakage rate changes. The time at which the acoustic signal is given can
be determined by the user by programming a threshold value. Visual signals can be read either
on the control panel on the unit concerned or on a wired or wireless remote-control unit. This
allows leak detection to be carried out by just one person.

The following must always be observed when using helium as the test gas:

 Helium is lighter than air. So, when helium is used in the atmosphere, the leak detection
process should always begin at the highest point of the test specimen. This prevents a
false signal being emitted due to helium rising at a leak above where the current test is
being conducted. The upward flow of helium can be interrupted however by air
currents. In cleanrooms with laminar gas flow from the ceiling to the floor the working
direction is reversed.
 Excessive amounts of the test gas should not be sprayed, as this can increase the
concentration of helium in the ambient air. This results in an increased background
signal in the leak detector and growing insensitivity during the test.

 If the backing pump of the leak detector used or an auxiliary pump is oil lubricated,
then helium accumulates in the exhaust space in the backing pump and dissolves in the
oil, and can diffuse back to the high vacuum area from this point. After detecting high
leak rates, the use of gas ballast in the backing pump can help to discharge accumulated
helium from the pump system and reduce the background signal that is indicated.
 In the vacuum method, it is necessary to generate a sufficiently low vacuum to allow
the leak detector to be operated at maximum sensitivity. Otherwise, the leak detector
will still indicate residual helium from the pumped down ambient air.

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Industrial leak testing:

The Pfeiffer Vacuum systems group builds customer- specific leak detectors for wide-
ranging uses in the auto-motive, energy, packing, refrigeration and air-conditioning
industry as well as many other applications. The systems are equally suitable for
integrating in a production line or for use in a single testing station. They achieve high
throughput with a minimum of test gas consumption and are also flexible units for pre-
series development and large-volume serial test.

Fig. Helium Hard Vacuum Leak Test System for A/C HOSE

Applications:
Leak testing & sealing of the Dewar:
In order to achieve a shelf life of more than 10 years, the vacuum integrity of the Dewar is very
important. For this reason, all the Dewar parts as well as their sub-assemblies have to qualify
the desired leak test from time to time, and after the complete integration of the Dewar, it is
subjected to a thorough leak test so that it may not show any leak after its sealing.

Leak Testing of Dewar: After the integration of Dewar is over, the next important exercise is
the Leak testing of Dewar. A leak may be defined as an unintended crack, hole or porosity in a
containing wall that allows the admission or escape of a fluid. It is measured in ‘std. cc/s’ where

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‘std’ refers to NTP conditions. Leak testing is very crucial from the point of view of the Shelf
life of Dewar, as indicated in the table below. The table shows that even to achieve a shelf life
of about 1 & ½ years, the leak rate should not be more than 1.0e-13 std. cc of Helium/sec.

Serial No. Leak Rate Pressure after Time to reach In years

(1.0e-4 from
(std.cc/s) 1 DAY(Torr) 1.0e8)

1. 1.0e-10 1.6417e-04 13Hrs,18mins (0.00152 Yrs.)

2. 1.0e-11 1.6426e-05 5Days,13Hrs,3min (0.0152 Yrs.)

3. 1.0e-12 1.6516e-06 55Days,10.5Hrs (0.152 Yrs.)

4. 1.0e-13 1.7416e-07 1Yr.,6Mon.,9Days (1.52 Yrs.)

5. 1.0e-14 2.6416e-08 15Yrs.,2Mon.,8.8Days (15.2 Yrs.)

6. 1.0e-15 1.164e-08 151yrs.,10Mon.,23Days (152 Yrs.)

Table: Pressure Rise inside the Dewar after sealing it at 1*10^-8 torr

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Vacuum Pumps
There are many different types of pumping devices which can be employed in the pressure
region, although only few are commonly used. Depending upon conditions such as the volume
of the system or the vacuum vessel; the amount of evolved processed gas, and the required time
of evacuation, an unusual combination of pumps can be used to evacuate a chamber to a given
pressure or to maintain a pressure at a given gas load. Depending upon the pumping
characteristic of various pump, many different parallel and series- connected pumping
arrangement can be used.

Classification of Vacuum Pumps:

Vacuum pumps are categorized as gas transfer pumps and gas binding or capture pumps. While
gas-displacement vacuum pumps can be used without limitation, gas-binding vacuum pumps
have a limited gas absorption capacity and must be regenerated at certain process- dependent
intervals. Gas-displacement pumps, which are also referred to as gas transfer pumps, are
classified either as positive displacement pumps or kinetic vacuum pumps. Positive
displacement pumps displace gas from sealed areas to the atmosphere or to a downstream pump
stage. Kinetic pumps displace gas by accelerating it in the pumping direction, either via a
mechanical drive system or through a directed vapour stream that is condensed at the end of
the pumping section. Gas-binding vacuum pumps either bind the gas to an especially active
substrate through gettering or condense the gas at a suitable temperature.
Chemisorption is performed technically by a pump type known as getter pumps which
constantly generate pure getter surfaces through vaporization and/or sublimation or sputtering.
If the gas particles to be bound are ionized in an ion getter pump before interacting with a getter
surface, they can at the same time clean the getter surface by sputtering and be buried by
sputtered material. Non evaporable getters (NEG) consist of highly reactive alloys, mainly of
zirconium or titanium, and have a very large specific surface. Gases can penetrate into deeper
layers of the getter material through micropores and be bound there into stable chemical
compounds.

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Fig. Classification of Vacuum Pumps

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Reciprocating Vacuum Pumps:
These types of pumps have chambers that expand and contract through the reciprocating or
repetitive back-and-forth motion. The range of motion of the moving component is called a
stroke. Reciprocating pumps have two one-way ports or valves, one for the inlet and the other
for the exhaust. The alternate opening and closing of these valves allow the build-up of vacuum
and ejection of the fluid. The three main types of reciprocating vacuum pumps are piston,
plunger, and diaphragm vacuum pumps.
o Reciprocating Piston Vacuum Pump: This type of pump generates vacuum and
compression through the movement of the piston sealed against a cylinder. The piston
is connected to the crankshaft via a connecting rod. As the crankshaft rotates, the piston
is pushed back-and-forth within the cylinder. The pistons are commonly made of cast
iron, bronze, or steel.

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Diaphragm vacuum pumps
This type of vacuum pumps are dry positive-displacement pumps. A crankshaft-driven
connecting rod moves the diaphragm that is tensioned between the head cover and the housing.
The space between the head cover and the diaphragm forms the suction chamber. Diaphragm
pumps require inlet valves and outlet valves to achieve targeted gas displacement. Pressure
controlled shutter valves made of elastomer materials are used as valves. Since the suction
chamber is hermetically sealed off from the drive by the diaphragm, the pump medium can
neither be contaminated by oil nor can aggressive media corrode the mechanics. The dead
volume between the outlet valve and the suction chamber results in a restricted compression
ratio which means that with just one pumping stage it is only possible to achieve an ultimate
pressure of approximately 70 hPa. Connecting multiple pumping stages in series makes it
possible to attain an ultimate pressure of 0.5 hPa. Lower pressures cannot be achieved, as in
this case there is no longer sufficient force to open the inlet valve. The principle of the
diaphragm pump is particularly well suited for low pumping speeds of up to approximately

10 m3 · h-1.

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Screw Vacuum Pumps

Two parallel bearing supported, intermeshing screw rotors having opposite threads
synchronously and contactless counter-rotate in a cylindrical housing that tightly encloses
them, and together form a multi-stage pump. Because of the counter mesh of the two rotors,
the volumes sealed in each thread are advanced along the rotors to the outlet. The pump has no
valves at either the inlet or the outlet. When a displacement volume reaches the outlet opening,
the pressure is equalized with the atmosphere. This means that atmospheric air flows into the
displacement volume and is then discharged again as the rotor turns. This pulsing gas flow
generates a high level of dissipated energy and heats the pump. The dissipated energy can be
minimized by means of internal compression. This internal compression is achieved by
reducing the thread pitch in the direction of the outlet. The gaps between the housing and the
rotors, as well as between the rotors relative to one another, determine the ultimate pressure
which a screw pump can attain. The geometry and the gap configuration which results when
the rotors engage with each other also significantly influence the ultimate pressure.

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Turbomolecular Pump
The turbomolecular pump was developed and patented at Pfeiffer Vacuum in 1958 by Dr. W.
Becker. Turbomolecular pumps belong to the category of kinetic vacuum pumps. Their design
is similar to that of a turbine. A multi-stage, turbine-like rotor with bladed disks rotates in
housing. The blades of a turbine or a compressor are referred to collectively as the blading.
Interposed mirror-inverted between the rotor disks are bladed stator disks having similar
geometries. The pumping effect of an arrangement consisting of rotor and stator blades is based
upon the transfer of impulses from the rapidly rotating blades to the gas molecules being
pumped. Molecules that collide with the blades are adsorbed there and leave the blades again
after a certain period of time. In this process, blade speed is added to the thermal molecular
speed. To ensure that the speed component that is transferred by the blades is not lost due to
collisions with other molecules, molecular flow must prevail in the pump, i.e. the mean free
path must be greater than the blade spacing.

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Cryogenic Vacuum Pump

This type of vacuum pump works by cooling the gas down to its condensation or freezing point.
It captures gases such as nitrogen and oxygen below 20 K at the high vacuum regime. For
capturing lighter gases such as helium and hydrogen, they must be cooled down to 8 to 10 K.
The typical design of a cryogenic pump is a two-stage cooler. The first stage is for removing
water vapor and oil by cooling at around 70 to 80 K. The second stage is for removing gases
that cool at around 10 to 20 K. At this stage, an adsorbent such as activated charcoal is
integrated to capture the cooled gases.

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Sputter-ion Pumps

The pumping action of sputter-ion pumps is based on sorption processes that are initiated by
ionized gas particles in a Penning discharge (cold cathode discharge). By means of “paralleling
many individual Penning cells” the sputter ion pump attains a sufficiently high pumping speed
for the individual gases.

Operation of sputter-ion pump-

The ions impinge upon the cathode of the cold cathode discharge electrode system and sputter
the cathode material (titanium). The titanium deposited at other locations acts as a getter film
and adsorbs reactive gas particles (e.g., nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen). The energy of the ionized
gas particles is not only high enough to sputter the cathode material but also to let the impinging
ions penetrate deeply into the cathode material (ion implantation). This sorption process
“pumps” ions of all types, including ions of gases which do not chemically react with the
sputtered titanium film, i.e. mainly noble gases.

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Operating Ranges of Various Vacuum Pumps

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Conclusion

 Leak testing is very crucial from the point of view of the Shelf life of Dewar, to achieve
a shelf life of about 1 & ½ years, the leak rate should not be more than 1.0e-13 std. cc
of Helium/sec.

 The leak rate of the Dewar’s is generally measured by a Mass Spectrometer based
Helium leak detector, which can measure a leak rate as small as 1.0e-12 std. cc of
Helium/sec. The Dewar’ being small are normally tested by tracer probe method, in
which case the Dewar is attached to the test port and is evacuated. The helium gas is
sprayed on the outside of Dewar & if there is any leak, it enters the mass-spectrometer
tube of the leak detector, which in turn indicates the leak.

 The degree of vacuum is proportional to the boiling point of the cryogen. A lower
boiling point requires a lower heat load, and that means a better vacuum to provide
adequate insulation for an acceptable holding time.

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References
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236233827_James_Dewar_-
_More_Than_a_Flask
 Technical note on “Cryogenic Dewar Maintenance” by Tristan Technologies, USA.
Ref: http://www.tristantech.com/pdf/dewar_maintenance_v2.pdf
 Technical note on “Procedure for Re-evacuation of Cryogenic Equipment” by Cryofab
[Ref:
http://www.cryofab.com/manuals/Cryofab_reevacuation_of_cryogenic_equipment
 A G Hedukar; K V Srinivasan, Revival Techniques of Cryogenic Dewar, Poster
presentation at ACASC-2013, Cappadocia, Turkey.
 Technical Note on “Vacuum Levels in Typical Cryogenic Vessels” by M/s Wessington
Cryogenics. Ref: http://www.wessingtoncryogenics.com/what-wedo/frequently-asked-
questions/vacuum-levels-in-typicalcryogenic-vessels/
 J. Sequeira, Vacuum re-conditioning of cryogenic dewars. Bulletin Indian Vacuum
Society 2004, 7 (2), 3-14.
 Paper presented titled “Revival Techniques of Cryogenic Dewars” at the 5th National
Conference on Design, Materials & Constructions – NCDMC’16” organized by School
of Mechanical & Construction Engineering Department of VEL TECH University,
Chennai during April 2016.
 Installation and Pump out instruction manual by M/s CryoComp, USA. Ref:
http://www.cryocomp.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/04/vacuum-valves-v1000-
installationpumpout-datasheet.pdf

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