Edwards Limited

Richard Glyn Horler

Andrew Cobbett

Mohammad Eghtesadi Bahrami

Ian David Stones

Emiliano Lucchetta

Ian Olsen

Ian Keech

Nicola Perrino

Mayank Verma

Alexander James Patey

Peter David Jones

Peter Meares

Andrew William Snell

Keith Weston

Paul David Smith

Oil feed nut for providing a lubricant to a bearing of a vacuum pump comprising a first end and an opposite second end and being configured to be connected to a shaft of the vacuum pump. Further, the oil feed nut comprising an oil feeding element extending between the first end and the second end, wherein the oil feeding element has an increasing diameter towards the second end to create an increasing rotational force acting on the lubricant in order to convey the lubricant towards the second end, and a bearing journal element having a cylindrical surface configured to be received in a back-up bearing of the vacuum pump. Therein, the back-up bearing is arranged in a cartridge of an oil reservoir.

Oil feed nut and oil reservoir for a vacuum pump

A vacuum chamber module and an apparatus are disclosed. The vacuum chamber module comprises: a pump wall defining a recess shaped to receive a multi-stage vacuum pump; a plurality of vacuum chambers, each vacuum chamber being configured to be pumped by a respective stage of the multi-stage vacuum pump, each vacuum chamber being defined at least partially by a portion of the pump wall, each vacuum chamber having an pumping port located at a different circumferential position on the pump wall for fluid communication with the respective stage of the multi-stage vacuum pump. In this way, a module is provided which shares components, with the multi-stage pump at least partially accommodated within space otherwise occupied by the vacuum chambers and with the vacuum chambers located around the pump wall, which provides for a simpler and more compact arrangement.

Vacuum chamber module

The invention provides a rotor assembly for a vacuum pump. The rotor assembly comprises a hub and one or more rotor blade arrays each comprising at least one rotor blade, each rotor blade extending from a rotor blade root contiguous with the hub to a rotor blade tip, wherein each rotor blade comprises a continuous fibre reinforced matrix material. The invention further provides methods of designing and manufacturing rotor blades, and vacuum systems comprising a component comprising a continuous fibre reinforced matrix material.

Reinforced vacuum system component

The present invention provides bearing cage retainer for a rolling element rotor bearing in a vacuum pump. The bearing cage retainer being configured to have an operational arrangement in which, at the maximum longitudinal axial displacement limit of the outer race in the direction of the retainer, the bearing cage retainer is disengaged from the bearing cage, and a failure configuration characterised by the dislocation of the bearing cage by a longitudinal axial displacement of the bearing cage relative to the outer race in the direction of the retainer and in which the bearing cage retainer engages said bearing cage and the bearing cage maintains the separation of the rolling elements within the bearing.

Bearing cage retainer

A pump bearing holder has a carrier portion configured to carry a static set of magnets of a pump magnetic bearing and a support portion extending outwardly of the carrier portion to connect with a pump casing such that the pump bearing holder spans an inlet provided in the pump housing. The support portion defines a plurality of internal through-passages that, in use, allow a gas flowing through the inlet to flow through the support portion.

Pump bearing holders

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.

Vacuum pump

The present invention relates to a vacuum pump comprising a vacuum pumping mechanism comprising a rotor supported for rotation by a drive shaft, a first bearing assembly for controlling movement of the rotor during rotation of the drive shaft, a back-up bearing assembly for limiting said movement and a sensor for sensing when said movement is limited by the back-up bearing assembly.

Vacuum pump with back-up bearing contact sensor

The present invention relates to a vacuum pumping system () for evacuating gas from a plurality of chambers () at different pressures. The pumping system comprises a plurality of compound vacuum pumps (), wherein each compound pump comprises a plurality of pumping mechanisms () connected in series between a pump inlet () and a pump exhaust () and an interstage port () between pumping mechanisms in the series. The system is configured such that gas evacuated from one of said chambers is pumped through the interstage ports of at least two of said compound pumps.

Growing community of inventors

Crawley, United Kingdom

Richard Glyn Horler