Inficon Gmbh

Heike Hilgers

Daniel Wetzig

Norbert Rolff

Hjalmar Bruhns

A sniffer leak detector includes a mass spectrometer for analyzing hydrogen or helium, a turbomolecular pump which is connected with said mass spectrometer and whose outlet is connected with a prevacuum pump, and a sniffer probe which includes a plurality of intake lines and is connected with said inlet of said turbomolecular pump, wherein a vacuum pump includes at least three stages whose inlet stage defines said prevacuum pump and is connected with said outlet of said turbomolecular pump via a blocked throttle, wherein, between adjacent stages of said vacuum pump, an intermediate inlet each is provided, wherein each intermediate inlet is connected with a different intake line of said sniffer probe and at least one of the intake lines as a suction line is connected with said inlet of said turbomolecular pump for obtaining different gas flows.

Sniffer leak detector with multi-stage membrane pump

For operating a hydrogen test leak unit including a chamber defined by a membrane, a test gas mixture of hydrogen and an added gas is used. The added gas has a permeation coefficient relative to the material of the membrane ranging between 50% and 200% of that of hydrogen. In this manner, demixing of the test gas mixture is limited and significant concentration variations in the chamber are prevented. Preferably, helium is used as added gas.

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Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

Heike Hilgers