Edwards Limited

Edwards, S.r.o.

Emiliano Lucchetta

Richard Glyn Horler

Paul Milner

Andrew Waye

Ian Keech

Oliver James Rudge

Mohammad Eghtesadi Bahrami

Nicola Perrino

Reuben Day

Lukas Chromek

Nicolas Jonathan Grant

Alexander James Patey

Paul David Smith

Ulrike Martina Skinner

Eng Keen Khor

A bearing assembly for mounting a rotatable shaft of a pump and the pump are disclosed. The bearing assembly comprises: a bearing comprising an outer ring and an inner ring; a bearing support configured to support the outer ring of the bearing, the bearing support surrounding at least a portion of an outer surface of the outer ring extending across at least a portion of one end surface of the outer ring; and a shield extending from the bearing support towards the inner ring to thereby obscure at least a portion of an annular gap between the inner and outer ring.

Bearing assembly for a pump and a pump comprising the bearing assembly

Lubricant supply system comprising a lubricant container body defining a lubricant reservoir wherein the lubricant container body comprising an indentation of through-hole to receive a lubricant transfer device of a vacuum pump. Therein, the indentation of through-hole is surrounded by a collar extending from the lubricant container body.

Lubricant supply system and vacuum pump

An oil feed assembly for a vacuum pump comprises: an oil feeder located for feeding oil to one side of a bearing of the vacuum pump; an oil sump located on the one side of the bearing and configured to receive excess oil from the oil feeder; and a venting bypass conduit fluidly coupled with the oil sump and with another side of the bearing, the venting bypass conduit having an inlet located at an elevated position above a floor of the oil sump and configured to convey gas from the oil sump to the another side of the bearing. In this way, the venting bypass conduit provides an alternative path which allows gas within the oil sump to escape during pump-down while preventing oil within the oil sump from escaping with the gas travelling through the venting bypass conduit.

Oil feed assembly for a vacuum pump having a venting conduit

A bearing cage for a rotor bearing of a turbomolecular pump. The bearing cage includes a plurality of bearing pockets each of which, in use, houses a bearing ball such that the bearing ball operably engages an inner race and an outer race of the rotor bearing. Each bearing pocket of the bearing cage has a primary chamber for housing the bearing ball and each bearing pocket further includes a sump.

Bearing cage

This is invention relates to a bearing support for a vacuum pump and, in particular, to a polymer bearing support for a vacuum pump. The invention further encompasses vacuum pumps comprising polymer bearing supports, and methods of manufacturing bearing supports.

Bearing support for a vacuum pump

A pump lubricant supply system has a lubricant reservoir and at least one contactor to engage a lubricant transfer device provided on a rotor shaft of a pump to transfer lubricant from the lubricant reservoir to the lubricant transfer device via the at least one contactor. The lubricant reservoir includes at least a first reservoir portion formed of a first elongate strip of porous material wound to define a first lubricant container body having a longitudinal axis that extends transverse to the longitudinal axis of the elongate strip.

Pump lubricant supply systems

The present disclosure relates to a vacuum pump including a bearing and a lubricant supply system for lubricating the bearing. The lubricant supply system includes: a lubricant reservoir comprising a reservoir matrix for receiving a lubricant; a lubricant transfer arrangement in contact with the reservoir matrix for transferring lubricant from the reservoir matrix to the bearing, the lubricant reservoir including a reservoir enclosure for locating the reservoir matrix in position relative to the lubricant transfer arrangement; wherein the lubricant reservoir includes a plurality of contact regions at which the reservoir matrix is in contact with the reservoir enclosure for locating the reservoir matrix in position relative to the lubricant transfer arrangement and a plurality of spacing regions between respective contact regions at which the reservoir matrix is spaced apart from the reservoir enclosure for receiving gas and lubricant foam caused by outgassing in the lubricant in the reservoir matrix.

Vacuum pump

The present invention relates to a vacuum pump comprising a turbo molecular pumping mechanism wherein an operative characteristic of the turbomolecular pumping mechanism is dependent on the orientation of the vacuum pump and the pump comprises an orientation sensor for sensing the orientation.

Growing community of inventors

Burgess Hill, United Kingdom

Emiliano Lucchetta