turbo-pump status

Provac Sales, Inc. found the problem we had anticipated with the turbo-pump controller. One of the internal power supplies was intermittently failing. The controller is repaired, but they are only now beginning to rebuild the pump itself. The have agreed to send us a loaner pump that should be shipped today. So it is possible we could install that on Monday and begin to use the TEM on Tuesday.

The turbo pump has stopped working and was sent to Provac for repairs on 9/3/2009, along with the turbo pump controller. The pump and controller are made by Seiko. The repair is expected to take 2-3 weeks, so the TEM will be down until at least 9/17/2009.

The problem started after a planned power outage in late July. The TEM was turned off the night before, but when we tried to restart the next day, the pump made a horrible clanging noise. Eventually, we got it working, by unplugging the pump from the controller and restarting. Then, an unplanned power outage occurred a couple of weeks later, and the pump clanged for many hours during the night. At this point we started having loss of vacuum issues. So the problem may have started with the controller, causing damage to the pump.