Design constraints of five-arc Roots vacuum pumps

Abstract

The design constraints for the tooth profile of the five-arc Roots vacuum pump are derived and discussed in this paper. The addendum portion of the five-arc tooth profile comprises five smoothly connected circular arcs, while the dedendum portion consists of conjugate curves of the addendum portion of the mating rotor. The top land of the proposed rotor profile is a circular arc with its centre coinciding with the centre of rotation. Therefore, the gap between the top land of the rotor and the wall of the chamber turns into a long and narrow path, which provides better gas sealing and wider inlet opening. The design constraints of the rotor profile are quite complex owing to the limitations of zero carryover and the condition of non-undercutting. A design procedure is proposed for determining the feasible design region by considering the geometry constraints, zero carryover and non-undercutting. By using the proposed procedure, wider inlet opening and better gas sealing are expected, while the characteristic of zero carryover is maintained. The results of experiment show that the ultimate pressure of the prototype of the five-arc Roots vacuum pump is 2,5 × 10-3 torr, and the maximum pumping speed is 1600L/min. The performance of the prototype is excellent compared with commercially available mechanical dry vacuum pumps.