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Cleaning a Vacuum Pump


If a pump has been completely disassembled into the component parts or the pump sump case has been removed and cleaning of the internal parts needs to be accomplished we typically use mineral spirits in a degreaser.  We also use mineral spirits and a wire brush and a little elbow grease.  Once the parts are cleaned, it is important to clean the mineral spirits off as well as possible before reassembly as mineral spirits has a vapor pressure higher than the ultimate vacuum of the pump.  For simplicity, clean the mineral spirits off the parts reassemble and flush the pump with HyVac Flushing Oil.  Then fill with the HyVac vacuum pump oil of choice.  This should get you up and running and at pressure.

Other industry standard cleaning procedures will follow and are more in line for true high vacuum and ultra high vacuum work and involve things like cleaning with a phosphated cleaner and then using a water then, an acetone rinse.  This is just an example, please do not take literally, but I will get more specific and accurate in depiction later.  I just wanted to illustrate that it is a multi-step approach to cleaning for high vacuum work.  There might even include an oven bake to 200 deg C.  The process gets more involved and I will to when I get a little extra time.

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